The Film Precious by Lee Daniels

When you think of the word “poverty” or “poor” what comes to mind? Some think of hunger, minorities, dirty areas, women, and homeless people. What about when you hear the term “abuse”? For most people, abuse means physical; getting beat up or hit. Although abuse can mean getting beat up or hit, there is far more that follows. Abuse can take on many forms like physical, emotional or sexual. The film Precious by Lee Daniels, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, encounters not only the obvious sexual abuse but physical and emotional abuse as well. Precious starts off with Claireece Precious Jones, played by Gabourey Sidibe, at her school in Harlem. She is called to the office because the principal has found out she is pregnant…Again. Kicked out of school, Precious now tries to find an alternative when her principal tells her about “Each One Teach One”, an alternative school. Precious enrolls and goes through a journey with her new teacher, who becomes her closest friend, her newborn son, and her abusive mother. This drama film is brutal, hard-hitting, and very emotional.

The entire film is covered in stereotypes focused on African Americans that vary from stealing to soul food to skin tone. These stereotypes are so raw, they are very easy to pick up and it makes the film so much more powerful and understandable. For example, African Americans are subconsciously linked to soul food. Although soul food is popular in the African-American culture, we tend to skip over the thought of the food and what it actually is and jump to thinking about fried chicken and collard greens. Its sad that by seeing an image of food, race comes to mind. Another stereotype used a lot is ‘light-skinned is more attractive’ or ‘white is more attractive”. T...

... middle of paper ...

...t better than expected and you completely believe every word she says. When I watched this movie, I felt touched and really engaged in the scenes. I felt empowered by what was going on I wanted to help stop this abuse. It makes me sad but in the same way grateful because I have supporting parents, and because I can read and write and talk well. We all take things for granted and never really think about people other than ourselves. All Precious wanted was to know how to read and she goes through so many obstacles to try and learn and we sit at home whining about having to read for homework which we don’t even do.

Overall Precious was a great movie and I think everyone could benefit from seeing it. It makes you realize who you are and where you come from and how lucky you are to live the life you life. Whether we know it or not, we all have a little precious in us.