The recently
released Marvel/ Disney film Black
Panther is generating excitement around the world as it
breaks box office records on a fast track to bring in at least one billion
dollars if not more. As of this writing after two weekends the film has grossed
over $704,000,000 world wide! I’m not a movie guy but saw it twice in less than
a week. The film is sparking conversations and discussions about film,
politics, portrayals of African people and the new ground the film is breaking.
Some have postulated superhero movies are
fostering regression and an infantile mentality in our society. For me I think
it is a form of escapism a way of disconnecting and focusing on the day to day
grind by slipping into a fantasy world. I do agree we are being programmed by
Hollywood, dumbed down and victimized by a nefarious agenda of social
engineering designed to create non-thinking, dysfunctional, unproductive
zombies and automatons.
For people
of African descent the film Black
Panther offers a respite from the depictions of Black
people started by D.W. Griffith in his 1915 film Birth of A Nation which
imagined us as degenerate criminals, dullards and reprobates. D.W. Griffith’s
vile depiction of Black’s (played by white actors in blackface) set the tone
and tenor for over one hundred years of despicable US (and foreign) filmmaking
and film iconography. Following Griffith’s films we were subjected to Tarzan
and Jungle Jim in the movies, Ramar of the Jungle on US television and a host
of other films depicting continental and Diasporan Africans as savages and
ignoramuses.
Sadly
today filmmakers even Blacks still mimic Grifith’s iconography and acquiesce to
white America’s projection of us as grossly sub-human, hyper-sexual
dysfunctional personalities, especially in the music videos and so called
“reality Shows”. Black men are criminals or at best the sidekick of the white
hero and our women were portrayed as Mammies, Jezebels, hoochie mommas or
Sapphires.
Fast
forward to 2018, in the Black
Panther film we are witnessing a sea change and a
revolution. Black Panther it
is not a Black film per se, it was produced by Marvel Studios a successful
studio that is cranking out block buster movies based on their comicbook
characters. The Black Panther character was first introduced in Marvel’s
Fantastic Four comic in 1966. Later in 1973 the Black Panther and his fictional
Wakanda home were given with their own comicbook. Over the years the comic has
enjoyed a successful run in a genre where there were few Black superheroes in
the comicbooks and none on television or in the movies.
Marvel
changed all that when they introduced Wakanda in the block buster film Avengers Age of Ultron and Black Panther was
introduced in a follow up movie Captain
America Civil War. Yes Wakanda is a fictional place and its
pure fantasy but so are most films even when there are supposedly based on real
life people and places. It offers a vision or idea of what African people can
do and be and it is based upon the historical reality of a time when African
people were highly civilized and advanced.
Director
Ryan Googler offers a unique vision of African people more powerful,
imaginative and positive than the images and depictions of African people shown
in any previous motion picture, even Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America which
was a comedy. Even though the film is based on a fictional superhero and a
mythical place in Africa, the film is resonating on a deep psychological level
with Black folks around the world.
The
images of richly melanin endowed people living in a secret highly advanced
technological culture far superior to anything in our present reality,
functioning in an highly ethical and traditionally based society is inspiring
and glamorous! It is mind-blowing for many. This is uncharted territory for
most of us. The set designs, costumes, hair styles and imagery are awesome. And
the idea and depiction of a place like Wakanda is exhilarating because it
offers possibilities and inspires us to imagine a better us and a better world.
I saw
the film twice within a week both times except for a few scenes that evoked
mild laughter, the audience sat in rapt quiet attention, no talking to the
screen, no side conversations just watching. Most of the audience was white
(owing to the successful Marvel movies that have generated billions of dollars
and millions of fans). The second time I saw it the people in the theater
applauded when the film ended. When I saw it on the first Friday, I think
people were so awestruck at what they saw they walked out talking quietly
amongst themselves. I was waiting outside and a few people nodded and gave the
approval sign.
While I
concerns about the violence in the film which is standard fare in these mega
budget CGI films, I feel are desensitizing and manipulating us for war killing
and imperialism, I was impressed and intrigued by the philosophical and
emotional tension the film raises amongst the main characters especially King
T’Challa the newly installed native born king of Wakanda who is still trying to
determine the kind or ruler he will be and his cousin Erik Killmonger a
African-American who has never seen Wakanda nor been initiated into the society
who when we see him as an adult is sociopathic mercenary. The tension is driven
by the questions: should Wakandans share their resources and knowledge with the
rest of the world, lead a global revolution to free all oppressed people or
remain isolated, hidden and secret. I am not going to spoil it by revealing
anything more.
At
a later date I will probably examine these questions and share some of my
thoughts on the deeper story lines, like are comicbook superheroes making us
infantile, explore the character relationships, the parallels to other mythical
stories themes and personalities and the irony the film is being distributed so
widely by Disney whose founder was an avowed racist and alleged pedophile.
The
good news is, I don’t have to exhort you to see the film because it is doing
buffo at the box office, but if you haven’t seen it, go see it.
Junious
Ricardo Stanton
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