BlackkKlansman (new Spike Lee film)

Dude, you could watch "Care Bears Movie" and get angry - it doesn't take much to set you off!

 

No, not "like most foreign films".

It's a myth that a) most foreign films are good and b) most foreign films are downers.

The foreign films that we see may fall into those categories, but there are 1000s of non-US movies made every year that get no attention in the US.

Other lands make just as much crowd-pleasing crap as we do...

 

We have a Bingo!

 

If you are old enough to actually remember the 1960s (or 1950s) the "progress" is pretty self-evident.

 

I figure any film that anyone bothers to create English titles and subtitles for and arranges a US release is probably going to be worth seeing.

Two of the last foreign films Vickie has watched are The Wandering Earth, a Chinese SF movie where the sun is going out and we send the Earth to orbit another star, a task that will take 500 generations, and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas a very odd Japanese high school movie about a bubbly girl with a terminal illness and a very anti-social boy.

On the other hand, the Oscar nominated film Cold War is exactly the sort of film that people who think they hate foreign films would be perfectly justified in hating. Beautifully photographed in black and white about two miserable jerks who will never be happy.

 

If it's alright with Morgan Freeman, it's certainly alright with me.
I admire and respect him as an Actor, Philanthropist, Pilot. Owns his own blues club in Mississippi, plays there at times.
I would love to meet and spend some time with him.

 

Colin, ain't nothin' uplifting about racism...unless you happen to be a racist!

You know what I mean. I mean movies about race. I watched "Rosewood" back in the 90s and I still haven't been able to watch it again because it made me so angry. Same with the movie "Roots". I haven't seen it since 1977. No effin' way was I going to sit there and watch some crap about driving Miss Daisy, especially after all those old hillbillies I used to work with back then gushed over how nice the movie was. Me? I was into "Do The Right Thing" and "Colors".

 

I'm not, but I know there's been a ton of progress.

I'm 51 and I remember when the notion of an African-American president sounded like sci-fi. No way it'd happen in my lifetime!

But there's still a looooong way to go, and that's kind of the problem with movies like "Green Book": they simplify racism and leave the impression that everything's A-OK, whereas racism is still a major issue in society...

 

It's about me and Grant???

 

You take no uplift from stories in which someone with racist tendencies learns the error of their ways and grows as a person?

 

Actually, I don't think that because a film is a foreign film or that a film receives "critical acclaim" that it is necessarily any good or even interesting.

I usually see "critical acclaim" with something that is politically correct, which is something that I hope most films are not.

I also don't buy into the mantra that most foreign films are downer's.

What I do see them as, are films that are made the way the director decided to make them, without being concerned about what the social media will think of it.

This goes hand-in-hand with, not having to worry about their movie having a happier ever after ending, that American audiences seem to insist in seeing.

Hooray for Bollywood!

 

Worldwide, yes...not quite as much in the U.S.A. these days as in places like, say, South Africa and parts of the Middle East.
Little profit to be made in making virtue-signalling movies about those problem areas.

 

We're gonna take the thread into verboten territory if we discuss the topic much further, so we'll just have to agree to disagree that racism isn't much of a problem in the US.

Pointing out places where it's more of a problem doesn't negate the concerns. That's like saying it's not a problem that my leg got ripped off because some other guy lost both his legs...

 

Well...I guess 'you don't have a leg to stand on' in this discussion? (Ba-da-boom!)
Let's get back to Spike. Who here likes Summer Of Sam (1999) as much as I do?

 

I've not seen it in almost 20 years, but I thought it was spotty:

Summer of Sam (1999)

 

So back on point...is this worth watching?

 

I'd give a resounding 'YES!' as said by Marv Albert

 

Sure. I think it's a mess but it's still a mess worth giving a screening!

 

I thought it a great idea for a movie that crashed and burned within minutes.

 

I could write a volume about this so-called "progress", but the forum rules won't let me. All i'll say is: one step forward, two steps back.

Well, i'm 56 and remember when Jesse Jackson ran in 1984. It sure didn't seem like it would ever happen, but there were circumstances that caused people to reconsider it in 2008.

Yup. You got it!

 

I didn't get that from Green Book at all. Did you see the film? It showed progress, but that was "progress" between the film's two main characters and to some extent in the attitudes of the family. It said nothing about racism not still being a major issue in society.

More generally my impression of Green Book was that it's major strength was in the acting. What makes a successful film can differ in terms what parts of it were more effective. Green Book had two of the best acting performances all year, and the wife was pretty good, too. Her part being smaller, but make that three.

I simply miss how people are so convinced Green Book minimized racism.

In any event I saw Black Klansman last night. I thought it was very effective, some moments of great tension. It was not perfect, however. There were some anachronisms that were enough that I noticed them. I am not sure why Lee chose to fool around with the time setting instead of going with the real Ron Stallworth's timeline. Adding the girlfriend was okay, though. And the ending was very effective.

 

Does the Italian guy really learn, or does he simply adjust his attitude? Does the movie make the audience think about the root cause of the conditions the musician had to endure? Does it cause the audience to think about their own biases?

 

A thread about a Spike Lee movie that's about a Black man who goes undercover in the KKK is kind of about race, so good luck avoiding it. The movie isn't about cinematography! You can only run away from these issues for so long and in so many ways.

 

Yeah, I remember that run for president as well - there was a zero percent chance Jackson would've won, and like I mentioned, I really thought that the notion of a black president might happen like in the year 2060 or whatever.

Shocked - and pleased - it happened as soon as it did!

 

Yes, I saw "Green Book". No, it didn't claim there was no racism, but it simplified matters to the degree where people who watch it can pat themselves on the back and think how enlightened/progressive they are without confronting much...