Don’t Save Him, He Don’t Wanna Be Saved
In white people please stop it news, Hollywood has unveiled yet another film about some poor, misguided, unscrupulous Negro being saved by you guessed it – some paler, gentler, caring individual from the other side of the racial aisle.
I really like Sandra Bullock, but is the best her agent could come up with? The accent is abysmal, the storyline is trite, and wait, no why keep going – let’s just focus on the storyline.
Has the film industry not learned from the lessons of Radio?
How many stories like this is the film industry going to keep telling? I don’t want to see some story about some big black man being taught to read well enough to sign his name on an NFL contract. We all know how that story ends. Ain’t that right, Michael Vick?
To be fair, this movie is based on the book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The premise is as follows:
An intermittently homeless Memphis ghetto kid taken in by a rich white family and a Christian high school, Oher’s preternatural size and agility soon has every college coach in the country courting him obsequiously. Combining a tour de force of sports analysis with a piquant ethnography of the South’s pigskin mania, Lewis probes the fascinating question of whether football is a matter of brute force or subtle intellect.
So it’s indeed rooted in a true story. Yet I’m still irritated. I haven’t read the book, but based on its summary it seems as though film producers have taken this story and trivialized it into some cliché-driven sports movie focusing on the same old black pathology subplot. He’s poor, he’s black, he’s big, so brawn, he can’t read, but thank you Lordy, some nice wealthy woman is gonna hug him and make it all better.
These sorts of films seem exhaustive. And honestly, though Precious is a good film, that plot is played, too. Let me just say, this isn’t simply about race.
I think Sandra Bullock is a good actress and very much atypical of the A-list actresses we’re used to. At the same time, she’s very much but sidelined into an obvious shtick and while everyone needs a gimmick, more people should be challenged especially when they’ve proven they excel when given the opportunity. But she’s not which is why some people now consider her a one-trick pony.
She’s not being elevated and neither are we.
Before anyone brings it up I know my recently defending Tyler Perry’s right to make the sort of films that he wants (and that they won’t destroy the race) on Twitter might suggest I’m exercising a double standard.
I don’t think so, though, only because I think as a filmmaker he’s at least trying to switch it up. Whether or not he fails miserably at it is debatable, which is why I believe he should still be afforded time before being completely written off.
This type of film follows a longstanding tradition, however.
Some gimmicks never get old, but really, how many more movies do we need to see of white people fixing some black stereotype and calling it an uplifting piece of work?
It reads as lazy, and shows little signs of progress given the fact that some skinny black man with a white mama and African name managed to become President.
Don’t save us, Hollywood. Save yourselves.
Alisha
November 10, 2009 at 4:25 pm
You read my mind on this one. I was just telling a friend how sick and tired I am of these story lines where the white man saves the dumb n*gger. How many times do I have to hear that story (even if it is true sometimes). There are so many other things to make movies about.
Then….I found out that the movie is based on a family from my hometown, Memphis. How disappointing. Here’s the link to the news story:
BUT I am happy for the guy and his accomplishments. Will I go see the movie? Negative.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/feb/28/memphis-family-at-core-of-new-film/
Don’t Save Him, He Don’t Wanna Be Saved | HOLLYWOOD
November 10, 2009 at 6:23 pm
[...] here: Don’t Save Him, He Don’t Wanna Be Saved Posted in Hollywood Movies | Tags: based-on-the, blind-side, film, gimmicks-never, [...]
babygirlja
November 10, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I completely agree with you about white hollywood and their save-a-dumb-poor negro storylines. I love Sandra Bullock but that accent, no ma’am and I agree with you about Tyler Perry because when Spike Lee was bashing him everyone was agreeing with Spike but the difference between him and Spike is that Tyler gives the medicine with candy so it’s easier to digest whereas spike just gives you the medicine.
Skanky Legg
November 10, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I’ve read the book and it’s quite lovely….but this trailer kills me every time. It looks like they scrapped all of the nuance of the book and turned it into “WEALTHY WHITE LADY SAVES THE DAY!”
SIGH.
Michael
November 10, 2009 at 11:33 pm
@skanky Thank you so much! I was trying to tell my friend that earlier while we were talking. I haven’t read the book myself, but when I read the description there seemed to be a lot more intellect and nuance to the story, but as you put it, it’s “Wealthy White Lady Saves The Day.” You worded my thoughts perfectly.
Every story has a right to be told, but it’s like, why is it always [that] story? BLEH.
P.S. I love the name, Skanky Legg.
@BabyGirl Right, plus Spike is obviously a much better filmmaker but he’s not without his own stereotypes — namely in his depictions of women.
Cassie
November 11, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I swear I was in the movies with my friend when this trailer came on and my eyes dang near rolled right out of my head. I’m so sick of this. We have been watching this crap since Mr. Dummond saved Arnold and Willis from Harlem and George and Kathrine saved Webster. Give it a damn break. And the part when she goes to the mean bad projects to look for him *blank f’in stare**** Or the part when he says, ” I ain’t never had no bed” I can’t and I won’t on this movie. Thanks for talking about this Mike. Now back to my regularly scheduled programming
MissTee
November 11, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I felt the same dayum way when I saw the trailer! Okay, okay I get its supposed to be some “feel good, tear jerker”….but F that ish! I ain’t supporting this ish….I may watch it online tho:-0
@ Cassie “We have been watching this crap since Mr. Dummond saved Arnold and Willis from Harlem and George and Kathrine saved Webster.” WORD!!!!! (those were my shows tho!!!! At least Willis was callin’ Mr. D on it tho…LOL)
As for Spike v. TP…..I said it on another blog & was challenged but I stand by it: Spike just mad cause TP stole his spot as THEE go-to AA/black film director. Same as KRS1 going @ Nelly or my parents tellin’ me that rap was crap in the 80′s…..old school v. new school = eternal conflict.
Wendy
November 11, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Heck, I’m white, and I rolled my eyes at the trailer. It is a true story, but a white woman in high heels really marching out onto a field to teach a teen boy how football works? Right…….
I’ve heard the movie isn’t as obnoxious as the trailer, thank goodness
BonitaApplebum
November 12, 2009 at 10:35 am
This is why I love you and this blog cuz I swear when I saw this trailer I thought ALL THE SAME THINGS. Especially about Sandra Bullock not getting her due in Hollywood, this is not a good look for her at all, I thought she was better than this, but hey everyone gotta eat. Anyway this movies reeks of the “Black people need good liberal white folk to save them from themselves” cliche that is
Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, that damn baseball movie with Keanu Reeves and on and fucking on. When the hell will Hollywood learn that these movies do not appeal to us, but then again when do they ever consider us in contrived plots like this? I appreciate Precious, just because I am thankful that we have people that look like us willing to tell our side of the story.
MzVirgo
November 12, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Though the plot seems inspirational at first, it does get tiring and predictable. When I watch a movie like this, it makes me feel like black (or Latino) people aren’t educated, are broke, on drugs, on welfare with multiple kids and unable to do for ourselves and here comes a white person to take them in and their lives are turned around miraculously. It just doesn’t happen that way, unless you are a celebrity going out to Africa to adopt a child (Madonna, Angelina Jolie). I don’t mind a Tyler Perry movie every now and then because it shows black people helping out other black people. I’m not saying that a white person taking in a black person is not real, but they need to come up with a better script.
The Dyv
November 15, 2009 at 12:58 am
I feel you on this one Michael and commentors!!