Continuing our Oscar tour, this time we'll talk about one of the two most vocal Oscars for best picture, "The Black Party" (the other is "Green Book"). This film, which has been snubbed in Cannes but has become the biggest dark horse in the Oscars, is definitely not an accident for me, so this time I found this article written last year to talk about why "Black Party" is so favored by the Hollywood Academy.
Among the good films that came out of Cannes this year, the most curious thing for me was to talk about this "Black Party" today. Good movies, like Burning, Thief Family, Happy Lazaro... At best, we are looking forward to these good films that have been rare in a few years - only the second prize jury prize of Cannes like "The Black Party" has clearly won the grand prize.
However, it is difficult to gain the praise of the frontline audience, which is worthy of curiosity, especially its director is Still Spike Lee.
As perhaps the oldest black film creator in contemporary Hollywood, Spike Lee was also the pioneer of racial topic films such as "The Insider", "Do What You Should Do", and "Single-Headed" (of course, it is not excluded that he made the American version of "Old Boy" and other energetic films), and in these years, it has gradually begun to be covered up by the years to the age of winning the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award. With black films of the new era such as "Black Panther", "Escape from Breaking Bad", and "Sorry to Bother" re-emerging, can Spike Lee still be able to sword and not grow old? In the end, is this inconsistent "Cannes pearl" really a good film? I didn't know it until I read it
Before it all began, Alec Baldwin's outright racist monologue shook me a bit. Friends who are familiar with the Hollywood talk show comedy industry over the years know that since Playing Alec Baldwin unearthed his talent for playing Trump in SNL, his words and deeds can't help but be reminiscent of the true face of the most unreliable president in these years; not to mention that here, like Trump, the racially discriminatory icon uses extremely offensive speeches to describe the United States in the eighties and nineties, setting an undistetect tone for the entire movie from the beginning.
The entire film depicts the 1980s and 1990s, as portrayed in the Oscar documentary "The Simpsons: Made in America," where racial issues rise to the surface and are on the verge of erupting at any moment. And as the documentary specifically mentions, the Los Angeles Police Department, which was known for being all white at the time, was jokingly accused that the chief of police must have been recruited by the Ku Klux Klan himself. And in such a big environment, Ron, a black man who joined the police station, became an "interloper" in a stereotypical world.
Of course, this kind of intrusion is not the kind of "change the world, change yourself" chicken soup intrusion, Ron is more like a kind of icon that shows equal rights and just becomes a target of discrimination, bullied, and left out in the archives to do the most trivial and boring work. After stumbling upon an advertisement for the Ku Klux Klan in a local newspaper, he quickly had the idea of infiltrating the group as an undercover agent. With the help of their white Jewish partner, Freep, the two become two sides of the undercover role, with Ron contacting members over the phone, while Freep is responsible for participating in various offline activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Ron's name.
Yes, I know it all looks stupid, why is it that the Ku Klux Klan ads that are clearly printed in the newspapers have never been investigated? Why role-playing that can be done on both sides has never been tried to go undercover — Spike Lee didn't dwell too much on it here, but from time to time used this mischievous "pondering fear" to secretly satirize the arrogance of white people and the lack of concern for black people in such an era.
During an undercover operation, Ron meets Patrice, a beautiful girl with strong political views, during a college black movement opportunity and is strongly attracted to the political ideas of former Black Panther leader Kwame ture. As the undercover work progressed, after a rigorous investigation by the Ku Klux Klan, Ron and Freep developed a close relationship with David Duke, the core figure of the Ku Klux Klan, and Ron was even elected as the regional representative. David Duke visits Spring City, and the Ku Klux Klan decides to plot a terrorist bombing campaign against the black movement to prove the extreme fanaticism of their white supremacists and to cheer up the ku Klux Klux Klan's mysterious ritual. With the life of his beloved girl hanging in the balance, Ron and Freep split up in two directions, trying to foil the Ku Klux Klan plot and prevent the tragedy from happening.
With ease and twisting, Spike Lee has set up too many layers of different faith camps here: black power, white power, black participation white power... However, there is no deep belief duel that everything is spread out to the real knife and real gun, and in the end, most of the story is aimed at the buddy comedy of the two sides of the body, and the pair of unlucky and helpless undercover agents is used to string together the contradictions and sufferings of the entire "oj Simpson" era. He really didn't criticize this and oppose that very seriously as he once did in the movies, but just completely relaxed and satirized the madness of the whole society from the perspective of a small person.
Bro, the big idea of this whole movie is the black Ku Klux Klan! In particular, a parallel clip of black power and white power gatherings using "The Birth of a Nation" is used to laugh at all the ridiculousness of that era. When the protagonists are finally wrapped up in the torrent of the times, even if they do everything right, but finally put down all their baggage and laugh at the Ku Klux Klan before finally leaving, it is difficult for people off-screen not to laugh with their hearts.
Of course, seeing this, I also wondered if Spike Lee was not sharp, not angry, and the once angry youth was now as peaceful as the old man walking the bend (but it was already the old man) - it turned out that I was wrong. Spike Lee eventually lets us see the future with the vision of the male and female protagonists, to see the present in which we live, in an era when people are constantly talking about "political correctness" and there is still no shortage of violent conflicts over racial issues, the Ku Klux Klan is still waving in the streets, innocent black people are still bleeding in the streets, and the president is still making no secret of his lack of concern for race issues. Is this era really too "politically correct" as we call it? Or are people starting to be intimidated by these words, and repeatedly emphasizing that the "runaway" of political correctness is taking works of art to the road of no return?
To say a few more words about the so-called private goods, I do not think that political correctness will kill art, throughout human history, art has always been wrapped up in social trends, and it is because of this that art has been able to advance to obtain a mark of the times. When people are blinded by the highly integrated concept of political correctness to hate and can't see the progressiveness of those works of art, then maybe they will be far behind ~ the sublimation of the whole film here I believe is the biggest reason for the ten minutes of applause at the beginning of cannes, in such a seemingly foolish comedy at the end of the whole play, the effect seems to be much better than the dry criticism.
Finally, let's talk about a little more relaxed, as the protagonist of the two sides of the same body, John David Washington as the second generation of stars in this kind of film without relaxation is quite difficult to show the family legacy (next door Daddy's "Justice 2" this weekend also came out of the resources Oh), more comedy elements in the movie are indeed assigned to The Adam driver, after two snl consecutive performances in "Patterson" and "League of Thieves" such light comedy, he is no longer the unhappy bear child Kyloren in my mind in Star Wars! Of course, it should be mentioned that the most surprising Caste is actually playing the silly white and sweet Laura Khalil in the latest version of "Spider-Man", there is no need to smirk gracefully and generously, and she jumps against the explosive head and refreshes a large part of the stereotype!
The main reasons why "Black Party" can be placed on the Oscar stage are, I think, the following points:
01
Hollywood owes Spike Lee a word
As a pioneering cultural icon who has long fought on the front line of black film and television, Spike Lee has always been unable to get his own glory on the Oscar stage. The College gave a lifelong achievement award for a cultural pioneer in his 60s with little honor and needed an award to prove his artistic life, just like the College's aunt Mei who loved to die. The task taken by "The Black Party" may also be the last chance for the Academy to repay Spike Lee.
02
Hollywood also owes comedies a claim
As Jack Blake said ten thousand times on talk shows, comedy has always been the part of history that has been discriminated against by the Academy. When such a political satirical comedy with universal feelings is brought out and put on the highest stage, it should also be regarded as the academy's efforts to change the tradition and show its attitude to be tolerant of comedies such as "The Big Short".
03
Let's talk about external factors, let's go back to internal factors
The most valuable thing about "Black Party" is the black humor of the marquee, which represents Spike Lee's decades of adherence to racial issues, and he is still angry at the age of 60, and the most entertaining business elements such as parallel montage applications make the film entertain the public while conveying universal values. The stitching of the material of the modern news documentary at the end eventually turned the film into a cautionary tale beyond a comical commercial film.