i just caught the movie, too. there was crowd applause at two points. the first was when peerless and sloan were in the meeting with that marketing chick and he was takin' it to her on several levels.... just jumpin' back at her and attacking her.

i think that applause came from the fact that it was the only scene where pierre had a "social conscience."

the rest of the applause was at the end. only half the crowd clapped; the other half turned all the way around in their seats to see who the strange people were who thought this was an applause-worthy flick, overall.

i left the movie theater like, "what the HECK just happened here?" and "uh, what am i supposed to use as a springboard for discussion here?"

true indeed, i agree with aaron on the points that:

a.) none of what was offered here was stuff that afri-ams with a sense of self-history DIDN'T know... or didn't see as a problem. the film didn't do much to aid race education.

i got the same feeling in viewing this as i did in high school when my white history teacher would pull out the textbook and read the paragraph on martin luther king. it was like, "okay. y'all do this EVERY YEAR and even without y'all, i know more about mjk than y'all could teach in a lifetime..." and then the teacher goes on to talk about dogs and hoses and civil rights... like the all-black class doesn't KNOW about this stuff.

that's how this movie ran for me. like "did u know that hattie mcdaniels played a mammy for years and years and could never transcend that stereotype b/c all society wanted to see were mammies and uncle toms?"

YES WE KNEW THAT!!!!!!!!

and did u know that the legacy of slavery and stereotyping still prevails onscreen today?

YES WE KNEW THAT TOO!!!! and?

i dug the role paul mooney played. it was waaaaay complex and could've been a movie all its own.

and yeah, the roots definitely shoulda been better utilized... how'd they feel about the show? how did that cat who played honeycutt feel? it's like none of the actors discussed their own conflicts about being on a show like this one... why? and are we to believe that tommy davidson was the only one who knew enough history to have a problem perpetuating its repetition?