He's pretty true to life for white cops of that time. I mean, one minute he's using the n-word, the next he's laughing with a fellow black cop. Brings back memories: growing up in Texas in the '70s, my life was full of white friends and teachers with that same schizophrenic view of race relations. I actually had to deal with white people using "nigger" around me and then say ing "Oh, that doesn't apply to you, Keith". A few minutes later, after getting over their shock and fear, they either got it--or learned never to speak that way around me or any other black again.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 5:54:01 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight When I was a kid it was a big complaint about that film. A lot of people boycotted it here because of the negative portrayal of black people. If I remember correctly the trailer talked about him being a bigot. On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Keith Johnson < [email protected] > wrote: Then I wonder if the racism of Popeye Doyle bothered him? I forgot how casually racist people could be in films back in those days. Quite a bit of "guinea" thrown around at a black man, "nig---" applied liberally, and a healthy dose of scornful "spi--" to describe some Latino dudes who of course were about to boost a car. All the blacks in the film are drug dealers/users, with the exception of one undercover brother. Man, this reminds one of why "Shaft" and other blaxploitation films were such a hit: at last we got to be the good guys, we got to beat up on people, and we got ot insult/hit white men with impunity. Of course there's that whole troublesome sexist angle to much of the period of films... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" < [email protected] > To: "SciFiNoir2" < [email protected] > Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 3:22:10 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight He said that it wasn't the physicality of the act, but the concept of police brutality, something he was fervently against at the time. "If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 02:16:11 +0000 Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight Hackman had trouble doing a scene like that? Wow! Just a couple of years ago, Hackman got into a fender bender, and the guy in the other car started mouthing off, then came at him. Hackman wiped the street with the guy. I read a recent interview where he said he's done with Hollywood. Said he was tired of taking direction, tired of having to sometimes fight with others to get quality work done. Don't know if it'll last, but that would explain why an actor who's been as much of a workaholic as Sam Jackson and Michael Caine has been fairly absent from the big screen in recent years. I wondered what had happened... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" < [email protected] > To: "SciFiNoir2" < [email protected] > Sent: Saturday, February 6, 2010 9:01:42 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight I'm there right now, waiting for that chase scene, Keith. "Bonnie and Clyde" I'll be passing on, as it aired just last month. "The French Connection", though, is a must, particularly since I picked up a bit of trivia about Gene Hackman's performance in it. In the scene where he roughs up the suspect, Hackman nearly quit the movie. An ardent liberal, he almost couldn't bring himself to do the scene. "If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 01:57:57 +0000 Subject: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight http://www.tcm.com/2010/31Days/index.jsp You know what? Forget SyFy Originals. Forget the eleventy-millionth airing of "Caprica". Blow off Lifetime Movies. Turner Classic Movies is airing a great block of films tonight. Starting at 8 pm EST, we have Steve McQueen in "Bullitt", with the man-of-few-words McQueen, and one of the great car chases of all time. That's followed at 10 pm by "The French Connection", with a typically intense Gene Hackman in one of the other great car chases of all time. And then, at midnight, it's "Bonnie and Clyde", Warren Beatty's violent New Hollywood tale of the famous robbers. The movies are part of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar", a month long airing of Oscar-wnning and -nominated films done every year. This is a great time to catch up on some of the best films of all time, from "Casablanca" to "Citizen Kane", from "Some Like it Hot", to "Cabin in the Sky". The good thing about TCM is that in addition to showing Oscar-nominated films, this being Black History Month, they also show a lot of classic Black film dating back to the '20s. Ethel Waters in "Cabin in the Sky" is just one example. It's about the only place I've seen this and many other of those films from that time. Gonna be a long fun night! Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
