This and that...

I must admit that I have been a bit on the lazy side today. Two movies and research in preparing for their viewings during the past week have given me a bit of sensory overload.  Tomorrow I will be watching The Defiant Ones, another Sidney Poitier classic, and a movie with a plot that is perhaps the most provocative of the "mainstream" films that I will be watching this January. At its core, The Defiant Ones is a chase movie. It's about 2 escaped convicts-- one white and one black-- who flee from a wrecked prison transport truck to trudge through the wilderness attached at the wrist.

I will wait to give more commentary on the film tomorrow, and the main point I want to address briefly today is an article I found from an Ivy League film professor beleaguering the portrayal of African-Americans in films like To Kill a Mockingbird and In the Heat of the Night. It's the same issue of passiveness that I considered yesterday and would be redundant to summarize. As I read the article, which approaches the same flaws in the film's portrayal of African-Americans as Roger Ebert, I was reminded that there is a character within the story of the Finch family whose quiet integrity and propriety is overshadowed by that of Atticus Finch himself. Calpurnia, the Finches' maid and cook, is a respectfully vocal disciplinarian of Scout and Jem as well as their protector during moments of sadness and danger. She is not unlike her employer in a very subtle way. Remembering my reading of Harper Lee's novel, I am reminded that Calpurnia is considered within the text and literary discussion as a crucial influence in the coming of age transition of the Finch children. I think her character in the film maintains the same attributes with less of a spotlight. So while it is valid to criticize the passive portrayal of African-Americans in these films, it is presumptuous to look past such a valuable character as Calpurnia (though she is a part of the white paternalist system, too).  

On to another topic.  I am anxious to see how Tony Curtis portrays a down and out criminal opposite of Poitier. I must not forget one of the central themes of Framing the South: that the portrayal of whites in the American South as degenerate rednecks is an all too common Hollywood stereotype during the middle of the 20th century. Considering Heat and Mockingbird, ultimately the villains in both pictures are lower class white males involved in drinking, promiscuous sex, etc. Not only do these films attempt to expose the complicated racial tensions for African-Americans in the American South, they maintain the portrayals of many Southern whites as lawless rednecks. If not oppressed, I feel it is only fair to consider these characters as an aspect of stereotyping and typecasting within Hollywood during the 1950s and 1960s that often transcended race. I look forward to seeing two superb actors depict a story that is quite literally a study in race relations. Until then...