Police in movies

**belovedmonster** · January 12th, 2004, 12:45 AM

First site i found doing a google...

When Hollywood got the message that this was racist and humiliating, certain roles written for white actors became reserved for blacks. One cop movie after another protrayed a black police chief; there were more black police chiefs in the movies than in all the major cities of America. There were more black mayors and FBI agents than there were in the real world. There was the black friend, the black next door neighbor, the black sidekick (the most recent example is the role played by Samuel Jackson in the third Diehard).

You could argue it was Political Correctness in that they were trying to appear less racist, but like i said Political Correctness was not the thing we know of until the mid 80s so my guess is it was more likely that they wanted more blacks on screen to appeal to the black audience and becos of criticism from pro black groups about the lack of black role models, which is not the same thing as PC.

[ January 11, 2004 08:49 PM: Message edited by: belovedmonster ]

**GREATwarEAGLE** · January 12th, 2004, 02:34 AM

Nice. A thread with actual substance that, for once, I didnt actually start. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

The problem is, I dont realy know what to make of it all. My guess is it's Exec poducers who just wanna look good. Please the masses. Or maybe the word is appease.

Wait. Maybe I do have an opinion on the whole thing...

It's silly. Not that you bring it up, beloved, but that people actually cave in on this.

You cant please every race, sex, religion, overweight person, underweight person, people with AIDS, people with Down's syndrome, lesbians, gays, etc.

Why does every film, sitcom, TV drama get pressure to cater to EVERY POSSIBLE GROUP? Pressure to be fair?

Fair? Fuck fair.

If every movie was fair - thered be no story.

In a different thread, similar to this one, I made a joke about this subject...

I said SPIDERMAN wasn't accurate because there werent enough black and hispanic criminals. IT's NEW YORK CITY, Mr. Raimi. Spiderman should be fighting ethnic non-white drug dealers, pimps, gangbangers, and pedophile priests.

[ January 11, 2004 10:35 PM: Message edited by: GREATwarEAGLE ]

**Tard** · January 12th, 2004, 06:50 PM

But then, if SPIDERMAN were accurate, Toby Maguire would have also been shooting web out of his bum. [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

**The Cavity** · January 12th, 2004, 07:07 PM

This has absolutely nothing to do with racism, political correctness, and leftist ideology. It's just a shallow cliche used by brain-dead Hollywood screenwriters, much like the straight-laced white cop partnered with the crazy-ass black cop.

**belovedmonster** · January 12th, 2004, 07:19 PM

i have to agree with Cavity here, it is just basicly a cliche rather than anything too deep. But im interesting why the cliche came about.

**Tard** · January 12th, 2004, 07:33 PM

Probably just mix&match, so viewers wouldn't notice obvious ripoffs from one movie to another.

Mentioned in AO earlier today; Devlin/Emmerich's STARGATE movie. Couple years later Disney comes out with ATLANTIS. Same plot, ripped-off storyline, but searching for Atlantis rather than going on a sci-fi quest across the galaxy.

Another one springs to mind. BAD BOYZ II. Wasn't that basically a SFX-laden rip of LETHAL WEAPON? Both buddy-cop duo's over-their-head in a mega-drug deal, a family-member taken as hostage, etc.?

windowslaws · January 12th, 2004, 09:15 PM

yeah but it was cool though!

**Tard** · January 12th, 2004, 09:37 PM

LOL! I can't respect anyone who knows about Martin Laurence's old TV show (obnoxious loudmouth "WHAZZZZUUPPP!" car-alarm, worse than Fran Dresher talking thru her nose regaled within NYC-Princess spendor) buddied-up with a Man-In-Black as cops, much less calling that swill "cool".... [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img] His early-work seriously calls for the "N"-word being tossed around liberally & derogitorily, more about Martin & his lack of acting ability & overcompensating by tossing-in the RACE card than anything else. If Martin were white, he'd get his ass kicked more often than Gilbert Godfreid stepping into a BUMFIGHTS video!

Political-Correctness? Heh, who mentioned that?

**GREATwarEAGLE** · January 12th, 2004, 10:53 PM

I dot think it's just the screenwriters. many times, sure. But not always.

Sometimes the complaints are about just the background extras. This isnt the writers dept.

I think it has to do a lot with political correctness.

If I were relly passionate about this particular debate - I'd write a script about it. Stuff like this is exactly what inspires me. Plenty of flmmakers make a career off shit like this.

Oliver Stone
Spike Lee
Ken Loach

Oh but wait...films are just supposed to be entertainment. Damn. Never mind...

[ January 12, 2004 06:54 PM: Message edited by: GREATwarEAGLE ]