DO YOU THINK THE PRODUCERS OF GOOD BYE UNCLE TOM WHERE RACIST????

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by CaliforniaAfrican on August 3, 2009 at 1:57am

OMG! Why did I watch all of parts 1, 2 and thought I was watching 3? It turns out that I watched part 13! Fuck! My head and my psyche are completely messed up after watching part 13! What the hell is this? What was the whole point of this movie? Was there supposed to be some type of message?

Permalink Reply by BlaqJeff on August 3, 2009 at 1:24pm

I have no idea if they are or not. It seems that they went out to expose all of the horrors of slavery. I mean they held nothing back and it that regards I say it was a very good film. However, at the end of the movie the black guy went into some rage against some white girl(If I remember correctly, it's been a while since I saw the movie) and I remember thinking that it was kind of an over the top portrayal of black rage. The filmmakers were Italian, so I don't know. Maybe they weren't racist.
Bottom line, it was one hell of a movie and worth watching for the raw portrayal of what it was like during the slave period.

Permalink Reply by kifaru on August 3, 2009 at 3:52pm

Well racist may not be exactly the right word. The film has that weird feeling of not quite being maliciously racist while still being offensive. It reminds me a lot of what I think about Japanese view that little black sambo and black caricatures are kwaii i.e. cute. There is a missing cultural sensitivity to the portrayal. That said the film does lay bare many of the horrors of slavery.

I detect more than a little purient interest on the directors part. Why is one of the so called documentarians portayed having sex with a 13 yr old slave girl? Why does there need to be a scene with naked adolescents boys in girls dancing in a slave market? Why is there so much nudity especially nude black women and little girls? I believe all the points about the sexual depravity of slave masters and the indignations suffered by slaves could have been made without having the graphic depictions of black women, men, and children.

Again the question must asked why is such inspirational music during the most horrible scenes especially the rape/breeding of an obviously adolescent child? Why the upbeat music when the "modern day" slave rebels are murdering the whites. Why are so many men betrayed as truly brutish and childlike, laughing at there own misfortune and the misfortune of the other blacks in the film?

I think the film focuses as much on the evils of slavery as it reinforces and focuses on the stereotypes of blacks.

So

Permalink Reply by BlaqJeff on August 3, 2009 at 4:50pm

kifaru said:

Why are so many men betrayed as truly brutish and childlike, laughing at there own misfortune and the misfortune of the other blacks in the film?
I think the film focuses as much on the evils of slavery as it reinforces and focuses on the stereotypes of blacks.
So

Yeah, but don't those same portrayals also show the long term effects of being treated as less of a man? That after so many years, some Blacks have become immune to the suffering of their own?
Kind of like how some Black folks reacted negatively to Henry Louis Gates.

Permalink Reply by kifaru on August 4, 2009 at 8:32am

Point well taken.

BlackJeff said:

kifaru said:

Why are so many men betrayed as truly brutish and childlike, laughing at there own misfortune and the misfortune of the other blacks in the film?
I think the film focuses as much on the evils of slavery as it reinforces and focuses on the stereotypes of blacks.
So

Yeah, but don't those same portrayals also show the long term effects of being treated as less of a man? That after so many years, some Blacks have become immune to the suffering of their own?
Kind of like how some Black folks reacted negatively to Henry Louis Gates.

Permalink Reply by Obsidian on August 4, 2009 at 11:27am

This film is in the "mondo cane" genre. It's classic 70's exploitation. The point of the film is to shock and disgust and to go over the top. See other classic exploitation films of the error - I Spit on Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, Last House on the Left. While these do not deal with slavery, they are every bit the exploitation romp. The point was not to be racist but to offend the hell outta people.

Permalink Reply by CaliforniaAfrican on August 6, 2009 at 2:03pm

Yes, thank you XIV! I have only watched the first 15 minutes of Africa Addio. We have to make our own movies and documentaries. My husband's father lived the days of Mau Mau and independence in Kenya. We need to tell our own stories. This movie drips with the ideals of European superiority. No, it's drenched in it. The comments made on the Google Video site, are so racist and ignorant.

Permalink Reply by BlaqJeff on August 6, 2009 at 6:27pm

XIV said:

Oh, it's much worse than all that:

Addio Zio Tom was shot in Haiti under the Duvalier regime. They essentially gave the directors free reign to do whatever they liked with the people who 'acted' in it.

http://zombiedom.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-i-draw-line-volume-1-sa...

"Ok, quick question, one sentence answer, so why is this film completely atrocious? Because despite it’s claim to be an accurate depiction of slavery, Franco Prosperi and co. really did all that horrible shit to real people. Dig into the making of Goodbye, Uncle Tom and you’ll see that it’s directors decided that the only place they could get away with sub-human treatment of human beings for the sake of making money was Haiti. Haiti in the 1970s was sort of like Guantanamo Bay on a national level. The country was led by the sadistic (some say legitimately insane) François Duvalier.........................Why are we talking about Duvalier? Because when Prosperi and Jacopetti needed a place to go to film degradation and subjugation where they knew they could get away with it, they sought out Papa Doc and he said “Come On In, The Water’s Fine, if you don’t mind it being mostly blood.”



Even better (or worse), the same dudes also directed Africa Addio ( a.k.a Mondo Africa or Africa:Blood and Guts) right before this film.

For that movie, it's claimed that they orchestrated the onscreen execution of dissidents just so they could get the footage on camera. They were accused of being total racists for making that flick, and so decided to make Goodbye Uncle Tom in order to prove the charge false. They .......failed.

Wowee.
Damn!
Holy Shit!

Permalink Reply by BlaqJeff on August 6, 2009 at 6:29pm

CaliforniaAfrican said:

Yes, thank you XIV! I have only watched the first 15 minutes of Africa Addio. We have to make our own movies and documentaries. My husband's father lived the days of Mau Mau and independence in Kenya. We need to tell our own stories. This movie drips with the ideals of European superiority. No, it's drenched in it. The comments made on the Google Video site, are so racist and ignorant.

One thing that I learned in the age of the internet is that no matter where you go, anything that involves race you will come across a lot of racist and ignorant comments. It's ubiquitous, like porn.