I’ve not seen The Blind Side, for which I understand Sandra Bullock received an Academy Reward. The advertising for the movie emphasized that it was a Heartwarming Tale of Human Perseverance, and I hate that shit on principle.
Beyond that it seemed to be intended as popular entertainment designed to make white people feel better about themselves qua white people, something that’s never an especially edifying spectacle, and indeed a notoriously vulgar cliche. Don’t get me wrong; many of my best friends (and immediate family and ahem myself) are white, and they are quite lovely folks when they haven’t had too much whiskey, which is often. Sometimes. Occasionally. What I’m saying about The Blind Side, I mean, is that while it’s entirely possible that this review is wrong and I’ll think otherwise after I watch it, I calculate the odds of that being the case as about as low as me ever bothering to rent The Blind Side to find out, which I will never do, as the best case scenario is the film is a Heartwarming Tale of Human Perseverance, and life’s too damn short, you know?
But I will anyhow draw your attention to this nonsense from noted cretin Ben Shapiro over at Townhall, a specimen who doesn’t yet qualify as a twerp because his balls are as yet non-descended. Why am I drawing your attention to this garbage? Because you’ve probably done something bad lately and deserve it.
On Sunday night, Sandra Bullock won Best Actress at the 82nd Academy Awards for her portrayal of gun-toting Republican Leigh Anne Tuohy in “The Blind Side”….
Leave it to the gals on “The View” to tear apart this heartwarming story. Vanessa Williams, sitting in for Whoopi Goldberg, trashed the film, even though she’d never seen it. Williams said: “It brings up a theme for black folks of ‘OK, here’s another white family that has saved the day.’ Another black story that has to have a white person come in and lift them up. And I’m not saying it’s not true and it didn’t happen, it’s one of those ‘do I really want to save the same theme again?’” Joy Behar, the ugly liberal harridan who thinks genital jokes demonstrate extraordinary wit, quickly sided with Williams.
Shapiro is going to soon inform us that It Is Liberals Are the Real Racists, etc. As is usual for this genre, though, he forgets for the moment that he needs to hide the misogyny: gals? Harridan? And what’s wrong with genital jokes (see above)? Are they worse than, say, poop jokes? Ben? “An Inconvenient Truth is perhaps the worst thing ever put on film; it’s as though Satan had explosive diarrhea on camera, and then the diarrhea talked at you for two hours.” Well, Ben is a youngster — in Freudian terms, he’s still at the backdoor stage developmentally, and hasn’t yet discovered the joys of his wee wee.
But to the point:
Somehow liberals get away with detritus like this on a regular basis. If someone voiced moral doubt about a movie depicting a black family adopting a white child, they’d be raked over the coals — and rightfully so. Transracial adoption should be seen as the greatest hallmark of the tremendous racial acceptance that now dominates our culture. But extreme liberals — and black extreme liberals in particular — can get away with bashing transracial adoption because they rely on the lexicon of political correctness, which suggests that “cultural autonomy” is threatened by such adoptions.
Of course, Williams wasn’t talking about interracial adoption, she was talking about movie cliches. Like the one that does not exist about a black family adopting a white child, which has appeared over and over, meaning never, in no major movies or TV shows anyone can easily remember. Or, mostly, in real life, either, and when it does, there are, you know, issues.
Because, as it emerges, just-so heartwarming stories about the realities of race in America are even less persuasive in wingnut apologias than they are in big budget Hollywood productions.



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Thers! And other sordid…I mean…assorted greetings.
Aloha, Thers…! ;-)
THERSday!
Oh goody! Another insufferable movie about the tragic, but treatable failings of the people of color who can be saved by the loving benevolence of the white folks. Rudyard Kipling, eat your heart out.
Evening!
Ahhh dawg, Thers and The Human Condition.
As long as there’s humans, Thers, you’ll have a Condition to swat about like a cat with a mouse.
It’s like, it’s, preordained bless my agnostic heart (no intent to slander ya).
I liked the part about the whiskey though.
*G*
I did enjoy Sandra’s opening salvo upon receiving her Oscar… “Did I really earn this, or did I just wear ya’ll down…?” ;-)
I’m not sure whether The Jerk counts.
Kipling didn’t like Irish Catholics either. Gave lots of money to fund the Ulster Volunteers back in the day.
Wasn’t there a Steve Martin movie where he was adopted by a black family? Or did he claim to be black for that one?
Humans are so irritating.
Kipling apparently did not like much of anybody. Trying working with Native Americans if you really want the full blown development of this theme in film.
Kipling was a force in the “white man’s burden” nonsense but the man could spin a good yarn. And kids stories as well.
bawhahaahaha!
Ok, so Dr. Dick said it better . . . but I don’t like movies much anymore anyways, so I wouldn’t know a good one from a bad one.
We rented Inglorious Bastards, I still don’t know what to think.
Too real, too camp, too grim, too brutal, too clever, too complicated, and yet every single actor/actress nailed their parts and the editing told the story perfectly.
Scary, I guess . . . I was ok with Pulp Fiction . . . this was wierder somehow.
And I like Tarantino. I think. Maybe. I’m 10 years behind on movies, how would I know.
Did we ever beat The Empire down?
The Jerk is the exception that proves the rule — the joke there remains funny decades later because it’s something that just isn’t done.
That and Blazing Saddles sort of show us how far we, uh, at one point almost came.
Seethasswhatimsayin.
I’d wager that Blazing Saddles could not be made today.
Yes, indeed, but I’m not above my personal tribal resentments.
Too bad that this true story has to be viewed solely through the prism of race. Forget the color. It’s a great story with a great message.
Liberals are true buzz killers who cannot celebrate the kindness and generosity of others.
sort of show us how far we, uh, at one point almost came
Sadly, as was often observed in my youth, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
It could barely have been made then. They wouldn’t let Richard Pryor star in it, after all.
I never met a Mel Brooks movie I didn’t like.
Yeah, we’re pretty fucked up that way letting reality intrude into the fantasy of the silver screen.
And made up stories.
Save, of course, for this classic, which came immediately to mind. It being a spoof of racial cliches, however, the film does rather serve to make Williams’ point.
When Steve Martin says “I was born a poor black child” you know there’s some serious satire going on.
The point is that this story never, ever is made the other way around.
And ruining conservatives’ fun, for me, personally, never ever gets old.
They let him star in a lot of others, who’s they and why not in Mel’s Movie?
Well, that is crappy. Did Mel want him?
I was born a poor black child.
“Smith?”
Still cracks me up.
Basic story of the making of Blazing Saddles here.
I thought you were talking about this movie classic with its spoof of racial cliches.
And ruining conservatives’ fun, for me, personally, never ever gets old.
It really is the whole point, is it not? That and laughing at them.
Anyway, basically yes, Brooks wanted him.
In fairness to the studio, Pryor was doing a lot of drugs at the time. But he was also way edgier than Cleavon Little.
What are you going to do for an encore, Thers — tell Ben that there is no such thing as the Easter Bunny?
Sorry about the up yours….n*****.\
I agree. It’s still a line that cracks me up. Such a dichotomy.
Have people lost their sense of humor?
Hi, y’all.
Dr. D. didya see this new article in The Nation…?
Ruining their fun and laughing at them are so easy to do. That is why they want to take away our constitutional right to joke around. I heard they want to pass legislation that bans short sheeting.
Hi Demi!
All depends on what you find funny. My mom hosted some Bushmen from South Africa for an international festival and they watched The Gods Must Be Crazy together. They personally knew some of the guys in the film. Everybody laughed, but the Bushmen laughed at different places in the film.
Also of note – they had never seen stairs before and were not real happy to encounter an escalator at the airport.
I’ve won a bit of money over the years betting with the folks who think the line: “Badges? We doan need no steekin’ badges?” originated with Blazing Saddles
I’m smiling, through my tears.
Another great line. One that I enjoy using when the moment is appropriate:
Just think of your secretary. Ha1
Are you ok?
Had not, but it really covers old ground (at least for those of us who research these issues). The real cause of the break up of the black family is welfare laws which prohibited giving benefits to households containing an able-bodied man (doG bless those pro-family conservatives). Here is an equally revealing and much more recent study. Average net worth of black women is $5. For white women it is $42,600, which is 61% of the average for white men.
“Michael Oher won’t be doing any interviews about “The Blind Side.”
That was the message from the Ravens’ PR staff three weeks ago, anyway. Baltimore’s rookie tackle was not involved in the making of the film based on his life, doesn’t want to talk about the movie or the book from which it sprang, and he’d much prefer to move on with his life, thank you very much.
Dude even turned down Oprah.
Yeah. Just, you know, a bit down. My mom was 13 when her older brother married my Aunt Ginny. They’ve been sisters for 70 years. Just hard. But, we’re all getting used to dealing with challenges, aren’t we?
Thanks for asking.
I haven’t seen The Blind Side but it sounds like some nice people did a good thing. What’s wrong with that?
Jesus. I am shocked but not surprised.
What is wrong with this country? I know. It has been asked before.
John Ford westerns have long been a big hit on the Navajo Reservation, where they are viewed as comedy. Ford hired Navajo extras to play the Indians and would tell them at various points to “talk Indian,” which they did. Mostly comments about all the white folks or about sneaking behind a rock for a drink, or similar.
Hee hee. Wingnuts are getting even weirder — I found one the other day proving that there’s no such thing as global warming denial because of an old Cheers episode. Honestly.
Mighty sobering disparity there…! 8-(
geepers. I am sorry.
I am currently in the process of telling my students in my race and ethnicity class the answer to that question. Students find the class informative and eye-opening, but far from uplifting (one said it was the most depressing class she had ever taken, but loved it).
I like your questions. Hi.
Ben Shapiro is a complete and total asshole. So is Jonah Goldberg. And Ben Stein. And Sean Hannity and Colmes. And Glen Beck. And Rush Limbaugh (who will move to Costa Rica if Obamacare passes. Costa Rica has National Single Payer Health Care).
“the advertising for the movie emphasized that it was a Heartwarming Tale of Human Perseverance, and I hate that shit on principle.”
Bully for you for at least being honest enough to admit you didn’t see this movie. Maybe if you had you would not be such a sour and intractible cynic.
What this movie isn’t about is condescending white people taking pity on the oppressed. It is about empowering someone with a entirely voluntary and selfless act of kindness where the only reward they expected was the opportunity to help others–which seems to be the definition of altruism.
I realize that the Archie Bunkerites at Townhall can’t help their selfishness and addiction to idiocy, but surely you can. Next time check things out before you callously judge and condemn.
Circle of Life. Or some such dopey Disney view of it….Whatcha gonna do?
Hi, Demi. Hope you are not too sad.
Grit your teeth and keep going. Hold the memories close and cherish them.
The pavement on the road to Hell, etc. Or, more to the point, the gross oversimplification of complex social realities.
See Thers, you were right about the movie.
Thanks. It’s hard to watch people you love suffer and be scared, but I’m “processing”. Dr. Dick, how’s that for a culturally sociological way of looking at it?
Social realities are fairly bleak most of the time but if every person tried to do one good thing every day – or even once in awhile – the world might be a much nicer place.
That’s what made my mother so angry. She thought it was intrusive and would break up families. I remember her saying they should give people a certain amount of money per month–everyone—and just stay out of their business. We were a vast, rich country, we did not have to be so mean. I got all my socialism from my Republican mama.
*Edit–response to Dr. Dick at 44
I’m too old to grit my teeth. I already grind them in my sleep. But, yes, I keep going. Sitting with my cousins at the hospital yesterday was good. Comfort and we’re are, of course, family, so we know how to love each other.
Wouldn’t know those things are always too up close and personal for me to be objective about them as they happen.
Nothing personal, but your description does not provide any counterpoint to the fact that the movie is a cliche with timeworn storylines and stereotypical characters.
Thanks for the input, but trust me, I’d be even less chirpy-happy if I had seen it. I’m often challenged in this fashion, and it never ends well…
You are making sanctimonious assumptions.
Really? Pretty tough to be an expert about something that you never saw. This post would have been fine if the first two paragraphs were deleted.
Fortunately, I’m okay with getting up close and personal with people. Just who I’ve become. And, there are times when little exchanges, a stroke of the cheek, and bit of hand holding, sharing family stories seem to become sacred.
Look what those white nuts did to Gary Coleman. That dude ain’t been right since Happy Days is Enough.
And I don’t have to see Avatar to know it is trash.
That’s your opinion, you’re entitled to it. Too bad that cynicism is so pervasive in our sociery.
Dances with Smurfs as SEK over at LGM called it.
Thanks a lot.
Suit yourself then. Critics are a dime a dozen.
Well, sure. But that is a different issue than that of movie cliches and the damage they can do.
Also one needs to be pretty careful about how one helps someone else one perceives to be in need of help, lest one create trouble.
Whatever on the movie; it has one good line from the white father: who would have thought I’d have a black son before I met a democrat?
Fair enough, but remember that your attitude creates your reality.
Sometimes we just have to put on our Big Girl Panties.
Jeebus Christ on a cracker with toe jam, what sunday school bus did you fall off of?
(my cynicism is in full bloom tonight. Hope I didn’t offend anyone about Avatar.):>
Shit. I professionally study race & ethnicity, gender, and American Indians. Cynical is my good mood. You nailed Avatar, which is full of overtly racist stereotypes (mostly recycled from movies about Indians).
Spare me your insulting condescension. My choice is not to breathe the toxic fog of cynicism and negativity. If you want to be a cynic, that’s your voluntary choice. Remember that you get what you pay for.
Funny, cause I am a pretty happy person.
Did you by any chance graduate from Pat Roberts University?
Well, we live in California, where it happens not to have a lot of moisture at the moment, so no condensation.
Oh, that’s not what you said.
Shhhhh…. it’s okay. It’s not favorable to tell people what to do. Maybe?
Seems to me that you are the one who initiated the condescension. Perhaps you should practice what you preach. Some of us are forced to face the world as it is and not as we would wish it to be. Thers’ point about the impact of stereotypes in the media (which is the larger point of this post) is also spot on.
James Cameron has gotten filthy rich proving my theory that quality is inversely proportional to popularity. To paraphrase Mencken, nobody ever went broke pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Majored in cliches.
Precisely — it’s not like if this were a film that bucked the cliches, that would not have been widely noted.
It’s hardly an act of terrible cynicism to observe that big budget movies are often formulaic, and hardly a rotten thing to observe that many of these formulas are problematic.
Would anyone care for me to ruin To Kill a Mockingbird for them, something that in novel & film is by all accounts better than The Blind Side?
Minored in Drama.
Mencken was a very wise man, if perhaps a bit racist.
Yes. (was my favorite movie and book when I was 14)
Har. I always thought the line was Everybody’s a critic, but what do I know.
That wins the thread.
It may actually win the internets for the evening.
What absolute crap. So, I suppose, the black maid my folks hired for a time and who put me in my place when I tried to pull the race card at the age of 9 in 1960 in San Antonio, just didn’t happen and counts for nothing? Her name was Thelma, and I will be forever grateful for her calling my childish shit. To this day I am embarrassed as to what I said to her, and am indebted to the grace–and firmness–in which she responded to me.
My area is Irish Studies. It’s not a field much conducive to smiles, either.
The charge of racism has been to a some extent disproved. He was a white man of his time, born and raised in Baltimore, so there is little doubt that he had some racist tendencies. Worth noting however that he was one of the first (early in WWII, possibly before the U.S. entry) to publicly urge Roosevelt to intervene on behalf of European Jews.
In addition to The Jerk, I think The Secret Life of Bees qualifies.
huh?
Hee, hee. :) Gotta do what cha gotta do.
“Some of us are forced to face the world as it is and not as we would wish it to be. Thers’ point about the impact of stereotypes in the media (which is the larger point of this post) is also spot on.”
Interesting rationale, but I’m not buying it. Instead, you might want to give this some consideration:
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer
Good luck.
The difficulty is that this is not a stereotype – not some tear-jerker written for Hollywood. It’s a true story. The parents in the real world did an amazing thing. They gave a chance to a 16 year old African-
American young man. They are rich Memphis people with 2 children who must have shocked the heck out of friends and neighbors. Apparently he is a fine person and they love him. How many of us would do what they did?
Many similarities. I use them as examples in my race and ethnicity class since so many of my students have Irish ancestry and they connect to the imagery more viscerally than to Amos and Andy.
I think I should quit while I’m ahead. See yaz, all. Hugs to my firefriends.
Aren’t you part of the newage movement from Sonoma? I think Dr. Dyer spoke to their group just last week.
Yeah, we tried to change the world by changing the way we think back in the 60s and 70s. Just look how well that turned out. Dwyer and all the others like him are nothing more than the worst kinds of snake oil salesmen.
Guess they positively could not afford to book Dr. Phil.
This is a typical liberal hit piece on something they haven’t read, seen, or understand.
The Blind Side was based on a true story. Here we have a kid who was helped by a neighbor rather than a government program.
Hey, I’ve never tasted arsenic or cyanide, but I’ll take the word of other folks that those are dangerous poisons. Just as I’ll take the word of this reviewer that the film is every bit as condescendingly bad as I suspected it was.
In the words of George Bernard Shaw to a hack would-be novelist who wanted to know why he hadn’t read all of her book, “You don’t have to eat a whole egg to know it’s rotten.”
or Oprah!
I remember when y’all levitated the Pentagon. That was a stone cold groove.
http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/blindside.htm
niters demi
That may be and I commend them for it, but it does not change the facts about why the movie was made and the messages it sends. All of Thers’ points still stand on their merits. The post is about the movie, not the people it is about.
If it was such a great experience why doesn’t the young man want to read the book or see the movie?
typical liberal hit piece
You do know that God reads the blogs, right? And, she’s not smiling.
Oh, yeah.
Nighters. Loving thoughts headed your way.
smooches.
(I just had to make that one last comment. I’m forgiven, right?)
Try changing the world for the better with an attitude of cynicism that you rebrand “reality.” The reality is that it is a self fulfilling prophecy.
And you might actually want to read some of Dr. Dyer’s works before being so dismissive.
You’re a dear to say that. Thankin’ ya.
They probably could have gotten some Scientologists for free but you’d have to pay through the nose to get them to leave.
Thanks for confirming my worst fears about this flick, Thers. I think I’ll go rent Shaun of the Dead instead.
Nighty-night!
Pierre Bourdieu.
Sure, just quit telling everyone about my big girl panties. :-)
What do you do for a living?
No Mary, I live in Peoria, IL. And I do find some of the new age philosophy attractive.
What changes the world is concerted political action. Everything else is simply horseshit. As to reading Dwyer, I read Norman Vincent Peel, who was his spiritual great grandfather, and it was horseshit then and horseshit now.
I’ve got a new (old) Britcom to check out. Open All Hours, 26 episodes on 4 DVDs. Should keep me out of trouble for awhile.
The Powder of Positive Thinking deviated a lot of septums. Wait, I’m thinking of somebody else.
Time for me to toddle off. The corrupting continues tomorrow and I needs my beauty rest. Take care all.
Even though I am a liberal, believe me when I say that I lament the dearth of altruistic rich white people as keenly as anyone else. Thanks for stopping by.
g’nite DrDick and DrSmoke
Funny, reality has a way of rearing it’s ugly head in the blink of an eye and trumping attitude AND pricing.
Your cliche’s are timeworn.
*whew* What a sad anecdote…
I shared your opinion until I saw it. It’s a very good movie (of this type), Bullock is outstanding and it’s based on a true story. I would recommend watching it while drinking, heavily. (that helps with Disney movies too)
Yes it’s everything everyone is saying, but that doesn’t change that it is a true story and frankly an important one that should be shared more widely. It promotes positive values for crying out loud.
And oddly, the Academy chose to censor that movie in the clip they showed of Bullock’s performance. In the scene where she tells off the gangbanger, the first item should have been that she was in a prayer group with the district attorney. They cut that line out of the middle of the scene they showed. That really bothered me and I’m an atheist.
This is was one of those things where it really doesn’t hurt to see the movie before you form an opinion. But if it makes you feel any better, I illegally downloaded my copy.
My homeboy Woody said it best. “There’ll be pie in the sky, bye and bye, when you die. It;s a lie, it’s a lie.”
Shaun of the Dead is an excellent movie!
Dylan Moran is great in that, though on the whole I find his standup too cheerful, kindhearted, and generous.
Therapy’s expensive ain’t it?
Do you get your money back if it don’t work?
Ah, Dr. Dyer. His “Awakened Life” program has its own entry in Quackwatch.
that review was moronic
Fair enough.
I just thought they were selling afterlife insurance. If it comes with pie, I’m in.
“When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer
That’s what I do, Mary.
The Blind Side is based on a true story, and you hate it even though most of you haven’t seen it.
Inconvenient Truth is based on a fraud/hoax, and you love that, right? Probably saw it at the movies, rented it, and/or own it?
LMAO
Hugs Demi.
If you think those “cliches” are timeworn then try the mighty power of judgment and intractible cynicism.
Good luck.
Me, too, but in a more scorpian, southern, left handed kind of way.
(I am a southern, left handed, scorpio)
Bless your heart.
Woody had a machine that killed facists.
And an attitude that did the same, too.
*G*
OK, gotta go to bed. Someone give marwick his binkie.
Bingo! I knew somebody tonight had to be a graduate of Pat Roberts University.
Well I am now uncertain.. I may only watch half of the movie.
But which half?
You preach prosperity gospel?
Well, you prolly already know how it ends.
I wouldn’t know about the expense of therapy because right now, I don’t need any. But do know that empowerment is priceless. So asking for a refund would be somewhat pointless, no?
Maybe you ought to check things out before you make assumptions.
g’nite Thers
I’m out too, splendid evening to all (even the positivity troll and the other less positive troll and any others I might have missed).
I can relate. My birthday is November 3rd.
WHich half has the big girl panties?
Music for those concerned.
Your magnanimity is truly overwhelming.
It’s folks with good intentions such as yours that I fear the most.
Because you believe you can help the rest of us poor pusillanimous souls, and you know what’s best for others.
which half of what? oh, the movie. I don’t know cause all I did was make a ton of assumptions about what I hadn’t seen.
Oh Mary,
I do miss Trex, bless all those hearts he mentioned!
Ahhh Mary darlin (in his finest brouge) you always cut to the thick of it, doncha.
*G*
Prosperity can be defined in many ways. I don’t do preaching, rather I’ll leave it to gifted experts like Dr. King did who can say it better than I ever could:
“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that’s all I want to say.”
Excerpt from “The Drum Major Sermon”
Dr. Martin Luther King
February 4, 1968
Me, too. waaawaaa.
Huh, I did the same thing but at least I had the courtesy to do it cuz of what Thers said!! *G*
Not at all. If you can’t be bothered to help and empower yourself, all the advice in the world by others is wasted.
That was a new vocab for me, the yankee.
Dude had a cutting edge that was NASTY mean and to the point . . *G*
Bless his heart.
I miss him, also.
Mostly, I remember humor. And kittahs.
There was that, but I remember him more for King Of Snark.
Watching Jimmy Fallon,
so funny!
Wanted to let folks know that Pach’s mom died this morning. Condolence thread over at facebook.
Is it on the Firedoglake facebook?
I watched Fallon a couple times. He seems like just another corporate stooge in the tradition of the King of Corporate stoogery, Jay Leno.
but younger, and more hip — and I love his suits (no pleats).
I wonder why they always have the camera pointing up from below Fallon’s beltline. He seems to always be looking skyward and his head is at the top of the tv screen.
*heh* Tickle My Fancy…! ;-)
Respectfully, there are two things wrong with your interpretation.
One, Leno the Hump is so unfunny that Fallon would have to vomit on stage every night at the top of his show to be less entertaining…
and two, Fallon is actually amusingly funny in a “I don’t know how I got here, but I will make the most of it” sort of way…
Respectfully.
Heartwarming Tale of Human Perseverance, and I hate that shit on principle.
Such stories are “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” Republican flavored capitalist gruel. They serve to keep the proletariat befuddled and confused. We wonder why we cannot pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. Even if such a stupid task were possible, The Republican corporatocracy has long ago stolen our straps and our boots.
I don’t facebook, but perhaps some Pup could send my condolences and best wishes for all.
Thank you Newt!
I should note that to me, The Three Stooges are funny. Our Gang is funny.
So I trend towards the infantile.
I’m with you pal. Funny to me is really, Jon Stewart. Every Monday-Thursday.
Wow, one troll shows up to accuse you of being a killjoy, and another one shows up to be a killjoy.
It’s like bumper-trolls.
You *really* don’t want to go there on this blog. Not on this blog you don’t!
Whatever. Sandra was HOT.
Did you intend for this post to be an example of white missionary liberal imperialim? You should at least have insisted serious readers follow your link to the article about the black couple with the adopted white child before commenting.
Yes, she sure was. Which, of course, is Hollywood. But the story line and camera work really played on her looks, which added to the ambiguity and strain between the stated story and the implied story.
The “nice people doing a nice thing” story was clear. But the way it was told grates.
Story line: Nice, poor black young man (Ferdinand the bull), who loves kittens and small children, finds his animus with the help of rich Republican woman who is smart enough to utilize his one outstanding characteristic to turn him into a terminator on the football field.
Implied story: Very attractive white woman,dressed to show her assets, drives her new Beemer into to projects alone, demands to be respected, and emasculates tough black guys who direct sexual innuendo at her (bad n***ers?)by threatening to kill them with a gun. Meanwhile, aforementioned very large 18 yr old black kid wouldn’t hurt a fly, has no sexual thoughts toward unrelated, very attractive older and younger women with whom he is emotionally intimate and living with, struggles with his deprived background, his limited intelligence, and his racial and familial alienation (good n***er?) and finally finds redemption, success and acceptance by rejecting his roots and elevating himself into membership in a rich, white Republican family.
This movie is really a goldmine of beneath-the-surface racist themes, which may be its lasting value. I hope they will be teased out by people of good will and used for positive purposes. We be past “Amistad” but we still have a very long way to go.
I am sorry but I have to disagree about “Of course, Williams wasn’t talking about interracial adoption, she was talking about movie cliches. Like the one that does not exist about a black family adopting a white child, which has appeared over and over, meaning never, in no major movies or TV shows anyone can easily remember. Or, mostly, in real life, either, and when it does, there are, you know, issues.” The Jerk staring Steve Martin depicted a black family adopting a white child. This is of course major snark. I agree completely with this posting I mean what would the movies be without understanding white folks taking in poor little black babies?
Spare us your subjective intrepretation of the “implied” story and instead, take your own advice below.
“I hope they will be teased out by people of good will and used for positive purposes.”
You can do that in part by taking the story at face value and checking your bias at the door.
Re: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”??? Good luck with that horseshit.
“A more banal misuse of Heisenberg’s principle can be found in the social sciences. There the principle is often taken to mean that the very act of observing a phenomenon inevitably alters that phenomenon in some way; that is why, say, Margaret Mead could never know the sexual mores of the Samoans—her very presence on the island distorted what she was there to observe. Postmodern theorists (like Stanley Aronowitz) invoke the uncertainty principle as proof of the unstable hermeneutics of subject-object relations, arguing that it undermines science’s claim to objectivity.” http://www.slate.com/?id=2062844
I can’t verify that supposed statement from the Ravens, but when the camera went to Mrs. Touey at the academy awards, Michael was right there next to her.