Hollywood in the 1980s and the Arrival of Spike Lee

The 1980s were paradoxical years for representations of African Americans. Black superstars in music and on television (Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey) were riding high but it was still very difficult for African Americans to gain power within the Hollywood film industry.

Lethal Weapon (1987)

In front of the cameras, comedies and action films continued to integrate themselves. Eddie Murphy, who had been discovered on TV’s Saturday Night Live, made concert films and buddy action movies. In fact, the black and white buddy movie film formula was one that Hollywood was happy to exploit throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s. In film such as 48 Hours (1982) and Lethal Weapon (1987) – as well as their many sequels and imitators – a black and white duo bicker and argue but eventually come to value one another, all while defeating the bad guys. This formula has been an enormously successful one for Hollywood because the biracial casting of the lead roles makes the film appeal to both white and black audiences. Hollywood producers don’t want to finance an expensive “black” film unless they are sure it will also attract white audiences, which usually means the casting of a white star alongside a black one. Nevertheless, a new generation of African American actors, including Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, Denzil Washington, Larry Fishburne and Wesley Snipes, became well known in these (and other) types of films.

The Colour Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985)

Further reference: The Colour Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985) starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Margaret Avery was adapted from Alice walker’s novel. It

tells the story of how life was for black women in the first decades of the twentieth century and how much abuse, physical, sexual and psychological they suffered at the hands of black men, the film was criticised for being directed by a white man and diminishing the novels main point, that this abuse was part of a “chain of oppression” that stems in the first place from white brutality, the lesbian subplot was also reduced to a few chaste kisses between Shug and Celie.

Spike Lee directs

Spike Lee, a graduate form New York University Film School had a big hit with black audiences and on the independent film circuit with his feature debut She’s Got to Have It (1986). From this success he was offered a distribution deal with a major Hollywood studio for his second feature, School Days (1988), which explores issues of assimilation and gender in an all black college. Throughout the 1990s, Spike Lee continued to explore issues concerning race and racism in films such as Mo’ Better Blues (1990) Jungle Fever (1991), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), Girl 6 (1996), and He Got Game (1998).

Black Independent vs. “Neo-Blaxploitation” Filmmaking

As they did for Spike Lee, university film schools (which had slowly integrated themselves under policies of affirmative action) have helped to train the current generation of African American filmmakers. As early as the 1970s and 1980s, there were many films released independently which explored the multiple aspects of the African American experience, for example, Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama, (1976) and Bill Woodbury’s Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), yet being independent they did not get a wide distribution in the USA and many of them remain hard to see even today.

The failure of black independent filmmaking to cross over and be seen by more audiences is a complex phenomenon. Hollywood’s control of distribution and exhibition outlets is designed to crush independent competition. Furthermore, independent theatres are rarely located within or near African American communities.

Boyz N the Hood (1991)

The African American films that find a wide audience are the films that Hollywood itself allows to be produced and distributed. Consequently, these films mostly follow Hollywood formulas and rarely challenge or address the dominant structuring ideologies of white patriarchal capitalism. Nonetheless, in the early 1990s, there was a tremendous surge of African American men writing and directing films in Hollywood. Filmmakers such as Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, John Singleton, Mario Van Peebles, and Allen and Albert Hughes became well known for writing and directing films such as House Party (1990), Boyz N the Hood (1991), New Jack City (1991), and Menace to Society (1993). The fact that many of these films were genre films (and especially violent gang/gangster films) led to some critics to see them as a sort of neo-blaxploitation movement for the 1990s. (indeed, John Singleton remade Shaft in 2000, and has continued to make similar action thrillers in the 2000s.) The controversies these films generated were similar to those of the 1970s: many of them, either deliberately or unwittingly, glorify the figure of the violent gangster. Like the ideological message of much gangsta rap – the musical idiom to which these films are intricately connected – these films promote a black macho criminal-capitalist ethic and are often violently sexist and homophobic. While many urban black filmgoers (as well as white suburban teen males who responded to the films’ hypermasculine aesthetics) made these films into box-office hits, other more middle-class black audiences were frequently appalled by them.

Waiting to Exhale (1995)

In the latter half of the 1990s, again as if to appease the critics of these violent macho action films, Hollywood released a series of films marketed at African American women, including Waiting to Exhale (1995), Soul Food (1997), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), The Best Man (2000), and Love and Basketball (2000). Yet, in adapting the classical Hollywood formula of the women’s film, which centres on a woman’s suffering as she searches for love, these films also promote patriarchal ideologies. The films of this genre often suggest that the most important thing for black women to do is to find a good black man to marry. Gender roles for African American characters in most Hollywood films remain bound by traditional white patriarchal structuring, and Hollywood still remains wary of depicting successful interracial relationships. Furthermore, black gay and lesbian characters are almost entirely absent from the Hollywood screen, except for the stereotype of the effeminate gay male “snap queen.”

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

New Images for a New Century – Or Not?

For the year 2001, the Academy Awards honoured African American actors in an unprecedented way; for the first time in history, both top acting awards went to African American actors. Denzil Washington won for Training Day, while Halle Berry won for Monster’s Ball, becoming the first African American actress to win the best actress trophy. While some critics saw these wins as indicating a sea of change in Hollywood’s attitudes to African Americans, others reported that Hollywood quickly went back to business as usual. Nonetheless, recent years have seen a huge increase in the number of African American actors honoured by the Academy. Don Cheadle was nominated for Best Actor for his role in Hotel Rwanda (2004), a chilling look at genocide in Africa. Terrance Howard was nominated for his role as a pimp in Hustle and Flow (2005), and Forest Whitaker won the Best Actor trophy for playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland (2006). Best actor honours also went to Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004).

Black actors have also scored many Best Supporting Actor nominations and wins. Djimon Hounsou was nominated twice (for In America [2003] and Blood Diamond [2006]) and Jamie Foxx was nominated for Collateral (2004), as was Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls ( 2006). Morgan Freeman, who had previously been nominated three times , won a Best Supporting Oscar for his role as Clint Eastwood’s sidekick in Million Dollar Baby (2004). Although their recognition has not been as prominent, African American actresses have also been nominated and/or won a few Oscars in recent years: Queen

Latifah was nominated for a Supporting Actress award for her role in Chicago (2002), and newcomer Jennifer Hudson won the award in the same category for her acting and singing in Dreamgirls.

Ali (2001)

Also nominated for two Best Actor Oscars (for Ali [2001] and The Pursuit of Happyness [2006], Will Smith has arguably become on eof the most famous (and profitable) black actors in Hollywood. Smith’s career started in music and television, and since then he has become a bankable leading man starring in action thrillers (Bad Boys [1995], Bad Boys 2 [2002]), comedies Hitch [2005], and science-fiction blockbusters Independence Day [1996], Men in Black [1997], I, Robot [2004], I am Legend [2007], and Hancock [2008]). Yet Smith, like several of the actors mentioned above, has also been accused by some critics of taking roles that seem to suggest the stereotypes of years gone by. For example, in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), smith plays a Magical Negro, a new age version of the old Mammy or Uncle Tom stereotypes, an African American who uses his or her “mystical powers” to help whoite people in distress. Othe rversions of the Magical Negro stereotypes can be found in Ghost (1990), Kazaam (1996), The Green Mile (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), and The Bucket List (2008). Perhaps more disturbing are lingering images of the Black Buck stereotype, used to terrify audiences in film s like Requiem for a Dream (2000) and Traffic (2000). In both of these films, sex with Black Buck figures is used to show the depths of depravity to which white female characters have fallen (because of their drug habits). And although Hollywood’s use of the black and white buddy formula (or black and Asian buddy formula) may be abating somewhat, it is still exemplified by films like Wild Wild West (1999), the Men in Black films (1997, 2002), and the Rush Hour films (1998, 2001, 2007).

While most Oscar-nominated films are serious prestige pictures, run-of-the-mill Hollywood movies that feature African American characters, and/or are directed by black filmmakers, are sill often dictated the formulas and the expectations of generic neo-blaxploitation filmmaking. For example, the Wayans Brothers – Keenan Ivory, Marlon, Damon, and Shawn (who first came to light in the Fox TV show In Living Colour) - -continue to write, direct, produce, and/or star in formulaic comedies such as White Chicks (2004), Little Big Man (2006), and the string of Scary Movie film spoofs (2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008). Rap music stars whose reputations are based on their ‘gangsta cred’ continue to cross over into Hollywood acting roles, as did Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in films like Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) and Home of the Brave (2006). Another rapper-turned-actor, Snoop Dogg has carved out a small Hollywood career for himself in horror films (Bones [2001], Hood of Horror [2006] as well as comedies (Soul Plane [2004], Starsky and Hutch [2004]). A few rap stars have been more daring in their film careers, choosing films that expand upon their original personas as rap artists. For example, André Benjamin and Boi Boi, the duo behind the music group OutKast, produced and starred in a period hip-hop gangster musical called Idlewilde (2006). Mos Def has earned good notices in serious dramatic roles (Monster’s Ball, The Woodsman [2004])’ and Queen Latifah has carved out a sizeable film career for herself, appearing in movies such as Chicago, Beauty Shop (2005), and Hairspray (2007).

Recap of key terms

Magical Negro Hollywood stereotype that figures African Americans as subservient characters who use their “mystical powers” to help white people in distressBlack Buck A stereotype of hypersexual and hypermasculine African American manCoon stereotype of an African American male as a lazy, shuffling and ignorant fool.Uncle Tom stereotype of an African American male as a devoted servant to his white masterMammy stereotype of an African American woman as an overweight caretaker of white people Vamp image of a dark skinned exotic woman who might lead a white man to his downfall, common in 1910s and 1920s cinemaTragic Mulatto: stereotype of an African American woman of mixed race heritage who usually finds only death or disgraceBlackface popular theatrical tradition of the 1800s that featured white performers darkening their faces with makeup in order to perform comedic stereotypes of African Americans Minstrel Show popular 19th Century theatrical format in which white entertainers donned blackface makeup and performed as stereotypical African Americans Neo-blaxploitation frequently violent genre films of the 1990s that centred on African American charactersWASP – common abbreviation for “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant” historically the dominant population group in the United StatesWhite patriarchal capitalism dominant ideology of the Western world: suggest that heterosexual Caucasian males and gaining wealth are the most important things in the world Virgin-Whore complex ideological apparoach to women found in Western culture; defines women in simplistic sexual terms as either “good” (the virgin) or “bad” (the whore).