Last week Anthony Hemingway's Red Tails, a Black action film inspired by the Tuskegee Airman that was written by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder and produced by George Lucas, opened to sell out audiences across the United States. Despite less than stellar reviews Red Tails surpassed its initial financial goals and raked in nearly 20 million dollars during opening weekend. With a cast that looks at times like a reunion for HBO's hit show The Wire, the colorful World War II film achieved this success in part because of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen who asked folks to support the film and Lucas who, in a promotional interview on John Stewart's The Daily Show, stated that Hollywood refused to fund his 23 year in the making film "because it's an all Black movie. There's no major White roles in it at all [sic]. It's one of the first all Black action pictures ever made."
Lucas' claim highlighted Hollywood's troubling racial practices. Though, given that D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation as Hollywood's "master text" decided long ago the limited roles Black people are to play in the general pop cultural imagination, it should come as no surprise that the entertainment industry is at best ill-equipped to deal with the portrayal of Black people and at worst racist. But more than pointing out Hollywood's racial issues, I wish to point out how Lucas' claim charged Black communities in way that compelled millions of Black bloggers, Black Facebook users, Black tweeters, and Black conservationists to take to the world and the world wide web, urging all Black people to support the Black movie Hollywood would not. I have no problem with folks asking me to support the film, especially given the politics behind this particular request. I do, however, take great issue with those who question my Blackness and my race loyalty when I tell them I refuse to see the movie just because I am Black. Given the large number of friends and family members who would not stop telling me how wrong I was/am for not buying a ticket during opening weekend, it is/was hard not to feel racially bullied by, dare I say, the cult of Blackness.
Let me make it very clear: I am not dissing Red Tails in any way, nor am I telling people to not view the film. Do whatever you want. I am illustrating how flawed the Black-people-should-support-Black-films logic is, and I am calling out the cult of Blackness that questions Black folks' loyalty and very Blackness if they choose not to strategically essentialize around a given movement, even if it is only a cinematic one. I mean, if all Black-people-should-support-Black-films, then we should also pay for all Tyler Perry movies, Soul Plane, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Kazaam, Glitter, The Cookout, Who's Your Caddy, Norbit, Meet Dave, or any those made for TV BET movies too.
And, do not even begin to tell me the difference between Hemingway's film and those I just listed are, as one of my friends told me, "the difference between good and bad [or positive and negative] movies." As I argued in a short essay, "'Right Thru Me': Authenticity, Performance, and the Nicki Minaj Hate," the terms good and bad often stifle serious critical conversation about the implications of Black pop culture. Even more, they do very "little to explain [things like] how violent rap lyrics are used as justification for unfair policing practices in Black communities, how literature and music is often used as a means for many Black people to enter into a political arena that historically denied us access," or even the issues with using someone's commitment to a movie as a some kind of Black barometer. Even more, that millions of people both love and hate Tyler Perry's work is evidence that terms like bad and good are extremely relative.
Even still, I truly understand the politics behind voting with our dollars, and voting for movies that are not stocked with characters who are direct descendants of minstrel figures. But, shouldn't I be the one who gets to decide where my monetary vote goes without the cult of Blackness shaming out of the Black box? Even after I explained to some that I was extremely busy last weekend, too busy to make time for what Lucas described as an intentionally "corny" movie, and save for my Chipotle burritos I have a strict anti-corn policy, far too many people responded as if I was not holding up my end of Black social contract by not monetarily showing Hollywood the power of Black dollars.
Hollywood and, more generally, big business are not unsure as to whether or not Black people will spend money, ask Run-DMC about Adidas for an answer to that. Rather, it seems to me the concern is whether other groups will buy into an all Black action movie. In so saying, it seems to me the better political move is to gather support from as many people as possible. That, and/or support alternative films that exist outside of Hollywood's purview. And, I cannot begin to speak about my frustration with those who are argue for either Pariah or Red Tails as if I cannot see both, or as if choosing one is not counterproductive to larger goal of illustrating Black purchasing power.
The cult of Blackness polices and shames Black republicans for their voting crimes, those sacrilegious folks who critique Saint Cosby's 1980s TV family, and, above all, the cult of Blackness looks at Black atheists, agnostics, and gnostics as if they are the only naked people in the room. I, however, am tired of feeling like the only naked person in the room for not seeing Red Tails, and I am even more tired of being racially bullied whenever I go against the racial grain.
Ravi Chaudhary: Celebrating the Spirit of the Red Tails With My Fellow Service Members
Let us not obscure the point with distracting attention to the film’s lack of storytelling agility or sinking box office viability: the matter at hand is that as a collective, black people in this country have grown beyond the need of infantilizing by blind support of all things African American. I would argue that, although “post-racial” and “race neutral” are still insidiously wishful terms, we as black citizens of the United States have achieved enough sinew in our ability to achieve in this culture that we will not suffer a hobbling sprain if the terrain is not paved smoothly by unconditional support. We are not kindergartners offering our crude clay vases to mommy; we are a mature people ready to be judged quite conditionally on the merit of what we do. It is true that the first two weekends of box office for a film are critical to its longevity at the box office. Nevertheless, we are not race traitors if we decide to wait for the critical and word-of-mouth dust to settle before we decide to support a particular project. Let us not condemn the author, but thank him.
So, those of us who paid to watch Red Tails are to do what? Follow your lead? Not support a cause unless you feel comfortable with it? If you feel 'bullied' whenever you "go against the racial grain," then consider NOT going against the racial grain for once in your life, and make an attempt to stand up for something that can promote the financial backing of future black movies. And why are you so “tired”? Tired from what? From being a rebel without a clue and a cause???? If nothing more, why couldn’t you see past your own selfishness to support the historical account of the brave Tuskegee Airmen? Some things are not solely about YOU. Some things are greater than YOU and your microscopic view about things. If you couldn’t set aside your selfishness and arrogance for at least two and a half hours to back a worthy movie, then I doubt if you’ll ever lift a finger to support anything relating to black people.
Furthermore, this author really speaks to the "cult of blackness" issue. This pressure has been demonstrated over and over again. It's really sad when blacks throw each other under the bus because an individual doesn't act in a way that meets the unwritten standard of appropriate black behavior. The irony is, that if blacks don't want to be stereotyped, maybe they should stop stereotyping themselves and saying that all blacks have to tow the party line.
Examples? How about how Condi Rice's or Colin Powell's blackness was called into question for participating in the Bush administration. That happened over and over again. Any black conservative is disparaged because he/she doesn't meet the culturally self-imposed stereotype. It's happened for generations. Zora Neale Hurston was disparaged in her day by other black authors because she didn't buy into the PC party line culture of victimization.
I stated facts. I understand that you can't deal with them. You must make it apparent that I'm correct by the absence of cogent counter argument.
I went to see "Red Tails" because I'm a history buff and specially a supporter of "The Tuskegee Airmen!". These brave men are at the end of their lives (and dying everyday) and are just getting their story told! These are the "role models" that young Americans, Black, White & Others, should know about. They make me proud to be a 66-year old Black-American.
I didn't expect a history lesson, but a decent entertainment it was not. The writing was terrible. Cheesy 1940s films worked in the 1940s (and even then they only worked because of charismatic actors like John Wayne) - you can't take one of those films unfiltered and translate it into a modern film, especially if you can't write full-bodied characters to populate it.
As for not being used to seeing Black action heroes...did we lose Will Smith in the last racial draft?
I've looked at cinema message boards, where posters question if Blacks were truly segregated in the Army at the time. Like I said, I didn't expect this one film to make up for all the missed opportunities that Hollywood had to tell our story. I certainly didn't want a remake of the HBO film either.
I saw the movie and it is just ok. Hopefully more folks go see it during black history month. If so, it should have a nice domestic run. Now it should be interesting see how Fox pushes it internationally. Funny thing though, the last all black movie with a big budget was Coming To America. Adjusted for inflation that film made over $500million.
2. Black people can't make "Red Tails" a hit on their own. The film would need to make $120 mil or more to turn a healthy profi, so one-third of the adult black population would have to buy a full-priced ticket for the movie, despite not having the money, personal film preferences, disinterest, or concern over the less than stellar reviews.
Most movies released - no matter what the color of the cast - can only dream of making $120 million, despite massive marketing campaigns and tie-ins and stellar reviews. Being released in the weakest economic month of the year doesn't help.
It is not our sacred duty as black people to make every black movie a success, especially if the movie itself is not worth it. Making bad films successful only results in more bad films being made.
2a. If you want black movies to make money, they have to be accessible to and marketed towards more than black people. That doesn't mean water them down - it means create a quality product that doesn't navel-gaze and isn't written/acted/directed with the cold assumption that the audience will be black.
This is why most black movies never do well overseas, if they are released overseas at all. So many of them are so strongly tethered to the African American experience that they bewilder foreign audiences. Racism can be an issue in some territories, but at the same time, Will Smith is one of the world's biggest - if not _the_ biggest - box office draw(s).
3. The last black movie with a big budget was "Dreamgirls" (2006), not "Coming to America". "Dreamgirls" had a production budget of $80 mil...and it only made $154 mil worldwide ($103 mil in the US, $51 mil overseas). "Coming to America" did far better.
the script was dead dull... the acting wooden....It was like an afterschool special.
The film got better afterwards, but the writing, dialogue, and characterization always remained poor. The only way this film _would_ have made money is by black folks guilting each other into seeing it.