23. "RE: My assessments from the trailer" In response to In response to 22 Wed Nov-04-15 12:05 PM by The Analyst
>1. The situation with the violence in Chicago is entirely too >serious of a concept to joke around with. For all of his work >with Bamboozled....the trailer appears to be turning the youth >of Chicago into a caricature in and of itself. The shit going >on on the South Side is too current and too important to crack >jokes about. I didn't see anything promising or redeeming in >that trailer.
I mean, do you honestly think Spike is "cracking jokes" about what's going on in Chicago or treating it as a caricature?
It's possible to deal with serious subject matter with something other than a serious tone. Satire/comedy is one of the most powerful weapons in a good artist's toolbox. When it's done right, it probably cuts deeper than most dramas. Anti-war satires have been around forever. (Dr. Strangelove, MASH, etc.) People looking hard enough could see Scorsese's anger in Wolf of Wall Street even though it had a comical/sprawling tone. There are countless examples of this. Something like Dear White People could have easily been a drama and told the same story, but it shrouded its cutting observations/commentary in comedy/satire.
>2. The biggest issue I've had with Spike is his writing. It >was okay when he was younger because he was still "current", >so the novelty of seeing hip-hop sensibilities on the screen >overshadowed any issue I had with his character development. >However....watching this trailer I literally CRINGED at least >4 times from poorly delivered or poorly written lines. Maybe >I'm missing the tone of the movie...but I find it very >difficult to believe any plot devices are going to save some >of the out and out BULLSHIT I saw written in that dialogue.
I don't know that you're getting the tone of the movie one way or the other since you haven't actually seen it yet. At least wait until you see it to criticize the writing and tone. Pretty hard to make that judgement based on a 2 minute trailer with scenes chopped up, taken out of context, and re-arranged.
>3. I've said this before and I've said it again...I applaud >Spike for the way that he took his shooting to the >neighborhoods in question. I can tell you that niggaz on my >block were about to cause a full blown riot if he didn't come >out to talk to them...which is usually not his thing. So props >for coming to the people with that. However...the issues >between gender are too serious and too real. The tone of this >film feels downright irresponsible.
I definitely respect where you're coming from with this, but it seems like you're equating a non-serious tone with a non-serious treatment of the subject matter. I'd be shocked if Spike is less than deathly serious in his actual anger about what's happening in Chicago, and I'd also be really surprised if that anger doesn't come through in the movie, crazy tone and all.