tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post2814068703224518337..comments2024-02-27T10:53:43.331-05:00Comments on Big Media Vandalism: Livin' In A World of Ghetto LifeSteven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-76032818162665916312008-02-11T15:32:00.000-05:002008-02-11T15:32:00.000-05:00wish i could tell you why i love this movie, but i...wish i could tell you why i love this movie, but i don't.<BR/><BR/>(the soundtrack is pretty cool, though)<BR/><BR/>personally, i'm still trying to understand Armond's appraisal of <I>Sparkle</I> as a vastly superior film to <I>Dreamgirls.</I>Comb & Razorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11912912211584098914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-2938358707373488182008-02-11T15:04:00.000-05:002008-02-11T15:04:00.000-05:00I've been trawling through West African newspapers...I've been trawling through West African newspapers for a grad school project, and looking especially at what kinds of movies people got to see. Just after independence in several countries, there's a profusion of really poor Hollywood and British "adventure" movies with the worst of stereotypes about Africa, and I suspect that it's also part of the water-in-the-desert phenomenon, where people were desperate to see any images of themselves, even pretty shoddy images where Africans were at best peripheral to the films' main purpose. <BR/><BR/>Another comparison might be with the Australian success of films like "Alvin Purple" or "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie" in the early 1970s; neither is a great film but they were still huge successes because at the time Australian audiences had no films that were aimed at them.Garethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08544047015325046422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-61076390073826835642008-02-10T16:46:00.000-05:002008-02-10T16:46:00.000-05:00Ahh, the white trash flicks. I never thought of th...Ahh, the white trash flicks. I never thought of them as a distinct genre, but y'all are right. One of my all-time favorite movies that the world despises is Sam Peckinpah's more uspcale <I>Convoy</I>, which takes damn near the entire counterculture-- blaxploit-revolutionaries like Spider Mike and outlaw rednecks like Rubber Duck-- and puts it on 18 wheels. (<--Wait, did I steal a blurb from somewhere? Deja vu.)<BR/><BR/>The thing that virtually all '70s counterculture flicks have over the Tarantino era do-overs is that political edge, and an audience that really was all ears, flaps open.<BR/><BR/>Odie, after your Conjunction Junction and Mahogany remixes, I might need breathing assistance myself. Constant laughter is not healthy.Steven Boonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-5043530173610132722008-02-10T16:22:00.000-05:002008-02-10T16:22:00.000-05:00Boone, I dragged my sorry ass to Target to get som...Boone, I dragged my sorry ass to Target to get some more Vicks for my humidifier, and there was this sistah who kept looking at me as if I was her ex-husband or something. Now I know why. I can see it now: I'm being chased down the street by angry Black women chanting "We're gonna give him something he can feel, all right!"<BR/><BR/>As for Mahogany, it's my reward for all this hard work. And while I'd have nice things to say about Miss Ross in Lady Sings the Blues or Out of Darkness (where she is absolutely brilliant as a schizophrenic), I'm lettin' her have it for Mahogany. I'm sure every sistah and drag queen will be after me for that. I'm ready. My only fear is that I might run into Miss Ross on the street. She'll have Vaseline on her face and her shoes will be off, and she'll yank out her weave before saying "Do you know where you're going to? The hospital, bitch!"<BR/><BR/>You a instigator, Steven Boone.<BR/><BR/>Matt, I think Sparkle could have been a compelling 40's women's picture if somebody had taken the time to get a screenwriter with one iota of knowledge about storytelling, Black culture, and women's weepie pictures. A low budget really isn't an excuse. Cooley High is a low budget movie, and it's fantastic.<BR/><BR/>As for the redneck genre, I was always partial to <I>White Line Fever</I> and <I>Breaker! Breaker!</I>odienatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-5352163743553698302008-02-10T15:23:00.000-05:002008-02-10T15:23:00.000-05:00Yeah, I have to think this movie was/is beloved be...Yeah, I have to think this movie was/is beloved because of the water-in-the-desert phenomenon. It wasn't until the '90s, with "The Bodyguard," that audiences got to see a black female pop star at the absolute center of a movie - and there Whitney was sharing screen time, and loving closeups, with Kevin Costner, and didn't have much of a part to play beyond "haughty bitch learns to lighten up." <BR/><BR/>It's really unfortunate that so many films from that era targeted at identification-starved people of color don't really stand on their own two feet as entertainment, minus the cultural context. Of course the phenomenon isn't just confined to black films/black audiences. The redneck genre, which ran contemporaneously with blaxploitation and was sort of the white southern conservative flipside of the black urban revolution pictures, mostly sucked, too.<BR/><BR/>The problem with films shot on very low budgets and aimed at niche audiences is that the execution often doesn't match the vision, if there's vision to begin with.Matt Zoller Seitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16921028537989131859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-59497232031811222932008-02-10T12:49:00.000-05:002008-02-10T12:49:00.000-05:00Odie, I'm forwarding this article to every sister ...Odie, I'm forwarding this article to every sister I know. That's basically putting a hit out on you.<BR/><BR/>You are doing brilliant, backbreaking work, but, um, after <I>Sparkle</I>, you ain't gonna make it out alive without also including <I>Mahogany</I>. And you better say nice things.<BR/><BR/>Hey, certain beloved '70s black "classics" (cough, scratch) were just stale crumbs thrown to a starving crowd. As Eddie Murphy said of sex long delayed, "What is this, Ritz? This ain't no regula cracka."Steven Boonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-73668631832593754162008-02-10T12:35:00.000-05:002008-02-10T12:35:00.000-05:00Make that "I was OPERATING on a 20-year old recoll...Make that "I was OPERATING on a 20-year old recollection" above. Cut me some slack. I'm working with a serious case of bacterial pneumonia here.odienatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-51530176560591409472008-02-10T12:33:00.000-05:002008-02-10T12:33:00.000-05:00I wrote that Joel Schumacher piece before I saw Sp...I wrote that Joel Schumacher piece before I saw Sparkle again, so I must run a slight retraction. In the Schumacher piece, I said that his characterizations weren't offensive. I had conveniently forgotten about the Dolores character in this film. Sometimes my own memory gets the better of me, as I was operation on a 20-year old recollection of his work. Either that, or I had blocked her out until two nights ago when I watched Sparkle.odienatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.com