This strikes me as soft censorship of the artist’s work. I’m not necessarily against it, if that many people need their hand held through life, but I find it unnecessary.
"Reframed Classics": Alternative to Cancel Culture?
- Thread starter TheOriginalHappyGoat
- Start date
We all remember first goin' to see them TALKIES.You saw GWTW in the theater? What are you...100 years old?
Walked up hill both ways.
Cost a nickel.
By crackies.
An interesting exercise is to ask if a given story, for example GWTW, would be viewed as problematic if that problem (e.g., racism) didn’t exist in society? In other words, can one watch the movie and simply see each actor as an individual, a person, a character in the story?
A movie with the universal villain is much more easily scripted and is less likely to get bad reviews. There is no neo-Nazi public support group for the producer to satisfy.
So it sells, isn't that the point of a major movie? Art house movies may be different, but the expensive movies are made to simply make money.
It's better than cancelling but it's just a bunch elites telling us what is RIGHT so I would never pay any attention to it.
People are not historically aware that slavery was bad? I have a hard time believing that.
Yes. You articulated in a paragraph what I had trouble articulating in 2 posts. It seems unnecessary but if the choice is this or censoring/cancelling the movies, I choose the disclaimer.
Who was the poster who came on here several months ago and tried to claim that, for the most part, slaves had it pretty good (fed, sheltered, free medical care, etc), and were pretty happy, as evidenced by their constant singing while working?
We agree. Scripting villains as white male Nazis is safe. Nobody will organize a boycott and no reviewer will review with self-righteous indignation.
In my southern Indiana grammar schooling, the horror that was slavery was "softened" to a great extent. It was likened to indentured servitude, and many slaveholders were said to be benevolent in their own best interest -- happy, well treated slaves were better producers.
one of my favorite posts on the board. it's important to remember that many slaves were a certain personality type in search of an adventure!
I dunno. In many ways the disclaimer offends me more than the portrayal of slavery in GWTW. The disclaimer insults my intelligence. The disclaimer is condescending. It is arrogant. I see a sniveling broadcaster trying to satisfy a narrative while hiding under their desk. Either slow the movie or don’t show it. Don’t apologize either way or weaken your good faith informed decisions. All the disclaimer tells me is that we have one more industry yielding to the rot that is creeping into everything we do.
You're really doubling down on the whole being offended thing. You might want to think about taking a walk or something.
Have you seen Harriet? Not every slave was stripped of their dignity. Her story is an inspiration. Same for Hidden Figures, set 100 years later, towards the end of the Jim Crow era, with many of the same issues.
I don’t need a walk. I post here instead. Getting you to rise to my fly is satisfying enough.
I wouldn't bet the over on the number of inspirational stories relative to those who were stripped of their dignity.
I remember how well Samuel L. Jackson's character, Stephen, was treated by Calvin Candie. Then, Django got all woke by King Schultz, and ruined it for everyone.
Hm. A lot of stuff I thought I knew in grammar school was changed as I grew and learned. Studying US history in the run-up to the Civil War should have enlightened you about slavery if you weren’t enlightened already.
At the risk of Goat whining about me expanding his interesting thread, we have 21st century slavers in operation on our Southern border as I write this. And that is also “softened,” in this case because of external political factors. Is what we are seeing now much different than Margaret Mitchell’s gloss on the old south?
No I understand. I lived in South Carolina for five years. The stories there too are numerous, but as you know they are overwhelmed by the weight of the tragedy - and the consequences have lingered. The issue is how to best try to level the playing field by elevating one group without punishing another. Laws. Of course. But that doesn’t address being hundreds of years late to the economic party.
Yeah and I ended back in Stl. That’s how dumb I am
What kind of revisionist history is this? Enslavement, in and of itself, removes a person's dignity. Always. No exceptions.
And, with respect to "Hidden Figures," did you actually see the movie? Of course the featured characters were inspirational but they were clearly stripped of their dignity, on a regular basis. That was, in fact, a central theme of the film.
With each post on this topic, you appear more ignorant.
have you ever seen them in the same place? Remember when they were arguing with one another. Reminded my of Fight Club. Which one is Tyler Durden though?
I wouldn’t either. On the other hand, we will never know many of those stories because of deliberate illiteracy forced on slaves. In some ways we have never gotten away from that illiteracy which is our unspoken and unspeakable fault.
Messi will be out today. No Messi no Ronaldo past round of 16. Imo this marks the end of the greatest cycle. Makes me very sad. It’s been an amazing 15 years
While true, we'll also never know the innumerable horrors visited upon slaves for 200 years in the US. And not only b/c of the illiteracy of slaves but b/c of the whitewashing of history by our ancestors. I'm with McM on this one in that we need to begin to consider the economic situation in which blacks in America find themselves and work deliberately and intentionally to level that playing field. I don't have any answers for that but, given the time, would consider doing some reading on it. If anybody here can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.
Judging by CoH's subsequent posts in this thread, I'm not sure he is on the same page with your conclusion...
Porto? Really....PORTO. How the mighty have fallen. As an aside, it's telling many of the world's greatest end up in Spain/France/Italy. Farm leagues.
Well, I won’t call you ignorant. You calling me that tells me a lot about you.
If you are trying to get me to defend slavery on any level, you need to try again. But I will say, and I firmly believe, what goes on between an individual’s ears is more important than what goes on in the outside world. The dozens of POW books I’ve read convinces me if that. Unfortunately we can never read the stories of slaves.
For sure. Golden era for Portuguese players. The country is the population of North Carolina. Crazy
Agree. The saddest of all is the belief we can fix any if this by addressing “systemic racism”. That is a lie we tell ourselves as we fool around with statues and name changes. The problem is obvious. So is the solution.
Start with education. There is a ton of stuff about that. I get the economic objective, but I view that as trying to fix something with a fundamental design flaw. The civil rights laws have been around for almost 60 years and so has the war on poverty. Both are intended to level the economic playing field and both have largely failed. Why? African Americans simply aren’t educated as whites. Now we are seeing that math and English lit are too white. So it looks like education will be seen as too white also. If we have decided that a rigorous and accountable education is not for some youngsters, we can’t expect equality or equity when those youngsters become adults. We simply cannot get out of our own way on this.
It all matters. A couple of years ago I heard George Takei speak. Takei told the story of meeting an Asian-American actor, I can't remember who, who told Takei that Sulu was the first Asian character he had seen that made him feel proud to be an Asian. A similar story exists with Nichelle Nichols who wanted to quit Star Trek but was talked out of it by Martin Luther King. King told her she was there, on the bridge of space vessel being seen by Blacks all over the country. She had to stay as a role model for all those people.
So yes, names and statues DO matter. Black kids going to Robert E Lee High School, the Fighting Rebels, may not feel quite as comfortable as you or I might.
Of course education matters, we all agree 100% on that. Having watched the schools it has been obvious to me that the number one factor in how well kids do in school is how much their parents are involved. I attended a ton of school functions over the years. I do not believe it is a coincidence that in school open houses the honors classes were packed, almost every parent was there. In the standard classes, there were honors parents and a very small sprinkling of non-honors parents. I am not sure I've heard great stories on getting parents to value education so the kids have a better chance.
Turning every southern general into a hero sends a message. You may not see the message, I think that is on you. the best example is Fort Bragg, look up Braxton Bragg. He was a godawful general, being as bad as he was he may have done more to help the union win than anyone. But in our haste to make sure every southern general was immortalized, we named a major fort after a horrible general who fought for rebels. And now people defend that name as if it was decreed by Jesus.
It is an awful tricky line to walk to tell Black children they are equal, they matter, we want them to succeed while at the same time we make sure people who fought for the enslavement of their ancestors are revered.
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