>Hey BooDaah - I'm out of
>town now, but when I
>get back I need to
>get my spear. Sorry its
>taken so long.

if you only knew how much that spear has taken on a life of it's own. the conversations as people consistently ask "what's that big stick doing in the corner?" i've taken to making up stories, my fav being the one where i say that it's holding up the ceiling. all i gotta say (tongue firmly in cheek), is that you wrong as hell.

seriously though, no prob. i've avoided my wife's dirty looks thus far, so i'll be all right. it's here whenever you call for it.

>Shouldn't have. I didn't.

after typing for like six minutes in my unique pecking style, i realized "i woouldn't want to read this either" so i junked it.

>I said he didn't cover it well.

i think that's cool, i just had a different opinion.

>I'm tired of giving people
>points for effort..(snip)..You still have
>to execute your craft well.

i agree. i know a crappy movie when i see it, which is why i rarely go to the movies, and i didn't think this was one.

looking back over spikes career, i think that at this point we know he isn't exactly the BEST writer (or director for that matter). to me, spikes movies are kinda like a mcdonalds in that you pretty much know the boundaries of what you're gonna get. a spike movie, is a spike movie. that's neither good nor bad. it just is. if you don't like his "style" then you should probably avoid his movies in general, because they're pretty much all done in the same "style". this movie is spikes take on the situation.
i/you/mr. hudlin/speilberg/whomever could have (and if we had the chance WOULD have) put our own spin on it. this is spike and i think he did a credible job. it's not as good as "X" by any means, but it's hella better than "girl 6" which to me was only so-so. in terms of execution i defer, because everyone has their own opinion (as i'e probably said like 50 times).

>White people LOVE him for
>being the "controversial race guy"...(snippin on some snizzurp)...For Spike,
>its a risk to NOT
>do this kind of thing.

i disagree. i think it's still a risk and disagree that he's "loved" for being what you describe. maybe we hang around different whitefolks but most that I know/speack with will avoid his movies because they don't want to be preached to. i don't know where YOU saw it, but i can't remember the last time i went to one of these race related "spike joints" and caught more that a couple of non-black faces. while on the otherhand, white folks and reviewers were tripping over themselves to praise crooklyn and even kings of comedy. i have other ideas regardling lee's "place" in the hollywood scheme, but i'm doing my best to be brief.

>Hey, I'm getting largely the same
>label of "race guy"..(snip)...not do controversy
>for controversy's sake.

your situation notwithstanding, i cram to understnd what lee brought that was only "for controversy sake". the history of blackface was pretty well done to me. the use of historical footage (movies and cartoons) and display of artifacts (in pop-culture artifacts, advertising and art) was also pretty good in terms of understanding the proliferation of these images throughout american history. juxtaposing THOSE with the more modern day examples and the willingness of the characters to deal with or participate was ALSO handles well in my opinion. going back to your earlier message, it would have been cool to see a little more regarding peoples reactions to the show, but i'm still satisfied with what was shown. the ending was a little sloppy for my taste, but i'm not exactly sure what could have been done differently to end the thing.

>That's exactly the problem. I do
>a COMIC STRIP. The characters
>actually ARE 2-dimensional. They're CARTOONS
>(I was gonna make this
>point in my original post
>but figured that was obvious).
>Writing a 2 hour screenplay
>is different than writing a
>four panel comic strip -
>or, at least, it's supposed
>to be.

i dunno. you get four panels over weeks/months/years to develop your characters (not including sundays). for example, when folk wonder what happened to the boy's parents in your strip there is always the possibility that someday you'll get to it. from the little i know of screenplays and moviemaking, you gotta trim as much fat as possible in the interest of "moving the story along". if spike had taken too much time dissecting the character's motivations and histories folk would complain that it was boring and slow. i still think the characters were supposed to represent a "type" of person as opposed to an actual real life individual.

>Again, I'm not disagreeing there, I
>would just say that you
>can't use the same approach
>with different mediums....Charlie
>Brown, Calvin, Dilbert, are brilliant
>IN their simplicity because they
>maximize their medium and don't
>overdo it.

i'm not implying the same approach should be used, I'm only saying that within the limitations of each world you gotta roll with the boundaries (WHATEVER they are), and decide which is more important. the themes addresssed, or the exposition/development regarding the characters. i still think the characters were painted broadly in bamboozeled's case to get you to pay attention to the themes presented.

Regarding the examples you've given, i disagree if you're implying that the characters in those strips don't have well developed personalities. i think part of the reason why those strips are so brilliant (as well as loved) is because the authors have translated personality (over time) in simplistic ways. but i digress here. i'd love to continue THIS converstaion elsewhere.

>Movies are different. Very different. Their
>supposed to reflect something closer
>to reality .... a satire
>for first graders.

nah. not necessarily true. take a "brazil" for example. a very good film regarding society's crumbling nature that was totally unrealistic. okay, maybe a stretch of an example, but either way if you only look at the surface it might seem simplistic, but underneath i think there were quite a few subtle ways that spike showed that this issue goes deeper than "jolly nigga banks" and black makeup. in this film no one was drawn as a good guy, or bad guy. each had their own reasons for their actions and whatever those reasons were, the end result was simply more easoning i the stew. oh yeah, and you must have been a heck of a first grader.

>Awww ... come on man...

don't get it twisted. i was merely saying that as a non-writer i defer the critique of the "quality" of the writing to my friend who does that sort of thing professionally. different strokes.

>He left the theater
>ready to whup someone's ass.

...why i wonder? because it was poorly written/simplistic/whatever? when looking at spike's movies is this one really THAT much of an anomaly?

>...I've seen
>the reality of Hollywood that
>Spike oversimplifies.

So then as someone with vision, perspective, and means where is your Bamboozeled? i'm not bing funny, but i go back to my comment that this ISN'T a topic that folk are killing themselves to see addressed. THIS is spike's take....if you have a different one why not use YOUR STRIP to address it? not to say (or imply) that you're punking out, just wondering why not have huey drop a panels woth of jewels on this?

>Can you or your
>friend demonstrate to me what
>the hell Spike was trying
>to say SPECIFICALLY?

what i got: we as black folk are quick to complain about the media and pop cultures perpetuation of images of us that we don't like, but in many instances we take an actiave role in them.

is that specific enough (i'll give you that it may be clunky)

>...but you almost have
>to draw ALL YOUR OWN
>conclusions from this movie. That's
>wack. Stinky filmmaking, smelly writing.

but in this movies case, we KNOW the conclusion: "this is a bad thing" (we knew that before we went in, at least everyone I've talked to did). the more important thing we're left to ponder (as with DO THE RIGHT THING, SCHOOL DAZE, SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, HE GOT GAME, etc.) is "What are WE gonna do about it?"

>As for sparking dialogue
>- man ... people been
>talking about this subject forever.

But isn't this one of the few times in a while it's been said onscreen (with respects to Robert Townsend)?

And, not to be funny, but we talk about a lot of things and probably will continue to till the end. but that doesn't make the discussion (or anyones' view) any less valid.

to each his own.....


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