you don't get out of allegations of racism just because you say you aren't racist. 'oh we know you're gonna say this movie is racist....but it's not, so shut it, pal. called you out on that, huh?'. making a film about the saintliness of a blonde conservative white woman who takes in a poor, wayward black kid/man is just a shitty idea.  i haven't seen it so maybe i am missing something but i'm about 99% sure i'm not because it's fucking sandra bullock come on and also i'm not watching this movie it looks awful.

maybe racism is the wrong word, though. it's just that the whole feeling behind this idea is so besides the point and ignorant in terms of how you deal with racism that to get invested in it's argument is just a bit yuck for me. i suspect as well that there is a whole 'we can tame them and make them good! look at us!' current riding underneath all of this, too.

Sandra Bullock does suck generally but shes ok in this.

Why is it a shitty idea? Because dorks will assume the idea is racist? It's based on a true story and it's a good story. I'd probably agree if the story was just a fictional idea someone came up with and that they gave the black people in the film characteristics that were cliche such as drug dealers, poor, etc but this is all based on fact and I think they handled it pretty well. Just because in this particular story the black people are actually drug dealers etc doesn't necessarily mean the movie is racist. Maybe it's true that conservative white people may enjoy this movie because it's in their comfort zone or whatever but.............. fuck em.

I pretty much agree with this comment I read on IMDB

"That this story is based on contemporary facts makes it all the more resonant. Events that might have been handled superficially, predictably or exploited for dramatic purposes were instead presented in a nuanced and profound manner. Michael's biological mother was portrayed with dignity and compassion. In short, the aspects of Michael's story that make it moving and inspiring were captured with skill and integrity. As for the negative feedback regarding this movie that began when the only the trailers were available - I think the comments might be more a reflection of the world view of the authors rather than a reflection of the quality of the movie or the reality of Michael's story. Some people think the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" was a story about racism in the south, or that "The Crying Game" was a movie about the IRA - to me those were the settings for the drama, and not the drama itself. John Lee Hancock really bit off a lot when he took on this project-but as it turned out, it was not more than he could chew. Remember when Attorney General Eric Holder commented on how we were a nation of cowards when it came to openly discussing race? With this movie, Hancock has demonstrated he is not one of those cowards. He did not ignore the racial or class differences of the characters in this movie, and he avoided using the movie to make a social statement with the movie. He allowed these character attributes to be what they were in reality, and told the human drama in an effective and sensitive manner."
 

"So if a black person is helping a white person, it's considered a magical negro racist film; if it's a white person helping a black person, it's considered a white savior racist film. It seems like the only logical way to make everyone happy is to not have black people and white people in the same movies together"

I pretty much agree with this, I think the story handles the black/white dynamic fine because it depicts her as caring for a child because it is underprivileged, not because it is black. Just because a white rich conservative woman helps someone out doesn't always mean its racist and condenscending. Why can't people see beyond white and black?

Obviously I see where you guys are coming from but I honestly didn't really see it in this movie. The only time I cringed was when she threatened the drug dealers that she knows police ha.

I haven't seen this and to be honest the racial stuff seems like a comparatively minor thing to get worked up about considering how bad the rest of this looks anyway but I'm not sure that saying it's based on a true story automatically gets it a free pass. It's not like this was just pulled together through randomly-selected security camera footage or something, it's a deliberate product of conscious human beings who decided that out of all the true stories out there this was the one they found resonant and interesting etc. I mean I have no doubt there really is a true story about, say, a menacing black man who rapes a sympathetic white woman while gobbling chickenfry or something like that out there but that doesn't automatically make it fair game to base a film around because this stuff isn't really created in a void and you always have to take into account some wider context I think.

Yeah obviously and I totally agree. This is basicially what I was getting at here: "Maybe it's true that conservative white people may enjoy this movie because it's in their comfort zone or whatever but.............. fuck em."

Like I said, I totally get where you guys are coming from ASSUMING its going to be horrible based on the trailer and the fact its sandra bullock. but hey I liked it  and I hate sandra.

Looking at it this way, it looks like logically the problem with this movie isn't the fact that there is a black person with a white person, it's the fact that there is one person helping another person. People just helping each other is stupid idea for a movie anyhow. (Why not make a movie about grocery shopping, or about income tax audits while you are at it?) t wouldn't even sell one ticket without overt racial undertones.

I think you're simplifying it too much, its an amazing thing to randomly stop on the side of the road and take in a child wandering the streets and get him tutors and put him through college and help him grow etc.

Watched it.. wasnt bad and I thought Sandra Bullock played the strong hearted woman just fine.

dfmuschke hymoduv.......
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.meh.
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huh.

sometimes i feel that on gw everything is racist

Wouldnt feel right without any racism.

I saw the spill.com movie review (the one where they say that the guy looks like he's either depressed or taking a shit) before I saw the movie, and I'm serious when I say that for the first 30 minutes, I laughed every time I saw his face.

statistically, as far as i know, your average white american is wealthier than your average black american, so really the idea of this scenario playing out in this way isn't really racist, but just scientific. if every wealthy family took in a underprivileged kid and then you just randomly drew from a hat to see which family you were going to make a movie about it would probably be a movie about a wealthier white family taking in a black kid. but even if there is some race issue here thats not what gets me about this movie, what gets me about this movie is the economic issue. i think this reinforces the idea that it is ok to do a half assed job, by which i mean, in this movie the woman not only gets a moral pass for her entire family's wasteful lifestyle, but is portrayed as some sort of saint. it makes it out as though having a conscious isn't something ordinary but something extraordinary, which continues the idea that its ok to be a sub par, selfish, asshole. but don't get me wrong it's still good to help people, and it is good that this is a true story, and that there are people that do stuff like this (even if i wish it was the standard), but it brings me to my next point. sandra bullock alone made what, tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars to play in this movie? and how many of those dollars are going to underprivilaged children (of any race?), and how many other already rich people made money off of this movie that are never going to give anything to anybody but their other rich friends? and who is going to pay at the movie theaters to see this movie, the disintegrating middle class who is scrambling to movies/drugs/anythingthatcangettheirmindsoffthemisserableworld, which will just drive them into further poverty.

now that i have yelled from atop my soapbox, i just want to say i dont have a problem with movies that try to sell you sex, drugs, rock and roll, violence, horror, gore, laughs, information, or anything else besides morality. to me most movies give you what you want (any of the listed above) but i feel like movies like this are trying to hook you, which is perverse. to sell someone something that they want at face value is fine, even if the content is twelve men shitting on a lady, and even to try to appeal to peoples emotions is fine because i think in general people like to feel emotions (despite their consequences) but to appeal to someones morality is practically the definition of amorality. i can very easily imagine a whole group of white women going out to lunch and talking about how great this movie looks and all of them secretly hating it, but not wanting to seem cold hearted, and then probably even all going to see it together and talking about how great it is and maybe one of them liked it or something. i dont think thats too hard to imagine. its overwhelmingly obvious that everyone, white/black man/woman loves sex/violence/bulllshit/etc, since thats what sells the most in america anyway, and that going to see a movie like this is just a way to have pretend morality, since if you actually cared about underprivileged people you would be out helping them instead of wasting ten dollars to see stupid ass fucking sandra bulllock.

edit: by the way i waste tons of money and am in no way some sort of saint, so...just dont think thats what im saying. im just saying why i hate this movie in paticular

that's not what i'm saying. i'm saying, because of racism, things are this way now. because poor newly freed slaves had no choice but to be share croppers in the south and cycle all their money back to their former owner, who would basically still be their owner, or move to the north and do physical labor for meager wages and still get discriminated against, that black people today in america are generally poorer than white people. there are many successful black familys, and there are more and more all the time, but because of how history played out, minorities in general are generally poorer than white people in america

im not saying anything even half racist. im talking about social and historical situations in america.

you are right, spending money doesnt lead to poverty, especially in america. in fact, america's economy depends on people wasting shit loads of money, but it defintely leads to a global poverty because of how much we waste and the poor wages that we pay workers to do outsourced jobs.

and yes of course most poor people are white. either i didnt clarify myself well enough or you didnt read well enough. if you take all the black people, and all the white people, and compare them, a lower PERCENTAGE of whites (pulled from the pool of all the white people from america) will be below the poverty line than if you analyzed the black population in the same way.

again, YES, that is the definition of a hypocrite. someone who says "thing X is right!" and then doesn't actually do thing x.

im not sure if you are kidding with you post or not, but only because it is you.

everyone in this topic: blah blah blah blah

really afura? because i think

its an amazing thing to randomly stop on the side of the road and take in a child wandering the streets and get him tutors and put him through college and help him grow etc.

which is bascially eating up the garbage that this movie is handing you is a lot more "blah blah blah" as you phrased it, than...i don't know...actually sitting down and thinking about the social consequences of the media.