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Example research essay topic: Representations Of The Black Male In Film - 1,251 words

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... genre quickly died out. While Hollywood continues to portray black male characters with "good" or "bad" extremes, some progress is being made. Audiences in the 1990 's are experiencing a boom of movies by black directors (Guerrero, Framing 158). Spike Lee's Clockers (1995), is an example of a film that shows improvement in how the black male is portrayed. Clockers is the story of drug dealer Strike and his relationship with the white cop Rocco.

Like Priest in Superfly, Strike deals death to his own people in the form of crack cocaine. But Strike is more complicated a character than Priest, just as Clockers deals with more socially relevant issues than does Superfly. Where Superfly merely provides an escapist vehicle for black audiences, Clockers deals with the epidemic of violence and death carried out by blacks on other blacks (Blake 24). And where Superfly drew criticism because young blacks were emulating a negative role model, Lee addresses this issue within the film.

Reviewer Todd McCarthy remarks: Didactically but effectively, Lee illustrates how the tough, independent, successful images of young men like Strike and his dealer buddies dominate the impoverished projects, inspiring young kids to dress, talk and behave like them and making men who try to do the right thing, by earning an honest living and living according to principles, look impossibly square, even stupid, to impressionable eyes. (73) Lee puts the problem right up front. The audience is allowed to stand back and pass judgment in the young men who imitate the dealers, instead of being the ones who imitate the dealers. Although Strike seems similar to Priest in that he deals death to his own people, Strike represents more than a black action hero who triumphs over whitey. In fact, neither Strike nor Rocco triumph over one another; the victory is in Strike's internal change. "You find yourself both despising Strike's blindly amoral opportunism and pulling for his survival, " says Newsweek reviewer David Ansen. There is something about Strike that is worth saving, and that is Lee's message. Strike is, however, an extraordinary character in an extraordinary tale.

Characters like Strike do not quite furnish the image that has been missing in film -- that of the ordinary black male as a loving father and devoted husband. And this is still a problem. "[T]here are no simple stories about Black people loving each other, hating each other, or enjoying their private possessions, " says Manthia Diawara, Professor of African Studies at New York University (4). Although Strike is a step in the right direction, young black audiences need positive role models in the films they see to give them a sense of direction in their lives (Reynaud 331). "What has to be developed in filmmakers, " says Charles Burnett, "is a sense of who you are, what you want to say, and how you want to say it -- a world view or perspective that you can express in your own terms" (ed. in Reynaud 329). Some think the only way for black people to get their films to a wide audience is to buck the system -- Hollywood's politically motivated enterprise -- and do it themselves (Bobo 429).

Since Hollywood is not changing, or not changing fast enough, it is time for wealthy black individuals and black-owned businesses to form an economic alliance and create a black film production and distribution industry. Others say that the audience needs to change. "Audience commitment and not Hollywood manipulation is responsible for any lack of variety seen in black films, " says Bill Duke, director of such films as A Rage in Harlem (1991) and Deep Cover (1992), "Our community has to be a little bit more responsible about its philosophies" (ed. in Lyons 43). Duke has a point -- hit Hollywood where it hurts: at the box office. Hollywood will drop its racist political agenda only when it cannot make money with it. The time is here for movie audiences -- especially black movie audiences -- to make a statement at the box office and demand more realistic representations on the screen.

Bibliography Aaron, Jo Nina M. "The Image of African Americans in the U. S. Press. " The Black Scholar 21, 2: 49 - 52. Ansen, David. "Last Exits in Brooklyn. " Newsweek 126, 13: 92. Baker, Houston A. "Spike Lee and the Commerce of Culture. " Black American Literature Forum 25, 2: 237 - 252. Blake, Richard A. "Spiked. " America 173, 10: 24 - 26.

Bobo, Jacqueline. "'The Subject is Money': Reconsidering the Black Film Audience as a Theoretical Paradigm. " Black American Literature Forum 25, 2: 421 - 432. Bourne, St. Clair. "The African American Image in American Cinema. " Black Scholar 21, 2 (1991): 12 - 19. Diawara, Manthia, "> Black American Cinema Ed. Manthia Diawara. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Edmond, Alfred Jr. and Cassandra Hayes. " 25 Years of Blacks in the Entertainment Industry. " Black Enterprise 25, 5: 122 - 23. Freeman, Gregory. "Lack of Balance is the Real Menace. " The Crisis 100, 6: 20 (2). Gray, Herman. "Black Masculinity and Visual Culture. " Callaloo 18, 2: 401 - 405. Greene, Dennis. "Tragically Hip: Hollywood and African American Cinema. " Cineaste 20, 4: 28 - 29.

Guerrero, Ed. Framing Blackness. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1993. Guerrero, Ed. "Negotiations of Ideology, Manhood, and Family in Billy Woodbury's Bless Their Little Hearts. " Black American Literature Forum 25, 2: 315 - 322. Guerrero, Ed. "The Black Man on our Screens and the Empty Space in Representation. " Callaloo 18, 2: 395 - 400.

Horowitz, Joy. "Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret. " American Visions 4, 4: 16 - 21. Johnson, Albert. "Moods Indigo: A Long View, Part 1. " Film Quarterly 44, 2: 13 - 27. Johnson, Albert. "Moods Indigo: A Long View, Part 2. " Film Quarterly 44, 3: 15 - 29. < Jones, Jaquie. "The Black South in Contemporary Film. " African American Review 27, 1: 19 - 24. Kauffmann, Stanley. "Controlled Substances. " The New Republic 213, 14: 38 - 39. Klawans, Stuart. "Clockers/Theremin -- An Electric Odyssey. " The Nation 261, 11: 399 - 401.

Lott, Tommy L. "A No-Theory Theory of Contemporary Black Cinema. " Black American Literature Forum 25, 2: 221 - 236. Lowery, Mark, and Nadirah Z. Said. "The Making of Hollywood. " Black Enterprise 25, 5: 104 - 112. Lyons, Nancy L. "From Race Movies to Blaxploitation to Homeboy Cinema. " American Visions 42 - 43. McCarthy, Todd. "Clockers. " Variety 360, 5: 73 (2). Miller, Christopher M. "The Representation of the Black Male in Film" online in Chris Miller's Home Page, 1996.

web Miller, James A. "Book Reviews. " Cineaste 20, 4: 57 - 58. Novak, Michael. "The Content of Their Character. " National Review February 28, 1986: 47. "Reagonite Racial Progress. " National Review February 28, 1986: 19. Reynaud, Bernice. "An Interview with Charles Burnett. " Black American Literature Forum 25, 2: 323 - 334. Rhine's, Jessie. "Integrating the Film Industry's Craft Unions: An Interview with Grace Blake. " Cineaste 20, 4: 30 - 31.

Rhodes, Jane. "The Visibility of Race and Media History. " Critical Studies in Mass Communication 10, 2: 184 - 90. Richardson, Linda. "Black Images Stir Up Strong Emotions. " The New York Times December 12 1994: C 13 - 14. Rule, Sheila. "Black Film Portrait Back on Screen. " The New York Times March 16, 1993: C 13. Schick el, Richard. "An Anguished Rap Opera. " Time 146, 12: 108.


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Research essay sample on Representations Of The Black Male In Film

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