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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7257
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008 - 04:57 pm: | 
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Sunday, July 06, 2008
More on "Hancock"
Back to Hancock, both because a reader asked it, it came up at a 4th of July party, and because I've decided that I actually am angry at Will Smith. I think it is reasonable to hold people who have his wealth and power responsible for their actions. How else can we control and guide our society other than expressing approval for the behaviors we approve of, and disapproval for those we don't? He didn't create the game board, but he's playing at such a level that there is no way that he, his children, or grand-children would be hurt if he decided to make nothing but small movies from here on out.
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But there is a balancing view: that Morgan Freeman's spiritual guides, Sam Jackson's emasculated bad-asses, Denzel Washington's noble neuters, Eddie Murphy's prosthetic camouflage and Smith's harmless Vunderkind personaes have set the stage for Barack Obama. And when (I think it was) Butterfly McQueen was asked "why do you play maids?" she replied "Honey, If I hadn't played one, I would have been one." So I don't resent Halle Berry whoring herself to get an Oscar for "Monster's Ball"--there is a tremendous insult if one applies McQueen's comment to Berry's screen personage, but I'll let you work that one out for yourself.
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Back to "Hancock", those caveats aside. At the 4th of July party, a lady made a tremendously insightful observation that I will amplfy a bit.
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"Iron Man", "The Hulk", "Fantastic Four" "Spider-Man" "Bat Man" and so forth have a common thread running through them: the heroes are all brilliant scientists who are courageous if not also wealthy and sexy. In other words, they express the healthy self-image of white people, especially white males.
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"Hancock", the first major film with a black superhero, is about a foul-mouthed, alcoholic bum who is occassionally useful but destructive. He is rescued by a white man who, in order to rehabilitate him, demands he go to prison (!) to "serve his debt to society." Irresistably drawn to a white woman forever out of his reach, she is his Delilah, and he weakens if he touches her. They cannot have sex. He can't have sex at all (they cut a scene where, shades of "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex") he blows a woman through the side of his trailer with his super-sperm. On the other hand, the white woman, who has equal powers, appears to have no trouble at al having sex. Her involuntary vaginal contractions seem to have no real bizarre attributes. As Superman can have sex. Hancock cannot.
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We learn that he lost his powers because racists didn't like him holding hands with a white woman.
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At the end, he sacrifices everything so that the white couple can continue to screw happily ever.
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In other words, Hancock matches the most negative stereotypes imaginable that whites have of blacks. And the film was ruined when half-way through, I think someone realized the road they had accidentally traveled, and tried desperately to stop from saying what their subconscious was so eager to reveal.
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Smith probably knew, just as he knew that "Wild Wild West" was off the rails. But it's hard to resist 20 million dollars. How many of you wouldn't have appeared in that movie for twenty million dollars? Be honest. But I can still be angry.
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Casting the white woman? Just the toxic frosting on a rancid cake. The fact that she is South African is just an incredible "coincidence", in a universe that has none. In all likelihood, not one person involved in the project consciously thought about this, but think about it: this movie will probably be Smith's biggest bomb in a decade. The subliminal message? DON'T TOUCH WHITE WOMEN.
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Now, most people will probably stop with the interracial aspect, without grasping that black men don't have sex with ANYONE. It isn't just white women. And sisters, I feel you on the discomfort you felt when she appeared. I hear about it on the radio, in conversations, in magazines: you don't want Denzel or Will boffing white women. But, and I say this with all affection, you do NOT complain as loudly when Halle screws Billy Bob Thornton or Pierce Brosnan, or Thandie Newton screws Tom Cruise. You remain curiously quiet. As black men weren't likely to complain much back when Jim Brown screwed Stella Stevens in "Slaughter" forty years ago. That's natural. Every group wants all the advantages, and every group wants all the advantages for themselves. I remember back in the 60's I heard black radical males saying it was better for black men to screw white women than for black women to screw white men. I thought they were full of shit, and said so.
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And I know black women now who say that it is better for black women to marry white men than for black men to marry white women. This is exactly, precisely, the kind of self-serving nonsense that allows any group to claim they have the right to control what others do using judgement and shame.
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So when you flinch to see Will Smith approach Charlize Theron, I empathize. I hope you flinched as much watching "Die Another Day." If you did, bravo.
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Denzel and Will both understand the game, and both lie about what they're doing. Denzel supposedly refuses love scenes because he's "promised the sisters he won't screw white women onscreen." Note what was left out there? Think about it. All right, what's left out is: then why don't you have love scenes with black women? Eddie Murphy? After "Boomerang" (God, I had hopes!) America bought him off by offering him obscene amounts of money for PG family-friendly movies. Don't be dangerous, Eddie. Don't drop trou, and we'll make you incredibly rich. All you have to do is leave your dick at home.
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Will Smith talks about making family movies, and the fact that he and his agents sat down and calculated the most successful films: science fiction action family films. So that's why he doesn't have sex in these movies? And what explains "Bad Boys II"? If you cut out all the R-rated material, you'd have a short subject.
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I first noticed the game Smith was playing with America during "Bad Boys." The lead woman was sexy, and Smith played a playboy detective. The natural outcome? Sex, of course. Because the lead was white, I KNEW that wasn't going to happen, and sat in the theater wondering how they were going to work around it. Oh! Martin Lawrences' character was married, and the two characters got 'confused" so that the woman was with Lawrence while Smith was with Lawrences' wife. Hilarity ensued...for anyone who didn't see the naked manipulation.
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Step back. "Six Degrees of Separation". He's gay. Hmmm. "Independence Day"--BIG leap forward. Love that movie. He gets a big, juicy kiss. I have no complaints, and rub my hands, anticipating nookie to come. "Men in Black"--some "sexy" double entendres, but nothing.
"Enemy of the State." Well, his wife wears negligee in one scene, although they're nowhere near a bed. Still, I have hope. Maybe next time. "Wild Wild West." He's kissing a nameless woman in the beginning, so I had hope. Then...another kiss or two, and he ends up riding into the sunset with Kevin Klein, who appeared in drag, and was also in "In and Out" as a homosexual. Hmmm. Nice way to make the threatening Black Male unthreatening, no?
"The Legend of Bagger Vance" pure, humiliating spiritual guide. "Ali" Ah! Smith's only love scene. But even though played with his own WIFE, (could you get more non-threatening than that?) the film failed at the box office. Coincidence, of course.
"Men In Black II" Nothing.
"Bad Boys II"? A "Clever" situation where he's dating Martin Lawrence's sister, see, and Lawrence can't know they're dating...so in the entire movie he gets exactly one kiss.
"I, Robot"? Nothing.
"Shark Tale"? Well, I believe his animated character kissed an animated Renee Zellwegger. Yum.
"Hitch"? The most interesting yet. An actual relationship, although non-sexual. This script went through vast re-writing, and I can bet why. A bunch of things made this film possible (from my perspective)
1) the lead was Latina. Since "Bandolero" with Jim Brown and Raquel Welch, Latinas have been a safe middle ground. Not a white woman, and without the genetic threat of watching a black man and woman indulge in reproductive behavior.
2) The entire (unusually strong) B-Story involved helping Kevin James get a white woman. No cock-block here!
3) The coming attraction PROMENENTLY featured Smith kissing Kevin James. Again, emasculating the scary black man. No threat here!
4) No sex
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Honestly, I loved 'Hitch" and again my hopes raised...
"The Pursuit of Happyness"--never so much as kissed Thandie Newton.
"I Am Legend" --the original book by Richard Matheson, "The Last Man int he World" with Vincent Price, and "Omega Man" with Charton Heston all made much of the lead's encounter ith the last woman in the world. Heston screwed Rosalind Cash (a black woman). In contradiction of the original story, and all biological and sociological impulses, when the "last man in the world" meets the "last woman" in Smith's movie, he is completely uninterested in sex, and commits suicide as quickly as possible. NOT ONE WHITE CRITIC NOTICED. Of course not. These images work to the advantage of white males, who, as long as they don't consciously notice, get to bask in the myth that they are the hottest, smartest, sexiest, deadliest critters on the planet.
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And then Hancock. Knowing Smith's history, and the game he's playing, it is glaringly obvious what went wrong, and why it did: nobody was honest about the game they were playing: giving white people the image of black men they're comfortable with, while SLOWLY increasing the range of roles available to black men. God it's slow, and painful. And twenty years from now, Smith will probably be honest about what he was doing. Right now, he's making bank, and in his one way, changing the face of Cinema.
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I still bet that he'll be the first to break the barrier. My guess: the movie that features him as sexual might cross the 100 million threshold...but his FOLLOWING film will take a big drop. Just my suspicion. "If Will Smith Can't Get Laid, Obama Can't Get Elected" is actually a reflexive social equation: "If Obama can get elected, Will Smith can get laid." With his half-white heritage, his African last name (he is not a product of slavery, and therefore doesn't hold the anger and fear that black American men feel, and doesn't trigger the same guilt reactions from whites) Obama has a real chance of his blackness not working against him as strongly as it does for most. And if he makes it, that changes the image systems in a heartbeat--you watch. Within one year of his taking office, there WILL be images of black men being sexual, and those films will be successful. And everyone will wonder what the fuss is, and try to pretend the last 50 years didn't happen.
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But they did.
Posted by Steven Barnes at 10:33 AM |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3359
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 - 01:34 pm: |
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Groan.....More cheap coon commentary. The race baiting and paranoiac hallucinations continue. When will it ever subside......... |
Libralind2
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 1084
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 - 10:44 pm: |
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I thought Hancock was entertaining...and that's it
LiLi |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7263
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 11:20 am: |
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I thought Hancock was entertaining...and that's it
LiLi
(I suppose you would have no opinion on having a black superman be all the way super and not Stepin Fetchit in a cape. What did you think of the WHITE WOMAN angle? |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3361
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 05:25 pm: |
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"What did you think of the WHITE WOMAN angle?"
I didn't. I could care less......... |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 10175
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 07:36 pm: |
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Hancock was dreadful. I am so happy I saw the The Dark Knight, which is a truly great GREAT superhero movie, AFTER I saw Hancock. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7266
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 12:22 pm: |
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What did you think of the WHITE WOMAN angle?"
I didn't. I could care less.........
(You mean you COULDN'T care less) |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3366
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 12:41 pm: |
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"You mean you COULDN'T care less"
OK.....My bad. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7268
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 12:56 pm: |
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Everybody is making this mistake these days. Like calling racial EPITHETS racial EPITAPHS.
It's an obsession of mine, like checking auto tires for proper air pressure. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 10177
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 01:41 pm: |
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Chris: "Everybody is making this mistake these days. Like calling racial EPITHETS racial EPITAPHS...It's an obsession of mine, like checking auto tires for proper air pressure."
It's always a pleasure to see a brotha maxing out on his abilities.
CTFU!!! |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3371
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 04:23 pm: |
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"It's always a pleasure to see a brotha maxing out on his abilities."
 ........... |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7275
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 08, 2008 - 04:20 pm: |
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Me and Barack Obama is all... |
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