Alright, on to the second installment of As Seen On TV, and as I said in the first one I might deviate from TV shows. I’ll go ahead and do that now, but it’s OK because when I saw this movie it was on a TV, so close enough.
We all know the genre of blaxploitation, but did ever wonder where it came from? How did it start? Well, the film that is generally agreed as the originator of the genre is Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, a 1971 film written and directed by and starring Melvin Van Peebles (you might have heard of his son Mario, but more on that later).
Sweetback (as I will henceforth refer to it) is the story of a, well I’ll just wikipedia tell it:
A young African-American orphan…taken in by the proprietor of a Los Angeles brothel in the 1940s. …he is raped by one of the prostitutes at a young age. The women name him “Sweet Sweetback” in honor of his sexual prowess and large penis. As an adult, Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) works as a performer in the whorehouse, entertaining customers by performing in a sex show.
From there it’s a story of corrupt cops trying to frame him for murder because they want to pin it on a black guy (they plan to release him afterwards, they just want a fall guy to the pressure off). But the cops also a catch a Black Panther, and when they start beating him Sweetback attacks the cops and flees. From there it’s all trying evade the police while exchanging his sexual talents for help from lady folk.
Sounds like a perfect Glibs movie, but I don’t remember any blackjack. The movie itself may not be that great, but it had an interesting impact on movies that came later.
The film’s focus on urban black culture and themes of black revolution are the easiest way to see the influence, which was Van Peebles’ goal. He gained some influence for his past work in Hollywood, but movies exploring this culture were still seen as too out of the norm. He had been offered a deal from Paramount to make movies, but not this movie. The late 60s-early 70s is when the old Hollywood Studio System started to crumble. Independent films were becoming what was groovy. Going through the studios was no longer the only way films could get made. To this end, Van Peebles financed the film himself (after he ran out of money he got Super Predator Bill Cosby to invest) and worked with a ragtag crew of people within his network. Like when he needed to score the film he hired this little group a friend of a friend knew named Earth Wind and Fire.
On top of writing, directing and starring Van Peebles also edited the film, the style he used influenced films that came later. Even though I work in editing, I’m too technical of a guy, hell I’ll just let wikipedia say it:
The film’s fast-paced montages and jump cuts were novel features for an American movie at the time. Stephen Holden from The New York Times commented that the film’s editing had “a jazzy, improvisational quality, and the screen is often streaked with jarring psychedelic effects that illustrate Sweetback’s alienation.”[8] In The 50 Most Influential Black Films: A Celebration of African-American Talent, Determination, and Creativity, author S. Torriano Berry writes that the film’s “odd camera angles, superimpositions, reverse-key effects, box and matting effects, rack-focus shots, extreme zooms, stop-motion and step-printing, and an abundance of jittery handheld camera work all helped to express the paranoid nightmare that [Sweetback’s] life had become.”[9]
When the movie was released it got an X rating and one of the few theaters that would even show it cut some stuff out. Working to secure that release was another showing of Van Peeble’s hustling to make this movie happen, he had to go convince theaters himself to even show it, at first he only convinced two. But once audiences saw the film and word of mouth spread it ended up making $4.1 million.
Oh, I said I talk more about Melvin’s son Mario. For those of you don’t recognize the name Mario Van Peebles is a B or C list action star but has also appeared in mainstream films with the likes of Clint Eastwood and Wesley Snipes, he even just happened to guest star on an episode of The Cosby Show. Mario’s first role was playing young Sweetback in this film, you know when the character was raped. Yeah, his dad directed him in a rape scene. But once Mario got all growed up he made a movie about his dad making the movie based on a book his dad had written about making the movie. That’s a lot of basing. That movie is called Bad Asssss and relates some of the experiences from making Sweetback and is generally enjoyable, containing re-enactments of anecdotes like these:
Van Peebles and several key crew members were armed because it was dangerous to attempt to create a film without the support of the union. One day, Van Peebles looked for his gun, and failed to find it. Van Peebles found out that someone had put it in the prop box. When they filmed the scene in which Beetle is interrogated by police, who fire a gun next to both of his ears, it was feared that the real gun would be picked up instead of the prop.
While shooting a sequence with members of the Hells Angels, one of the bikers told Van Peebles they wanted to leave; Van Peebles responded by telling them they were paid to shoot until the scene was over. The biker took out a knife and started cleaning his fingernails with it. In response, Van Peebles snapped his fingers, and his crewmembers were standing there with rifles. The bikers stayed to shoot the scene.[6]
Van Peebles had received a permit to set a car on fire, but had done so on a Friday; as a result, there was no time to have it filed before shooting the scene. When the scene was shot, a fire truck showed up. This ended up in the final cut of the film.[6]
Comments
262 responses to “Blaxploitation!”
It’s one of those titles I’ve been aware of forever, but I’ve never seen it. I doubt the wife will be down, so next time she’s traveling for work.
The best blaxploitation flick is The Mack
This is incontrovertible.
I used that word when I watched the Shaft reboot with my girlfriend, and she excused herself and minutes later I found her crying in our bedroom because her boyfriend is a racist. And I had to explain to her that it’s a movie genre. This is a black woman. WTF, guys? Don’t you hold classes?
I… wow.
I never got why it got mixed with exploitation, because for the most part it was coming from black film makers, but I’m guessing it came from lefty movie reviewers who thought it was the system’s fault.
According to wiki “The Los Angeles National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) head and ex-film publicist Junius Griffin coined the term from the words “black” and “exploitation.”
Not sure if that is what I describe or trying to ‘take back power’.
My understanding is that it had to do with the producers. The “exploitation film” as a genre was already old hat by the 60s, but the target demo was mostly teenagers and young adults, and the general themes were sex, violence, and drugs/booze. Blaxploitation just takes that and steers it towards black audiences, or what they thought black audiences wanted to see at the time. The theme of black protagonists overcoming the system as manifested in racist whites by using cunning and justified violence, frequently enacting rough justice against people who have hid behind authority or society, comes up over and over again in pop culture even after the blaxploitation heyday of the 70s.
Melvin Van Peebles and Bill Cosby exploiting them blacks.
I’m as confused as you.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uB1D9wWxd2w
Love this song for some reason.
You’re not alone. It’s a jam.
I don’t know why this made me laugh:
The girl in that still looks good
Yes she does.
Yeah, but homeboy’s slant fade didn’t hold up well. Not exactly a classic.
I about near had an anxiety attack, thinking I was going to have to argue with the HM about this.
Then, I remembered that Black Dynamite is a blaxploitation parody, and I realize that we can peacefully co-exist.
BD is my favorite comedy, and I’m putting it up against giants like Mel Brooks (who I adore as much as you lot do). I just give it extra credit because of what the group accomplished with so much less.
No love for Blackula?
Sounds like a perfect Glibs movie, but I don’t remember any blackjack. The movie itself may not be that great, but it had an interesting impact on movies that came later.
Yeah, I wasn’t in that one…
Yeah, it’s quote from Bender Rodriguez, the greatest robot ever: link
We clearly need a Sweetback sockpuppet. I nominate CPRM. HM might have done, but, you know… I don’t think he’s black enough.
Too Jewish.
I sincerely hope everyone hears this when they read that.
That is exactly what I heard, so well done!
You ain’t black enough
Skip to about 4:35
Wow. That is some authentic WTF. I’m going to need to do some more research.
I think I need a couple more classes on racial theory to understand how fucked up this shit is.
Oh my God, treasure trove does not describe this well enough. Is there a term for something you discover which isn’t enriching for yourself, or for anyone at all, but is a goddamn goldmine? Uranium, maybe? What the hell even is this?!
It’s not exactly an obscure movie.
I am pure as piss driven snow, my friend.
Really? This is a surprise to me as this was cutting-edge sarcasm at the black-white divide in 1970. Blacks were crows, cops were pigs. No subtlety here.
If you haven’t seen the whole movie then check it out. I particularly loved the pool/death scene and the tweaker rabbit..
An aside, my best man took me to this movie for my bachelor party in 1972. His sister provided a couple of joints.
Dammit I thought movies made before last year did not have any leftist messages but were pure entertainment!
Ralph Bakshi did a lot of ‘groundbreaking’ animation in the ’70s.
The first LOTR movie, Fritz the Cat, Wizards, American Pop…
I think he created rotoscoping to do more life like animation.
Um no.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping
rotoscoping is very old, Disney used it for Snow White and Max Fleicher used it for the 1940s Superman cartoons, and the technique wasn’t new even then,
I went and looked, apparently he utilized a new method of rotoscoping with a IBM copier that made his LOTR possible to do at budget.
Yeah, rotoscoping has changed with technology, what they do with CGI now works on a lot of the same principles just with newer tech. See: Serkis, Andy.
Fritz the Cat was cutting edge shit.
Well, if you haven’t seen American Pop, watch that after Fritz.
Then Wizards.
Holy shit, this resolves a little spot of contention I’ve had with my brother since I was a child. I’ve tried to describe to him this scene countless times, and we thought it had something to do with the Dark Crystal, but I’m pretty sure this is it.
Yeah, that’s Wizards.
We’ve been debating this shit for over a decade. For some reason, that scene featured heavily in my memory. I don’t know how young I’d have been. I don’t know how or why I’d watched it. But I’ve quizzed my brother about it for years. I don’t even talk to him anymore. but here it is.
Wait until you discover Bakshi’s Coonskin.
My step-father was the insurance agent for this film.
Can’t tell if serious…
Completely serious. I mentioned this fact before. He worked for the department of Prudential that handled productions that were seen as “adult” in nature. Thus he was nicked named around the office as “Filthy Phil”.
He must have been seen as the coolest insurance agent.
This is how I know about Mario Van Peebles.
Sonny Spoon
Is… is that a man with no legs on a skateboard?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Wieland
In the 1988-1990 TV series Sonny Spoon, Wieland played the character of Johnny Skates.
Yah, ended up there.
Badass.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927395/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t3
Trivia: Became a marathon participant using his arms. He is the only double amputee to finish the Ironman triathlon without a wheelchair.
I wonder if that’s the guy I saw panhandling on the subway the day I moved to NYC.
That is quite a rollercoaster of a movie, both on and off the screen. I also love Earth Wind and Fire so that’s pretty awesome they did the score.
OK, it says, “from the director of ‘New Jack City’, which came out around 1990 or so. This one’s from ’71.
The first Trailer is the movie made by Melvin Van Peebles, the second trailer at the end is the movie his son made about Melvin making the movie.
Got it. Thnx.
Big Z with the shot from distance. Bruins looking far better this game.
WTF I walk into the kitchen for a minute and the Leafs score twice.
*makes another note that my next apartment WILL have a kitchen/LR combo*
I was downstairs, throwing laundry in the machine. I clearly need to knock that shit out and just sit here staring at the TV, drinking heavily.
There we go.
So what is the line between blaxploitation and blaxpromotion? Can we use the term “blax” in our writing? And, most importantly, “Baad Asssss” sounds ridiculous when read phonetically.
It sounds awesome if you imagine Isaac Hayes saying it.
It only makes sense in the original Jive.
Any connection between Spaghetti Westerns and Blaxploitation movies as far as the camera work? Those rapid zooms in on people’s faces seem similar to me.
It was just the style that developed, it can be seen in lots of movies of the era, could have been an inspiration or not, I don’t have any info on it. I think, like I said no facts, a lot of these independent films were quickly shot on a low budget and didn’t have prime lenses (where each focal length like 100mm is a different lens) and instead used the cheaper telephoto which has a zoom, so they probably just saw the zoom and liked it.
The first word makes you sound a little sheepish.
The Latinx have a lock on that letter.
So much so that Firefox doesn’t try to correct “Latinx”.
I really do not like that Latinx is even a thing.
Maybe another, less ungainly euphemism will come along. Hey, it could happen!
You and me, Raphael….
/don’t get me started about pronunciation
Thanks, CPRM. That was fun.
And when it comes to blaxplotation, let’s not forget Linc Hayes on ModSquad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZiPijyoDGs
I loved that show when I was young — one black, one white, one blonde
That was being “woke”, circa 1968. Lasted five seasons.
Daughter #1 was almost named Cinnamon.
We almost gave our youngest an old Gaelic name pronounced “Kaylee” but we were going to use the original spelling, “Ceilidh,” until we imagined dumbass elementary school teachers trying to pronounce it: “See-lee? Cee-I-Lieed?”
So we named her Rebecca instead.
You made the right choice.
Definitely
Ugh. Becky?
Just kidding.
I have a friend who named both of his daughters very Gaelic names, Saoirse and…the other one escapes me. Public school is gonna be a bitch. They’re going to need laminated name tags with phonetic spellings.
Hm… “Sersh”? Irish orthography can be a bit tricky.
But hell yeah – if I were the kid-producing sort, I would only choose classic names. Hell, my cats are named Betty and Maggie.
Ser-Scha
Siobahn, perhaps?
‘Colleen’ is a favorite – ‘girl’.
My daughter has a very ancient, yet perfectly simple, Welsh name and people still fuck it up.
Definitely go with a boring classic.
Cinnamon Girl?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgDy1SQ6hnw
You got it. My mom disapproved because her knickname would be “Sin”.
knickname
Really? Did I do that?
Cheers!
*raises glass of whiskey*
I was hoping it was a Mission Impossible reference.
I’m a fan of good spoofs, Black Dynamite is a movie I would make.
Reminds me I should get around to watching that movie and I think Adult Swim had a cartoon show as well?
With most of the same people voicing it.
DYNO-MITE, DYNO-MITE!
Really? Okay, that’s pretty friggin cool.
Michael Jai White is also making a sort of sequel.
Unless Michael Jai has something in his background/life that shows him to be a shit-heel (see: Cosby, Bill), he is one of my favorite Hollywood people.
He did Spawn, and has been a recurring villain on Arrow as well, brother is just an
Uncle TomOreo!Yeah, Spawn is where I know him from first (not best, obviously).
I….understand those individual words, but……..
Arrow is the TV show based on The Green Arrow DC comic book, he’s a recurring villain on there.
Yeah, I know (I even have a paperback novel of show/episode from a subscription box).
It’s just…DCTV. And, me messin’ witcha.
Let’s not overlook Undercover Brother. I loved that movie.
It was often hilarious
Can’t forget Mario and Melvin’s brilliant performances in that masterpiece beloved by OMWC titled Jaws: the Revenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCr6_Xqt1k
I saw the original years ago. Weird.
I seem to remember accusations between Melvin and an actress about who gave who the clap, because at least one sex scene was real.
So is this film woke for its time and since it is old therefore that is okay?
Yo- ya’all niggas need some Black Dynamite.
Oh, I already have it, BROTHER!
https://spectator.us/embrace-white-guilt/
Meh, too crude. He’s got nothing on Titania McGrath
OFFS. Guilt riddled ultra=rich white guy is going to hire black and brown people to take care of his estate.
Batteries in the sarc meter need to be changed daily now adays.
I made it halfway through before I figured it out. It really is hard to tell these days.
Ahh, found it. My guess is the writers at The Onion just stare at the walls and drink all day. There’s no way they can compete when the line between sarcasm and reality disappears.
For real, in the age of the clown world, I’m still surprised they still have a business.
Haven’t they been bought by a Clinton supporter?
I don’t know to be honest, I haven’t really checked out the Onion in quite a while.
We need to do more, and I am determined that when I inherit my family’s estate, I will make damn sure I only employ people of color to maintain it.
I mean..it’s Winston, but stuff in italics is usually safe.
I almost got baited until I saw the other posters here, I’m just really tired of that whole racist “white guilt/privilege” trope.
Better stock up on caffeine…
https://www.therisingwasabi.com/half-of-foreigners-in-tokyo-face-discrimination-as-sex-objects/
It’s not easy being
greengaijin. It’s actually rather hard if I’m being honest.That’s what she said.
Ka-chow, my tomodachi.
I like Superfly.
Fight me.
It’s no Super Fuzz.
I think I might have actually seen that…
I have seen that. In Austria, when I was a teenager.
It’s some sort of spaghetti-cop thing, right?
Terence Hill – From “My Name is Nobody” and all the ‘Trinity’ movies.
All poorly dubbed Italian westerns except “My Name is Nobody” which had Henry Fonda in it.
*Nerd fact: Italian movies (western or otherwise) were dubbed because they had all the actors say their lines in whatever language they spoke, and only used the voice track recorded on the day as guide. Because of this they didn’t quiet the set, Eastwood has said he looks so focused in the ‘Dollars’ trilogy because he had to focus to say his lines, because the crew wasn’t silent on set and were even playing frisbee off camera.
Super, super, super,super,super!!
Dayum, C–you’re on fire with the references!
I watched the heck outta Superfuzz back in early 80’s…those 2 years when we actually had cable.
I have the soundtrack on vinyl.
Beat that.
I can’t.
Good man! I tip my pimp hat to you!
Huggy Bear approves.
and also, Spanish Fly. (which is now totes a rape drug, and not as the joke portrays it some tall tail)
Frankenswine. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/17/714289322/scientists-restore-some-function-in-the-brains-of-dead-pigs
Odds on how long it’ll be before Ted Williams runs for president as a democrat?
Whose version of LOTR is better? Bakshi’s or Jackson’s? Or would we trade Zardoz for John Boorman’s version?
They both suck.
Watch a blaxploitation classic instead.
GTFO. Jackson’s directors cut is about as close as you can get without making it 20 hours long.
And yet…
…. it sucks.
Go figure.
So you don’t like Jaws, either?
No. I love that.
And now I can have confused.
You, then?
Look, it’s simple. Sometimes books should just stay books.
I will admit the original film version left me pretty annoyed. I thought the directors cut did a decent job, given the constraints.
And his ass fucking of The Hobbit kept me from watching a single second once I saw part of the trailer.
I disagree. Almost every character (hobbits excluded) is worse in the movie than in the book. What he did with Denethor was enough to ensure I’d never love that movie, and after seeing the same actor on Fringe, I was baffled that he wouldn’t let him just play the character as in the book, a man whose every action and pronouncement seems correct and intelligent, until he breaks down in the end and you go “oh shit, that’s what was happening”. And it wouldn’t have taken additional time.
I can’t get over the lack of Tom Bombadil.
The lack of Bombadil bothered me, but when you look at flow, and are trying to keep the series from being 20 hours long, Tom Bombadil is kind of an offshoot to the story.
Ah, “if it’s not 100% it doesn’t matter what it is, it is not 100% pure” autism again?
There’s a difference between cutting stuff out because it doesn’t fit the story and changing the story because you know better than goddamn JRR Tolkien. One is reasonable concession to the medium. The other is an act of unwarranted hubris, and how we end up with Gimli jokes.
If you can, make a case that Denethor in the movie is a better character, or more relatable, or more complex or more in tune with the theme of corruptibility of men, good intentions still leading to bad outcomes, pride blinding us to the truth and leading to our fall, or ANY OTHER FUCKING THEME IN THE BOOK WHICH ISN’T “Fuck this Tolkien guy, I want him to scream and then get hit with a stick, that will get them laughing!”
It was a joke, man. Jackson clearly has some questionable skills as an adaptor: The Hobbit movies, a King Kong remake twice as long as the original, etc.
As someone who watched both several times (give me a break, I was a kid and had a tape, what was I supposed to do?), it’s a harder question than I’d like.
Because fuck, the Bakshi version was rough but it was…surprisingly accurate to the heart of the story. Whereas Jackson….God help me, it’s like he looked at the book, understood the tone and content and then said “yeah, fuck this, everything has to be more coarse, simple-minded and filtered through ironic detachment.”
Boorman’s Zardoz is a treasure and he’d have fumbled Lord of the Rings anyway.
I’d agree with that assessment.
Tundra for the win! I was so very disappointed in the Jackson movies – removing key elements but adding a superfluous love story and a stupid
carwolf chase. “American movies. Always the car chase, uh?“Isn’t Jackson a Kiwi though?
So I assume you only watch 4-hour long subtitled foreign art movies?
God, I forgot the wolf dive.
Is superfluous love story Arwen/Aragorn one? At the risk of triggering Winston’s autism, chalk that up to wokeness. We can’t not have a female character in first film, so let’s make Arwen a ninja warrior girl. Then waste time on that instead of focusing on the actual female character (Eowyn), her unrequited crush on Aragorn (who understands it and in one sentence gets the sense of his love for Arwen better than anything Jackson did in three movies), and then a surprising late romance with Faramir, which made me go “awwww” when I read it the first time. And when a love scene gets a twelve year old boy to go “awwww” you don’t fuck around it.
Adaptations are always needlessly superfluous, this is something that should end, the book/comic/age old tale was successful for a reason, no need to fuck with the formula
Michael Bayidiot.So there goes about 90% of the entertainment industry…
Also the Transformers are based on a toy line based on a two Japanese toy lines.
Doesn’t mean the story for the cartoon wasn’t good.
Wait so you were serious about stop adapting stuff?
I’d say stop shittily adapting stuff.
Also plenty of movies are adapted from things that fallen helplessly into obscurity. The movie helps keep the original alive.
This is why I hope we never get Robotech live action adaptation, even if I love the Macross arc to pieces (in both Japanese and English adaptation).
Do you remember love, Pan?
I haven’t read the books, so… I enjoyed the movies. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I loved Eowyn and Faramir, both individually and when they hooked up(?) near the end.
Look at you nerds discussing nerd books and nerd movies. Nerds! Now can we focus on something serious, like how much of Star Wars was based on Kirosawa, how much on Velarian and how much on The Princess of Mars, not to even mention Joseph Campbell…
How could forget the Flash Gordon influences! /nerdsense triggered
Flash Gordon was more an influence on style than story.
So, George is now rich and bored. Any way we can convince him to take a crack at The Princess of Mars, done properly?
I mean, I enjoyed John Carter and everything, but fuck it fumbled the core of the story. And this is not Tolkien situation where I was lifelong fan, I read the book two weeks before the movie came out (and went “Fuck every asshole snide comment I ever read about this, this is awesome”).
Lucas is attached to Episode 9 as a consultant, Disney hasn’t learned a damn thing. Yeah, let’s go back to the guy who put robot football in as a thing because apparently everyone getting paid to make movies is too dumb to figure out how not to make shit.
On John Carter (the movie) if they cut out the framing device of the story being told through the journal, I don’t think it would have flopped. As for the books, never red them. Never read Lord of the Rings. I’m a movie guy. I research what the movies are based on, but unless it’s my fatted calf being gored I’m not too invested. I didn’t care for Jackson’s Lord of the Rings though. Even though I’ve heard and read how much they cut from the books they all felt too bloated, maybe by what was added instead of what was removed.
What movie was that?
Anyway a big problem with John Carter was how in the 80 years(!) it took to finally make a movie was that everyone ripped him off so he looked like a rip-off instead of the other way around.
Robot Football was in Attack of the Clones. Watch the TVs in the bar.
Times like this is why I’m glad I’m not a visually-oriented thinker. I missed it in the theatre while I was cringing and hoping this won’t shit the bed.
Which it did – until The Last Jedi that was my least favorite Star Wars movie by far (and second least favorite Star Wars thing, because Kevin J Anderson still stands as undisputed master with Darksaber), beneath even The Phantom Menace.
Ah yes Sleazebaggano selling “death sticks”.
@Pan, I see the prequels as better, only because if you cut out the bloat there is a movie worth watching there if you can imagine the scenes shot better. Hence my edits, but the Disney movies have been bloated yet that bloat hinges the story, NOTHING LEFT TO CUT. I thought with how Disney seamlessly integrated the MCU they’d do well, but it’s shit. Utter shit.
I think the issue with George Lucas is that he really likes his pulpy space fantasy and the force. Also the first six movies were his vision, whatever it happened to be at the time that is.
Conversely the sequels are the visions of two different men who aren’t really into pulpy space fantasy and the force and both men have very different visions to boot. And the first guy is now going to have to deal with the second guy’s vision…
Did I mention recently that your edits were amazing and yes, they revealed a core of something good in there.
I thought TFA was stupid but had a potential for an interesting followup (“OK, everyone lost their main force, so we will have to focus on smaller, more personal stories with these characters as they chase whatever Luke is going to reveal”) and then…agh. RLM is right, that thing is a comedy, and a badly done at that. Like Spaceballs but instead of bemused affection, it’s seething contempt driving it.
Pan, you may go on about how you like my edits. Not many people take the time to watch them, and it flatters me you did. But, I’m super proud, my six year old niece who loves Star Wars has never seen anything BUT my edits. She’ll be shocked one day when she finds out Jar-Jar wasn’t just a side character.
But Pan, after I read Richard’s article about living off the grid and only having a certain allotment of power per day, the fact that he watched all my edits AND spent power for the computer to comment, that made me feel really fuckin special.
I’m sure Lucas is being paid for the name and kept away from creative team. Which is a shame, because he seemed to have been a mostly positive influence on Clone Wars, which I adore. I mean, “name a villain Cad Bane” is a pretty Lucas move, but so is “and base him on Lee Van Cleef in spaghetti westerns” and it paid off).
Interesting that you think framing device was the only problem. So you think they should have started with him in crappy western town, and ended on cliffhanger of him looking for a way back? Cut the opening narration explaining Mars too?
My problem is that they completely flipped Carter’s character. In the book, he is a guy who knows war and fighting, and is good at it (and has been doing it for a long time – he opens by telling us he’s centuries old and knows to be immortal), but has never found a place anywhere he lived (although he does have a soft spot for Virginia and the Carter family his paths crossed many times), until he finds himself on Mars. Which… come on, that would be more original than umpteenth iteration of “I was idealist, but then thing happened, now I don’t believe in cause, until I do because this is character growth”.
I read the first 6 or so books in the series. I didn’t see the movie. I have no idea why you couldn’t do a straightforward adaptation.
No, after Rian Johnson they actually seemed to have gone back to him for advice, but we know that well is tapped dry ‘Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo’
As far as John Carter (The movie) yes, I think the framing device is the problem, it connects the viewer to a story we don’t know anything about or care about and doesn’t get paid off. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done better, but by the end of that introduction I was lost (like I said, I’ve never actually read the books) and that isn’t even the confusing part of the movie to come. If I weren’t looking at it already with a critical eye (I watched on home release) I probably would have checked out after the that. After that the only other real problem with the film is trying to force too much cannon and the sin that way too many movies make, too many locations.
Huh, they’re really pandering, then?
I mean I don’t get it, whatever the Star Wars is today is not for me, so I’m not seeing it, but TLJ made a bank, maybe they should go after that audience and not try to bring back people they spent eighteen months alienating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars
There goes that next John Carter movie…
Kurosawa’s chanbara films are, in themselves, derivative of Chinese wuxia cinema. In a way, Star Wars is more faithful to the wuxia genre in that it gives back exaggerated qinggong powers to the protagonists.
Also John Ford. And Star Wars was also influcened by John Ford including a John Wayne movie! :notwoke
Speaking of John Wayne that alien that tips off the Stormtroopers about the Millennium Falcon apparently uses an altered voice clip of John Wayne.
One blaxplotation film I watched was only made so after the fact, and it was glorious. The original Inglorious Bastards was recut to focus on Fred Williamson’s character and re-released as GI Bro. The poor quality of the original combined with a bad edit that changed the original story made for something marvelous.
So when will Tarantino make the ironic hip and cool Weinsteinless pseudo-Remake?
Van Peebles also performed unstimulated sex and successfully filed workman’s comp for an STD he caught during the filming.
I think he was actually very stimulated.
THICC
https://archive.li/ByXqu/90575b8a38e69311a1c33859c04f345a743df2cf.jpg
NSFW.
A little too thicc, to be honest.
Where’s Tre when you need him?
I’m here, and I’ll take her.
A little?
*purges memory*
This should make it all better.
https://archive.li/6gLxP/31b55e6a07e6f9bbcfbb8bfae8463ac66e53b54f.jpg
NSFW.
Yes, as HM says – a woman needs a waist.
Thanks, Q.
Nope and nope.
4 Spud.
https://archive.li/NSxg8/56a7d13612d65643924b6999ef0e3cf6933f9412.jpg
Doesn’t look any different than the last two.
Meh, cute face covers a lot of sins, as far as I’m concerned. Red hair don’t hurt either.
A woman needs a waist.
Amen, brother.
Yes. Yes she/they/ze does/do/?.
Well, that first one has a whole lot of waist.
The Last Dragon…. Blacksploitation or cultural appropriation????
Who’s the Master?
Homage – considering that the film that basically solidified the martial arts movie craze in the U.S., Enter the Dragon was intentionally a blaxplotation/kung-fu hybrid with Jim Kelly.
Most of the theaters that played Blaxploitation also played a lot of the kung-fu movies.
Same audiences, it seemed.
That’s a deeply weird movie.
Interesting article CPRM. Good job.
+1
I got distracted, but great article brother.
Err… yes, I got stuck in a discussion of nerd shit because I needed that after shit day at work, but excellent article indeed.
Badass sounds super-interesting, too. Not being streamed where I can get it, but I’ll look around and see if there’s an easy, legal way to rent it.
We are here to help the
VietnameseJapanese, because inside everygookOL there is an American trying to get out. It’s a hard-ball world, son.NSFW.
I find the total lack of muscle tone off-putting.
The dungeon aesthetic of the place doesn’t help.
Yup. This looks like the behindcthe scenes foitage from a human trafgicking website.
I am not in a good environment to check out the link, but I must say you have me greatly intrigued with the magical OL.
You always wanna have spare lighter fluid for your minivan.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/apr/17/man-gas-cans-arrested-st-patricks-cathedral-new-yo/
The man told the church guards that he was just cutting through the church because his car, which was parked outside, ran out of gas.
Seems legit. I mean, the nearest gas station might be five blocks in the opposite direction but hey.
This is deep into Reno 911 territory.
Funny how socialism always ends up this way.
https://strategypage.com/on_point/20190417203729.aspx
That’s not real socialism!!111!
I bet Obama would even say ‘He didn’t build that!’
Fuggin state capitalists ruining our glorious workers’ paradise once again.
For those of you not on earlier, I wrote a brainfart of a joke tweet based on the sycophants on Twitter, and not only did the ‘celebrity’ reply, but the sycophants keep liking and retweeting.
I clicked though to Lillard’s twitter account – he’s an almost-50-year-old man who writes like a stoned 13-year-old.
So, he’s highly educated by today’s standards.
Winning?
Drinking.
Damn fine tweet/response, there.
It’s hard to read anything into his two-word reply. Maybe he’s in on the joke?
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
That would make it better, my laughter is more at the ‘likes’ GAH, had to explain this twice today!
Got a little bit of the crazy eyes going on, but still would.
https://nypost.com/2019/04/17/mom-allegedly-had-sex-with-both-her-daughters-teen-boyfriends/
“the two boys were released from the hospital after undergoing treatment for injuries sustained by repeated high-fives”
She watched way too much Pornhub.
Well, looks like CPRM is having himself a winning day, here.
Kudos!
I only win in the stories I tell, and usually not even then, because failure is funny.
I think I stupified everyone by writing this.
1) Good choice
2) Not stupified. Just impressed with the write-up, and subsequent chat points.
With the stupified reference I was going more with this.
Man, you just won’t take the compliment, will ya?
Compliments are for housewives and racehorses! (Not sure what that means, but that sounds like great quote)
Crumbling inFRAHstructure.
Grab a beer old friend, and regale us with your Asiatic adventures!
Nothing happening around here. Beer sounds like a good idea ?. 1:30 pm though?
Don’t you mean “Beer:30”?
The translation I’m working on is boring AF, so why not add some bar slang to it, eh?
Well, either that, or, we could just talk some softball.
Should have thrown the Fastball.
Damn you bringing me down.
Alright, here’s a story from my single days. My friend and I picked up these two girls at the blues bar one night. University girls. They had come to the bar by bicycle, so I told my girl I’d give her a ride home on her bike. She sits on the seat and I’m standing as we ride double. Her feet were just dangling and her entire body weight was being supported by her crotch.
I’m eager to get to her house and go flying down this cobblestone hill. Half way down she starts groaning in pain. Talk about a meat tenderizer. Of course, I didn’t end up getting any that night.
Um, you read me wrong bro, where’s my rape whistle?! I can’t find it!!
*Shrugs* We still laugh about that.
Thanks for the story, Straff. That got a couple chuckles from me over here.
#TenderVittles
I got nuthin’, really.
Something clever, synthetic.
Alt right, What a Day. G’night.
If we can judge someone by the company they keep….
https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/17/tlaib-catron-hezbollah-pflp/
Why are prog gashes so….unsightly?
[Redacted] [Redacted] [Redacted] [Redacted].
Talking points activated!
80s flashback – Ben Elton interviews Rik Mayall
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wUHOmSZwLZE