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

[darkcurry]

Curious..In what world is Serena viewed as a sex-symbol?
Steph is a bit simpish with Ayesha always in the picture, and he's too pretty to be a sex-symbol.

Lebron is sexy yes, but he's somewhat intimidating, and he portrays himself as a business man more than playing up his looks. He's got that mature/old man look already, lol.

Huh? That is what the media have always said about her, not counting of course the racist. Especially when she posed nude for that magazine.

 

[darkcurry]

Well let's be fair the most accomplished tennis player doesn't get the most endorsements the pretty blonde girl does.
You can't say that for men in sports. No one is giving (insert pretty white basketball player) endorsements over LeBron or Steph.
I will give you this though Serena has had her heart broken by multiple white men but you NEVER hear any dumb sunken place references about her. Let that be any black athlete its over.
I'm beginning to see bm better learn to love themselves like bw do and be unapologetic about it because it's clear they hate us

Well I'm talking in terms of the media putting up as sex symbols. Tom Brady or David Beckham will always come to the mind of the media and those who follow the media.

 

[The Dark King]

Well I'm talking in terms of the media putting up as sex symbols. Tom Brady or David Beckham will always come to the mind of the media and those who follow the media.

Possibly
Who's the white guy in basketball they go crazy for or in boxing.
Track non exist

 

[ColiBreh1]

Well I'm talking in terms of the media putting up as sex symbols. Tom Brady or David Beckham will always come to the mind of the media and those who follow the media.

Possibly
Who's the white guy in basketball they go crazy for or in boxing.
Track non exist

They are no white american stars in the NBA or boxing for the media to push.

I always wonder what is gonna happen to the NFL's popularity when Black QBs take over the NFL. I know folks don't wanna see that, that's why the sports media is always biased in favor of white QBs over Black QBs.

 

[JamalSpunky]

Jesus, there are no black males that the media try to push as sex symbols. Instead they are push as elite physical specimens. And there is a difference. LeBron james is a physical specimen who can sell product and move merchandise. But he is not considered a sex symbol. The American media has never been comfortable with the idea of black males as sex symbols. Ever. And if people haven't figured that out by now perhaps they never will. Serena Williams wasn't approached initially as much for advertisements not just because she was black but because too many people she has a fugly face and a body type that MOST men don't find attractive for women. Most men don't care for chicks with that much muscular covering their physiques. And believe it or not her big ass and thick thighs is not a turn on for most dudes around the world either. But her lack of advertisements was a problem that had long plagued previous female athletes whose athleticism seemed not feminine enough to those making decisions on Madison Avenue. Eventually for Serena things started looking up when they realized they couldn't ignore her success or longevity any longer and decided wisely that her accomplishments were more important than her looks. But if she had the face and bod of a Tyra Banks she would have been swarmed with advertising opportunities a long time ago. When it comes to women in the media looks are still the #1, #2 and #3 most important things. That's still an unfortunate reality.

 

[JamalSpunky]

Its time to get this threat back on track.

As I wrote yesterday I was going to post reasons why many black women will hate "Detroit". Here are the reasons below:


1)Its not about them. Black women on twitter increasingly have this “look at me!” mindset going on in regards to media portrayals. This leads them to often rejecting sight-unseen any show/movie with black males that don’t include back females. They refer to this increasingly as the “erasure of black women”. There may be roughly a dozen speaking parts for black actresses in “Detroit” but they are small roles. The film itself is a big ensemble piece with not one character getting a large enough role that would qualify as a lead. But the only substantial roles are given to those playing real life people who got caught up in the events at The Algiers Motel. And the only people who fit that description were black men, white men and white women. By the way the black and white male characters and white female characters in the film who WERE NOT part of that eventful night are also given slight screen time too. So this isn’t some bias directed at black women, the same treatment is given to any character not in the middle of the central conflict. Black women and their male lapdogs see the promos for “Detroit”, don’t see much of themselves in it and get pissed off. To make it worse they see some white girls in the ads and that makes it even worse. I’m cynical enough to assume if the event that took place was about black women trapped in a similar position by the police and the movie made about it had only slight roles for black men, no one would be outraged and making a big deal about it.


2) In the film the two white females are women of the sexual revolution who mingle with black guys and there is an implication that they may have done even more than that with them. Even more than that you have black dudes in the film casually interacting with them, attempting to woo them and flirt with them, trying to gain their favor by sparring with other black guys, kissing them. Granted in some cases this is happening because these women are pretty much the only ladies around in a motel in the middle of the city that’s on lockdown. Nonetheless there is a clear, mutual attraction between the guys and these women. An excitement that movie audiences almost never get to see between black males and white females. And for extreme black women who increasingly have the luxury of seeing IR portrayed in a more limited fashion that’s exclusively WM/BW, seeing those black guys interacting with white chicks breaks that comfort level.



3)These two white ladies are nor portrayed as being manipulative bitches who are using these black men in order to get their thrills for the night only to turn on them as soon as trouble ensues. What the black detractors were probably hoping for were the white women to be exposed as weak and evil and slutty. They want those chicks to turn out like real-life versions of the white girlfriend of “Get Out” so that black audiences can fold their arms and exclaim “I knew it all along”. But that’s not what is presented. Those two ladies don’t turn on the black men even when scared out of their wits. They are shocked by what is happening to the black guys and to themselves. One of them is battered. One is almost molested by a cop’s club. But they don’t protect themselves by throwing out false accusations. One of them is especially more defiant and seems older and tougher than the other. She later testifies in court in the third act. Both of them come across as being legitimately concerned over the well-being of the black guys who they were lined up next to. Basically they were not presented as evil. There is no condemnation of white women or ‘white women feminism”. In fact the most sympathetic white characters in the film were all women (that includes one white female who was helping a family identify a body in a morgue). That drives many black women nuts, the same type of black women who believe that white females were just as responsible for slavery as the white men who established and ran all institutions during the time of slavery in America. Black women who go in with that type of stereotype view of white women who hang with black men, who need to see representation of that stereotype realized on screen, will be greatly disappointed. Not to mention mad.


4)The movie doesn’t hold back knocking white men off their perch. It paints an ugly picture of white guys so insecure that they respond with violence to convey their authority. While the cops did investigate the motel to look for a shooter, what triggers them arguably more than anything is the presence of white women in the company of low-down black men. It bugs them. It makes them lash out at both the black men and the white women. They ask these white women, whether in private or in front of a crowd, why do they want to fuck black men. They almost beg them for an answer. The thought of it hurts them. They justify what’s happening by concluding that these ladies must be prostitutes. Even once that theory is shot down they still end up dismissing these women as whores (the real life man whom the main cop is based on had particularly sexists views regarding women in general). It was an on-the-money and naked portrayal of the mentality of territorial white males who need to come up with rationale to soother their fragile egos. These cops were acting as if they were personally being rejected by these white girls when they found them in the motel. The screenwriter of the film is a white male named Mark Boal and he deserves props for not sugarcoating certain truths even if his dialogue is a little too obvious at times. What this film helps make clear is that the violence directed at black men for crossing (or even appearing to cross) any sexual racial line is not the fault of white women but rather the fault of white men who resort to physical attacks. This is not the narrative that many deranged black women want to face. They like to hold on to some false notion that all IR were treated equally as terrible, particularly in the past. Some love to cling to the notion that there were more obstacles in the way of WM/BW pairings, that such relationships were just as much under the threat of danger. And that’s bullshit. An older black women in the film shouts out towards the end of the film that no deaths would have occurred if black girls had been found in the motel with white men. She’s goddamn right and black women who try to make some false equivalency out of this are out of their fucking minds. Historically white males in America have been hypocrites. White women have been far from perfect but what they have not resorted to the type of sick assault that cost the lives of others.

 

[darkcurry]

Its time to get this threat back on track.

As I wrote yesterday I was going to post reasons why many black women will hate "Detroit". Here are the reasons below:


1)Its not about them. Black women on twitter increasingly have this “look at me!” mindset going on in regards to media portrayals. This leads them to often rejecting sight-unseen any show/movie with black males that don’t include back females. They refer to this increasingly as the “erasure of black women”. There may be roughly a dozen speaking parts for black actresses in “Detroit” but they are small roles. The film itself is a big ensemble piece with not one character getting a large enough role that would qualify as a lead. But the only substantial roles are given to those playing real life people who got caught up in the events at The Algiers Motel. And the only people who fit that description were black men, white men and white women. By the way the black and white male characters and white female characters in the film who WERE NOT part of that eventful night are also given slight screen time too. So this isn’t some bias directed at black women, the same treatment is given to any character not in the middle of the central conflict. Black women and their male lapdogs see the promos for “Detroit”, don’t see much of themselves in it and get pissed off. To make it worse they see some white girls in the ads and that makes it even worse. I’m cynical enough to assume if the event that took place was about black women trapped in a similar position by the police and the movie made about it had only slight roles for black men, no one would be outraged and making a big deal about it.


2) In the film the two white females are women of the sexual revolution who mingle with black guys and there is an implication that they may have done even more than that with them. Even more than that you have black dudes in the film casually interacting with them, attempting to woo them and flirt with them, trying to gain their favor by sparring with other black guys, kissing them. Granted in some cases this is happening because these women are pretty much the only ladies around in a motel in the middle of the city that’s on lockdown. Nonetheless there is a clear, mutual attraction between the guys and these women. An excitement that movie audiences almost never get to see between black males and white females. And for extreme black women who increasingly have the luxury of seeing IR portrayed in a more limited fashion that’s exclusively WM/BW, seeing those black guys interacting with white chicks breaks that comfort level.



3)These two white ladies are nor portrayed as being manipulative bitches who are using these black men in order to get their thrills for the night only to turn on them as soon as trouble ensues. What the black detractors were probably hoping for were the white women to be exposed as weak and evil and slutty. They want those chicks to turn out like real-life versions of the white girlfriend of “Get Out” so that black audiences can fold their arms and exclaim “I knew it all along”. But that’s not what is presented. Those two ladies don’t turn on the black men even when scared out of their wits. They are shocked by what is happening to the black guys and to themselves. One of them is battered. One is almost molested by a cop’s club. But they don’t protect themselves by throwing out false accusations. One of them is especially more defiant and seems older and tougher than the other. She later testifies in court in the third act. Both of them come across as being legitimately concerned over the well-being of the black guys who they were lined up next to. Basically they were not presented as evil. There is no condemnation of white women or ‘white women feminism”. In fact the most sympathetic white characters in the film were all women (that includes one white female who was helping a family identify a body in a morgue). That drives many black women nuts, the same type of black women who believe that white females were just as responsible for slavery as the white men who established and ran all institutions during the time of slavery in America. Black women who go in with that type of stereotype view of white women who hang with black men, who need to see representation of that stereotype realized on screen, will be greatly disappointed. Not to mention mad.


4)The movie doesn’t hold back knocking white men off their perch. It paints an ugly picture of white guys so insecure that they respond with violence to convey their authority. While the cops did investigate the motel to look for a shooter, what triggers them arguably more than anything is the presence of white women in the company of low-down black men. It bugs them. It makes them lash out at both the black men and the white women. They ask these white women, whether in private or in front of a crowd, why do they want to fuck black men. They almost beg them for an answer. The thought of it hurts them. They justify what’s happening by concluding that these ladies must be prostitutes. Even once that theory is shot down they still end up dismissing these women as whores (the real life man whom the main cop is based on had particularly sexists views regarding women in general). It was an on-the-money and naked portrayal of the mentality of territorial white males who need to come up with rationale to soother their fragile egos. These cops were acting as if they were personally being rejected by these white girls when they found them in the motel. The screenwriter of the film is a white male named Mark Boal and he deserves props for not sugarcoating certain truths even if his dialogue is a little too obvious at times. What this film helps make clear is that the violence directed at black men for crossing (or even appearing to cross) any sexual racial line is not the fault of white women but rather the fault of white men who resort to physical attacks. This is not the narrative that many deranged black women want to face. They like to hold on to some false notion that all IR were treated equally as terrible, particularly in the past. Some love to cling to the notion that there were more obstacles in the way of WM/BW pairings, that such relationships were just as much under the threat of danger. And that’s bullshit. An older black women in the film shouts out towards the end of the film that no deaths would have occurred if black girls had been found in the motel with white men. She’s goddamn right and black women who try to make some false equivalency out of this are out of their fucking minds. Historically white males in America have been hypocrites. White women have been far from perfect but what they have not resorted to the type of sick assault that cost the lives of others.

Thanks @JamalSpunky for this piece, you're making me want to see the movie twice. Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal seem like they touched subjects that would make a lot of people uncomfortable, but in a powerful way. They are projecting this movie will make around $18-$20 Million on opening day, but I hope it does more.

 

[Soulthinker]

Fortunate enough to be living in one of the few parts of the country in which Detroit had opened a week early in advance (only 20 total theaters in the nation), I caught a 10 AM matinee showing of “Detroit” on Sunday. It was an….unforgettable experience. The film packs quite a punch, completely mesmerizing. By no means is it perfect. It wasn’t even the best film I saw that day, that honor goes to “Dunkirk”. In fact for the first time ever I saw three films in one day, all at different movie theaters. All were excellent. Detroit. Dunkirk. Landline (which I’ll get to later). “Detroit” rates somewhere between an 8.5 or 9 out of 10. Probably the second best film I’ve seen all year (with Dunkirk being #1).


There’s only a few negatives I hold against it that keeps it from being a surefire 9 or even a 10. Let me get those out of the way. First of all there is the issue that for a stretch you can argue that it loses focus on the black characters and the all the victims in general as it hones in on the brutality of the white cops. During that span of ten to fifteen minutes I can imagine some people being fed up watching it and wanting some of the characters to start fighting back. Around this time Boyega’s intriguing/conflicted character starts becoming less of a factor. Of course this is probably justified considering it mirrors the increasing sense of powerlessness the real person he played had to deal with during that fateful night. Because of this I think Will Poulter (a white actor) has the best chance of any to be nominated for an Academy Awards. A superficial thing to consider of course but I’m just throwing it out there. Another problem with the film is that it’s last act tried to accomplish too much, tried to cover way too much territory and couldn’t completely pull it off. Last of all some of the dialogue is too on-the-nose and lacks subtlety. But that’s a nitpick.

Nonetheless this is an outstanding motion picture, one I will be thinking about for quite awhile. Kathryn Bigelow is a master at this film-as-journalism-approach. The opening is perfect as we are given a quick breakdown of the mass migration of blacks from the South to northern cities like Detroit and the white flight (along with jobs) that result from it. We get the reasons why Detroit was such a pressure cooker and we get the moment that lit the fuse that led to the rebellion/riot. How Bigelow handles this part is fantastic but that whole broad conflict only serves as a backdrop for the main storyline.


As noted before this movie is NOT about the Detroit riots or rebellion. It is about the incident that occurred in a place called the Algiers Motel on the third day of the turmoil. I won’t give much away but let me say that Bigelow expertly sets up the line of events that would lead to tragedy. Her goal here was to not focus so much on character. Don’t take that the wrong way. The victims all are realized as distinct individuals with recognizable human traits. They garner your sympathy quite easily, even before the brutalization by the cops. And speaking of the police they are painted as two-dimensional beings who overstep their authority. They aren’t sympathetic in the least but they aren’t mustache-twirling either because they never feel as if they are doing wrong. But Bigelow isn’t all that interested on dwelling on any deep analysis of any of the characters. Apparently her goal was to create an immersive experience for the audience by playing out the nightmare in real time, allowing the viewers to step in the shoes of those caught up in that mess. Yes, there is a bit of a horror-movie element in those scenes, but it works perfectly. What occurred in that motel was horrifying and sick and beyond dark. And Bigelow doesn’t allow people an easy out by jumping ahead in time, nor does she give viewers a release by cutting to scenes that occur away from the Algiers Motel. Nope. We the audience are as trapped in that sweaty hallway as the characters are.


Besides her direction what makes the movie stand out is the great acting all across the board. I mean everyone is great, even if given limited time. Three of the four main white actors/actresses are British which makes me think of a debate on this board a month ago about Brits “taking” jobs. My point then was that white Brits have been and still are getting countless jobs in America so why are some being wedded to conspiracy theories that opportunities for African American actors alone are being affected? Anyway the Brits are damn good and Boyega is one of them. But the vast majority of the roles were played by Americans. Boyega may be the lone black actor who wasn’t American. Perhaps the closest thing the movie has to a lead character is the one played by Algee Smith. Wasn’t interested in the New Edition movie so “Detroit” is the first time I’ve seen him perform. He was incredible. With his acting ability, looks and voice I would say he has a chance to be a major star. If he was taller though I would guarantee he was destined to be one of the next leading men in the black acting community. Jacob Latimore also shines and looks as if he has a very good career ahead of him too.


Sorry this post ran so long. Let me add that his movie happened to cover a whole lot more territory and story than I was expecting in the first and third acts. It also dealt head-on with some harsh truths in the second act that Hollywood movies never touch upon (more on that in another post). Plus there are actually more black female characters in this film than was let on but they are limited to bit parts, albeit in a couple of cases ones which leave a dent. Hopefully tomorrow I will write a post about why some black women will find reasons to despise this film. Nonetheless Bigelow and her screenwriter Mark Boal (who came up with the idea to do this movie) have my deepest respects and gratitude. Bigelow in particular has cemented her place as one of my all-time faves. It’s really a fantastic film, one I may see in the theaters again, one I will definitely buy when it comes out on Blu Ray. But I have to warn that the film may not be for everybody here, especially if those easily angered/triggered by seeing such brutality portrayed.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I knew the outcome of the events and the names of those who died before I saw the movie. I can only imagine how much more of an impact the film will have on people who know next to nothing going in.


Some side notes:


The “Landline” movie is one of those upcoming films involving a black man in an IR I’ve been meaning to get around to listing (still need to do that list). In this case the youngest daughter, Ali, who is white, is in a relationship with a black male. They get a love scene too and Ali looks to be enjoying sex with her black lover than her older sister is in her love scenes with her fiancé. The relationship Ali has with this guy is only the third most important relationship in the film. He is in fact the definition f a supporting character, but he does good with the limited screentime he gets. I will leave a link to the trailer at the bottom.


Also considering all the years of discussion on this site I found it interesting that two trailers that ran back-to-back before the showing of “Detroit” were “Mountains Between Us” and “Ingrid Goes West”, both of which involves BM involved with women of another race.

I learn something every day. I hope to see those trailers and the flick. I will discuss more when a majority of the folks see the movie.

 

[Soulthinker]

Its time to get this threat back on track.

As I wrote yesterday I was going to post reasons why many black women will hate "Detroit". Here are the reasons below:


1)Its not about them. Black women on twitter increasingly have this “look at me!” mindset going on in regards to media portrayals. This leads them to often rejecting sight-unseen any show/movie with black males that don’t include back females. They refer to this increasingly as the “erasure of black women”. There may be roughly a dozen speaking parts for black actresses in “Detroit” but they are small roles. The film itself is a big ensemble piece with not one character getting a large enough role that would qualify as a lead. But the only substantial roles are given to those playing real life people who got caught up in the events at The Algiers Motel. And the only people who fit that description were black men, white men and white women. By the way the black and white male characters and white female characters in the film who WERE NOT part of that eventful night are also given slight screen time too. So this isn’t some bias directed at black women, the same treatment is given to any character not in the middle of the central conflict. Black women and their male lapdogs see the promos for “Detroit”, don’t see much of themselves in it and get pissed off. To make it worse they see some white girls in the ads and that makes it even worse. I’m cynical enough to assume if the event that took place was about black women trapped in a similar position by the police and the movie made about it had only slight roles for black men, no one would be outraged and making a big deal about it.


2) In the film the two white females are women of the sexual revolution who mingle with black guys and there is an implication that they may have done even more than that with them. Even more than that you have black dudes in the film casually interacting with them, attempting to woo them and flirt with them, trying to gain their favor by sparring with other black guys, kissing them. Granted in some cases this is happening because these women are pretty much the only ladies around in a motel in the middle of the city that’s on lockdown. Nonetheless there is a clear, mutual attraction between the guys and these women. An excitement that movie audiences almost never get to see between black males and white females. And for extreme black women who increasingly have the luxury of seeing IR portrayed in a more limited fashion that’s exclusively WM/BW, seeing those black guys interacting with white chicks breaks that comfort level.



3)These two white ladies are nor portrayed as being manipulative bitches who are using these black men in order to get their thrills for the night only to turn on them as soon as trouble ensues. What the black detractors were probably hoping for were the white women to be exposed as weak and evil and slutty. They want those chicks to turn out like real-life versions of the white girlfriend of “Get Out” so that black audiences can fold their arms and exclaim “I knew it all along”. But that’s not what is presented. Those two ladies don’t turn on the black men even when scared out of their wits. They are shocked by what is happening to the black guys and to themselves. One of them is battered. One is almost molested by a cop’s club. But they don’t protect themselves by throwing out false accusations. One of them is especially more defiant and seems older and tougher than the other. She later testifies in court in the third act. Both of them come across as being legitimately concerned over the well-being of the black guys who they were lined up next to. Basically they were not presented as evil. There is no condemnation of white women or ‘white women feminism”. In fact the most sympathetic white characters in the film were all women (that includes one white female who was helping a family identify a body in a morgue). That drives many black women nuts, the same type of black women who believe that white females were just as responsible for slavery as the white men who established and ran all institutions during the time of slavery in America. Black women who go in with that type of stereotype view of white women who hang with black men, who need to see representation of that stereotype realized on screen, will be greatly disappointed. Not to mention mad.


4)The movie doesn’t hold back knocking white men off their perch. It paints an ugly picture of white guys so insecure that they respond with violence to convey their authority. While the cops did investigate the motel to look for a shooter, what triggers them arguably more than anything is the presence of white women in the company of low-down black men. It bugs them. It makes them lash out at both the black men and the white women. They ask these white women, whether in private or in front of a crowd, why do they want to fuck black men. They almost beg them for an answer. The thought of it hurts them. They justify what’s happening by concluding that these ladies must be prostitutes. Even once that theory is shot down they still end up dismissing these women as whores (the real life man whom the main cop is based on had particularly sexists views regarding women in general). It was an on-the-money and naked portrayal of the mentality of territorial white males who need to come up with rationale to soother their fragile egos. These cops were acting as if they were personally being rejected by these white girls when they found them in the motel. The screenwriter of the film is a white male named Mark Boal and he deserves props for not sugarcoating certain truths even if his dialogue is a little too obvious at times. What this film helps make clear is that the violence directed at black men for crossing (or even appearing to cross) any sexual racial line is not the fault of white women but rather the fault of white men who resort to physical attacks. This is not the narrative that many deranged black women want to face. They like to hold on to some false notion that all IR were treated equally as terrible, particularly in the past. Some love to cling to the notion that there were more obstacles in the way of WM/BW pairings, that such relationships were just as much under the threat of danger. And that’s bullshit. An older black women in the film shouts out towards the end of the film that no deaths would have occurred if black girls had been found in the motel with white men. She’s goddamn right and black women who try to make some false equivalency out of this are out of their fucking minds. Historically white males in America have been hypocrites. White women have been far from perfect but what they have not resorted to the type of sick assault that cost the lives of others.

JS,you dropped deep science on that flick. There was a book about that incident and I like to know if that author has the same thoughts?

 

[Soulthinker]

Jesus, there are no black males that the media try to push as sex symbols. Instead they are push as elite physical specimens. And there is a difference. LeBron james is a physical specimen who can sell product and move merchandise. But he is not considered a sex symbol. The American media has never been comfortable with the idea of black males as sex symbols. Ever. And if people haven't figured that out by now perhaps they never will. Serena Williams wasn't approached initially as much for advertisements not just because she was black but because too many people she has a fugly face and a body type that MOST men don't find attractive for women. Most men don't care for chicks with that much muscular covering their physiques. And believe it or not her big ass and thick thighs is not a turn on for most dudes around the world either. But her lack of advertisements was a problem that had long plagued previous female athletes whose athleticism seemed not feminine enough to those making decisions on Madison Avenue. Eventually for Serena things started looking up when they realized they couldn't ignore her success or longevity any longer and decided wisely that her accomplishments were more important than her looks. But if she had the face and bod of a Tyra Banks she would have been swarmed with advertising opportunities a long time ago. When it comes to women in the media looks are still the #1, #2 and #3 most important things. That's still an unfortunate reality.

Take Anna Kournikova who never won a singles match yet,get all of those advertisments. No doubt the media thinks she is the face of female tennis as compaired to Serena Williams.

 

[Soulthinker]

Well, it is a movie shown in arthouse theaters so I guess one can excuse it for being artsy. It does have a lot of conversations but none that last too long. But the main takeaway is how people ate it up and laughed and enjoyed themselves while watching it. Its jokes landed far more than those from Hollywood comedies that flood the market. I respect Woody Allen as a filmmaker but I'm not one to see most of his work and Landline is not anything like a Woody Allen film. The people in the film are not that self-absorbed nor do they talk on endlessly. You get in and out of scenes quickly. There aren't any neurotic characters and there are people of color everywhere in the film. That's as far away from Woody as you can get. The similarities are that it takes place in NYC and that the characters are of (partly) Jewish heritage. I see a lot of these independent films and trust me I don't recommend all of them to people to see at the movie theaters. Recent ones I caught in theaters like "Bandaid" and "Beatrice at Dinner" were so-so artsy movies not worth the hype that you can definitely catch on cable on days you got nothing better to do. Nothing wrong with catching "Landline" on cable or streaming either. But, just like 'The Big SicK', I feel its actually worth seeing in the theaters if its playing nearby. And I support stuff like that because I hate that movie theaters are increasingly becoming venues only for superhero films, expensive YA adaptations and bloated thrillers/mysteries. But to each his/her own. "Landline" is being distributed by Amazon anyway so once its short window in theaters is over it will be something people can stream pretty soon.

BTw I take no offense at your remarks. I didn't see you as trying to knock my enthusiasm or anything. Its all good.

The Woody Allen film Melinda and Melinda was the only flick he ever touched on a IR between a WW/BM. I hope to see Landline soon.

 

[JamalSpunky]

JS,you dropped deep science on that flick. There was a book about that incident and I like to know if that author has the same thoughts?

The author may be dead. Book was written almost 50 years ago. I just ordered a paperback of it from Amazon this morning. It's not in e-book format though that may change.

 

[Bliss]

Its time to get this threat back on track.

As I wrote yesterday I was going to post reasons why many black women will hate "Detroit". Here are the reasons below:


1)Its not about them. Black women on twitter increasingly have this “look at me!” mindset going on in regards to media portrayals. This leads them to often rejecting sight-unseen any show/movie with black males that don’t include back females. They refer to this increasingly as the “erasure of black women”. There may be roughly a dozen speaking parts for black actresses in “Detroit” but they are small roles. The film itself is a big ensemble piece with not one character getting a large enough role that would qualify as a lead. But the only substantial roles are given to those playing real life people who got caught up in the events at The Algiers Motel. And the only people who fit that description were black men, white men and white women. By the way the black and white male characters and white female characters in the film who WERE NOT part of that eventful night are also given slight screen time too. So this isn’t some bias directed at black women, the same treatment is given to any character not in the middle of the central conflict. Black women and their male lapdogs see the promos for “Detroit”, don’t see much of themselves in it and get pissed off. To make it worse they see some white girls in the ads and that makes it even worse. I’m cynical enough to assume if the event that took place was about black women trapped in a similar position by the police and the movie made about it had only slight roles for black men, no one would be outraged and making a big deal about it.


2) In the film the two white females are women of the sexual revolution who mingle with black guys and there is an implication that they may have done even more than that with them. Even more than that you have black dudes in the film casually interacting with them, attempting to woo them and flirt with them, trying to gain their favor by sparring with other black guys, kissing them. Granted in some cases this is happening because these women are pretty much the only ladies around in a motel in the middle of the city that’s on lockdown. Nonetheless there is a clear, mutual attraction between the guys and these women. An excitement that movie audiences almost never get to see between black males and white females. And for extreme black women who increasingly have the luxury of seeing IR portrayed in a more limited fashion that’s exclusively WM/BW, seeing those black guys interacting with white chicks breaks that comfort level.



3)These two white ladies are nor portrayed as being manipulative bitches who are using these black men in order to get their thrills for the night only to turn on them as soon as trouble ensues. What the black detractors were probably hoping for were the white women to be exposed as weak and evil and slutty. They want those chicks to turn out like real-life versions of the white girlfriend of “Get Out” so that black audiences can fold their arms and exclaim “I knew it all along”. But that’s not what is presented. Those two ladies don’t turn on the black men even when scared out of their wits. They are shocked by what is happening to the black guys and to themselves. One of them is battered. One is almost molested by a cop’s club. But they don’t protect themselves by throwing out false accusations. One of them is especially more defiant and seems older and tougher than the other. She later testifies in court in the third act. Both of them come across as being legitimately concerned over the well-being of the black guys who they were lined up next to. Basically they were not presented as evil. There is no condemnation of white women or ‘white women feminism”. In fact the most sympathetic white characters in the film were all women (that includes one white female who was helping a family identify a body in a morgue). That drives many black women nuts, the same type of black women who believe that white females were just as responsible for slavery as the white men who established and ran all institutions during the time of slavery in America. Black women who go in with that type of stereotype view of white women who hang with black men, who need to see representation of that stereotype realized on screen, will be greatly disappointed. Not to mention mad.


4)The movie doesn’t hold back knocking white men off their perch. It paints an ugly picture of white guys so insecure that they respond with violence to convey their authority. While the cops did investigate the motel to look for a shooter, what triggers them arguably more than anything is the presence of white women in the company of low-down black men. It bugs them. It makes them lash out at both the black men and the white women. They ask these white women, whether in private or in front of a crowd, why do they want to fuck black men. They almost beg them for an answer. The thought of it hurts them. They justify what’s happening by concluding that these ladies must be prostitutes. Even once that theory is shot down they still end up dismissing these women as whores (the real life man whom the main cop is based on had particularly sexists views regarding women in general). It was an on-the-money and naked portrayal of the mentality of territorial white males who need to come up with rationale to soother their fragile egos. These cops were acting as if they were personally being rejected by these white girls when they found them in the motel. The screenwriter of the film is a white male named Mark Boal and he deserves props for not sugarcoating certain truths even if his dialogue is a little too obvious at times. What this film helps make clear is that the violence directed at black men for crossing (or even appearing to cross) any sexual racial line is not the fault of white women but rather the fault of white men who resort to physical attacks. This is not the narrative that many deranged black women want to face. They like to hold on to some false notion that all IR were treated equally as terrible, particularly in the past. Some love to cling to the notion that there were more obstacles in the way of WM/BW pairings, that such relationships were just as much under the threat of danger. And that’s bullshit. An older black women in the film shouts out towards the end of the film that no deaths would have occurred if black girls had been found in the motel with white men. She’s goddamn right and black women who try to make some false equivalency out of this are out of their fucking minds. Historically white males in America have been hypocrites. White women have been far from perfect but what they have not resorted to the type of sick assault that cost the lives of others.

Honestly, #4 was so moving to the point l think seeing it will depress me now. Especially because its fact based. So sad.

Take Anna Kournikova who never won a singles match yet,get all of those advertisments. No doubt the media thinks she is the face of female tennis as compaired to Serena Williams.

Yep. Selling products does not mean sex-symbol. Martina Navratilova and Billie-Jean King sold products.

 

[JamalSpunky]

Thanks @JamalSpunky for this piece, you're making me want to see the movie twice. Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal seem like they touched subjects that would make a lot of people uncomfortable, but in a powerful way. They are projecting this movie will make around $18-$20 Million on opening day, but I hope it does more.

I think you meant $18-$20 million for the opening weekend. And if the film does that it should be considered a treatment (none of Bigelow's movies have been huge box office hits). Where did you get your numbers from btw? I'm reading that the Halle Berry kidnap film (which is going to be hot garbage) is tracking better.

 

[Soulthinker]

The author may be dead. Book was written almost 50 years ago. I just ordered a paperback of it from Amazon this morning. It's not in e-book format though that may change.

Yes,John Hershey is no longer with us. Tell me about it after you read it. I may get it from the library since the movie may have a reprint.

 

[Soulthinker]

Honestly, #4 was so moving to the point l think seeing it will depress me now. Especially because its fact based. So sad.

Yep. Selling products does not mean sex-symbol. Martina Navratilova and Billie-Jean King sold products.

But,Anna got much more money than those legends of the sport.

 

[JamalSpunky]

The whack jobs are out in force.

A black writer did a piece for Complex claiming Bigelow didn't have the right to do "Detroit".

On twitter a black woman is upset that the filmmakers didn't make up black female characters to use in the film causing one black male to respond that white women and black men often collude to erase black women from TV and movies.

All of a sudden Jpohn Boyega is a bad guy and someone has called him out on twitter for not fighting more for black females in his films....as if he has say who is going to be in Star Wars or Detroit.

And someone has dug up supposedly some negative remarks made about black women by the film's star Alfee Smith, trying to Nate Parker him by ruining his rep before he can even establish one.

 

[ColiBreh1]

The whack jobs are out in force.

A black writer did a piece for Complex claiming Bigelow didn't have the right to do "Detroit".

On twitter a black woman is upset that the filmmakers didn't make up black female characters to use in the film causing one black male to respond that white women and black men often collude to erase black women from TV and movies.

All of a sudden Jpohn Boyega is a bad guy and someone has called him out on twitter for not fighting more for black females in his films....as if he has say who is going to be in Star Wars or Detroit.

And someone has dug up supposedly some negative remarks made about black women by the film's star Alfee Smith, trying to Nate Parker him by ruining his rep before he can even establish one.

I'm actually jealous & wish Black Men would origanize like this to push their own Agendas.

 

[darkcurry]

I think you meant $18-$20 million for the opening weekend. And if the film does that it should be considered a treatment (none of Bigelow's movies have been huge box office hits). Where did you get your numbers from btw? I'm reading that the Halle Berry kidnap film (which is going to be hot garbage) is tracking better.

Yes I meant opening weekend. lol. I heard it on some radio show my sister had on in her car this past Sunday. Don't remember if it was a local station or not.

 

[JamalSpunky]

I'm actually jealous & wish Black Men would origanize like this to push their own Agendas.

The sad thing is that a large number of black men are organized. They just happened to be marching in-step with the black women who go on their whine-fest on twitter.