last week, panama blessed the verysmart pulpit with 10 songs all black people should know. today, i’ll walk you all through my beautiful mind as we take a look at the six most important black movies of the last 30 years (why six? because today’s january 16th. duh).
before i continue, i want to make a couple things clear:
1. by “black movie”, i’m referring to movies with themes that are specifically black.
to expound: if you took the same premise and replaced every black actor and actress in the flick with whites, could you have made the same movie? if the answer was yes (ie: “friday” or “the best man“) then no, its not a black movie…just a movie with black people in it.
2. remember, this is just measuring “importance” not “best” or “champs favorite“. please keep this in mind while admiring my list.
***in reverse order***
6. glory
reason for relevance
–the story of the 54th of massachusetts, glory was the most powerful depiction of the active hand 19th century blacks had in building our country. most other big-screen portrayals up to that time had pre-construction era blacks as docile and passive victims at the whims of the white teet, but glory showed that we had some fight in us…and that we were patriots and sh*t. if this means anything, i also get verklempt every time i watch it.
as my man heath stated bluntly a few years ago, “after seeing this, i didnt have to fake sleeping through history class anymore”
–also, the movie contained quite possibly the best on-screen insult ever, when morgan freeman’s sergeant major admonished an incorrigible denzel as a “smart-mouth, stupid-ass, swamp-running nigger”. i’d give a months pay for the opportunity to say that to someone.
5. school daze
reason for relevance
–spike lee’s depiction of black college life and the intra-racial class and color conflicts among us still resonates today.
–along with “a different world”, “daze” helped to keep HBCU’s on the radars of black youths around the country. it also remains the only musical that a heterosexual black male can freely admit to enjoying without reproach
4. menace 2 society
reason for relevance
—although less popular than the equally critically acclaimed “boyz n da hood”, menace more accurately captured the increasingly nihilistic nature permeating our inner cities. america was scared sh*tless by the fact that someone like o-dog existed (which the book “monster” proved even further), and larenz tate’s performance in this flick cemented the young champ’s fear of midgets.
3. do the right thing
reason for relevance
—lets put it this way: any movie released that makes people fear for the possibility of race-riots and the safefty of the mayor of new york is an important f*cking flick
—also, any movie that could inspire the young champ to rock kinte-clothed hoop sneaks…
…is an important f*cking flick
—supposedly this movie served as the first date for a young shelly robinson and barry obama, which also makes it an important f*cking flick.
2. the color purple
reason for relevance
–eh. next.
1. coming to america
reason for relevance:
–from soul-glo and “queen to be!!!!” to “martin luther the king” and randy watson’s sexual chocolate, no movie produced in the last 30 years has had as many instant quotetables, and as much of an lasting and panoramic impact on black popular culture. maybe it’s not as racially charged as a “rosewood” and maybe it doesnt provide a satirical social commentary like a “hollywood shuffle”, but “seriousness” isn’t the only way to define “importance“.
***also, from a racial rabble-rousing point of view, you can’t ignore the intra-racial impact of prince hakeem discarding a banging, barking, brown-skinned nubian princess for a giant foreheaded, light-skinned, bootlegged, burger chain heiress on an impressionable black populace. honestly, it took me at least six years to realize that shari headley was maybe the 6th or 7th most attractive woman in that movie. color-struckedness is a b*tch.***
toughest omissions:
malcolm x
—although its one of my favorite movies of all-time, and easily the best of the big black biopics (ie: “ray”, “ali”, “bird”, and “whats love got to do with it”) of the past couple decades, i couldn’t include it because it gets credit for the short-lived exaggerated black awareness/consciousness movement in the late 80′s/early 90′s that was actually spearheaded by “do the right thing”. its akin to giving kanye credit for the soulful sample mixing production style when he clearly is emulating the rza. i have no idea where i’m going here, so i’m just gonna stop.
hoop dreams
—forget about the basketball backdrop (which was remarkable in itself). this documentary perfectly mirrored the dynamics involved with thousands of struggling black families across the country, and, with arthur agee’s dad, introduced the world to the “functioning crackhead”
thoughts, vsb?
—the champ
***btw, please raise your hand or some sh*t if you’re gonna be in the dc area for inaguration***