Black roles in film: Then and now

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

4 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

10/21/2009

Category :

Arts & media

Sub category :

Journalism

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Summary :

Introduction
The post-civil rights era
The tom character in the movie Driving Miss Daisy
The character of the coon
Stepin Fetchit
The tragic mulatto
Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne
Today's tragic mulatto
Queen Latifah
Hattie McDaniel's sexless image
Bucks and black whores
Ving Rhames
Conclusion
Work cited

Abstract

black roles in film have expanded and transcended within American pop culture to include genres of vast variety. Today, the roles of black actors are more diverse with actors such as Morgan Freeman playing God in Evan Almighty (2007), and Jamie Foxx playing an FBI special agent in The Kingdom (2007).

roles of depth and intense dialogue have been made more available to actors of color in recent decades. But, the same old roles of degradation first seen in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903) and D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) are imposed on black actors and thus, black audiences today. Griffith's 1915 production Birth of a Nation was the first full-length feature film, running 190 minutes and introduced cinematic techniques such as the establishing shot, close up, and reaction shot. Birth of a Nation also introduced the world to all of the black roles of degradation found in film. Images of toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies and bucks emerged in film by way of Griffith's historic film.