OK, I'm tried of remaining silent in the face of the overwhelming racism
displayed by the movie industry and the theater exhibitors. Hollywood has a lot
to answer for. I am going to start a group which will boycott and protest
and threaten until we have achieved recognition and redress for the most
put-upon and racially-stereotyped segment in America:
The Caucasian-American male.
We will not longer allow movies to be shown which feature the inept,
clueless pale-skinned husband who is victimized by his smarter children or
hoodwinked by his clever wife. Caucasian-American males are intelligent, loving,
hard-working and caring spouses who don't deserve to be smeared with such unfair
portrayals and ugly caricatures!
We don't want to see another film foisted on the public consciousness
where white male teenagers are depicted as stupid, drug-using,
booze-guzzling, sex-obsessed apes. It is demeaning and traumatic to
the Caucasian-American youth of our nation who struggle against the odds to
be the best they can be every day!
And let's not have any more of those pasty-faced, so-called "action heroes"
who always get the girl, can defeat an army single handed, can leap tall
buildings in a single bound or spin steel-hard webs around school buses.
That kind of fantasy-mongering based on racial stereotyping has no place in the
modern world and only serves to instill a sense of creeping inferiority in the
oppressed Caucasian-American male.
This disgusting racial profiling in film must be ended once and
for all! And that includes movies with all those "cute" or
"weird" Caucasian-American character actors. Oh, sure, you think they are
just playing it for laughs. That it's all just innocent fun. Let me tell you
something... every single one of those bit parts is a stab at the heart and
a slur on a great race and a great culture and can no longer be tolerated.
I know this won't leave hardly any material for making films in the future.
Too bad. It's worth it to achieve justice and equality at long
last.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004
23:17
Subject: Re: [MOPO] -Birth Of A Nation -
9/11 - Oliver Stone
What about every single film with a stereotyped black
character? Gone With the Wind will really be "gone with the
wind"!
Bruce
At 04:34 PM 8/11/2004, Glenn Taranto wrote:
Sue,
Very well put.
The next to go will be books by folks such as Mark
Twain!!! (Farenheit 451 is the temp for book burning I imagine for film it's
considerably less!)
Glenn
T.
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: Susan Heim
- To: Glenn Taranto ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 11:15 AM
- Subject: Re: [MOPO] -Birth Of A Nation - (/11 - Oliver
Stone
- Hey Gang,
- I'm with Glenn. People's common sense gets less and
less as time goes by. It is sad to me that a film of such historical
value, in many areas, would get shelved like this. As a society, we are
all aware of prejudices and stereotypes, past and present.
Unfortunately, it is part of our history and everyone's history throughout
the ages. More to the point, it is part of human nature. A film,
made 80-90 years ago, is of historical value. Do we begin to remove all
books, fiction or non fiction, that were written in a different time
period that reflected different values or opinions? I still love a
good John Wayne western but I view it knowing it depicts a time period in
our history and, at the same time, I can have my own personal
feelings about our disregard of the American Indian. There are a lot
of movies and books that I don't like, either artistically or ethically,
but I support the right for them to be available. I think you learn so
much when you see something that is different that what you have
previously known or thought. It opens your mind to other possibilities.
That doesn't mean you have to accept them as your own, but at least you
were open to hearing or viewing them and incorporating other's ideas into
your knowledge.
- I saw Birth of a Nation when I was a student at UCLA. For the time
period, technically it is an amazing film. It always disheartened me
to know that D.W. Griffith died fairly nameless and poor. He was a great
storyteller and, for me, that is what makes a great filmmaker. I consider
the film a masterpiece of film history. So, when will it stop. Do we cover
the statue of David because we want to outlaw nudity in
public? Stupid, isn't it.
- Sue Heim
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: Glenn Taranto
- To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 9:35 AM
- Subject: [MOPO] -Birth Of A Nation - (/11 - Oliver Stone
- I heard about this on local LA
radio.
- The funny thing was the guy who runs the
theatre was very apologetic to "all those I have offended" but then when
pressed on the issue he started to tell it like it is.
- They were going to show the movie and put
it in historical context. It was more of "class" if you will then
a screening. There was to be a panel discussion. A point of his,
which was very well taken, was that you can go into any video store and
rent this film and see it completely out of context which he said, and I
agree, is the real danger.
- Not to stir up a hornets nest it's the
same as Michael Moore's 9/11. People can't put it in the context
that 9/11 is just a film with a decided view point of the director as
creator such as Griffith, Moore and Stone. Anyone who looks at a
historical film as directed by Oliver Stone and takes it as gospel is
also shortsighted.
- It's all a joke to me because there is
great folly here but you can't reason with people's emotion. Just can't
be done.
- There is a complete loss of common sense these days on what is right
and what is wrong. I don't know how it's gotten as bad as it
has... A gradual progression I guess...
- Glenn
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: posterdoctor
- To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 9:19 PM
- Subject: [MOPO] Question on LA film showing-Birth Of A
Nation
- I was sent the following
information about a cancelled LA showing of Birth Of A Nation.
Can anyone confirm that this is a true story?
- Thanks, Danny /
Seattle
- The owner of the Silent Movie
Theater in Hollywood canceled a planned
- screening of D. W. Griffith's The
- Birth of a Nation after the Los
- Angeles branch of the NAACP and a group called the National
Alliance for
- Positive Action vowed to picket the theater. Although owner
Charlie Lustman
- had planned to show the film with a disclaimer stating that he
does not
- endorse the racist content of the film but wants to honor its
place in
- cinema history, the two groups had charged that the film would
continue to
- poison race relations. Lustman said that he had also received
threatening
- phone calls and was concerned about the safety of patrons and
92-year-old
- Bob Mitchell, the onetime leader of the famed Mitchell Boys Choir,
who was
- to provide organ music to accompany the film.
- Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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