Is There Any Need To Make Such Films?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415405/12-Years-Slave-Audiences-gasp-walk-Oscar-tipped-film-giving-ovation.html

We all know that such things happened during the times of slavery, but should such graphic films be made, as I am sure they do nothing to foster good race relations?

There were also many horrific things carried out by black persons against the whites in past times, but could anyone envisage a film showing such happenings ever being made as well as directed by a white person?

[jake-the-peg]

I have some sympathy with AOG with regard to the white man being made the villan of the piece.

Slavery had been around a long time before the triangle trade to the US took hold.

Arab slave traders ran slaves up through the middle East and most often Africans sold other Africans as slaves - these are stories that rarely get prominence

I guess there are two points - firstly the sheer scale of slave trading to the Americas was unprecidented.

Secondly most films are made by/for Americans and they want to tell the story from an American perspective and that involves white slave owners getting rich from the suffering of black slaves.

[anotheoldgit]

Steve.5

/// Black persons why not the word savage as you normally use. ///

Once again a complete lie, I have never associated a black person as being a savage only the ones that have committed savage crimes, but on the other hand I do not keep this exclusivity for use against black monsters, I also use the word savage against white monsters who have committed savage crimes.

As regards the rest of your ridiculous sensationalist post, I will leave others to analyse your disturbed mind.

[emmie]

trigg, everything to dislike i can't abide him, i did watch some of it, and decided it wasn't for me.

[Zeuhl]

The reason this OP is so silly is that it is based on a silly preposition that films are made because of a 'need' that is related to some social engineering be it 'race relations' or whatever

The OP seems to imagine he is in a totalitarian world where movies are created to serve some state purpose when in reality today's western govts and ngo's produce very little mass communication.

Are you fondly recalling 'Triumph of the Will' aog?

In the free market; the only 'Needs' involved in getting movies made are;

a) creative people with a burning desire to tell a particular story
b) investors/studios who can see a financial return because of an estimated audience for the product

[Kromovaracun]

SP has given you plenty of titles that have black antagonists.

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

[sp1814]

kromovaracun

We've going around this particular merry-go-round before.

I don't think AOG consumes the quantity of media that I do - so I've seen way more films and tv shows with black baddies.

The Wire for one contains more black villains than any other show I've ever encountered...but I suppose if you've not heard of it...

[sp1814]

AOG

You initially started using the word 'savage' to describe black criminals. It was a word you reserved for black criminals and then back in around 2011, or possibly 2010, I and a couple of others pulled you up on it.

I want to assure everyone on this thread that ever since then, AOG has been scrupulously fair, and uses the word 'savage' in reference to both black and white criminals...

...we're just waiting to actually see a post about white criminals.

I'm sure there will be one...soon...

[emmie]

The Kray film comes to mind, based on real people, they were nasty pieces of work.

[bibblebub]

here's a film about white heroes, directed by a white man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEznh2JZvrI

[emmie]

the title says it all, birth of a nation, for good and ill, a bloody civil war that tore families apart and killed hundreds of thousands, black and white,
not sure of your point...

[bibblebub]

Presumably you've never watched it, emmie?

[sandyRoe]

Didn't Griffith show the Afro-American characters in that film in a less than flattering light?

[emmie]

long time ago. I watch or watched lots of films, some made an impact, most do not. DW Griffith great pioneer of film, some of the characters look blacked up, ie the black and white minstrels, as i said i did see it quite a long time ago, not i might add when it was first released...

[bibblebub]

It's about how, after the Civil War, the blacks took over the southern states and mistreated the whites, and so the KKK came in and sorted the beggars out. It is a classic because it was very innovative in the art of film making.

[sandyRoe]

Did the Tiber, or the Mississippi, foam with much blood?

[emmie]

rather a false representation of actual events. I prefer my films not to actually preach at me, i go for entertainment, though i did thoroughly enjoy Wall-E, which had a clear message about our wasteful ways and our thorough disregard for the planet we live on. It is the best animated film i have seen in years. I own a number of old black and white films, and in many, blacks, if they feature at all are shown in a poor light... that was because in USA that is how they were treated, and from my observations being there, and indeed from any number of recent documentaries, not much has changed.

[emmie]

sandy
In ancient Rome, executed criminals were thrown into the Tiber. People executed at the Gemonian stairs were thrown in the Tiber during the later part of the reign of the emperor Tiberius. This practice continued over the centuries. For example, the corpse of Pope Formosus was thrown into the Tiber after the infamous Cadaver Synod held in 897.