Movies That Move We: Rustin 2024, American Fiction 2023, The Color Purple 2023

[richardmurray]

Rustin 2024

 

American Fiction 2023

 

The Color Purple 2023

 

 

 

[richardmurray]

comments to Rustin

 

3:17 what? somebody got their tooth removed for a role... oh the method

4:36 would you have used the two characters that were made up? as a writer Nike

6:11 who is your favorite mlk jr impersonator?:)

9:03 and communal banishment, in most communities if people knew it publicly, people will excommunicado you

12:58 going back to the black church's power in those days. No present day group has that influence.

14:29 exactly, it is the publicity of it, not the knowledge

16:26 yes, black women were always the basis for every movement in the black populace in the usa

17:28 still kind of an oppression, zenobia, it is an oppression. Remember, if it wasn't for malcolm, Fannie Lou HAmer would not been able to speak during a gathering in harlem

19:21 they were made by black people so afraid of whites that they couldn't

20:03 i recall in new jersey a quaker community had a black town in new jersey, but quakers aren't not evangelical if i am correct and evangelism tends to get more followers

22:50 the thing about Higher Ground that is cool is it is a private company

24:26 amen Nike, teach it at home and to be honest, that is all populaces, even the white populace. No education system in humanity covers history or culture truly holistically.

 

 

[richardmurray]

comments to American Fiction

 

3:32 white people in modernity don't run to read ulysses from joyce or war and peace from tolstoy. The books monk was writing were boring. The modern audience rightly or wrongly, like an overabundence of drama

8:10 good point

10:36 sterling k brown, from pastor to plastic

16:35 this film wasn't the kind of film that can get a wide release, black panther is the kind.

 

At the following place

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/american-fiction-movie-ending-explained

they ask the following

Was he trying to imply that as creatives, no matter our best intentions or moral code, we are all slaves to capitalism, and that our work will inevitably bend the knee to the almighty dollar? Did he mean to stress that within a white supremacist media context, Blackness will always be commodified for the masses? Was Jefferson pointing out the hypocrisy of bourgeois Black elite spaces and the futility of intraracial classism? Is the entire film a metaphor for the insidious nature of anti-Blackness and how we as Black people often perpetuate it without even knowing?

 

It isn't artist's work that bends the knee but artist themselves for the work comes from the imagination of the artists and it is the imagination of the artist that becomes flooded with the desires from the financiers from the needs in another section of the artist mind.

And, artists are free to not let those financial concerns manipulate their imagination, and some artists do that. We hear their tales of fiscally impoverished geniuses like a Zora Neale Hurston or Phillip K Dick or Poe or Van Gogh.

Well, in a fiscal capitalist media context, all cultural aspects will be commodified . Birth of a Nation is not what the fiscally poor white southerner's journey at the end of the war between the states was. Outside the fact the film lies about the black populace, it isn't a truth teller to the white. The truth is, the leadership in the confederacy was split on the goals and destinations and the side that got to implement miscalculated terribly, so much so that, the south which was the financial breadbasket of the usa is the fiscally poorest region in the usa today and whose black or white populaces at the time of the end of the war between the states have both been harmed long term with the results of that war.

I don't know if any group is above judgement, but the urban black financial elite have always existed in the usa, ala solomon northrup and always led their lives with a faith in the system in the usa that is historically misplaced. Financial racism commonly called classism in the usa has always been prophesied by some blacks as the aphenotypical racism that will lead to a betterment. I can't say it is futile as much as, what is the goal? the assumption by many in the usa , not most I think, is that aphenotypical financial racism will lead to aphenotypical activity , but that mentality misses that the purely fiscal nature of fiscal capitalism is not concerned with changing behavior from aphenotypical to phenotypical or from phenotypical to aphenotypical .

Does the film transfer the heritage of anti blackness in the usa into a film? Do Black people perpetuate anti blackness ignorantly? The heritage aspect is the only part of any of the questions that I feel doesn't warrant questioning. I will question the second part. Black people have never been ignorant to anti blackness in the usa, never. The problem is, in the embrace of nonviolence which most black people in the mid 1900s to now in the usa exhibit, the power in situations is always with whites, because when someone is violent towards you but you chose to be nonviolent towards them, you have no way to get them to change so sooner or later the violent actor wins, and that is the source of the perpetuation of sameness concerning anti blackness that continues in the usa. Violence isn't evil. but it is a tool, that can be useful. Now to the first part of the last question. Anti blackness in the usa has always been holistic, pervasive, synonomous with slavery. The film displays that slavery as an institution, one human being forcing another human being to act, is quite strong and though it is not as crude as the whip of the past, is definitely active and arguably less dodgeable

Now the answer to all the questions is honestly maybe, but I provide my thoughts to the questions themselves.

[richardmurray]

The Color Purple 2023

 

0:43 interesting start point

4:47 well did it make money , it has been around for 13 years

8:50 the old spide brother brother:) that is like the mayhem guy in john wick

11:32 Danny glover is still mr mister:)

12:04 palatable is the right word zenobia

14:04 good point, lou gossett wasn't allowed to be meaner than danny glover

17:48 didi it being a musical lead to some miscastings or some time taken away from some characters?

19:56 her, meaning taraji p henson, issue was the money, the producers

20:48 steven speilberg was part of the production, has the color purple joined immitation of life as one of those films whose remakes are schism amongs fans

23:19 you are a producer/money, director, thespian, someone says, Color Purple as a superhero film, what do you say?

25:40 couldn't find the young lady, wish her the best though

[Pioneer1]

They left too much out in the original Color Purple movie.
I actually read Alice Walker's book and it was much more interesting than the movie itself.

I don't know about the 2023 version, I haven't seen it and don't plan on to because I don't care too much for sitting through musicals.

[Troy]

I saw Ruskin and enjoyed it, but it definitely would not be near the top of my list of films.

 

American Fiction was excellent, I probably enjoyed it more because I’m Black and in the book industry.  I can't wait to read Erasure. which is the book that the film was based on.

 

I have no interested in watching the new Color Purple Film.  If you'll rave about it, I'll check it out, otherwise I'll pass on this one.

 

We have some a long way when it comes to Black film.  I remember a time I would watch ANY Black film --  even a white film with a Black character- because there were so few.  Today we have the luxury of passing on films because there are just so many.

 

 

[Pioneer1]

Quote

 

We have some a long way when it comes to Black film.  I remember a time I would watch ANY Black film --  even a white film with a Black character- because there were so few. 

 

 

 

 

 

My older relatives told me of a time that ANYTIME a Black person appeared on television even if it was for a brief moment......whoever was watching television would shout:

 

 

"It's some Colored folks on!   
Colored folks is on the TV!"

Everybody in the house would stop what they're doing and run to the living room to check it out.

If somebody was sitting on the toilet they'd hurry up and run out the bathroom...lol.
If a man was shaving, he'd put the razor down and run out with shaving cream on half his face....lol.
 

[richardmurray]

@Pioneer1

You don't care for musicals?

@Troy

yes, slowly but surely next to the master,  this is the frederick douglass way, right, over one hudnred and fifty years. It isn't meant to be short term. the idea , though i oppose it, i comprehend. Work hard next to your enemy and maintain that lifestyle with the next generation even if you can't leave them anything and black films,  black presidents and black billionaires one day. yeah ok. that is why he opposed violence/ leaving the usa/ segregating actions, all three of those things would make his path even longer for the black populace in the usa. It is shortest if all black people buy in it, but of course, that goes back to the black populace in the usa's internal schisms. 

 

[Pioneer1]

2 hours ago, richardmurray said:

@Pioneer1

You don't care for musicals?

 

For the most part.....no.
The only musical that I've liked so far would be Grease....the movie.

[richardmurray]

@Pioneer1 What do you find distasteful in most musicals you have experienced? Do you give musicals a chance or is the advertised concept of most musicals  a negative for you?

[Troy]

21 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

It's some Colored folks on!   
Colored folks is on the TV!"

I remember this very well. I can remember when the Jackson 5 came on the Ed Sullivan show it was just so surprising and I was so excited I ran through the house telling everybody. That was 1969. The show Julia was on by then, but Black people were still largely under represented.

 

[Pioneer1]

richardmurray

 

What do you find distasteful in most musicals you have experienced?

 

I find most of them corny and boring.

I like singing, but I'd rather it be in a song or music video than as part of a movie or play.

Perhaps it's the fact that somebody would stop in the middle of a scene and face the audience and start singing....seems strange or weird to me.
 

 

 

 Do you give musicals a chance or is the advertised concept of most musicals  a negative for you?

 

I've been to several musicals a a child, especially ones given in church and on school field trips.
I didn't like them then...lol.

I've seen less but still a few as an adult, and STILL didn't like them...lol.

 

Maybe I just haven't seen the "right" one to capture my interest.

 

 

 

 

 

Troy

 

I remember this very well. I can remember when the Jackson 5 came on the Ed Sullivan show it was just so surprising and I was so excited I ran through the house telling everybody. That was 1969. The show Julia was on by then, but Black people were still largely under represented.

Yeah, I heard about them and another very popular Black show from the 60s I heard people going crazy over was the Flip Wilson Show.

I was born in the very late 60s and don't remember it when it came on but I heard older people talking about how folks would stop what they're doing where ever they were to watch the Flip Wilson Show.

People calling off from their jobs or setting up television in the laundry mat or barbershops just to watch it.

You HAD to catch it when it came on.
There were no VCRS or DVDS in those days so if you missed it you MISSED it...until it came back on as a rerun, lol.
 

[Troy]

@richardmurray when I was younger I was not a fan of musical either especially those on film.  That is perhaps the main reason I have zero interested in seeing The latest iteration of the color purple.  Now I did see it on Broadway and it was entertaining enough, but again not enough for me to pay to go see it on the big screen.

 

I have little interesting in seeing Hamilton for the same reason. People rave about it, but a musical about Alexander Hamilton, nah I pass. 

 

I have seen musicals I thoroughly enjoyed, Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, The Lion Kings, etc, etc  But given the choice I will usually pick a drama over a musical.

 

As a Trekkie, I watched an episode that was effectively a musical.  I tolerated and appreciated the whimsy and creativeness of the episode, but one was definitely enough and they better not do it again  

[Steinsman]

It's fascinating how our preferences change as we grow older, isn't it? Musicals, especially those on film, might not have been your thing when you were younger, and that's totally understandable. It's all about personal taste! Have you had a chance to see what movies are out right now? Perhaps there's a gripping drama or another genre that aligns more with your current interests. Variety is the spice of life when it comes to choosing what to watch!

[aka Contrarian]

Hummmm. I dont know why I'm a "Johnny-come-lately" to this thread because I grew up during the golden  era of Hollywood, and musicals were a major part of what was shown on the  "silver screen" aka the movie theaters which brought the land of dreams right into neighborhoods all over Amrica. 

 

I go waaaay back with this subject and I literally had a front row seat to what was being shown back in the day for public entertainment at the cost of a 10-cent admission fee. Only, I didn't even have to pay that because my mother worked as a ladies' room attendent at the local movie theater in my idyllic little midwestern home town located 20-something miles west of Chicago.  So, I was able to do what we called "going to the show" for free.

As a mere child, before TV was ever heard of, I was a regular movie-goer and the first musical film I remember seeing in 1939 was "The Wizard of Oz", which was made even more spectacular because it was in technicolor, a new technology in the movie industry! From then on, I was hooked on musicals and whenever I accompanied my mother to do her chores in the mornings before the theater opened, I would tap dance up and down the winding marble stair case that was a center piece in this beautiful palace that featured the classical architecture style of movie houses back then. All that was missing was a chocolate Fred Astaire to complete my impression of Ginger Rogers!

A few years later in the mid 1940s, I was thrilled to view one of the first full length motion pictures with an all black cast; a musical entitled "A Cabin in the Sky" starring the legendary Lena Horne! It was full of mugging black  stereotypes but enjoyable nonetheless.

When TV came on the scene during the early '50s, black folks became more visible in the public eye, doing what they were deemed to be best at doing; grinnin and singin' and dancin'. Nat Cole even had his own TV show but it didn't last long because his being black made it difficult to attract sponsors.

Yes, Flip Wilson was successful in captivating  audiences during the '60s, and it suffices to say that a lot of this was due to the "Geraldine" character he played in drag.

 

What really fostered an appreciation for musical theater back then was the long running Don Cornelius' Soul Train TV show, featuring Motown,     R&B, and Pop recording artists performing their hits and, of course,  the legendary soul train line that provided a mini-musical show case for a parade of all the latest steps and improvised dance moves. 

 

Over the years my taste for musicals did, as the poster Steinsman suggested, change. The music I eventually came to prefer was JAZZ which I wanted to hear played by small combos, or sung by sultry songtresses in dim, intimate, little venues charging a 2-drink minimum cover charge. And so it goes...

 

I liked the original "Color Purple" movie and the musical version of it on stage also. When the  remake of it debuted, I had little interest in seeing it. It's now available on cable TV but I'd much prefer to watch the movie about Bayard Rustin who I remember from his role in organizing the March on Washington during the Civil Rights era which I also lived through...

Nowadays, black folks are almost over represented in the entertainment industry. There they were recently, as they have been for the past few years, on stage at all the award shows, clutching their trophies, fighting back tears,  blubbering about how, as a child watching movies and TV, they had yearned to see people "who looked like them" on camera and now, here they were, being recognized for their talent, bringing their testimonies to a close by urging all the young black kids out there to hold on to their dreams, blah, blah, blah, (and not to worry about losing weight because being fat is now "in" ) .

I do feel guilty because, as a child, all I cared about was a good story and if white folks were striving to impress me and everybody else with their talent, so be it.  If these expectations were fulfilled in an all-black movie, that was even better.  But I never cared about seeing a black James Bond any more than I wanted to watch a white guy playing John Shaft. 

Now I'm a crazy old lady who can't half see or hear, hobbling around,   only bothering to watch the news, and documentaries and true crime prorams and listen to music from by gone days with strong melodies and exquisite lyrics, still cheering on the local sports teams, but not really looking forward to what the future holds.   C'est la vie. 

 

Well, I've rambled and reminisced long enough.  The ol night owl is ready to pack it in. Good Evening.   zzzzzzzzz

[richardmurray]

@Steinsman yes I have.. I can't say I have anything I am expecting highly, but as a writer, i give all movies a chance. 

Anything you are expecting to see? 

 

@aka Contrarian it doesn't matter how late, glad your here.

a chocolate fred astaire, nice language

not just difficult, nat king cole found it impossible to attract sponsors but not viewers , funny how today, viewers dictate sponsors

so you like bebop or st louis versions of jazz, more than big band, ragtime, experimental, smooth or other versions of jazz.

you propose a question i don't know the answer to. 

Is the percentage of black thespians in media: film/tv/music/stage combined greater than the percentage of black people in the usa? I don't know. The statistical answer to the question you posed  lay in said questions answer.  I remember years back someone white said no one in the usa, including white christians has better representation than white jews. and  I thought about it. Considering white jews represent a very very small fraction of the population in the usa, their representation in media is way above their percentage. So it is possible for Black people to have a greater percentage of media representation than the populace. 

Well, most people in media follow scripts in the usa in general. I argue modern media in the usa has become inflexible to those who do not. 

You shouldn't feel guilty at all. At least in my opinion. The black populace in the usa ha s multiple traditions, concerning black relationship to the usa or the whites in it. Nat Turner/Frederick Douglass/WEB Dubois when younger/Booker T Wahsington/ The Exodusters/Garvey all lived at the same time. Each had a different relationship to whites. Turner felt whites should be killed/Douglass embraced as fellow citizens\Dubois an anchor for a minority of wealthy blacks to lead the majority of blacks/Washington an aid for blackpeopele to improve their segregated side of the street/Exodusters as rivals and only business partners for black growth in black towns or cities/Garvey as people whose presence black people should never live around. 

You said you feel guilty but no reason exists for that. I think you are in the spirit of frederidk douglass. The problem is our village in the usa or beyond hasn't accepted how to functionalize paths that don't work together. Douglass would love BArack obama. He is the embodiment of douglass dream. A phenotypically mixed heritage person, married to a DOSer , embraced by the DOS tribe int eh village while coming from the continent on on eside or the white statian on the other. Composite America speech is about what obama embodies. 

Does this mean I am in the spirit of Douglass, no I am not. But I comprehend that such path isn't wrong, jsut isn't mine. We black people have a hard time accepting that. 

And to be fair, Douglass like WEB Dubois greatest negativity in their lives was neither was able to accept other black ways. 

Douglass worked so hard to keep black people in the underground railroad from going to canada. SPoke against the exodusters and it was selfish of him. He wanted to prove the black populace could grow and thrive about whites in big northern cities. The ways of the black freedman or garvey leaving the usa or developing all black towns are both clearly segregatory and was against his firm integrationist beliefs, but that was selfish.

Dubois never should had spoken against Garvey, again, it was selfish. Dubois hated the idea of leaving the usa for a black country. Not cause he hated black people but he liked the integrated environment. 

And like Douglass or Dubois you growing up and even now like it too, and nothing is wrong with that. As I have said to black militants or my fellow garveyites. If you want to kill all the whites like nat turner go ahead. the black populace in the usa has a long tradition of revenge against whites. If you want to leave the usa for a black country somewhere, go ahead. I know black people offline, who have left the usa and live in black countries happy. It can happen. Nothing is easy but it can happen. but, If you want the usa to be a multiphenoyptical country with individual rights for all spurred on nonviolently, go ahead. That is what MLK jr did post Douglass or dubois. That is what obama did post mlk jr. and when you see the black people integrating in the usa to whites in various levels, it is that way. You have lived your life your way, Contrarian:) i am happy for you. Feel pride not guilt in your way, and the tribe in the village you are apart of that is in my view stronger than most others. While also, smile for the other tribes, even if they are fleeting of member or faulty in structure, wish them tell. Be happy for them. 

 

Your not crazy. At least not to me. And as long as there is life there is hope. You can speak your mind in my post any time. I am not into name calling. And I believe in positive sharing. I hope you had pleasant dreams