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Birth of a nation

The birth of a nation was KKK propaganda. It was a three-hour-long movie that showed white men “saving” the town from black people “raiding” it. Then after they went to the black communities and burned their houses down as a way of showing them not to mess with them. They depicted themselves as heroes. This was an extremely racist film. Black face was shown everywhere. It was shocking yet not shocking at the same time. In this movie they showed a woman being kidnapped and in need of rescue. The typical damsel in distress. The gender role was typical in this movie. The white men were mainly heroes and the women were the damsel in distress at all times.

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Guess who is coming to dinner

Guess who is coming to dinner was a roller coaster of a movie. Yes to the marriage, no to the marriage, yes, no, yes, no. John a black doctor wanted to ask for Joey’s hand in marriage. Her parents were baffled as inter-racial marriage wasn’t accepted everywhere. John’s family and Joey’s family came together to discuss this matter. The women were for the marriage. They believed that their love was true and strong and that they deserved to be with one another. However, the father thought otherwise. They were against marriage. Too many problems they said. However, in the end, Joey’s father had a change in heart and gave John his blessing. This movie is a great topic for race and gender. Gender plays a role as the women were viewed as too emotional and not thinking straight for siding with John and Joey because they thought their love was true. The men would disregard what they would say as they thought they were being too emotional. Leaving the decision-making to the men. Race played a role when the men were making a decision the last person to have the final say was Joey’s father who is white. The white man had the final say over the black man. It shows a power dynamic. How the white man’s decision is the one that is final. I thought that was interesting and how the gender roles played in the movie as well.

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Smoke signals

Smoke signals is a Native American movie that has to do with Victor forgiving his father for abandoning him. Victor receives notice that his father has passed away and he must collect his things in Arizona. Victor consulted with his mother and decides to drive to Arizona with Thomas who he found annoying (and so did I) to collect his father’s belongings. Victor held resentment towards his father as he left him as a child and never came back. Thomas always vouched for Victor’s father saying he was a great man as he rescued them from a fire. When they got there they met a woman, his father’s partner. She would tell them stories about his father and her. She would tell Victor that his father was a great man and helped her when she needed it the most. Kept her company and made her day. In the end, Victor forgave his father. This movie had less to do with race and more with gender. Throughout the movie, the audience can see how the women in the movie heavily influenced the men. Victor’s mother had a heavy influence on him as he would always seek her advice showing that he values her advice. The same can be said about Thomas. He consulted with his grandmother before making the decision to tag along with Victor. The woman were the ones holding the men grounded through the movie. However, personally, I didn’t like this movie. Victor had every right to hate his father. He was an abusive alcoholic and a sad excuse of a father. I mean just because he played basketball with Victor a couple of times does not make him the father of the year. He abandoned his child and never even sent a letter like come on! And his father’s girlfriend and Thomas were just gaslighting Victor the entire movie! Victor has valid reasons to hate his father, but they kept pushing him to forgive him because “he rescued them from the fire” like what? His father was the one that started the fire! His father’s girlfriend met a different man a changed man. The man that Victor remembers is different from the man she fell in love with. It’s nice that he changed, but he still never cared to go back and face his son!

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Imitation of life

Imitation of life was a sad movie. This movie was how the brand Auntie Jamima became. Lora, a single white mother, was struggling to keep up with the duties of a mother and work. That is when Annie asked to help and in return, she asked to live with Lora and her daughter. Annie would make pancakes for Lora and her daughter in the mornings and they absolutely loved it. Lora decided to take a chance and open a restaurant with Annie and sell her pancakes. The restaurant was successful and they ended up boxing her pancake mix selling it. Lora was and her daughter was also lovely with Annie, however, Annies daughter Susan was always ashamed of her. Susan was light-skinned and never wanted to accept the fact that she was half black or that her mother was black. She ran away and asked her mother to act like she doesn’t know her and disown her as she can’t accept that she is mixed. Annie dies in the end after her daughter asked her this. A funeral was held and Susan cries asking for forgiveness. The movie took place back then. While racism was still high. The struggle of race is shown as Susan battles with accepting who she truly is. It shows how skin color really affected one’s life.

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The breakfast club

The breakfast club is a classic. Everyone is familiar with the iconic scene of John putting his fist in the air as he walks away. This movie was a typical coming-of-age movie. A group of teenagers, a jock, a princess, a geek, a weirdo, and so on got detention. They all made assumptions about each other based on their clicks and appearance. As the movie develops they start to reveal more personal problems that they each had. It made them be more than their stereotype. They weren’t just a jock or princess they were regular teens with regular problems. This movie played a lot with stereotypes. The way they dressed the characters and the way they acted. Gender also played a role. For example how the jock is played by a man and not a woman. It is a great movie that emphasizes to not judge a book by its cover.

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The Help

The help is personally one of my favorite movies. It has everything I look for in a good movie, comedy, character, romance, and a lesson. My favorite character was Minny. She was strong and funny. The movie took place in the 1960s racism is alive and encouraged. The movie is based on the treatment black maids experience during this time period. Black women usually would be nannies to white families. The innocent children loved them and treated them with care. However, the adults in particular the white mothers would mistreat and look down upon the black nannies. Throughout the movie HIlly, you can think of her as the popular girl, she would influence the mothers into alienating their black nannies. Aibileen, which is the main character, was one of the victims. She convinced her employer to build a toilet outside so Aibileen wont use the same bathroom as them. She was also the reason Minny was fired because she accused her of theft. As revenge Minny tricked Hilly into eating a chocolate pie that contained her feces. Skeeter, a white woman, wanted to write about the experiences these nannies faced everyday. However, the nannies were scared of losing their job if their employers were to find out they were bad mouthing them. In the end they ended up trusting Skeeter and she would document each nannies personal experience. In her book she included the chocolate pie incident as insurance that they would not trace it back to the nannies as Hilly would never admit that she ate feces. She then publicized this book and it became a hit. It sparked conversation on how white women treat black women. In the end Aibileen lost her job, but decided to pursue writing career. Minny left her abusive husband and worked for a new white family that treated her well. Skeeter moved to New York to continue her work.