Slog
News & ArtsThursday, January 3, 2013
Film Spike Lee Sees Django Unchained As Disrespectful to His Ancestors
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 2:27 PM
This is how Spike Lee feels about it...
I do not know how I feel about it because I have not watched the movie...
But here was what my friend and philosopher Nic Veroli posted on his FB wall:
Just saw Django Unchained last night. Here is my question: in the struggle to memorialize American slavery for the early 21st Century that pits Spielberg's Lincoln vs. Tarentino's Django, who wins? Right now, my money's on Django as the metafictional/mythical rewriting of slavery for an age that is still not ready to talk about David Walker or John Brown...
1
i like what Katt Williams said about the whole thing: "Steven Spielberg doesn't want to be black, while Quentin Tarantino thinks he is."
2
Saw it, liked it. Lee's entitled to his opinion, but it certainly didn't trivialize slavery to me.
3
Saw it last night and kept wondering what Nat Turner would think. I used to live down the street from where 30 or so of his fellow rebels were hanged. The tree (still living, and rather magnificently) features a heartbreaking commemorative plaque, and the street's name is Hanging Tree Road. The fantasy of the Django movie might be satisfying, or it might be disrespectful; I don't feel qualified to offer an opinion.
5
I would think Spike Lee would know how to write without Capitalizing Every Word In Every Sentence.
6
The Holocaust was not a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. It was ...a Holocaust. My ancestors were Jews, and I honor them (whatever that means). and i thought "Inglorious Basterds" was very creative and interesting [shrug]
8
Since when does not seeing a movie prevent Mudede from having an opinion on it? He's got actual, published articles that argue the opposite.
10
Thoroughly entertaining movie, some unforgettable moments along with super cathartic, exhilarating ones. Not, nor meant to be, a be-and-and-end-all masterpiece. I think I read Tarantino describe it somewhere as intended to be just a hefty rock through a window. Color Purple was a generation ago, so of course people are hungry for more, certainly more than Tarantino means to offer. To me what he was aiming to do with Basterds he finally accomplished with Django.
12
Obviously the only acceptable way for Hollywood to approach slavery is to keep churning out pablum that simultaneously minimizes the horror of slavery while humanizing slave owners. Django is one of the most uncompromising mainstream movies about slavery I've ever seen, and it's definitely the only one *other* people will see. Beloved was also uncompromising, but I was one of the only people who watched that heap of trash.
13
The film didn't seem to trivialize the suffering and death engendered by slavery. Tarantino's last two movies have been revenge fantasies about fighting historical evils. Like anyone else, Spike needn't like 'Django', but it seems weird to complain that it doesn't recognize the hideousness of the practice which it very clearly rails against.
14
"for an age that is still not ready to talk about David Walker or John Brown..."
The mythical healing power of the "racial dialog" strikes again. This is always annoying in the general sense but just absurd in the American slavery sense. The discussion has been had. David Walker and John Brown have been documented. Slavery was abolished and no living person was involved with it. It surely caused some lasting scars but what good does it do to constantly reopen them? We already teach every school kid that blacks were brought from Africa and used as unpaid labor and routinely tied up and whipped. One could argue that "dialog" only serves to hurt race relations from the moment it is taught in elementary school.
The mythical healing power of the "racial dialog" strikes again. This is always annoying in the general sense but just absurd in the American slavery sense. The discussion has been had. David Walker and John Brown have been documented. Slavery was abolished and no living person was involved with it. It surely caused some lasting scars but what good does it do to constantly reopen them? We already teach every school kid that blacks were brought from Africa and used as unpaid labor and routinely tied up and whipped. One could argue that "dialog" only serves to hurt race relations from the moment it is taught in elementary school.
16
Spike Lee as a Social Justice Sally? The same guy who produced a Broadway play with rapist/wife beater Mike Tyson? LOL Yeah, fuck off, Spike.
17
Fuck, I don't know. Walter Williams took a stab at it:
"My yet-to-be-learned lesson — and perhaps that of Rep. Hubbard — is there are certain topics or arguments one should not bring up in the presence of children or those with little understanding.
Both might see explaining a phenomenon is the same as giving it moral sanction or justification."
http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-colum…
"My yet-to-be-learned lesson — and perhaps that of Rep. Hubbard — is there are certain topics or arguments one should not bring up in the presence of children or those with little understanding.
Both might see explaining a phenomenon is the same as giving it moral sanction or justification."
http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-colum…
18
It's pretty damn rare to see any movie dramatize the actual horrors of slavery, and just how awful things were for black people in this country (and throughout most of history most anywhere) without some layer of "taste," and an abundance of fake, gauzy allusion. It's also rare to see a movie show how widely accepted it all was, the casual (and not so casual) cruelty inflicted, etc.
Django does all this in a visceral, unflinching way, and for that it should be lauded by the Spike Lees of the world, not lambasted. Instead everybody wrings their hands over how many times the script uses the word "nigger" (or rather, "the n-word"...a term, btw, that exists ostensibly to be polite and respectful, but has the potential effect of whitewashing (so to speak) the past).
Sure, it's entertaining. Can we only make movies about slavery that are not entertaining? Why does Lee get to decide what's OK and what isn't in terms of the limits of art? He needs to pull his head out of his ass, see the damn movie, and make criticisms regarding the actual merits of the thing.
Judgements based on pre-established, ordained opinion are exactly what true art sets out to destroy.
Django does all this in a visceral, unflinching way, and for that it should be lauded by the Spike Lees of the world, not lambasted. Instead everybody wrings their hands over how many times the script uses the word "nigger" (or rather, "the n-word"...a term, btw, that exists ostensibly to be polite and respectful, but has the potential effect of whitewashing (so to speak) the past).
Sure, it's entertaining. Can we only make movies about slavery that are not entertaining? Why does Lee get to decide what's OK and what isn't in terms of the limits of art? He needs to pull his head out of his ass, see the damn movie, and make criticisms regarding the actual merits of the thing.
Judgements based on pre-established, ordained opinion are exactly what true art sets out to destroy.
21
@17,
A publication based in Lubbock? Who the fuck do you think you're fooling? I have neither the patience nor the inclination to pick apart all the idiotic pronouncements of the asshole who wrote that op-ed, so I'll just cite this:
Slavs didn't emigrate to Europe until well after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. So, either that fucking ignoramus doesn't know that fact or he's stupid enough to think that ancient Romans (and Greeks and Germanic peoples and Celts) didn't own slaves.
You're welcome.
A publication based in Lubbock? Who the fuck do you think you're fooling? I have neither the patience nor the inclination to pick apart all the idiotic pronouncements of the asshole who wrote that op-ed, so I'll just cite this:
Even the word slave is derived from the fact Slavic people were among the early European slaves.
Slavs didn't emigrate to Europe until well after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. So, either that fucking ignoramus doesn't know that fact or he's stupid enough to think that ancient Romans (and Greeks and Germanic peoples and Celts) didn't own slaves.
You're welcome.
22
@21 - Haha... it's a syndicated column you moron. You can look up Walter Williams if you are concerned about his geographical credentials.
And you can actually read the piece if you want to see your own point being confirmed about Romans and Greeks owning slaves.
And you can actually read the piece if you want to see your own point being confirmed about Romans and Greeks owning slaves.
23
Spike Lee: Grump grump grumpa-grump!
[Someone makes a fun movie]
Spike Lee: GRUMP GRUMP GRUMPA-GRUMP!
[Someone makes a fun movie]
Spike Lee: GRUMP GRUMP GRUMPA-GRUMP!
24
@22,
The idiot claimed that Slavs were among the first peoples enslaved in Europe when they didn't emigrate to Europe until halfway through the first millennium AD. Haha, yur stoopid.
The idiot claimed that Slavs were among the first peoples enslaved in Europe when they didn't emigrate to Europe until halfway through the first millennium AD. Haha, yur stoopid.
25
@24 - His point was more about the origin of the word slave in that sentence. I'm sorry for calling you a moron earlier. It's been eating me up inside.
26
"and no living person was involved with it."
I would say that any 5th generation American that has a sizable family inheritence has something to do with slavery in America, still.
I would say that any 5th generation American that has a sizable family inheritence has something to do with slavery in America, still.
28
Since Americans only seem to get their history through the movies or TV, I would say we have a fair amount of material covering slavery. The Reconstruction Era, on the other hand, is basically left alone. Lincoln touched on it, but only just barely. Understanding reconstruction and the birth of Jim Crow would do the country much more good than another slavery film. One could argue that it had much more of an influence on people today since the post-reconstruction period could be considered the era from 1877 to the 1960s, which wasn't that long ago. Of course, understanding the African American diaspora, which was a big part of that, would help as well.
29
@17 Fair enough, although I don't recall being formally taught about slavery until middle school. I thought your suggestion was that kids of any age should not be taught about our nation's history with slavery, lest we give them reasons to feel resentful. My bad.
30
All I know is that Lincoln was a great movie, but at best preaching to the choir and at worst trying to be more soft and understanding toward the South than they deserve now that we know how they carried on the brutal racist oppression and segregation right on into to our lifetimes.
I haven't seen Django yet. Does it have sex scenes with muscular young men, ice and big breasted co-eds? I know Lee likes the hot bods in his topical movies challenging the vestiges of the Black Holocaust.
I haven't seen Django yet. Does it have sex scenes with muscular young men, ice and big breasted co-eds? I know Lee likes the hot bods in his topical movies challenging the vestiges of the Black Holocaust.
31
I saw the movie last night with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. I left the theater a believer. Ironically, I think Spike would find many of the themes from his own movies echoed in Django, from the light skin / dark skin dichotomy of School Daze, to the similarities between the suppressed rage of Spike's portrayal of Mookie in Do the Right Thing and that of Foxx's Django. Samuel Jackson's role has shades of the blackface from Bamboozled.
As a revenge fantasy, the movie is nearly flawless, and as a spaghetti western the movie is nearly flawless.
As a revenge fantasy, the movie is nearly flawless, and as a spaghetti western the movie is nearly flawless.
32
And then Spike threw a garbage can through the pizza shop window, right? /snark
(For the record, however clumsily, Mr. Lee has a point.)
(For the record, however clumsily, Mr. Lee has a point.)
33
Just going to copy and paste my comment from the Stangers review of Django as it seems on point to this slog post:
I would really like to hear Charles Mudede's take on this movie. I think this movie did a much better job at showing white people as racist then Lincoln did. Lincoln seemed to whitewash the ugliness of racism, with most of it's racism coming from wordy speeches. It also made white people look like the hero and whitewashed Lincoln's own racism.
Django Unchain showed white racists as the horrifying monstrosity that it was/is.
I saw Lincoln in Seattle in a theater of mostly white people, and there was this self congratulatory vibe in the theater. A feeling of WE DID IT, WE ENDED RACISM! Look at Daniel Day Lewis as wise old Lincoln ending RACISM! Man aren't white people great! Everything's going to be sunshine and roses from here!
I saw Django in a theater in Waterloo Canada, mostly filled with white people, and there was just a feeling of disgust for how the people acted. As a white person, seeing that many white people acting like that just makes you feel sick. But at the same time makes you realize that this is what racism is, this is shit that us white people have done to black people just because of their skin colour. Sure Tarantino doesn't show all the complexities of racism, but at least he shows the ugliness of it and makes his audience confront it head on.
Sorry for the rant, but since Charles thoughts on slog on race relations are always interesting I'd love to hear his take on the movie.
I would really like to hear Charles Mudede's take on this movie. I think this movie did a much better job at showing white people as racist then Lincoln did. Lincoln seemed to whitewash the ugliness of racism, with most of it's racism coming from wordy speeches. It also made white people look like the hero and whitewashed Lincoln's own racism.
Django Unchain showed white racists as the horrifying monstrosity that it was/is.
I saw Lincoln in Seattle in a theater of mostly white people, and there was this self congratulatory vibe in the theater. A feeling of WE DID IT, WE ENDED RACISM! Look at Daniel Day Lewis as wise old Lincoln ending RACISM! Man aren't white people great! Everything's going to be sunshine and roses from here!
I saw Django in a theater in Waterloo Canada, mostly filled with white people, and there was just a feeling of disgust for how the people acted. As a white person, seeing that many white people acting like that just makes you feel sick. But at the same time makes you realize that this is what racism is, this is shit that us white people have done to black people just because of their skin colour. Sure Tarantino doesn't show all the complexities of racism, but at least he shows the ugliness of it and makes his audience confront it head on.
Sorry for the rant, but since Charles thoughts on slog on race relations are always interesting I'd love to hear his take on the movie.
34
I will try to keep my comment fairly brief.. I saw Django a couple days ago. I've also read many of your postings/comments. Interesting feelings and thoughts expressed. I would like to say, Spike Lee has every right to make a comment about this movie. I would assume he saw the movie himself, in order to make a rant about his disapproval of it. Spike Lee is a Black Man, first of all. And also in the film industry..and has been for many years. He's qualified, seasoned, and have covered race related themes in his films over the years. I will admit, I don't always agree with Spike Lee's personal style...by some of the comments I've heard him reveal..in the past... I would go as far as to say, I'm not extremely fond of all his work. However, I must pay attention to his comments on such a film and theme. Simply put, it doesn't matter if any of us liked his past work or think he's just being an asshole about this movie... Spike Lee is an educated Black man who has spent years in the film industry, creating movies, watching hollywoods attitudes...interests and in the world at large. Spike Lee is a very alert and conscious man who pays close attention to whats going on in the world and the world of film. So when the likes of a Spike Lee, says he thought the movie was disrespectful, it catches my attention. Not that Lee is the judge and jury for "race" related films....but he is Black and extremely present in the film industry.
To many of you who might possibly be looking at the movie, crossing the t's and dotting the eye of what consitutes a great film, when it comes to a sensitive issue like this, there's more to it than just that. Let me briefly explain.
When some Black people watch this movie, as other similiarly themed movies, it's more than about just making a well dotted film only.
As Blacks in America, some of us take Hollywood films like this a bit personal. Why?
Because, alot of Blacks, including myself feel our ancestors have been cruely wronged by this American County, feel free to start back to slavery days.... I haven't watched Roots, I haven't seen Lincoln yet, but the other movies that I did see, I'm always watching to see how it makes me feel afterwards....did they use sensitivity and a great thought to deliver the portrayal?? And stuff like that.
You see, not only have our Ancestors been "raped", by damn near every sense of the word, we have also been destroyed and continue to live and be overtly and even directly affected by the horrible devastation, mind fucking, brain washing, division, and outright anilation of a people.. Some commenter referred to it as a Holacost....Well that is what slavery was like.
Our people have suffered tremendous loss, stagnation, limited resouces, black balling, second citizen treatment, lack of quality education, government attacks and experimentations, segregation, civil rights violations, limited health care, job opportunities, and countless other victimizations by this great country called America.
Today, the remnates of slavery, how a large portion of traditional Whites feel and treat Blacks today is the very stinch that slithered through all the years of slavery.
The Black sterio types still are very prevelent to this very day. Blacks are still affected and effected from the brutal days of slavery. I know, I know...many of you are already trying to pick my comments apart with a clever rebutal question or statement. But I challenge you to take of your war helmet off and just listen, listen and try to understand what it really feels like to be Black "today".
Thank God we don't live in the wicked days of slavery. But racism, stimming from what Whites identified Blacks to be, back then, still travels into 2013. While change has come, and today is a world better than back then, Blacks still suffer with every area of life than there White equals. Poor education, low income housing, early mortality rate, high blood pressure, stress, criminal abuse and unfair treatment to blacks, racial profiling, Bank Home loans, Black male employment, Black on Black Crime, Illegal lifestyles, racist Commericals, unporportionate negative images of Blacks in the media.... etc.
Black are not born with a "wild" animalistic behavior apart from other races. Blacks do not lack the ability to achieve in school, college and in the work place as do other ethnicities. Blacks are not wired diffent from any other human being on the face of the earth.
It's the lack of fair and equal opportunities, health care, support, and time to become a strengthened people, is what will balance our people back to a restored place in this society... It's not impossible, but America has to be pro and con.
With that being said, even the movie "Red Tails" was being fought nail and tooth because of the all Black cast. Nobody in Hollywood wanted to loan the famous producer, whose name fails me right now...sorry!!! But he couldn't get the film financed by anybody in Hollywood. Red Tails came out, what...a couple years ago...maybe..and Hollywood would not finance the project.. Finally the Film maker had to finance the entire budget out of his own pocket... That alone serves as a plain and clear reminder of how Hollywood feels about supporting Blacks...
So if the opportunites aren't opened up more, to a balanced and even level, how can Black ever get to there rightful place in America? Or will we ever?
There is still much fear of Blacks, inspite of Spike Lee, Oprah, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson...and the other typical accomplished celebs most White people know and like. The fear and traditional racial feelings of too many Whites that run this country..."the good ole boys"...has kept limitations and support or lack of support of Blacks in this country. And I understand many of you reading this might feel like I'm being a bit extreme.. Obama as President has done little for the average Black man and family in America... I don't blame him for any of it, because it's obvious, political leaders and political respresentation has fought him (verbally and critically) violent during his entire first term. They challenged him about every single thing he tried to do. This might have easily been passed off as "people are tired and ready for improvement for the country" if you will...but I know alot of his extra attacks had to do with giving this Black President hell...and they did. And by the way, I have never in my life seen a standing president be so rudely insulted, attacked, and challenged in all my life. Bush fucked the country up, and he was allowed to toss the ball over to an egar Obama...while Bush ran off and took on Million Dollar speaking engagements and sat rather quiet as Obama took all the blunt and blame for everything that was going wrong... Obama has been criticizied and verbally attacked until I'm suprised somebody has outright called him a Nigga to his face.
It's not slavery, but in 2012-2013, is more subdued. It's open and closed, being extremely racist is wrong among a large portion of whites.. But it's about, not making sure Black get ahead, making sure Black men stay in jail and have a criminal record, and be subjected to low income housing, poor education where they can stay desperate, low self esteem, hungry for an opportunity, last to be picked, living stressful lives, dying early, eating unhealthy, not being able to proudly provide for their families, living negative lifestyles and feeling so stepped on and passed up until they resort to illegal avenues as a source to achieve a part of the American Dream or the thought of it...
Whether you all realize it or not, there is a systematic game being played on common Black America, post slavery.. Yes we have rights, still, the opportunities are constantly being minimized, picked, selected and orchastrated by higher powers.....I know I just went a bit deep, but somebody who reads this knows exactly what I'm saying....
Back to my original point! I know yall probably thought I loss track...but I didn't. I said all of that to say this, when Films are created with such heavy themed slavery protrayals, it catches our attention, we want to know our people were served right by the film maker. It's more personal to us. Our lives or should I say our heritage has been destroyed over these issues, our people stripped to nothing...and many of us feel, even today feel America doesn't support or recognize us, unless we are the few, hand picked token Blacks that you all know. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the few images of positive Black reflections we do have in the media, thank God for them. But as a whole we are still ambushed by America, even today. So a movie that wakes up such a devastation in our history to present, it should be done with sensitivity, heart, reality, and more than anything...A PURPOSE!!
I saw good things in this movie, I really did. I never seen some of the depictions of the roll, Samuel Jackson beautifully played. I never seen a few of the brutal realities dramatized that this movie sheded what I will say, new light on...
Overall, I thought the movie minimized the touch of slavery and somewhat downplayed it, as brutal as this movie was. I feel like no Black Cowboys ever remotely came close to being able to lawfully kill Whites and track them down...for me it was a bit fantasy....and fictional, fictional and fictional on that part. But I appreciate his effort, theme and direction of the movie. I can tell he meant well by this art of work. And I'm not mad a Q for this movie..I just think it lacked a strong enough purpose for visiting such a harsh time for Blacks in America.
More...
To many of you who might possibly be looking at the movie, crossing the t's and dotting the eye of what consitutes a great film, when it comes to a sensitive issue like this, there's more to it than just that. Let me briefly explain.
When some Black people watch this movie, as other similiarly themed movies, it's more than about just making a well dotted film only.
As Blacks in America, some of us take Hollywood films like this a bit personal. Why?
Because, alot of Blacks, including myself feel our ancestors have been cruely wronged by this American County, feel free to start back to slavery days.... I haven't watched Roots, I haven't seen Lincoln yet, but the other movies that I did see, I'm always watching to see how it makes me feel afterwards....did they use sensitivity and a great thought to deliver the portrayal?? And stuff like that.
You see, not only have our Ancestors been "raped", by damn near every sense of the word, we have also been destroyed and continue to live and be overtly and even directly affected by the horrible devastation, mind fucking, brain washing, division, and outright anilation of a people.. Some commenter referred to it as a Holacost....Well that is what slavery was like.
Our people have suffered tremendous loss, stagnation, limited resouces, black balling, second citizen treatment, lack of quality education, government attacks and experimentations, segregation, civil rights violations, limited health care, job opportunities, and countless other victimizations by this great country called America.
Today, the remnates of slavery, how a large portion of traditional Whites feel and treat Blacks today is the very stinch that slithered through all the years of slavery.
The Black sterio types still are very prevelent to this very day. Blacks are still affected and effected from the brutal days of slavery. I know, I know...many of you are already trying to pick my comments apart with a clever rebutal question or statement. But I challenge you to take of your war helmet off and just listen, listen and try to understand what it really feels like to be Black "today".
Thank God we don't live in the wicked days of slavery. But racism, stimming from what Whites identified Blacks to be, back then, still travels into 2013. While change has come, and today is a world better than back then, Blacks still suffer with every area of life than there White equals. Poor education, low income housing, early mortality rate, high blood pressure, stress, criminal abuse and unfair treatment to blacks, racial profiling, Bank Home loans, Black male employment, Black on Black Crime, Illegal lifestyles, racist Commericals, unporportionate negative images of Blacks in the media.... etc.
Black are not born with a "wild" animalistic behavior apart from other races. Blacks do not lack the ability to achieve in school, college and in the work place as do other ethnicities. Blacks are not wired diffent from any other human being on the face of the earth.
It's the lack of fair and equal opportunities, health care, support, and time to become a strengthened people, is what will balance our people back to a restored place in this society... It's not impossible, but America has to be pro and con.
With that being said, even the movie "Red Tails" was being fought nail and tooth because of the all Black cast. Nobody in Hollywood wanted to loan the famous producer, whose name fails me right now...sorry!!! But he couldn't get the film financed by anybody in Hollywood. Red Tails came out, what...a couple years ago...maybe..and Hollywood would not finance the project.. Finally the Film maker had to finance the entire budget out of his own pocket... That alone serves as a plain and clear reminder of how Hollywood feels about supporting Blacks...
So if the opportunites aren't opened up more, to a balanced and even level, how can Black ever get to there rightful place in America? Or will we ever?
There is still much fear of Blacks, inspite of Spike Lee, Oprah, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson...and the other typical accomplished celebs most White people know and like. The fear and traditional racial feelings of too many Whites that run this country..."the good ole boys"...has kept limitations and support or lack of support of Blacks in this country. And I understand many of you reading this might feel like I'm being a bit extreme.. Obama as President has done little for the average Black man and family in America... I don't blame him for any of it, because it's obvious, political leaders and political respresentation has fought him (verbally and critically) violent during his entire first term. They challenged him about every single thing he tried to do. This might have easily been passed off as "people are tired and ready for improvement for the country" if you will...but I know alot of his extra attacks had to do with giving this Black President hell...and they did. And by the way, I have never in my life seen a standing president be so rudely insulted, attacked, and challenged in all my life. Bush fucked the country up, and he was allowed to toss the ball over to an egar Obama...while Bush ran off and took on Million Dollar speaking engagements and sat rather quiet as Obama took all the blunt and blame for everything that was going wrong... Obama has been criticizied and verbally attacked until I'm suprised somebody has outright called him a Nigga to his face.
It's not slavery, but in 2012-2013, is more subdued. It's open and closed, being extremely racist is wrong among a large portion of whites.. But it's about, not making sure Black get ahead, making sure Black men stay in jail and have a criminal record, and be subjected to low income housing, poor education where they can stay desperate, low self esteem, hungry for an opportunity, last to be picked, living stressful lives, dying early, eating unhealthy, not being able to proudly provide for their families, living negative lifestyles and feeling so stepped on and passed up until they resort to illegal avenues as a source to achieve a part of the American Dream or the thought of it...
Whether you all realize it or not, there is a systematic game being played on common Black America, post slavery.. Yes we have rights, still, the opportunities are constantly being minimized, picked, selected and orchastrated by higher powers.....I know I just went a bit deep, but somebody who reads this knows exactly what I'm saying....
Back to my original point! I know yall probably thought I loss track...but I didn't. I said all of that to say this, when Films are created with such heavy themed slavery protrayals, it catches our attention, we want to know our people were served right by the film maker. It's more personal to us. Our lives or should I say our heritage has been destroyed over these issues, our people stripped to nothing...and many of us feel, even today feel America doesn't support or recognize us, unless we are the few, hand picked token Blacks that you all know. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the few images of positive Black reflections we do have in the media, thank God for them. But as a whole we are still ambushed by America, even today. So a movie that wakes up such a devastation in our history to present, it should be done with sensitivity, heart, reality, and more than anything...A PURPOSE!!
I saw good things in this movie, I really did. I never seen some of the depictions of the roll, Samuel Jackson beautifully played. I never seen a few of the brutal realities dramatized that this movie sheded what I will say, new light on...
Overall, I thought the movie minimized the touch of slavery and somewhat downplayed it, as brutal as this movie was. I feel like no Black Cowboys ever remotely came close to being able to lawfully kill Whites and track them down...for me it was a bit fantasy....and fictional, fictional and fictional on that part. But I appreciate his effort, theme and direction of the movie. I can tell he meant well by this art of work. And I'm not mad a Q for this movie..I just think it lacked a strong enough purpose for visiting such a harsh time for Blacks in America.
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