The Blaxploitation films are about the most common subjects or can have unusual themes or plots. Yet all the best films found in this genre nod at the subjects that lie at the core of African American culture. These are very different thematically from movies that are also about exploitation, which are often derogatory in nature.
One film could have gotten to a level that would have been a cut above the best of these epics. This was the 1972 movie Trick Baby, based on an eponymous novel by the author Iceberg Slim, then a leading light in black writing. Whereas the novel is an intense tale of the underworld, the film wasted the potential by being, as one critic put it, watered down.
This story revolves around the friendship between two conmen working in the African underground. These are White Folks and Blue Howard, who live and operate in Philadelphia, and Folks is a biracial person who can be mistaken for white. It is the one fact that makes their partnership in crime relatively successful, and they are planning a new one.
The racial tensions obviously propel this plot, but then it can be expected from the work of an author with very intense experiences in the African underworld, and his books were even bestsellers in his genre. Delineation of character was present in a watered down sense, and Folks was especially cited for having a ho hum and forgettable performance. There was no focus on being black and male, and that was something that could have really made the difference.
White Folks was born from the union of a prostitute and a white trick, hence the title. Since this accident of birth is the thematic focus of both novel and film, the story could have intensely examined the details behind it. However, the film went ahead with the classic need for Hollywood to have an easier subject to portray visually.
In this regard, this feature can be explained, because to intensify or deepen the focus on Folks would have made some people squirm. With the lack of honest friction or real issues about racial conflict, the movie went on to become a somewhat feel good crime movie that dissolved the issues out of hard focus. The theme of black crime might have been well told, if not for the way the focus became the driver for the film.
Hollywood has always had the tendency to dehumanize the focus, to concentrate on visual elements instead of the story ones. It is one defect that no one has deemed to change, and so, no matter supposedly great films there are available from the industry, they do not address this defect. It is mostly about an industry that seems to want to be relevant always ending up producing semi con works.
The plan hatched by the conspirators is complicated by a former crime that involved a Mafia relative. This final nod to the cliche film ending is something that will turn a critics stomach, and this is perhaps the gamble. Perhaps the real point behind this work is the bid to become an impactful sensation.
Larry Yust, the director, softened the impact of the story so that it could be accepted by most American moviegoers. However, these are people that cry from sensitivity while ignoring the blasphemies they find in their midst. Black culture provides so many telling things about the country, that the movie had to be watered down, maybe.
One film could have gotten to a level that would have been a cut above the best of these epics. This was the 1972 movie Trick Baby, based on an eponymous novel by the author Iceberg Slim, then a leading light in black writing. Whereas the novel is an intense tale of the underworld, the film wasted the potential by being, as one critic put it, watered down.
This story revolves around the friendship between two conmen working in the African underground. These are White Folks and Blue Howard, who live and operate in Philadelphia, and Folks is a biracial person who can be mistaken for white. It is the one fact that makes their partnership in crime relatively successful, and they are planning a new one.
The racial tensions obviously propel this plot, but then it can be expected from the work of an author with very intense experiences in the African underworld, and his books were even bestsellers in his genre. Delineation of character was present in a watered down sense, and Folks was especially cited for having a ho hum and forgettable performance. There was no focus on being black and male, and that was something that could have really made the difference.
White Folks was born from the union of a prostitute and a white trick, hence the title. Since this accident of birth is the thematic focus of both novel and film, the story could have intensely examined the details behind it. However, the film went ahead with the classic need for Hollywood to have an easier subject to portray visually.
In this regard, this feature can be explained, because to intensify or deepen the focus on Folks would have made some people squirm. With the lack of honest friction or real issues about racial conflict, the movie went on to become a somewhat feel good crime movie that dissolved the issues out of hard focus. The theme of black crime might have been well told, if not for the way the focus became the driver for the film.
Hollywood has always had the tendency to dehumanize the focus, to concentrate on visual elements instead of the story ones. It is one defect that no one has deemed to change, and so, no matter supposedly great films there are available from the industry, they do not address this defect. It is mostly about an industry that seems to want to be relevant always ending up producing semi con works.
The plan hatched by the conspirators is complicated by a former crime that involved a Mafia relative. This final nod to the cliche film ending is something that will turn a critics stomach, and this is perhaps the gamble. Perhaps the real point behind this work is the bid to become an impactful sensation.
Larry Yust, the director, softened the impact of the story so that it could be accepted by most American moviegoers. However, these are people that cry from sensitivity while ignoring the blasphemies they find in their midst. Black culture provides so many telling things about the country, that the movie had to be watered down, maybe.
About the Author:
If you are looking for the facts about a trick baby, come to the web pages online today. More details are available at http://ronarcher.info/ministry now.
No comments:
Post a Comment