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| The Black Panther Warrior Women |
The Black Panther movie tells us a great deal about Black/African people, psychology, traditions and potential. I saw
the film last night and I enjoyed it immensely. It is doing
brilliantly at the box office, breaking all kinds of records, as well
it should.
Lest we forget, the
first Marvel comic films were the Blade trilogy, which did so well at
the box office that they enabled Marvel to bankroll all the other
superhero films they subsequently produced, yet, somehow, they have
been left out of the Marvel narrative.
Further, lest we
forget, Black filmmakers, notably Oscar Michaux, have been making
films giving positive depictions of Black filmmakers since at least
1919.
I have a few
quibbles about The Black Panther, as follows (this contains spoilers):
- I do not like to see two Black men duking it out as they do in the film, albeit displaying awesome fighting skills;
- I particularly disliked seeing Black men and women fighting each other on the battlefield, and I'm not even sure what they were fighting about;
- The brother from U.S. appeared conflicted – he addresses a white woman as “Coloniser” and makes reference to the plunder of African artefacts, yet he partners with a white thief of, and dealer in, such artefacts;
- Perhaps my strongest objection is to Martin Freeman's role – he plays a duplicitous, double-dealing CIA man (in other words, a CIA man) who allies with the Wakandans and, at the end of the film, is shown in the United Nations like some kind of benevolent paternalistic figure.
The Black Panther is a dazzling sci-fi romp. I am old enough to remember a time when Black people did not exist in the future, i.e. in science fiction. So I greatly enjoy this film's strong characters.
The characters'
inner and outer conflicts mirror, to a certain extent, similar
conflicting emotions within and among people from the Diaspora and
the African Continent. I found this fascinating.
One thing I
particularly liked was that the men, and the women, were so beautiful
to look at and so strong, brave and fearless. These sistas looked
awesome. The characters carried themselves with great pride and
dignity and the sistas were warriors, fully ready to throw down.
I need to see this
film again, soon, to gain clarity and because it is such great fun!
If you have not seen it yet, see it!
What
did you think of The Black Panther movie? Please share this with your
networks and please leave your comments below. Thanks.
2 comments:
I,too,very much enjoyed Black Panther, and one of the many things I enjoyed about it was the struggle between the two main protagonists. Not so much the actual fighting (which was awesome) but the argument. This is one of the arguments that we as Black people have been having for quite some time: if we had the means, would we utterly destroy our enemies as retribution for what they have done to us throughout the centuries, or would we remember our humanity? Should we act like them, or should we act like Wakandans? Interesting that this argument was not completely resolved.
I did not like the final scene at the UN, because I wanted more explanation as to how the Wakandans were planning to "share" their technology. You can imagine how that might end. The white people in the film were called "colonizers" for a reason.
I suspect that Zhana did not like the Martin Freeman character because she does not like the actor. He was portrayed as a clueless American, but I thought that he was pretty much humanized by his actions in the war. And he did a pretty good American accent, which seems to be hard for a lot of Brits. But frankly, I didn't trust any of those UN people.
I agree that the sistas were dynamite. Of course, we have seen Danai Gurira each week in her role in The Walking Dead, in which she manages to slay twenty-five living and/or dead people in every episode, but it was wonderful to see her do it on the big screen. I especially appreciated seeing Angela Does Not Age Bassett looking beautiful in her Zulu headdress. I have loved her for a long long time. And did you notice that the King had women of a certain age as advisors to the throne? That is very African. They must have had an anthropologist or two on the writing team.
I am looking forward to reading other comments here.
Brilliant answer. I have not seen Danai Gurira, though, as I don't watch The Walking Dead. And although Martin Freeman did a great American accent, I did not like this role as the paternalistic white person. And what was his agenda?
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