Yesterday, my Dad and I saw the movie Red Tails. It was awesome!
It takes place near the end of WWII mainly in Italy, following the lives of black pilots. It is an action/war film, fairly new. It, like The Help, tackles racism towards blacks in America.
What do both movies try to be? Both movies want to teach us about history, that racism is wrong, that we should be accepting to others, and to fictionally portray what the lives of blacks were like those many years ago.
Why does The Help fail at this? The Help has a righteous white. The main character is white and she is the one who starts fighting racism in her small town, making big changes, because blacks need a white girl to help them. Yeah, those poor blacks can't help themselves. It's one thing to be an ally against racism while being white, like the whites who attended the "I Have A Dream" speech, who spoke against racism, who helped blacks. It was another thing to make it where the whites did all the good things, making The Help feel-good-white-shit. In Red Tails there were some good whites, mainly bad whites, but never a righteous white. The blacks also did as much as they could for themselves.
Also, both seem like one is for women and the other is for men. The truth is, both genders commonly went to see both movies. Also, just because one is aimed supposedly at men, the other at women, it still doesn't excuse having a righteous white. The Help had so much opportunity and failed. You can't say "Well this movie was more for women, so blah blah blah." No, there is no excuse.
OK, that's pretty much the whole point of this post, but I'll point out a few more things:
-It was really funny at times.
-It had some really heart wrenching scenes (spoiler: like when Lucky died at the end).
-It had an black/Italian couple (seriously, this is the first movie I've ever seen having that). Plus the Lucky/Sophia storyline was very well thought out, you knew they actually cared about each other. They may have both spoken different languages, but that added to their feelings.
-It had action, enough said.
Gah, I've also recently been wanting to watch the movie Bamboozled, but my library doesn't have it. Maybe this movie makes me want to watch a million others on race.
Side Note: My mother, sister, and aunt are all big fans of The Help, while I'm not. I don't understand why more people aren't seeing the book/movie as wrong.
Also, both seem like one is for women and the other is for men. The truth is, both genders commonly went to see both movies. Also, just because one is aimed supposedly at men, the other at women, it still doesn't excuse having a righteous white. The Help had so much opportunity and failed. You can't say "Well this movie was more for women, so blah blah blah." No, there is no excuse.
OK, that's pretty much the whole point of this post, but I'll point out a few more things:
-It was really funny at times.
-It had some really heart wrenching scenes (spoiler: like when Lucky died at the end).
-It had an black/Italian couple (seriously, this is the first movie I've ever seen having that). Plus the Lucky/Sophia storyline was very well thought out, you knew they actually cared about each other. They may have both spoken different languages, but that added to their feelings.
-It had action, enough said.
Gah, I've also recently been wanting to watch the movie Bamboozled, but my library doesn't have it. Maybe this movie makes me want to watch a million others on race.
Side Note: My mother, sister, and aunt are all big fans of The Help, while I'm not. I don't understand why more people aren't seeing the book/movie as wrong.
