You see, George Lucas is a brilliant storyteller. Unfortunately, he only knows one kind of story: good vs. evil in a fantasy environment. Both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series underscore this fact, and have made him the icon that he is today. Red Tails, however, is not a space opera nor is it James Bond in the jungle. These are real people with real lives that went through an experience during one of our country’s many periods of war. The source material is rich with possibility and deserves proper respect.
This film delivers none of that.
Red Tails: A Review (via mauricecherry
)
Interesting. Film historian Jacqueline Bobo said that when Speilberg adapted The Color Purple, his fascination with “Oliver Twist” shaped the film in ways that made the film about his concern with Twist, and less about the transformation of Celie. She goes on to say that in some of his shot choices in pivotal scenes Spielberg made TCP about the transformation of Mister, rather than the transformation of Celie. Again, this is important because the book IS about the transformation of Celie.
Which leads me to ask, what happens when White men act as mediums for Black narratives. Would a Black male or a director of any other race and gender had done it differently? If so how?
(via mauricecherry)
