"Detroit"...I'm gonna rant a bit

[darkcurry]

No need to do all that, just make one of those black male characters gay or by a black gay director and everything would be fine. I don't have a problem with LGBT films, but I see the exploitation of it all and why they are SO quick to make a black male character gay than they are to put him in a IR relationship with a non-black woman especially a white woman. They aren't doing it for the LGBT black community, It's whatever satisfies them. It's like how these white male filmmakers in hollywood LOVES to make lesbian films and scenes for movies and tv because they get off on it. But women don't notice that.

You want to expose a white liberal racism, bring up these issues that they always talk about including gay representation in film and tv, then bring up something that is RARELY if ever brought up to them, the lack of IR romance in films and tv involving black men.

 

[JamalSpunky]

I'm not going to knock "Moonlight" either. I do get that the love for it from the loudest voices on Black Twitter exceeds the love for it from most African Americans I have talked to about it. Me personally I really liked the film although it wasn't my pick for Best Film of the Year.

As so far as Detroit let me get a few other issues off my chest. As I wrote before if someone feels they can't handle an intense movie like this with mostly black people going through a gruesome event then by all means stay away. What I can't stand are black folks who check it out and then complain that it's "torture porn". And that's the new talking point...torture porn. This is bullshit. The middle section is rough but at no time does it get gratuitous or exploitive. The director puts you in the situation of the victims, makes you share their hell without breaking away. It isn't overly bloody or overly explicit. Its just really, really intense. And if you walk away like some pussy and start complaining that it was too much for you just sit down and realize what the real folks had to go through. The same people crying over this are the same types who complain about there being too many slavery films when in reality there have only been a handful of them. I understand how things are subjective and not every one is going to see eye-to-eye. But when I listened to a podcast of some young black dude who commented that Bigelow did not respect the material (compared to Christopher nolan with "Dunkirk"), I wanted to scratch out my eyes. Bigelow and Boal did extensive research, went through court and police records, interviewed survivors and family members, talked with people in the Detroit community from past and present to make sure they understood the culture of the city, hired dozens of black actors with only one being British, referred to the violence as a rebellion instead of a riot, had two of the victims of the Algiers Motel Incident on set every day, have spent time giving special screenings all across the country with Q&As following each screening, gave effort in outreach to some of the key figures in the African American community to discuss police brutality, etc. Now one may still not like the film they put together but how in the hell is someone going to say Bigelow didn't respect the material? That same fool who made that comment on his podcast also said that the trailers and TV commercials for the movies bring up Bigelow's name instead of focusing on the events itself. Umm....what? First all of the promos are selling the story more than Bigelow's name. Secondly promos do this for EVERY esteemed director; they list their names and a few examples of their prior work. Has this guy been buried under a rock all of this time or was he trying hard to come up with shit to be pissed about?

Its interesting that while I have come across young black folks in positions of influence who like the film, the movie seems to be most appreciated by the older guard. Rev Al Sharpton, Lee Daniels, Joy Reid are some examples of those figures praising the film and Bigelow. Eric Michael Dyson was getting trolled by black people on twitter for not only liking the film but being part of one of those screening/Q&As events. It was as if Dyson's decades of contribution of putting a spotlight on the injustice directed at black people was null and void. Although in his case the people were attacking him for the "erasure of black women" in the movie. That was last week so I'm going to assume Black Twitter had not yet gotten the memo that "torture porn" was going to be the subject matter they were going to attack the film over.


If people are going to get angry about a film get angry about "Dark Tower". Just like with "Fantastic Four" you had a studio going with a controversial move to cast a black guy in a leading role that was originally white, backlash that resulted from that decision and a director who ends up squandering the opportunity and brave decision by wetting the bed and apparently putting out a very sub-par motion picture. Now Idris Elba has to live with that "L" for a bit as a bunch of deplorables celebrate online with their I Told You Sos.

 

[darkcurry]

Well DETROIT flopped this weekend unfortunately even with all the promotion and hype. So of course you know what that means.

1. “The Dark Tower,” $19.5 million ($8 million international).

2. “Dunkirk,” $17.6 million ($25 million international).

3. “The Emoji Movie,” $12.4 million ($12 million international).

4. “Girls Trip,” $11.4 million ($1.7 million international).

5. “Kidnap,” $10.2 million.

6. “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” $8.8 million ($9.6 million international).

7. “Atomic Blonde,” $8.2 million ($5 million international).

8. “Detroit,” $7.3 million.

9. “War for the Planet of the Apes,” $6 million ($31.5 million international).

10. “Despicable Me 3,” $5.3 million ($21.2 million international).

Of course other things factored in for it not doing well as the experts will tell you, but we know the reason people against the movie are going to be saying and are going to start pushing. They are looking at this as a victory. Warning don't look on twitter.

You can add ESPN's Jemele Hill to that list of women talking about the erasure of black women in this movie.

But it's still strong with the critics white and black and some black female movie goers that have seen it loved it.

I'll leave you guys with this from Elle The Vlogger on twitter; even though it will fall on deaf ears amidst the celebration of the movie's flop, she's right.

"Spreading awareness doesn't have a color. Why didn't Spike or Fuqa or Singleton do it? As a Detroit native I respect them!"

https://twitter.com/ElleBreaunna/status/893966429531381762

 

[darkcurry]

But congrats to Idris Elba though, even though his movie was considered a flop and got a ton of bad reviews the silver lining that is missing in all of this was the myth that Idris Elba didn't have any star power, well it was his Star Power that help this film even get to number one despite bad reviews with $19.5 million and a lot of critics and fans of the book LOVED his performance.

 

[JamalSpunky]

Well DETROIT flopped this weekend unfortunately even with all the promotion and hype. So of course you know what that means.

1. “The Dark Tower,” $19.5 million ($8 million international).

2. “Dunkirk,” $17.6 million ($25 million international).

3. “The Emoji Movie,” $12.4 million ($12 million international).

4. “Girls Trip,” $11.4 million ($1.7 million international).

5. “Kidnap,” $10.2 million.

6. “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” $8.8 million ($9.6 million international).

7. “Atomic Blonde,” $8.2 million ($5 million international).

8. “Detroit,” $7.3 million.

9. “War for the Planet of the Apes,” $6 million ($31.5 million international).

10. “Despicable Me 3,” $5.3 million ($21.2 million international).

Of course other things factored in for it not doing well as the experts will tell you, but we know the reason people against the movie are going to be saying and are going to start pushing. They are looking at this as a victory. Warning don't look on twitter.

You can add ESPN's Jemele Hill to that list of women talking about the erasure of black women in this movie.

But it's still strong with the critics white and black and some black female movie goers that have seen it loved it.

I'll leave you guys with this from Elle The Vlogger on twitter; even though it will fall on deaf ears amidst the celebration of the movie's flop, she's right.

"Spreading awareness doesn't have a color. Why didn't Spike or Fuqa or Singleton do it? As a Detroit native I respect them!"

https://twitter.com/ElleBreaunna/status/893966429531381762

We learned more about the names of the most vocal opponents to the film 'Detroit" than we did the actual names of the victims. Shame on everyone except the director, writer and cast who did all the right things in terms of going all out to promote film all the while being respectful to the victims.

 

[ColiBreh1]

I'm listening to last week's episode of the FiyaStarter podcast & they're discussing the fake outrage around this movie"Detroit" we're discussing in this thread. They mention the review from rogerebert.com that @darkcurry mentioned in this thread & pointed out her review is basically whining about nobody white should be telling this story.

That reminds me why was there no outrage for "Hidden Figures" too since that was directed by a white man? Not only that, he admitted he made up a White Savior troupe in the movie that didn't happen in real life.

 

[darkcurry]

I'm listening to last week's episode of the FiyaStarter podcast & they're discussing the fake outrage around this movie"Detroit" we're discussing in this thread. They mention the review from rogerebert.com that @darkcurry mentioned in this thread & pointed out her review is basically whining about nobody white should be telling this story.

That reminds me why was there no outrage for "Hidden Figures" too since that was directed by a white man? Not only that, he admitted he made up a White Savior troupe in the movie that didn't happen in real life.

Black women in it and apart of the main cast and no interracial from black men.

Which proves our point, all they cared about was themselves and nobody else including black men, and seeing those white women in there and being portrayed as good and on the side of those black men urked them. FAKE OUTRAGE! lol. I hope that gets out more and more. Especially around awards season.

 

[ColiBreh1]

I've mentioned this before, it's harder for BW to sabotage the career of Black male celebrities if they have a sizeable to large non-black fanbase. The Weeknd might be #1 example of this. If The Weeknd was an R&B star with a mostly black fanbase his career would be done based on the stuff he's said & done about not being into bw. But since he's a crossover Pop star, they can't do shit to him. Not only that, The Weeknd has NEVER had to apologize.

You see that's just it. The Weeknd has never said anything negative about black women. It is urban legend by some paranoid folks that he's done that but there's no evidence of it. Some black women just throw it out there simply as an attempt to sabotage his career but it hasn't stuck and most people dismiss those claims because they know its garbage.

Its funny you brought up the Weeknd because I was going to type up pretty much the same thing before I told myself I was going too off topic. But you are right about his fanbase. It is so damn diverse. Post MJ and Prince black male singers who can fit into the R&B/Pop categories have a fanbase dominated by black women. The problem with that is that this typically means you have to cater to that base to the detriment of everyone else. Over a decade ago I recall reading something about how Nelly was doing a GQ photo shoot with Kylie Minogue. I believe Minogue had chosen him to be in the photoshoot with her. When time came to have pictures taken Kylie was putting her hands on him suggestively as she posed. This led to Nelly's sister (who was maybe his manager too) bringing the shoot to a halt. Apparently she and maybe Nelly were worried that he would be hurting his position with his base if he had a white woman draped all over him. Is that some bullshit? Black men lacking such control over their careers that they have to worry about insulting black women if they posed sexy with some white chick. A black male star having his sister tell him that he can't be seen with a white woman like that even though its the 21st century. I mean why did he even agree to pose with Kylie in the first place? Could you imagine Rick James in the 80s giving a fuck if he was seen posing with Olivia Newton John or Blondie? Fuck no. Rick James was fucking white female stars and was very public about it. Black women didn't control his dating choices no more than white females controlled the dating choices of white male stars. But now we have black guys who let others dictate not only what they do in their personal lives but in how they take photoshoots too. Its ridiculous. That is why that story about Tupac and Madonna ticked me off. That's why I knew I hated Usher as soon as he set up concerts for female fans only. I'm sure more than black women showed up but I'm also sure that black women were far more represented than anyone else.

The Weeknd is never going to do concerts for women only. He is the rare sultry male singer whose male fanbase is as large as his female fanbase. Fans of hip-hop like the Weeknd's music, they can bump to it in a way they never could with Usher. Hip-hop artists like his music too and want to do songs with him. But what is most cool about The Weeknd is the racial diversity of his fanbase. Whites. Hispanics. Asians. Middle-Easterners. And, yeah, black folks. That diversity has been there from the very beginning, back when all he had put out were mixtapes. It may have helped that for a while no one had seen his face so people weren't sure of his race. It may have helped that wasn't influenced just by black artists alone and therefore did't think of himself as an R&B artist. It may ahve helped that he was from Canada. Whatever it was it made him attract fans from all across the racial spectrum. I don't think his fanbase is even 20% black. Not that black people don't like him, he just reaches a wider audience. I don't think black women make up 10% of his fanbase, I think he has more black male fans than black female ones.

Because of this black women can't control him or dictate who he caters too. And some of them are downright pissed about this. The only thing they can do about it is throw shade. And why? Has he said shit about black women to the press or on social media? Nope. But he has dated non-black women. Most of his videos don't include black women as "the love interest". The images he used on YouTube for his mixtape songs as well as for his earlier concerts used to be of white and Asian women. He has the exact same vibe as Drake and they've collaborated but black women never took issue with Drake. That's because Drake dates black women almost exclusively and use them as his video hos in his music vids. This explains why the non-black Bruno Mars win the BET awards even though the Weeknd had bigger hits on urban stations this past year, black women weren't going to vote for the Weeknd. That's fine. He doesn't rely on their approval. And young black male artists coming in to the business should follow his lead. Not in who he dates but in how he built a fanbase that wasn't limited to a mostly black following.

Whenever you read something about how black male singers should concentrate on satisfying their black fans, recognize it as the trap that it clearly is. You don't come across such directions for black female singers. Beyonce and Rhiana wouldn't be nearly as huge if their fanbases were mostly made up of black people.

I been watching a bunch of The Weeknd's older music videos & music videos where he's the featured artist on YouTube and I don't think I've seen a single music video where a BW is the main chick. He really don't be having BW in his music videos period. It's mostly WW & what BW online call "Exoticals" in his music videos. It such a normal occurrence in these music videos, it actually seems that it's part of his image.

 

[JamalSpunky]

Actually the Weeknd has had a black leading lady in at least two of his videos. But no they haven't been all that prevalent in his vids. Which may be one reason why he strikes out at the BET Awards.

 

[ColiBreh1]

Actually the Weeknd has had a black leading lady in at least two of his videos. But no they haven't been all that prevalent in his vids. Which may be one reason why he strikes out at the BET Awards.

Which music videos were these?

2015 was the 1st time I actually paid any attention to him and I remember that year he got a much warmer, excited, & louder audience reception at the MTV WMAs than he did at the BET Awards, so I done peeped his audience reception at the BET Awards too.

 

[darkcurry]

Which music videos were these?

2015 was the 1st time I actually paid any attention to him and I remember that year he got a much warmer, excited, & louder audience reception at the MTV WMAs than he did at the BET Awards, so I done peeped his audience reception at the BET Awards too.

The girl in this video is black

She is a Canadian Model by the name of Hannah Donker

 

[Reverie]

Gorgeous girl.

 

[Gorath]

But congrats to Idris Elba though, even though his movie was considered a flop and got a ton of bad reviews the silver lining that is missing in all of this was the myth that Idris Elba didn't have any star power, well it was his Star Power that help this film even get to number one despite bad reviews with $19.5 million and a lot of critics and fans of the book LOVED his performance.

And Stephen King's approval to play the part.