Monster's Ball

topic posted Fri, August 18, 2006 - 5:12 PM by  J.B.
Just saw Monster's Ball (yeah, I know it's been out for awhile), awesome movie. Mos is not a bad actor, too bad it was such a small part.

www.imdb.com/name/nm0080049/
posted by:
J.B.
  • he totally snaps on screen, love seein mos in movies. coincidentally there's a party going off relatedly, The Music Box @ Henry Fonda
    6126 Hollywood Blvd.

    club party monster 3, smallish venue, like 1-2k supposedly
  • Unsu...
     
    music, acting, all of it.

    However, with respect to Monsters' Ball, in a word, I thought this was the most racist piece of crap I've ever seen in a movie theatre. It was insulting to my intelligence (among other things, the very idea that someone could go from being as racist as Thornton's character was to being a perfect inclusive angel overnight is ridiculous and pandering) and it made me very angry. Let me just point out to you that this film portrays a black woman who can't take care of herself or her son (she can't even keep him from walking in the street, which most parents are in fact able to do, no matter how incompetent otherwise). Her husband can't take care of her (in his own words, he is a "bad man"). She is conveniently widowed, childless, destitute, evicted and without a car all in the same week. The ONLY person who can help her out of this horror is the most racist white man you can imagine -- not only is he a horrible person who tells his son to his face that he hates him, not only is he a racist asshole, but he is also the killer of this woman's husband. What are we telling black women if we present them with films in which only white racists can help them?

    I think this is a bad film and a very negative message.
    • i'm going to have to watch it again. i saw it years ago, and not with a grad student's critical eye.

      ok, i might have been tips'd.

      but is this the only film that is presented to black women as a way out of a classist predicament? its faults, they may be, i personally do not remember, but i think it's a bit of a overly done job to present it as the magna carta (or any variant thereof) of how to better oneself as a black woman in a bad situation.

      /s

      i think you find the pervasiveness of this films message, overblown. ?

      let's sprout a discussion!
      • Unsu...
         
        She won an Oscar for that performance. A performance in which a Black woman completely debases herself to a racist white man.

        Oscar means more people watch. It completely infuriated me.

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