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Importance of diversity and representation in the film industry
Representation of minorities in american cinema
Importance of diversity and representation in the film industry
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In Hollywood it’s very rare to see any minorities in a lead role of a blockbuster film. The accomplishments of Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler, is bound to change that. I Am Legend, Bad Boyz II, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are just a few blockbuster films with minority leads. However, with the triumph of Black Panther that has an African American in the lead role, minorities are more likely to be featured more prominently in blockbuster films. Black Panther brought in $75.8 million on its first day in the box office. Within the first four days of its theatrical release Black Panther made $242 million more than the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Justice League made through its whole theatrical run. Chadwick Boseman (Actor of T’challa/Black …show more content…
The critically acclaimed Get Out is just one of the movies that became one of the greatest films of 2017. Lead actor Daniel Kaluuya, who is an African American, delivered a great performance as the movie protagonist. The budget for Get Out was only $4.5 million, a very low budget for a film. However, its box office score is what stands out, at $255 million, it completely blew away critics and fans alike. This was the first film with an African American lead role and director to ever score a box office score that high. Now with the success of Black Panther, more and more heads are turning to racial diverse …show more content…
Since then Disney has purchased many more companies and signed agreements with other Movie Production Companies such as Fox and Sony. Marvel signed for these agreements because they sold many of their characters and superhero teams to prevent bankruptcy for the second time back in 1985 when Spider-man was sold to Sony and the X-men was sold to Fox. Now with the contracts and purchases Marvel made they now have the rights to all of their characters which gives them room to be even more political and racially diverse in their films. In the Civil War Cease-Fire storyline the X-men member Storm married the great King T’challa and now with Disney purchasing 21st Century Fox it gives Marvel Studios the chance to bring that match up to the big screen with a strong black couple which will bring to life the beloved couple from the comics. While also giving whoever is the director of the film even more leverage with their storytelling with the inclusion of Storm and the rest of the X-men into the
In today’s culturally diverse, politically correct society, it is hard to believe that at one time racism was not only accepted as the norm, but enjoyed for its entertainment value. Individuals of African descent in North America today take the large, diverse pool of opportunities offered by the film industry for granted. Much like Canadian theatre however, there was a time when a black man in any role, be it servant or slave, was virtually unheard of. It took the blaxpliotation films of the early nineteen seventies to change the stereotypical depiction of Black people in American Cinema, as it took The Farm Story, performed by a small troop of Canadian actors, to create a Canadian theatre industry. To be more specific, it took the release of Melvin Van Peebles, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, in 1971, to change the tradition view of Black people in American film.
Back in the 1800’s, when calculating the population, African Americans were counted as 3/5 of a person (Antonia, p2). One would think that in the past two hundred years people’s beliefs would have changed a little bit, but the general white public are stuck into believing the common stereotypes commonly portrayed in movies. In films and television shows blacks are almost always portrayed as murderers, robbers, rapists, pretty much anything negative, like American History X, for example. Two black men are shown breaking into a white man’s car. People see this, and in turn believe that all black men will try and steal their car; as stupid as it may seem, it is true, and as a result, film producers try to incorporate this into their films. Very rarely, if ever, is it possible to see a minority depicted as a hero-type figure. Every once in a while, there will be an independent film from a minority director, but as Schultz states in Lyon’s piece, “We [blacks] are still being ghettoized in Hollywood, a serious black project of any scope is as difficult to get marketed today as it was in the ‘70s.” By making a barrier to entry for minorities in the film industry, it’s almost as if America is trying to keep black films out of the popular media. At first glimpse, it may appear that minorities are very hard to be seen in the filming industry, when in reality, they are becoming more and more apparent in America’s mainstream media culture, particularly in action movies.
Black Superheroes, Where are They? Think back to your favorite marvel movies, you may think of characters like Iron Man, Thor, or even Spiderman. These are all great superheroes that have saved the world more than once, but the only problem is with this is these characters are all white, where are the black superheroes. I found a website titled “The Top 100 Marvel Superheroes” and according to this website there is only one black superhero in the top 15. This needs to change, this website referring to the comics, I looked more in depth to see if this trait carried over to movies and sure enough it did, nothing has changed.
The media and is directors producers or anyone who has the responsibility of casting directing or anything that will be shown to the masses have a huge responsibility to every group of people to represent them in light that is not stereotyped in a negative manner. All the films discussed all show some form of stereotype each ethnic group has held over their heads. Ask yourself if we didn’t have film would we still have these stereotypes? In order to get over this racial profiling in film they should start showing what else these groups have accomplished not just the negative side. For example they could make a film of Madam C. J. Walker who was African American and also the first self-made female millionaire. Directors hold a huge responsibility and they owe it society to portray each ethnic group in fair
Not all African Americans are thugs and people that do not work. A lot of them have successful careers and have put in the time and effort to have good work ethic and be good people. African Americans have had a difficult history in the American film industry. During the early 20th century of filmmaking, blacks were stereotyped as not worthy of being in films, and they were only certain types of characters such as servants, mammies, and butlers. From several decades of filmmaking, African Americans have been sought out to be trouble makers, incapables, intellectually limited, and also lazy. Although blacks have won Academy Awards for acting, screenwriting, and music production they still find trouble in getting quality roles within the film industry. (Common Black Stereotypes)
...g place for a long time now; blacks have went from not being banned from certain stages to dominating theater with actors and actresses such as Halle Berry and Denzel Washington. In modern day film, African-Americans have prevailed over all of the negative setbacks, and as the old Negro spiritual says, "We shall continue to overcome."
It made $212m in its second weekend in the US. In my opinion, it's better to see a film without hearing too much about it beforehand. With The Passion I was expecting to be bored for the first hour while seeing Christ preaching to his followers and healing the sick, but Gibson didn't tire us all with that, he filmed it in an interesting way which pleasantly surprised me. In fact, I was very impressed with the opening scenes. Instead of showing us Jesus' life from birth to death, Gibson set the film at the last two days of his life while having the odd flashback to Jesus' earlier days.
Marvel has been releasing blockbuster after blockbuster for over the last decade. Marvel movies have action, a great story line, and even some comedy. Some of my favorite movies that Marvel has released are: the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Amazing Spiderman. DC movies, on the other hand, are awful and boring. Most of them don’t have a story line, they’re slow in telling the superheros story, and they aren’t based off the comics. Some disappointing DC movies that I thought would be great but weren’t: Green Lantern, Man of Steel, and the Dark Knight Rises. While the future of Marvel movies are looking bright (Dr. Strange, Captain America 3), the DC movies will probably crash and burn (Batman vs Superman, Suicide
According to the article “African American Representation In Hollywood”, the first person of color to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in 1940 for Best Supporting Role, however it took 61 years later for another woman of color to receive an Oscar and in 2001 Halle Berry took home an Oscar for Best Actress in a Lead Role in ‘Monster 's Ball’ and the same night Denzel Washington also went home with a Best Lead Actor award in ‘Training Day’. Though many more people were nominated, less than a handful of minorities walked away with an award throughout the years. We wonder why, but according to the “2016 Hollywood Diversity Report”, studies show that “minorities accounted for 37.9 percent of the U.S Population in 2014, yet they were underrepresented by nearly 3 to 1 among lead roles for that year.” (p.10
Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...
The movie has many of the classic Star Wars characters, including RD-D2, Luke Skywalker, and even bringing back Yoda. “The Last Jedi” was the second movie in the sequel trilogy. The Lucasfilm movie made $1.220 billion
Those who deny the existence of the racism rooted into modern day Hollywood are far from reality. They may think that in the United States we are getting closer to equality when it comes to casting but we in fact are not. While there is the belief that America has progressed when it comes to social issues, the percentage of roles held by black actors in film and TV has dropped from 15 to 13 percent from the early 2000’s to 2011 (McClintock and Apello 2).
Every child in the United States has heard or read the Marvel and DC comics books. If you have not then you have probably have heard of their characters like the famous star spangled hero, Captain America, or the Dark Knight himself, Batman. Both Marvel and DC has influenced the children and adults of American in its darkest times. The great wars affected many by its poisonous grasps, and its victims sought comfort with the antidote provided by the marvelous illustrators and writers of comic books. Now their cinematic counterparts are here to inspire the 21st century. The Marvel and DC cinematic universes have similar content, they both have unique characteristics that set them apart.
In the world of comics, two main publishers dominate: DC Comics and Marvel Comics. DC Comics promotes superheroes such as Batman, a vigilante who began fighting crime solely to avenge the untimely death of his parents. He possesses no unique superhuman ability, other than a substantial fortune inherited from his late parents. Yet, the public in the Batman comics still adore their hero. In contrast, Marvel Comics promotes superheroes such as the X-Men, a team of superheroes who possess the X-Gene, a DNA mutation that gives each member a different ability.
"I Can Only Imagine" doubled expectations and raked in an impressive $17.1 million during its opening weekend. To put this number in perspective, consider the fact that it only played in 1,629 theaters. "Tomb Raider" opened in twice as many theaters but only beat the Christian film by around $6 million in revenue. " Tomb Raider" enjoyed a hefty $94 million budget, while "I Can Only Imagine" got by with a comparably tiny budget of $7 million.