The reason is simply that I am particularly wary about the direction Hollywood is heading with this whole 'rewriting history for the sake of entertainment' thing. It's a page taken right out of George Orwell's '1984.' Or to be even more specific, something to the tune of Walter Rodney's 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.' The theme is: 'history belongs to the victors.' Hollywood media is the most prevalent source of entertainment in the world. And, unfortunately, it has also become a very prevalent source of information as well. People get their facts from mainstream Hollywood movies, and don't understand truth doesn't work like that. Hollywood is an engine designed to produce profit based on audience turnout. They have this down to a formula. I have a very big problem with skewing truth for entertainment value.
Which brings me to my second point. 'History belongs to the victors.' That stings. Though it's not a conscious effort to bring about such a degrading parallel in the underdevelopment of Africa, the same notion made me cringe with Tarentino's Inglorious Basterds. I'm not even Jewish, and that fact that non-Jewish people could revel and rejoice in a fanciful yarn about returning agency to the Jewish people, and equally ball their faces in disgust at the nefarious antics of Hitler, felt wrong, because it only reminds you that it didn't happen like that. You wished it did, but it didn't. People still suffer, despite attempts by others to change the meaning of something horrendous, for the sake of entertaining. Non-blacks will enter the world of a freed slave-turned-bounty-hunter, and unite in a shared disgust in the horror that was slavery. Sounds like some good ol' 'Heal the World' shit, right? However, what agitates me most is that I highly doubt a black writer/director could have passed this thing in Hollywood. I highly doubt it because Tyler Perry. No, I'll elaborate. It's almost as if Django Unchained is given as a gift to us, one that we cannot give ourselves. Because, as I said, people unfortunately form the way they think from the Hollywood perception of things. If the only thing mainstream accepts is funny, angry black women, cross-dressing, sexually ambiguous rom-coms; people don't think we can help ourselves! There ARE black writers who don't write about gangs, guns, and cross-dressing. Dr. Boyce Watkins said it best:
"If you want to understand this film, imagine a mainstream version of the John Singleton film Rosewood, with a lot more action. To be honest, only a white guy could have made this movie and convinced so many white people to pay money to see it."
History belongs to the victors. We choose to remind ourselves of the shit we did to you because we want to, and the story will be written in our books, told by our teachers, played in our theaters. You have no agency in what truth you want to tell, and you should be happy we're telling your story at all.
Heck, George Lucas could barely get Red Tails through, Django had no problem. It's going to get awards. Watch it win Best Picture or something. The reason I make this connection is that from what I'm hearing Django, is that it was very entertaining, and hardly offensive. Entertaining. Red Tails might have been too respectable, or at least been a fair attempt at being 'Hollywood accurate.' Our history is made to be entertaining, and now I'm worrying.
I'll watch your damn movie, though.
Peace.
-Bat
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