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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
It's true. Amos and Andy were freaking hilarious. Perhaps it's easier to appreciate them now, since we have other alternatives and, hopefully, most people know that Kingfish and Sapphire are not reflective of all (or any) black Americans' reality. At the time the episodes were aired, the offence they caused is easy to understand (that was the only picture of black presented -- which is sad when you think of it, since an all-black sitcom was some pretty intense trailblazing, there), but taken in a vaccum -- good grief, they are SIDESPLITTING. Kingfish trying to teach "French" with a chart of the lyrics to "O du Schoene Schnitzelbank" is one of my favorite TV moments of all time. I admit it. Don't throw fruit at me.
movie criitcs are not obligated to "like" anything; they are free to praise whatever they feel and likewise to pan something they detest - however, if they are going to pontificate, they do have some responsibility to put a movie in context. for example, I never read any Lord of the Rings books, so the movies make very little sense to me. someone who's never read Shakespeare would be completely baffled by "Shakespeare in Love". even the movive versions of crappy TV sitcoms make even less sense if you're not familiar with the original shows
given the analogies I've made, I don't think it would have hurt the critics to spend a couple of hours watching the Madea stage plays on DVD so they could have some understanding of why the movie appeared to contain so many disparate elements - if the critics did this and still said the movie sucked, then so be it. but at least they would have done some homework to support their position. such sloppy work from amateur bloggers is one thing - quite another from established "journalists"
I've no idea as to your ethnicity but it doesn't matter. My point remains. You should hang out with more black people. If it's not overly simplified Jesus drivel (taken from any number of the chitlin' circuit, neo-vauville unemployed r&b star vehicles that criss-cross the "urban" landscape) or Pimpin' Rain (Hustle and Flow... ew) it's this "comedy" (actually, see the aforementioned Jesus drivel). America in general and African-Americans in particular have confused pandering with connecting. But please don't lead anyone to believe that there's an underying sophistication here. It's simply the cinematic equivelant of McDonalds - and not even the one's in the white neighborhoods with green lettuce and decent service. Come to think of it, this crap's even less nutricious.
Nothing, that's what we're left with. The only problem with Perry's so called stereotypical characterizations is that at any given time, it is the sole representation of Black culture available to consumers. Were it seen among a variety of perspectives from say Amiri Baraka's to Ward Connerly's, it would be less controverisal. As it is, he's all we've got, or get I guess. Besides, the term stereotypical should be reserved for characterizations that are two dimensional and offer no explanations for why they are the way they are. I don't think Madea suffers from a lack of depth. If Madea were a white, redneck grandmother, the critics would probably get the joke. But that's because we've seen every variety of white grandmother (German, Irish, Italian, midwestern, southern, etc) for years.
I watched "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" with my wife one evening last year expecting to see a cookie-cutter movie about a woman done wrong. I have never heard of Tyler Perry and only had a vague notion that the movie even existed.
Boy was I surprised...
That was absolutlely the worse movie I have ever seen in my life. It was so bad, I think I might have suffered some long-term psychological damage from it.
Usually I can find a nugget of something good from a bad movie or at least find some kind of ironic humor from a movie's badness. But not this flick.
Maybe it's because I'm an African-American male and expect better from my people. Or maybe it's because I'm offended that people actually like this crappy movie and Perry gets rich over it. I don't know.
There was absolutely no subtlety. The audience doesn't have to think about anything. Perry does it all for you. "Find forgiveness through Jesus!". We're not children, Mr. Perry. Allow us to come to our own conclusions.
The characters where too perfectly drawn. The husband was absolutely evil. The wife was absolutelty perfect. The boyfriend was absolutely sexy, caring, patient, and Christian. In fact, the boyfriend was so perfect he declined an offer to sleep with the "Mad Black Woman". And Madea was just perfectly off the hook!!
Perry wearing the fat, old lady suit didn't work. I spent a good chunk of the movie wondering why there was a dude in a fat, old lady suit. I didn't get it.
The fart jokes with Cicely Tyson was too much for me. Why did he have to go there??? It's Cicely Tyson, not Cameron Diaz.
Perry did an absolutely miserable job trying to blend genres. The movie was a badly done blend of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Big Momma's House" with a horrible slathering of Christian babble layered on top of it. Blending genres is hard to pull off and Perry is not up to the task.
I guess black folks are desperate to see black faces on the screen and will take whatever's offered up.
Stay far and away from anything with Tyler Perry's name on it.
...if you look. And you don't have to look far. The multiplex is not the only place, and certainly not the primary place, to find blacks on film in three-dimensional roles. As a matter of fact, most times those roles intersect with characters of other races and the plotlines are not race-based.
But even if you look at just the "all-black" fare out there, then you're suffering from short-term memory loss. Just two weeks ago you got "Something New". I see a couple of new African-American themed movies released on a monthly basis, not to mention DVDs. Oh, and there's TV, inDemand, and Premium Cable. Not to mention (Gasp!) books and periodicals galore that represent a full spectrum of African-American experiences - yes - that's plural, because they're legion. Just get your high-end expectations out of the Hollywood machine and the world opens up.
From Amiri Baraka to Ward Connerly? Well, you can always count on Spike Lee-coming up, a documentary on Katrina for HBO and a theatrical release in a few weeks starring Denzel Washington. Oh, and if you're looking for right-wing controversy, there's always Larry Elder's "Michael & Me". And Samuel Jackson's "Freedomland" came out the same day as "Family Reunion".
We got plenty 'o somethin'. What happens is one movie gets its fifteen minutes of dissection in the mainstream press and we feel compelled to defend or denigrate it as if it's the only offering or as if we must validate said critics' politically correct indignation.
White liberal movie and cultural critics don't get black people. Hell, they don't even get white people for that matter. Their reviews tend to be more about class dynamic-and they skew to the upperclass-than about anything else. Tyler Perry's plays probably made more money than Eugene O'Neill's and Arthur Miller's combined and now they take notice? And because someone white goes into a dark room and sees black people on screen for 90 minutes being broadly funny, and perhaps even stereotypical, I'm supposed to gag from the "embarassment" my people have brought forth on screen? Oh, please!
When Roger Ebert, et al are ashamed of "Blue Collar Comedy", the "Ernest" series and "My Name is Earl", then I'll hang my head over "Madea".
Note to Mr. Smith: It's pronounced "Ma-Dee'r" (silent 'r'). Shorthand for "mother-dearest". Term of affection for one's mother used by black southerners and carribeans. Nothing to do with the fictional character of Greek mythology.
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