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This review is very important to understand the timeline, context, and ultimate consequences of Hollywood’s blaxploitation movement, started by the independent film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. The Hollywood films that followed, like 1971's Superfly and Shaft, portrayed a black urban fantasy. In the case of Superfly, it is a heroic cocaine dealer who ends up using his “ghetto smarts” to outsmart “the Man” while confiding his despair in accepting that the only way for him to “make it” is to sell coke. As his partner says, “it’s the hand ‘the Man’ dealt us.” In the case of Shaft, there is the idea of an in-your-face sexual, cocky, hip black private detective that is embraced by white culture as the new black "answer." Comical to white viewers but dangerously desireable to black viewers. Both films – and the blaxploitation genre in general – exploit the black fantasy that with the “ghetto smarts” and current culture of drug dealing and other criminal activity at their disposal, they can outsmart and ultimately defeat “the Man.” Sweetback helped create and perpetuate this myth with a black folk hero that kills two cops who were beating up a young Black Panther that eventually emerges victorious when he escapes to Mexico. Are we supposed to cheer? The exploitation of this black fantasy – blaxploitation – has created this myth that ultimately holds down black urban culture. When violence against authority and drug dealing are glorified with a sense of pride, the actual impact on the community takes a back seat to the fantasy of the ghetto revolution. Mario Van Peebles’ New Jack City ironically shows the damage on the black community from his father’s ghetto lifestyle glorification. It shows how the liberating feeling of making a blaxploitation film paradoxically imprisoned millions of urban youths in a fantasy that has no bearing or practical use in the real world.
tagged 1991 baadasssss blaxploitation chicago_sun-times ebert film mario new_jack_city race review shaft superfly sweetback van_peebles by amagnes ...on 10-APR-08
Smiley, Tavis. "Melvin Van Peebles". Tavis Smiley. PBS. 27 May 2004. .
After some bantering where Melvin reveals he is actually “Sir Melvin” (“brother from the south side of Chicago has been knighted”), Tavis Smiley begins the interview with Melvin Van Peebles and his son Mario. Tavis asks Mario what it was like growing up in the shadow of his father, who responds saying that Melvin “never though being successful would make him forget his blackness…who he is.” They discuss Melvin growing up in an institution/industry where he is “mad at the system but not mad at the people.” Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was therefore an indictment of the system but not necessarily everyone who functions within that system. Melvin acknowledges that all the film unions were all-white and he sought to make a film that utilizes people of all races in spite of the singular racial perspective portrayed in Sweetback. Next they talk about Mario’s film New Jack City (1991) and Mario confides that since the studio heads are all white, it’s tough to pitch a movie with complex non-white characters. More often than not, studio heads use black characters in simple way (i.e. comic relief or subservience). Thus, most of the Van Peebles’ films are done by racially mixed crews and funded by black producers. They move on to Mario losing his virginity on screen in Sweetback’s beginning at 13 years old, which Mario says was a great experience (he kept asking for retakes). The conversation continues about the paternal link between Melvin, Mario, and now Mario’s kids in his recent biopic of his father, Baadasssss (2003). After discussing how they make due with limited resources and time (Sweetback was shot in 19 days “without technology), they finish by talking about how to promote a controversial movie nobody wants to advertise.
This interview was very interesting to read because it shed light not only on some of the feelings behind the controversial production of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, but also illustrated the father-son relationship between Melvin and Mario Van Peebles. Sweetback is a film that is meant to affect the younger generation, instilling them with a sense of pride and refusal to tolerate intolerance. As this interview demonstrates, Melvin instilled his son with a sense of purpose and duty, not only to his family and race, but to under-privileged, under-utilized film crews as well. Although the character of Sweetback ultimately becomes a loner, it was the production of that film that brought people together in order to challenge society and the Hollywood system with new, provocative images and stories. As Melvin said, it was the system, not the people, that needed to be directly confronted.
tagged 1971 2004 baadasssss blaxploitation director film interview mario melvin new_jack_city pbs sweetback tavis_smiley transcript van_peebles by amagnes ...on 10-APR-08
In the article “Resurrecting the Godfather,” author James Thomas Chiampi analyzes Mario Puzo’s, The Godfather, and the themes that are consistent throughout the book. In addition to this, he compares and contrasts the book with the film made by Francis Ford Coppola, to show the difference in the overall message of these two mediums. Quoting The Godfather Papers, Chiampi informs the reader that Puzo’s overall intentions of writing this book was financially motivated, and according to Puzo, writing this book caused him to “sell out.”
Chiampi analyzes Puzo’s writing, showing that the book is a social commentary. He states that Puzo’s writing shows that crime in America is in response to “alienation and powerlessness.” In order for one to attain power, Puzo shows that one must revert back to the Italian customs. Chiampi emphasizes that these Italian customs are conveyed through themes that run throughout the book: a code of behavior, courtesy and strong family ties. These are expressed through the characteristics of the characters. Chiampi points out that Sonny’s spontaneity can be categorized as “American,” while Michael’s demeanor is more Sicilian.
Chiampi believes that a theme Puzo tried to develop was the fact that Sicilian culture is better than that of America, and tries to convey that American society is irrational compared to Sicilian.
One can see that Puzo’s beliefs and character development are conveyed through the characters of the movie, insuring that his overall message is captured by the movie.
tagged mario nintendo reincarnation super_mario video_games zen by mhighlan ...on 22-NOV-05