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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Movie / Black History Month Open Thread

Saturday Movie / Black History Month Open Thread

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Brother from Another Planet is one of my favorite movies. I’m intrigued to see what Mr. Coates does with a hero raised to believe his survival rests on being invisible to potentially hostile eyes — someone who can disappear by throwing off his cape and assuming a stigmatized identity…

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  1. 1.

    gwangung

    I’m interested in Coates.

    He’d write an interesting take with either a black or a white Kal-el.

    And I think he’d understand that choosing a character and their race impacts all sorts of things about their upbringing and interactions with other people.

    (I’m betting, though, if the latest rumor is right, there’s going to be a blend of Icon with Superman…)

  2. 2.

    Fair Economist

    I like Coates’ writing and I like the idea of a black Superman. It would get a lot of racists’ knickers in a twist, which makes me like it even more.

  3. 3.

    cain

    @Fair Economist: 
    I’m going to absolutely love when racists go fucking nuts at the ultimate white totem in superhero genre.

    On the other hand, there is going to be a shit ton of pressure to make sure that this doesn’t flop. The pressure on Coates/J.J. Abrahms and whoever is director is going to be enormous. We’re dealing with the ultimate American identity.

    But yeah, it’s time for this iconic superhero to go black.

    Now who is going to be up for an Indian superhero eh?

  4. 4.

    The Thin Black Duke

    I would highly recommend Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley, a brilliant sf satire. It’s the rare movie where you have no idea where it’s going, and the ride is exhilarating. This is a golden era for black filmmakers.

  6. 6.

    Mike in NC

    I believe that Rush Limbaugh was very much against casting someone like Idris Elba as a black James Bond. Hasn’t happened yet, but let’s continue to celebrate Limbaugh’s trip to hell.

  9. 9.

    cain

    @gwangung:

    I really can’t understand the hate. She is a brilliant actress and gorgeous to boot. I think the whole grew up in a black family thing is really an interesting twist. Fuck these people.

  11. 11.

    cain

    BTW if they are going to be doing a whole thing on Superman, can we have Lex Luthor be Indian? I mean come on man – it’s like we don’t exist in space, in super heroes movies or anything. There are like over a billion of us here. We rarely representation in the western entertainment field.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    Trivia:

    Black comedic actor Mantan Moreland was Moe and Larry’s choice to be the new third stooge. However the studio didn’t want to add another name to the payroll so insisted on going with someone already on their books, Joe Besser.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I would highly recommend Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley, a brilliant sf satire. It’s the rare movie where you have no idea where it’s going, and the ride is exhilarating. This is a golden era for black filmmakers.

    This was a wild movie. I can’t recall if it was the same year as the magnificent Moonlight.

    I would also recommend Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk.

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    I’m really old and thus, remember watching “Blacula.” Had to look up the director–William Crain–who still walks among us (presumably in sunlight) at 71, so was very young in his directing heyday.

    Coates is a good writer so perhaps can make Superman not-boring. More power to you.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    @cain:

    BTW if they are going to be doing a whole thing on Superman, can we have Lex Luthor be Indian?

    One of the main villains in the last Jurassic Park movie was Indian.

    Riz was an under-used bad guy in Jason Bourne.

    But yeah, an Indian actor as Lex Luthor could be very interesting.

  23. 23.

    cain

    @Jay: I think that for the next 50 years, all the pure villains should be mediocre white males.

    Ostensibly, they are the villains now :D

  24. 24.

    Hoppie

    Race is a very poignant subject for me.

    Of my four grandparents, one was Mayflower, one 1628 New Hampshire, one 1640’s North Carolina, and one 1848 German draft-dodger.  I am about as American as any European descendant can be.

    It was my Negro (the polite word then, black or Afro-American is proper now) housekeeper who kept my brothers and me together as a family after my mother died and my father was disabled (there was family money).

    So I grew up with black people, but always had white privilege.  A great deal of the modern world is weird to me.

  25. 25.

    laura

    Black artistry, black music, black entertainment, black athletes, black scientists, black people telling the stories of America. I Want MOAR. We all benefit from the de-Pat Boonification of culture.

  27. 27.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Love Coates but we need a moratorium on Superhero movies. I think 100 years should suffice.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, in the not so friendly skies, … BusinessInsider:

    An American Airlines flight was diverted after two women got into a fight with another passenger over their use of a racial slur.

    Flight 776 between Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and Los Angeles had to be diverted to Phoenix on Wednesday due to the incident.

    Kelly Pichardo, 30, and Leeza Rodriguez, 29, were asked to stop using the term by another passenger, according to Phoenix Police.

    In a statement seen by NBC News, Sgt. Mercedes Fortune of Phoenix Police said: Kelly Pichardo became upset and allegedly spat at the male passenger who had asked her to stop using that language,”

    “The male passenger then began to record the two women and that is when Leeza Rodriguez struck the man’s hand to keep him from recording the incident.”

    Both women were charged with disorderly conduct upon landing at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, where Pichardo also faced an additional charge of assault, the Arizona Republic reported.

    American Airlines spokesman Derek Walls told the Arizona Republic: “Their behavior was disturbing and unacceptable, and they have been placed on our internal refuse list pending further investigation.”

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    Of course, they might not actually be from Texas, but…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    Superman: just…just ANYTHING but the blessed origin story, please ??

    I finished reading Heather McGee’s “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone And How We Can Prosper Together” this afternoon, and wow, what a great examination of this country’s history, and all the ‘nice things’ we can’t have in our current zero-sum system…but could easily have if we worked together.

    All through the book, she makes it a point to return to the theme of “racism hurts people of color the most, but here’s how it hurts most white people, too”.

    VERY eye-opening, and highly recommended!

  34. 34.

    Bruuuuce

    @Jeffro:

    Superman: just…just ANYTHING but the blessed origin story, please

    I finally watched the first episode of Superman and Lois last night. They gloss the origin story and Superboy years in a couple of minutes, because by the gods, everyone already knows that story.

    It worked really well, and if Coates did something similar (and was able to override the godsawful objections Jar Jar Abrams is sure to make) it would play on the big screen, too.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    Brother from Another Planet is one of my favorite movies. I’m intrigued to see what Mr. Coates does with a hero raised to believe his survival rests on being invisible to potentially hostile eyes — someone who can disappear by throwing off his cape and assuming a stigmatized identity…

    I’ve only seen clips of Brother From Another Planet. I’ve liked some of John Sayles’ work, but some stuff is just OK. Love Joe Morton as an actor, though.

    A lot of the Superman myth could work with a black character. He could grow up in Kansas, be adopted by a black family, etc.

    But white Clark Kent is kind of a genial nobody. He does not attract attention. A black Kent might be a different kind of character. I have a hard time seeing a black Superman being more interested in fighting crime than in liberating the oppressed.

    A majority black or multi-racial Krypton would be a hoot.

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    @Bruuuuce: same thing with the rest of them.  Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and Captain America origin stories = ugh.  Jump right into some of their best arcs and don’t look back, filmmakers!

  38. 38.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    In very good news, Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” will premier on Amazon Prime on May 14. I can’t wait. Wonderful book.

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    @BruceFromOhio: Oh that’s a fun link!  rawstory…/cpac-matt-schlapp-nazi/  Sums it up nicely.
    Btw, I didn’t know about the stage design initially.  I just saw Nazi and Hyatt trending and knew it was about CPAC, because OF COURSE.​

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of the “natural order” and suchlike…

    Someone’s mad at me because @jbarro blocked them. Usually it’s the other way around. I blocked him to restore order to the universe.

    — IncitementToResurrectionHat (@Popehat) February 27, 2021

    rofl.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    Hoppie

    @Hoppie: An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal was remarkably meaningful for its time.  Very much useful if you want to see what we were deliberately ignoring.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    @Jeffro

    just ANYTHING but the blessed origin story, please

    Marlon Brando argued it would be cool if instead of his person showing up on screen that his character would be portrayed by a green suitcase.

    Wartime propagandish as they are, the Fleischer Superman cartoons remain the best screen adaptations, IMHO. Although the depiction of the destruction of Krypton is rather … breviloquent.

  43. 43.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    But white Clark Kent is kind of a genial nobody. He does not attract attention. A black Kent might be a different kind of character.

    A Black Clark Kent would be amazing at going unnoticed. It’s a skill many BIPOC people have had to learn to stay alive.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: Superman: just…just ANYTHING but the blessed origin story, please.

    Agreed, though I could accept a faithful adaptation of the one-page, eight-word version from Morrison and Quitely’s “All-Star Superman”.  Thirty seconds tops, then roll opening credits.

    (“Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple.” to save you google time.)

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    Not a movie of course, but Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” is a wonderful book on the “Great Migration” North of black people in the early 1900s. It fleshes out a story that had not previously been covered in many books about American history and is essential reading for Black History Month or any other month.

  49. 49.

    Bruuuuce

    @Jeffro: Did you see how it was handled for the Peter Parker segment of  Into the Spider-Verse? That was pretty much the same handling as S&L, and it worked there, too. They only did a more expanded version for Miles Morales because, well, Miles != Peter.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    I must admit that when minority superheroes are mentioned, I have unpleasant flashbacks to Challenge of the Superfriends and its roster of, well, crude ethnic stereotypes. Someone reassure me that we’ve made progress over the last forty years.

  51. 51.

    RSA

    Blasphemy! This would up-end 80 years of… comic book history.

    I mean, if we’re talking about violation of continuity, in the 1990s they KILLED comic book Superman. (He got better.) There have been so many retcons over the decades that a black Superman shouldn’t be a big deal.

  53. 53.

    cain

    @Brachiator: But white Clark Kent is kind of a genial nobody. He does not attract attention. A black Kent might be a different kind of character. I have a hard time seeing a black Superman being more interested in fighting crime than in liberating the oppressed.

    Truth – but I have no idea how a man wiht great physical powers can help against a political system. I suppose you could turn into a Moses figure – but boy that will lead to all kind of things.

  61. 61.

    Tony Jay

    There’s already a black Superman (well, there’s two, actually, but let’s not be greedy) who not only saves the world on a regular basis but also finds the time to be President of the United States.

    Coates will be well aware of Calvin Ellis and his status as, perhaps, the ‘main’ Superman of the DC Multiverse, so it would be nice to think that he’s actually going to be telling his story as part of a wider DCCU storyline. Marvel are certainly leaning into the Multiverse idea for their next tranche of blockbusters, and you know what these studio execs are like when it comes to following the money.

    I’ll be honest, a Crime Syndicate spin-off TV series would keep me couchbound through the 2023 Lockdown period very happily indeed.

  64. 64.

    Woodrow/asim

    A few notes on this:

    • Abrams isn’t automatically a bad thing — her was a Producer on PERSON OF INTEREST, which was an amazing show that avoided a lot of the crap Abrams tropes. Really depends on how involved he gets and who ends up with creative control.
    • Regarding Indian villains — the current incarnation of the Doctor Who villain The Master is played by an actor of Indian descent, Sacha Dhawan.
    • Although Barack Obama is not an immigrant, he is someone whose life experience is based upon being raised by a mother, and grandparents, who were White folx born and raised in Kansas. And Coates has written on this, if I recall correctly.
  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator: It’s tremendous.  It’s something I try to push on my non-reading family members on a regular basis.  Totally eye-opening.  I think we covered the Great Migration for about 15 minutes tops back in HS – sad!

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @Another Scott:

    I’m reminded (as I believe Adam has discussed here, but I can’t find it at the moment) that Superman was created by a couple of Jewish guys and there are echoes of Moses, etc., in the story.

    Immortalized in Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    @Bruuuuce: yup, it was great!

    It’s like the movie people have never heard of ‘in media res’ or something.  EVERY comic book worth its salt starts off in the middle of the action and steps on the gas!

  68. 68.

    James E Powell

    @cain: 

    I mean come on man – it’s like we don’t exist in space, in super heroes movies or anything.

    In 2010, the character who programmed HAL, Dr Chandra, is Indian, but they cast Bob Balaban, a Jewish guy from Chicago. What was that all about?

  70. 70.

    James E Powell

    Brother from Another Planet is classic from the era when indie movies were truly indie and definitely looked like it.

  71. 71.

    Subsole

    @cain: I would commit petty crime for good Indian themed sci-fi.

    I wonder why it’s so unexplored? I mean, I recall a video game from like, the mid 2000s loosely patterned on the Ramayana. And that’s about it.

    RPG wise there’s Coriolis, which is much more Arabian Nights, but has a pretty interesting take on polytheism as dominant religion that seems a bit Indian in nature.

    That’s really about it, though.

  72. 72.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Seems an appropriate place to drop a link to a concert by a friend of ours, “In the Spirit of the Spiritual”, songs and letters of enslaved people.

    Live YouTube right now. John is founder and director of the Chester Children’s Chorus (this is the chorus channel), an amazing, amazing group.

  74. 74.

    Subsole

    @Jay: Also something in there about the daily restraint needed for survival. And patience. And forgiveness.

    Huh. The more I think of it, I’m almost more fascinated by the idea of a black Klark Kent than a black Superman…

  75. 75.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @James E Powell: In 2010, the character who programmed HAL, Dr Chandra, is Indian, but they cast Bob Balaban, a Jewish guy from Chicago. What was that all about?

    This is discussed in at least one episode of the Aziz Ansari Netflix series Master of None. I think it was the “Indians on TV” episode. Toward the end of the episode one of his friends asks plaintively, “What about Mindy Kaling? Is she real?”

  78. 78.

    Subsole

    @NotMax: Oh god…that would be so fucking cool.

    Black/Asian or Black/Latino would really bake their sad little noodles, wouldn’t it?

  80. 80.

    prostratedragon

    Queen & Slim:

    Slim and Queen’s first date takes an unexpected turn when a policeman pulls them over for a minor traffic violation. When the situation escalates, Slim takes the officer’s gun and shoots him in self-defence. Now labelled cop killers in the media, Slim and Queen feel that they have no choice but to go on the run and evade the law. When a video of the incident goes viral, the unwitting outlaws soon become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people all across the country.

    Betty: They Say I’m Different, a biography of Betty Mabry Davis.

    Coming tomorrow @7pm Eastern on TCM, the too-seldom shown To Sleep with Anger. Directed by Charles Burnett with a straight out of the Mojave sense of humor.

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    @Woodrow/asim:  There’s a story in (FTFNYT link) the biography of Obama’s mother of their time in Indonesia when he as a kid. He was being picked on by neighbor kids, them throwing rocks at him, etc., and him finding ways to dodge them and not be bothered. She made sure he found his own way to find his place even when he was an outsider. One could find lots of parallels if one wants to look. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  87. 87.

    Sasha

    This may be a minority opinion, but I really rather they don’t do a black Superman unless they’re doing Calvin Ellis. Hell, what is the point of having black Superman when Icon is just sitting there begging to be realized?

  88. 88.

    JML

    Huge fan of Coates, who is a terrific writer, but notably also clearly likes and respects the comic book form. Nothing drives me crazier than seeing people who clearly have contempt for comic books making them into films.

    The casting thing is going to be interesting. A lot of people will lose their shit if they make Superman black, and they’ll be showing their racism when they do. Similar to Spider-man…there’s nothing about the origins and core of the classic character that preclude them being another race or demand that they be played by a white actor. Casting an actor of color should almost certainly inform the story you tell and how you tell it…but it’ll still be Superman. And if you wanted to, you could make an interesting statement by casting a black Superman and ignoring any racial implications at all in the story & scripting.

    With Coates writing, I have a level of confidence in the storytelling that makes me very interested to see what happens…but they’ll need a strong director too in order to ensure it doesn’t end up a studio hack job.

  89. 89.

    Sasha

    I’ve seen this comment before and I find myself disagreeing with the assertion that people who object to a black Clark Kent/Superman are merely displaying racism. (Totally losing their shit though? Very possibly.)

    I’m very happy that Coates has been tapped for this assignment, and that is part of the reason why I hope they don’t try to racelift the character. I’m interested to see what he has to say about Superman as opposed to having it be yet another example of “black writer only allowed to write for black characters”.

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