Favorite Movie About Race Relations in the US?

[quote name='mykevermin']Sooo many good recommendations. You guys are great.

Watching Crash right now...I'm not liking it so far.[/QUOTE]

I thought Crash was very overrated.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']
That's a great film, but I think it is about class more than race.[/QUOTE]
I thought Trading Places was about being able to get your kid the GI Joe with the kung fu grip. That, and about 3 pairs of exposed tits (if my mammary memory serves me correctly).
 
[quote name='Roufuss']Guess Who.

Probably the most racist movie I've ever seen.[/QUOTE]

It's a comedic remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" with the races reversed, IIRC. I don't like Bernie Mac or Ashton Kutcher, and I don't care for the entire premise of the movie to begin with.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']It's a comedic remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" with the races reversed, IIRC. I don't like Bernie Mac or Ashton Kutcher, and I don't care for the entire premise of the movie to begin with.[/QUOTE]

I played this movie where I worked, on the televisions there, and I just expected a goofy dating movie comedy... but I was floored by the amount of raw racism just thrown at the viewer in the movie.

I don't remember any specific scenes, I just remembered being shocked more than laughing, like "who thought this was a good idea?".
 
To be fair, that's part of the premise, and probably a necessary part of the movie. When I say I don't like the premise, I should be clear that I don't like that such a movie was greenlighted as a comedy.
 
[quote name='dothog']I thought Trading Places was about being able to get your kid the GI Joe with the kung fu grip. That, and about 3 pairs of exposed tits (if my mammary memory serves me correctly).[/QUOTE]

Do they count as two pair if they're the same actress in two scenes?

I've long believed there should be an Oscar category for gratuitous nudity. Jamie Lee Curtis would have been a sure winner for 'Trading Places.'
 
[quote name='mykevermin']if anyone has any subtle suggestions (modern movies with poor casting for Asians, confusing Chinese with Japanese with Korean[/quote]
There's an early King of the Hill episode where a Laosion family moves in.

Hank: So are you Chinese or Japanese?
Con: We're Laosion.
Bill: The Ocean?
Con: No, we're from Laos, stupid. It's a landlocked country in South East Asia.
All: ...
Hank: So are you Chinese or Japanese?
 
many have been mentioned. ill say disneys dumbo.

crow65annpinz.jpg
 
One aspect that be touched upon is that many movies that are regarded as 'important' because of the race issue, are awful and intensely stupid movies.

'Crash?' An ABC Afterschool Special with a big budget and big name actors but a shoddy thread of coincidence and idiocy. I found it to be an endurance event to watch.

"A Day Without A Mexican?' Pure propaganda and unrelenting nonsense. Attempts to completely ignore the issue of immigration control by treating it as solely rascism against Mexicans. If members of my own ancestral ethnic group began flooding into the US uncontrolled, I'd be equally against that.

Such is the problem with movies centered around a Big Issue. They tend to be lousy movies if you aren't captivated by the Big Issue of choice.
 
[quote name='epobirs']One aspect that be touched upon is that many movies that are regarded as 'important' because of the race issue, are awful and intensely stupid movies.

'Crash?' An ABC Afterschool Special with a big budget and big name actors but a shoddy thread of coincidence and idiocy. I found it to be an endurance event to watch.

"A Day Without A Mexican?' Pure propaganda and unrelenting nonsense. Attempts to completely ignore the issue of immigration control by treating it as solely rascism against Mexicans. If members of my own ancestral ethnic group began flooding into the US uncontrolled, I'd be equally against that.

Such is the problem with movies centered around a Big Issue. They tend to be lousy movies if you aren't captivated by the Big Issue of choice.[/QUOTE]

With regard to "Crash" (still in the middle of it), sure, it's pushing likelihood a bit too far, but that's what's done in the confines of a 2 hour movie. It reminds me of the short-lived tv show "Book of Daniel," where the Episcopalian priest had all the trimmings of diversity and issues:
an alcoholic sister-in-law
an addition to pain pills
a gay son
an adopted Asian son
a pregnant daughter (I think)
a mother with Alzheimers
trouble with the mafia
...among other things. It seemed to be too much if you thought of it mimicking reality, but on the other, if you thought of it as an encapsulation of our collective culture (a distillation if you will), then it's more understandable. It isn't reality in terms of one person's story, but condensing many people's realities? You bet.

I don't know much about "Day Without...," but I can't say that I get much of your criticism of the movie either. Don't tell me that it's propaganda, because that's just an overly simplistic writing off of an entire work. I'll just think you disliked the movie because you disagree with what it says. Please provide me with details.
 
To Kill a Mocking Bird over all else

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Glory

Blazing Saddles

West Side Story

Dances with Wolves

The Hurricane

A Raisin in the Sun
 
rabbit proof fence was an awesome movie definelty makes you think. the shit they were trying to do in australia is pretty sick stuff an odd kind of less aggressive genocide.

another one that also deals with race in america funnily enough was The Toy with richard pryor.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Thanks again; if anyone has any subtle suggestions (modern movies with poor casting for Asians, confusing Chinese with Japanese with Korean, whites playing as Latinos/Latinas, etc), those are even more fun to use.[/quote]Well, there's always Mickey Rooney's tour-de-force performance as a buck-toothed Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Another good one is 3 years earlier, Charlton Heston playing a Mexican cop in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.

A few more I came up with, that I haven't seen anybody mention:
12 Angry Men
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (a great modern western that flew underneath everybody's radar, and it touches on a lot of issues of racism and complacency)
Manderlay (If you've seen Dogville, this is the second part of the story, takes place on a small southern plantation where slavery is still taking place. Not great, but you may find something in there)
A Bronx Tale
Bad Day at Black Rock (A controversial movie that just blazes with intensity, this might be exactly what you're looking for)
Faces Shadows (I hate John Cassavetes, but if you can stomach it, this one deals with an interracial relationship and reactions towards it)
 
[quote name='iheartmetal']many have been mentioned. ill say disneys dumbo.

crow65annpinz.jpg
[/quote]

Well I be don' seen about e'erythin' when I see an elephant fly!

Was there ever anything as racist in children's movies throughout history as the crows. Homer Simpson said something like that once.
 
[quote name='Zenithian Legend']Was there ever anything as racist in children's movies throughout history as the crows. Homer Simpson said something like that once.[/quote]

Try looking up some of the banned Popeye cartoons from WWII.

Anyway, my personal favorite is Gung Ho
 
'Addio Zio Tom' (AKA 'Goodbye Uncle Tom')

A modern day Italian film crew travels back in time to document the American slave trade in the early 1800's and draws parallels from it to the civil rights struggle of the 1960's.

A lot of people consider this to be one of the most tasteless films of all-time but I like it. Extremely violent and shocking but well-made. Shows the ugly truth of how it really was back then, unlike Spielbergs cowardly Amistad.
 
the main thing to remember is alot of the films everyones mentioned had racial themes as a subplot and it wasnt the focus of the film or they glancingly mention race and races in diff spots. theres alot of great films that go deep into race issues but theyre hard to remember. oh yeah jungle fever is another great one dealing with infedility and race issues between a black man and his family and friends as well as an italian woman and man and their families and friends.

alot of spike lees films deal with race overall either blatantly or in bits and pieces.
 
Well how about pretty much any of the (Night of the living) Dead series? They all deal with race.
There is also Windtalkers.
 
[quote name='mykevermin'](though Fairuza Balk all dressed up as a byrd was rather nice)[/quote]

She's got a mouth like a wood chipper on her.

I'd go with the over the top Soul Man or the not so over the top "Do The Right Thing". Do The Right Thing is good because it's not a black vs white thing and Soul Man is good because the guy O.D.s on tanning pills.

"But how can we make him black?"
"We can't use black face, that's just wrong. Right?"
"Yeah, that's too taboo, but what we CAN do is make him take some sort of pill, a tanning pill perhaps?"
"BRILLIANT!"
 
[quote name='norkusa']'Addio Zio Tom' (AKA 'Goodbye Uncle Tom')

A modern day Italian film crew travels back in time to document the American slave trade in the early 1800's and draws parallels from it to the civil rights struggle of the 1960's.

A lot of people consider this to be one of the most tasteless films of all-time but I like it. Extremely violent and shocking but well-made. Shows the ugly truth of how it really was back then, unlike Spielbergs cowardly Amistad.[/quote]


Good choice. The uncut version is tasteless but the director's cut is a good film for this kind of thing.
 
i finished watching a documentary called bastards of the party a few minutes ago on HBO and thought it was related to your topic. here's a copy/paste of the synopsis which i thought was relevent to race relations.

Raised in the Athens Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Cle "Bone" Sloan was four years old when his father died, and 12 when he became a member of the Bloods. Now an inactive member of the notorious gang, Sloan looks back at the history of black gangs in his city and makes a powerful call for change in modern gang culture with his insightful documentary, BASTARDS OF THE PARTY.

...Sloan's preliminary study started in the turbulent period following the Rodney King riots in 1992. With the city's fractious racial history under intense scrutiny, he found himself being interviewed by Larry King and Ted Koppell about the state of black neighborhoods. Soon Sloan began asking himself similar questions. "I wondered how we ended up killing each other," he remembers.

...Through reading and talking to peers and older members of the community, Sloan discovered instead that gangs first appeared in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, when blacks started to move from the south into the predominantly white Los Angeles area.

BASTARDS OF THE PARTY traces the timeline from that "great migration" to the rise and demise of both the Black Panther Party and the US Organization in the mid- 1960s, to the formation of what is currently the culture of gangs in Los Angeles and around the world.

The documentary also chronicles the role of the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI in the evolution of gang culture. During his tenure from 1950 to 1966, Chief Robert Parker bolstered the ranks of the LAPD with white recruits from the south, who brought their racist attitudes with them. Parker's racist sympathies laid the groundwork for the volatile relationship between the black community and the LAPD that persists today.
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it was an interesting and insightful documentary, and even if you do not use it in your course, maybe it can bolster a point or two in your syllabus. good luck!
 
[quote name='norkusa']'Addio Zio Tom' (AKA 'Goodbye Uncle Tom')

A modern day Italian film crew travels back in time to document the American slave trade in the early 1800's and draws parallels from it to the civil rights struggle of the 1960's.

A lot of people consider this to be one of the most tasteless films of all-time but I like it. Extremely violent and shocking but well-made. Shows the ugly truth of how it really was back then, unlike Spielbergs cowardly Amistad.[/QUOTE]
I've actually avoided seeing that because it has some overly intense scenes (or so I've heard -- ala-Salo).

What are your opinions on that?
 
[quote name='mykevermin']With regard to "Crash" (still in the middle of it), sure, it's pushing likelihood a bit too far, but that's what's done in the confines of a 2 hour movie. It reminds me of the short-lived tv show "Book of Daniel," where the Episcopalian priest had all the trimmings of diversity and issues:
an alcoholic sister-in-law
an addition to pain pills
a gay son
an adopted Asian son
a pregnant daughter (I think)
a mother with Alzheimers
trouble with the mafia
...among other things. It seemed to be too much if you thought of it mimicking reality, but on the other, if you thought of it as an encapsulation of our collective culture (a distillation if you will), then it's more understandable. It isn't reality in terms of one person's story, but condensing many people's realities? You bet.

I don't know much about "Day Without...," but I can't say that I get much of your criticism of the movie either. Don't tell me that it's propaganda, because that's just an overly simplistic writing off of an entire work. I'll just think you disliked the movie because you disagree with what it says. Please provide me with details.[/QUOTE]


It is one thing to ask the audience to suspend disbelief and yet another to hang it by the neck until dead. A big factor can be the tone of the movie. A screwball comedy can pile coincidence upon coincidence and have it be just more gags. The same cannot be said for what is expected to be regarded as a serious work. 'Crash' was not presented as a comedy or even a semi-surreal work like 'Pulp Fiction.' We were supposed to take this as a sincere take on a real time and place in the world but relied too much on contrivance to pass that test. That such a shoddy screenplay got so much reward is a perfect example of the nonsense one can get away with if taking on a 'Big Issue.'



I cannot think of another recent film that better fits the definition of propaganda than the aforementioned 'A Day Without A Mexican.' It blatantly seeks to avoid genuine discussion of the issue it purports to deal with and instead paints those on one side of the issue as purely motivated by rascism with no realistic concerns about the effects of unregulated immigration. It was the equivalent of a politician in debate responding with, "So, are you still beating your dog?" when faced with a question he fears to answer in a public setting.
 
[quote name='Brak']I've actually avoided seeing that because it has some overly intense scenes (or so I've heard -- ala-Salo).

What are your opinions on that?[/QUOTE]

Salo is one movie that I never want to see. Of course I want to own it, but I have to desire to watch because of some of the scenes in there.
 
[quote name='epobirs']It is one thing to ask the audience to suspend disbelief and yet another to hang it by the neck until dead. A big factor can be the tone of the movie. A screwball comedy can pile coincidence upon coincidence and have it be just more gags. The same cannot be said for what is expected to be regarded as a serious work. 'Crash' was not presented as a comedy or even a semi-surreal work like 'Pulp Fiction.' We were supposed to take this as a sincere take on a real time and place in the world but relied too much on contrivance to pass that test. That such a shoddy screenplay got so much reward is a perfect example of the nonsense one can get away with if taking on a 'Big Issue.'[/quote]

I just watched it yesterday for the first time. It's a little too convenient, sure. Did it deserve a best picture Oscar? Not in my opinion, but I don't think the movie is so bad that I'd be up in arms about some liberal Hollywood conspiracy to award the movie because it tackles the "big issue" (though you aren't suggesting that). At any rate, it was alright. The one thing I like about the movie is that it does a good job at telling a story with no real protagonist or antagonist - by the end of the movie, everyone is a flawed character is some degree. It's good screenwriting, in my opinion, and tough to pull that off. That said, I don't think it's the sort of thing I'd use in my class. I think that, while it does a good job of portraying a lot of racism and racial attitudes in the contemporary US, it abuses some stereotypes too much, and places more emphasis on those hardcore racist characters (Matt Dillon) than on the circumstances of the more accidentally racist (his partner).

I cannot think of another recent film that better fits the definition of propaganda than the aforementioned 'A Day Without A Mexican.' It blatantly seeks to avoid genuine discussion of the issue it purports to deal with and instead paints those on one side of the issue as purely motivated by rascism with no realistic concerns about the effects of unregulated immigration. It was the equivalent of a politician in debate responding with, "So, are you still beating your dog?" when faced with a question he fears to answer in a public setting.
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You ought to see the discussion in the "free Inconvenient Truth" thread! I'll agree that the racism angle is abused in discussions of immigration as a topic, but that doesn't mean it is completely unrelated to the issue. The movie doesn't sound like it interests me, so I probably won't use it. There are plenty of suitable alternatives.

doraemonkerpal, that documentary sounds excellent. I'll have to check it out.
 
American History X is one of my favorite movies ever.

Put your mouth on the corner of the fucking curb!

Does it show him when he's face gets busted from that? Someone was talking about how it was really gross but I don't remember it showing him.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Wow. Tons of great suggestions. Thanks everyone!

I suppose I'll have to go and rewatch AHX. I didn't care for it when I saw it the first time (though Fairuza Balk all dressed up as a byrd was rather nice), as I thought it was a completely inaccurate portrayal of skinheads as well as race relations. It wasn't John Singleton bad ("Higher Learning" is one of the most overcooked dramas I've ever watched in my life), but damn close.

So many good suggestions - makes me want to show clips of them. Birth of a Nation was jokingly suggested, but I think a historical perspective over race in film would be great - I could show the scene of the all-black congress in "Birth," something from "Guess Who's Coming," and continue through the 70's (as bawdy as Mel Brooks' stuff is, he really is using guys in roles that they otherwise wouldn't have been in).

Spike Lee is very good, and I forgot about Bamboozled, which was a phenomenal movie at the time, and now, as a frame through which we can view the Chappelle Show, probably a good selection also.

There's a book on race in film out there called "Screen Saviors," which has some good suggestions, but focuses on the "white savior" character in film, without whom some nonwhite civilization would crumble (Tom Cruise in Last Samurai comes to mind, and what's her name in "Dangerous Minds," as the numerous films of this sort that take place in Africa and the Middle East). It wasn't a very good book, and belabored an obvious point; nevertheless, it was a good resource for choosing movies. Shouldn't have permanently lent out my copy of it.

Thanks again; if anyone has any subtle suggestions (modern movies with poor casting for Asians, confusing Chinese with Japanese with Korean, whites playing as Latinos/Latinas, etc), those are even more fun to use.

As for "defining race," I consider it to be a purely social construction, and one that changes historically, as groups come into social prominence and require a more nuanced view (the variation with which we discuss Muslims and Middle Easterners), and as groups become assimilated into others (why whites no longer express disdain for Irish/Poles/Hungarians/etc to the degree that existed at the beginning of the 20th century).

And since someone mentioned "Black Like Me," I'm wondering if something as absurdly shocking as "Soul Man" would work, because it's both somewhat modern and blatantly racist?[/QUOTE]

You might also consider the reversals of 'Black Like Me.' There is a classic Saturday Night Live segment in which Eddie Murphy does 'White Like Me' and finds he is presented with absurd level of privilege and free stuff. Lenny Henry (who does a great reading on the audio book of Neil Gaiman's 'Anansi Boys') starred as a black actor who disguises himself as white Italian man to evade mobsters in 'True Identity.' A hide in plain sight maneuver.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0103128/

While they may offend, it is frequently the comedies that give the most honest and unfiltered racial perspectives. For instance, Richard Pryor's contributuion to 'Blazing Saddles' by immersing itself in material the white audience thought was taboo everywhere except KKK meetings. It wasn't a deeply kept secret but easily ignored before it became a major element of a national hit film.

On the issue of casting against ethnicity, there are a few actors who can play a major portion of the human variety that ever existed.

Jason Scott Lee http://imdb.com/name/nm0001462/ would have had a very limited career if cast only in his actual ethnic mix but his versatility has allowed him to take on roles that might have raised ire if a similar range were attempted by an actor more narrowly defined, especially to a European descent. Lee's mixed ancestry prevent him from being placed in a simple slot, especially in conjunction with Western audiences' unfamiliarity with the features that are distinct to the eyes of those raised elsewhere in the world.

Erick Avari http://imdb.com/name/nm0042805/ has also played a remarkable range of ethnicities. In the TV series 'Heroes' he is actually for once playing a character of his won ancestry but he's another of those lucky guys who isn't easily identified as falling in a particular racial slot he cannot leave without giving offense. Again, it helps to be playing to Western audiences who see him as an all-purpose 'ethnic guy' who has a great voice and speaking talent. (Hey, he even sang Bowie in 'Mr. Deeds.')
 
[quote name='GrimNecroWizard']American History X is one of my favorite movies ever.

Put your mouth on the corner of the fucking curb!

Does it show him when he's face gets busted from that? Someone was talking about how it was really gross but I don't remember it showing him.
[/QUOTE] No, it doesn't show anything.
 
Tell me more about Richard Pryor's relation to "Blazing Saddles." I'm not sure what you're getting at in that paragraph, though it seems you're saying his material was what "broke ground" for movies like that to not only be made, but accepted by the (white) public.

Erick Avari looks a lot like Ben Kingsley, who has, himself, played a large number of ethnicities in his career.
 
I find it interesting that there is a lack of suggestions for movies concerning Asian race relations and then I realize there aren't many good examples to choose from. That may be something in itself worth discussing.
 
[quote name='dopa345']I find it interesting that there is a lack of suggestions for movies concerning Asian race relations and then I realize there aren't many good examples to choose from. That may be something in itself worth discussing.[/QUOTE]

I want to hunt down Margaret Cho's bit about her sitcom, and the casting for it, from one of her standup videos.

If nothing else, it suggests that when we speak of "race" in the US, we think of "blacks" and, increasingly, "hispanics." While the history of the US has its biggest scars rooted in black/nonblack relations, there's far more to it than that. I wonder, for instance, if movies tackle the racism towards the Irish in the previous centuries. Something like "Gangs of New York" (can't say I've seen it yet, so I dunno).
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I want to hunt down Margaret Cho's bit about her sitcom, and the casting for it, from one of her standup videos.

If nothing else, it suggests that when we speak of "race" in the US, we think of "blacks" and, increasingly, "hispanics." While the history of the US has its biggest scars rooted in black/nonblack relations, there's far more to it than that. [/QUOTE]

That was my point. I would argue Asians have also had comparable "scars" in U.S. History, going back to the 19th century when Chinese immigrants were restricted to only "women's" jobs (restaurant work and laundry which still has its mark today) and also exploited as labor under deplorable conditions in building the transcontinental railroad. Japanese-Americans being confined in internment camps during WW2 is another example. Even today, Asians in the media are perceived as unaggressive, unathletic and "nerdy". You never see an Asian male in a romantic lead for example. I don't think there has been an Asian actor/actress who has ever been nominated, much less won an Academy Award or any other major acting award. Now the most popular Asian character in T.V. right now is Hiro in "Heroes" who perpetuates this stereotype to a T.

Probably the ethnicity that's been the most screwed over in the U.S. are Native Americans and very little is ever discussed about that.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I want to hunt down Margaret Cho's bit about her sitcom, and the casting for it, from one of her standup videos.

If nothing else, it suggests that when we speak of "race" in the US, we think of "blacks" and, increasingly, "hispanics." While the history of the US has its biggest scars rooted in black/nonblack relations, there's far more to it than that. I wonder, for instance, if movies tackle the racism towards the Irish in the previous centuries. Something like "Gangs of New York" (can't say I've seen it yet, so I dunno).[/QUOTE]

If you want to see blatant racism against Asians all you have to do is watch any World War II film, especially Bataan. The drawings of Dr. Seuss during Word War II are fascinating for their racial overtones as well, particularly because he was tolerant towards African-American equality, but blatantly over the top with his portrayal of the Japanese.
 
There's lots of Asian racism in the WWII era. Bugs Bunny cartoons that will never see the light of day, Dr. Seuss' political cartoons, etc. I also recall that Peter Lorre (!) played a Japanese person (Mr. Moto, I think?) in a series of films. I've also never seen a Charlie Chan movie, so I don't know if that actor was of Asian descent or not (money says not).

That doesn't speak anything of the current situation, however - dopa is right that they are by and large ignored. Hell, the Chinese characters in Crash were largely treated as irrelevant to the movie, and focused on far less than everyone else. As for stereotypes, the last aggressive Asian character I've seen in a movie was Sandra Oh (I think that's her name) in Sideways. Even then, she's one of the lucky few minorities cast in a film that ignores their ancestry.
 
I'd go with American History X in its glorious depiction of the white guy growing and becoming a better person but in the end the black kid still can't grow out of his precious anger and stupidity and guns down lobster freedom providing Ed Furlong.

In the end, white people are still better. Plus Fairuza Balk's breasts are a nice touch.
 
Stand and Deliver - poor hispanics taking AP Calc. and made to retake the test because they all passed...I believe it's a true story. I'm not sure if you can really play it off as specifically race because there are poor white kids too.
 
[quote name='Brak']I've actually avoided seeing that because it has some overly intense scenes (or so I've heard -- ala-Salo).

What are your opinions on that?[/QUOTE]

Well, I own Salo also and I think Uncle Tom beats it hands down in terms of over-the-top violence and rape (if you can believe it). For instance, in one of the opening scenes of Uncle Tom, a slave being brought to America on a ship refuses to eat. He would rather starve to death than be forced into salvery. So rather than loose his investment, the slave trader takes a hammer and chisel to smash his teeth out and force the food down his throat with a funnel. Scene makes me gag every time I watch it.

To be honest, I've never though Salo was *that* bad. Yeah, the premise of the film is pretty shocking but the imagery and violence isn't that intense as some make it out to be. The only thing that gets to me in Salo is the corpophilia but if you've seen any old John Watters films before, then it really isn't that big of a deal.
 
[quote name='dopa345']I find it interesting that there is a lack of suggestions for movies concerning Asian race relations and then I realize there aren't many good examples to choose from. That may be something in itself worth discussing.[/QUOTE]


Problem solved (I hope :) ):

Better Luck Tomorrow (imdb)

The Wedding Banquet (imdb)

Pushing Hands (imdb)

Come See the Paradise (WWII theme) (imdb)
 
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