Reminds me of what I read about a film called Coonskin, retitled for DVD as Streetfight - its a Ralph Bakshi effort, who also gave us a very bad animated interpretation of the Hobbit. I've seen pieces of Coonskin and wasn't very impressed but it did generate the same type of controversy - I found this descrtiptoin online:
When the film was finished, a showing was planned at the Museum of Modern Art. In a 1980 interview, Bakshi stated, "the museum had seen the film and loved it, a breakthrough in animation. They set up a very special night to screen it for film people."[1] The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) surrounded the building before anyone had seen it yet, in a protest led by Al Sharpton.[9] According to Bakshi, "The room was filled, although there weren't many protesters from CORE there, eight or nine. Screaming, 'You can't watch this film!' People pulling people out of their seats. It was that kind of night. The audience was very frightened. They were being attacked verbally throughout the movie. People kept running up and down the aisles in pitch blackness."[1] In a 1982 interview, Bakshi stated "I had finished the film on a Friday, I screened it in California for the museum on a Monday, and on Wednesday when I came to New York to screen it there were pickets there. I brought the film on the plane with me, and no one had seen it but my animators and two guys from the museum. But there were pickets there, shouting that the film was racist. I never saw anything so set up in my life, but the press never picked up on that."[1] Bakshi asked Sharpton why he didn't come in and see the movie. In response, Sharpton announced, "I don't got to see shit; I can smell shit!"[9] In a 2008 interview, Bakshi stated that "I called Sharpton a black middle-class fucking sell-out, and I’ll say it to his face. Al Sharpton is one of those guys who abused the revolution to support whatever it was he wanted."[14] According to Bakshi, "[Sharpton] brought in some bruisers, and I could hear them asking, 'Should we beat him up or cool it?' 'Ah, let's watch the film.'"[9] "They were geared to dislike it" says Bakshi. "They were booing at the titles! I guess it was an easy target. Or they were paid to do it. I don't know. It was very unusual. They were booing at something they hadn't even seen. This was interesting to me."[3] After the screening, Bakshi states that Sharpton charged up to the screen, but "people didn’t want to follow Sharpton up the aisle. His own men! He was screaming to me on the podium and turning around to them, saying, 'Are you guys coming up?' But they didn’t want to, because they loved the movie."[1 I do love the theme song written by Ralph Bakshi and performed by Scatman Crothers - if Scatman is ok with it, so am I. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgdMJDD6oYQ ________________________________ From: turquoiseb <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, December 8, 2012 6:19 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Do you trust the critics, or do you...uh...see the movie? This is not a continuation of the JudyApocalypto thang, merely a riff on that incident's real issue, and some musing about that phenomenon's relationship to spiritual practice. Would you feel that you knew enough about a movie to comment on it -- as if you were authoritative and knew what you were talking about -- if you'd only read a commentary on the movie, and never actually seen it? You'd be surprised at how many people would. I met a few of them once in front of a New York theater showing Martin Scorcese's "The Last Temptation Of Christ." I was there to see the movie, on its opening day. They were there to picket the movie, waving signs that decried it as "Anti-God" and "Blashemy!" and "Heresy!" and "The Work Of Satan." I'd arrived early, so instead of going straight in, I spent some time wandering around, talking to the picketers. In particular, I asked them whether they had ever seen the movie, or read the book by Nikos Kazantzakis on which it was based. I did not find a single picketer who had done either. They were there because some spiritual figure they trusted -- quite possibly their Catholic priest or bishop -- had told them that it was BAD. The picketers stayed outside picketing. I went inside. After all, I had read the book. Now I've seen the movie. I can speak somewhat authoritatively about both, having done so. I can, for example, say that I found both the book and the film to be among the most positively spiritual works I've ever read or seen. The picketers, on the other hand, would probably just as authoritatively still tell you that it's BAD. They *know* this because they were told it. They would never even *consider* actually seeing the movie they were picketing to find out about it, because they already know the Truth -- it's BAD. Go figure. Now segue to spirituality itself. Don't we find the same phenomenon there? There are, after all, millions and millions of people on this planet for whom spiritual experience is hearsay. They're basing everything they feel that they "know" on what they were TOLD about a spiritual figure, and about his/her experiences, and about what they "meant." In very few cases is there any personal subjective experience to back up what they were TOLD. But they're more than willing to tell you -- rather authoritatively -- about these things they've only been TOLD about, and never experienced themselves. They'll tell you all about the miracles that a friend of a friend of someone another friend met on a course has assured you their teacher performed. They'll tell you how perfect he was, never having met him. Go figure. Me, I'm more of a "you have to have been there" kinda guy. I'm gonna see the movie. :-) Most of the time I don't even *read* critics and commentators on films. One reason for this is that I sometimes write reviews myself, and don't want my impressions to be tainted by having read other people's impressions. Another is that I don't want them to spoil the experience for me. I want to buy the ticket and buy the popcorn and enjoy the ride myself. *After* I've seen the movie I may read other people's commentaries about it, and nod when I agree with them and shrug when I don't. That's the same way I am these days with spiritual books. I tend to read them only after I've already had the experience they're discussing, to see how our impressions jibe, or don't. Go figure.
