Norms For Black Films In Hollywood example essay topic

Film is one of the most influential means of communication and a powerful medium of propaganda. Race and representation is central to the study of the black film actor, since the major studios continue to reflect and reinforce the stereotype of our times. The depiction of blacks in Hollywood movies reinforce many of the misconceptions of the white majority rather than objective reality, limiting black actors to stereotypical roles. The movie 'Soul Food' proved to be the inspiration for African-Americans hungry for balanced, realistic depictions of blacks in America The film is about a Chicago family who airs out its tribulations over Sunday dinner. It depicts well educated African Americans in lavish suburban homes and high ranking job titles. Yet, comedic films, such as 'Booty Call,' or violent dramas, such as 'Dead Presidents' or 'Next Friday,' still seem to be the norms for black films in Hollywood.

There are no gun-toting ruffians in 'Soul Food,' no over-the-top streetwise caricatures. Instead, the film serves up real-life characters grappling with real-life familial problems. That's why it seems to resonate with black audiences -- and why it was considered risky to make. 'Soul Food' resonates with blacks because, as with whites, the most evocative films present idealized visions of their real lives. Unfortunately, films such as "Soul Food", "Love Jones", and "The Best Man", rarely receive the credit in which they deserve due to the lack of promotions and viewership by mainstream society. In witness of this truth, the American public is faced with the guilt of perpetuating the historical images of Sambo and Mammy with the new depictions of aggressive, streetwise, and comedic caricatures.

In recent years, much of the debate around racial inequality in the United States has focused on Representation. That is: how people are imagined, portrayed, and often stereotyped by the mass media. Integrally linked is the question of how these depictions in the world of media contribute to social discrimination and personal self-esteem in the real world. No medium is a more powerful disseminator of images and stereotypes than television, and no citizens have suffered more from misrepresentation in this country than minorities.

However, too often the debate about race and representation breaks down intothe facile dichotomy of 'Good Images' vs. 'Bad Stereotypes. ' Not only is this division too simplistic, but it frequently ignores the mechanics of why negative representations persist or why they disappear, and glosses over the complex relationship between images and the real world. The black ghetto of television has opened up lately, and shows featuring African Americans in a variety of roles may be viewed any night of the week. This shift is primarily the result of challenges made by the NAACP, and the resulting general shifts in public attitudes about race.

But the new representations of blacks are also shaped by the historical stereotypes which plagued African Americans. In 1971 actor and director Melvin Van Peebles wrote, produced, starred in, and composed the soundtrack for the film "Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song". An entirely black production, it broke the mold of black characterization in feature films. The story revolves around a pimp suddenly radicalized by aiding a young black revolutionary who is beaten by white cops.

His resulting disgust with the white establishment struck a cord with black audiences everywhere. The films ending, with it's proclamation that 'a is coming back to collect some dues,' heralded the arrival of a new era in Hollywood and for blacks in film. "Blaxploitation" was born. "Blaxploitation" referred to a series of films in which African-American characters and their lifestyles were presented in a manner that often reinforced negative stereotypes. Many critics of 70's films believed the movies pandered to the lowest of black so called 'ghetto' images, while borrowing heavily from mainstream Hollywood genres no longer used. There were black westerns, sci-fi fantasies and movies like " Bacula" a horror variation of Dracula...

Blaxploitation even had its own kung-fu flicks. But despite lackluster performances by the actors and shoestring budgets, the hip talk, sex appeal, and messages of black power made movies instant hits with black audiences. But ultimately black audiences realized they were being patronized and exploited, and by 1975 were leaving cinemas in droves. For all intents and purposes boom was over.

By the early nineties a series of movies in the wake of John Singleton's Boyz In The Hood, despite their good intentions, started to provide a new and volatile formula in black films that studio executives wasted no time in exploiting. Dubbed 'Gangsploitation " they were the films of the nineties. Black men were portrayed as ' and black women as 'welfare queens. ' Probably the most successful post 'Boyz " movie was Albert and Allen Hughes Menace II Society. 'Menace' typified " Gangsploitation" films with a concentration on surface elements such as music and violence, with a story line that seems to be saying something about the black experience, but instead just rehashes the latest incidence of black violence from the evening news.

However without the constraints of the budgets many films had, these new films were well financed and, in some cases, critically acclaimed for their artistry and we reconsidered desirable by audiences. Today, audiences need not visit their local cinema for a dose of. They simply need to turn on their televisions. The United Paramount Network (UPN) is at the forefront in this regard and has been criticized often for sitcoms that portray Blacks offensively. With offerings such as the comedy Homeboys In Outer space, which follows two imbeciles in space and the misadventures they encounter while trying to pick up women in tight clothing, UPN's shows did little more than put a new face on old stereotypes. This was even more disturbing considering the long run of highly successful " The Cosby Show" throughout the 80's.

It seemed TV and film pioneer Bill Cosby had finally broken through the stereotype ceiling, depicting the life a strong black middle class family and projecting it into the living rooms of blacks and whites throughout the United States and the world. But just a few short years after Cosby, television's way of dealing with portraying black life was simply not to. For years none of the major networks we recreating programming for black audiences. UPN, Warner Brothers Network and Fox Network shrewdly tried to fill that void.

However the succession of black shows created by these networks seemed not to be a result of a sincere social consciousness, but rather an attempt to appeal to an untapped revenue market. And so blacks have come full circle as it is this market and its hopes for something better than images of domestics and mammies that first spawned the craze. There is no argument that blacks in film have made significant advancements since the days of popular film such as Shaft. However there is also no argument that blacks have far to go in receiving a fair and honest portrayal in movies and television..