For my film review, I chose the film “Madea’s Family Reunion.” The talented Tyler Perry acted as the director, screenwriter, and main actor in “Madea’s Family Reunion.” Perry was born Emmitt Perry Jr. in Louisiana in 1969. Perry is an African American male born into an abusive home from his father, thus initiating the name change. The film of the play was produced and released in the United States of America in 2002. It has a running time of 134 minutes. Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Family Reunion” would fall into the genres of romance, comedy, and drama.
Some of the main characters in the film were Madea, Reverend Lewis (who was seeking the affections of Victoria), Lisa, Tina, Jackie, A.J., Kevin, Ronnie, Victoria, and Cora. The main key points that I found in the film were many but they all seemed to come together in one way or another. The film begins with the Simmons family returning from a funeral where Madea, the tough Southern matriarch of the family, just buried her older sister Irene. As the funeral plans are finishing up, Madea’s granddaughter Lisa is preparing to get married at the house. Unbeknownst to Madea and the rest of the family, Lisa’s betrothed, a very successful and rich man named Ronnie, is beating her (IMDb, 2002). Lisa tries to keep her bruises hidden and covered up. A.J., another main character who was Lisa’s first love, decides that he is going to act on it and stop Ronnie. Tina, Lisa’s sister continues to get into more trouble, neglecting her baby, stealing money from her mother Cora, and doing her best to beguile Kevin, Jackie’s husband. When Jackie finds out she is pregnant with the possibility of a miscarriage, she goes to tell Kevin to find a job for the baby’s sake (IMDb, 2002).
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...e black man being nothing but abusive and the other one trying to make it right or the fact that the men in African American families are not the leaders and the mothers are the seat of the matriarchal power (Perry, 2002).
Overall, I think the film was decent but perhaps too understated for its time in the early twenty-first century. The overall character profiles were very distinct and ultimately I think that was my downfall. I did not see the film as something that was easily followed or something to be completely agreeable with. The issues of female degradation through abuse and male empowerment are shown throughout the film and my negotiated reading of the film seemed to grow stronger the more I watched the film. I felt that the film in general had a good, if not somewhat lost, message but was not concise enough to make it an enjoyable film to watch.
In Hillary Potters “Battle Cries” Black women are constantly abused by their intimate partners. Abuse is described to be triggered by a number of different factors. Factors were the entitlement of the man, age of the victims, socioeconomics, race, and repeated victimization, termination of the relationship, jealousy, and substance abuse. First, you have men who believed they were entitled to control the women. He was the hierarchy figure in the relationship. The woman’s respect towards the man was demanded rather than earned. She was to obey his orders and comply with his every decision. If not, she was to be punished by any means necessary. Along with this you have men who felt that “It’s a man thing.” This was the way of life of which they felt was a part
For the most part, reviews are positive and praise this film. I completely agree with them, this film informed me of an issue I wasn’t even aware had occurred. Before watching this film and taking this class, I was naive, I believed that after we had gained our supposedly “equal rights” everything was okay. Now, I have realized the struggles Chicanos have had to face, my eyes have been opened to these injustices and made me aware that many are still occurring today. This film and class has inspired me to take action against these injustices and stand up for what I believe in.
Jeannette kind of found a boy her age that likes her, but he did cause a few issues with her. Like when he felt all up on her and invaded her personal space. Lori, Jeanette and Brian had trouble fitting in because of how they looked so it was really hard to make real friends. Eventually they got used to it but people were cruel to them and they got into a lot of disputes with neighbors and other people. This place made them toughen up and made them realize how they were living needed to change. The whole family came to the conclusion that they need to fight back so people don’t walk all over
There are things that are going on today where men, specifically black men, are being mixed up for being a risk towards white individuals and the final product being sent away to jail or being killed for reasons unknown by any means. Black men are being dealt with unjustifiably, than white men. On the off chance that a black man was to stroll into a store with a dark hoodie on he will be viewed as a risk yet in the event that a white man was to do precisely the same he wouldn’t appear to be identical.
Overall the film was a very informative film for a more homophobic audience. The content was relatable and connected well with the information and discussions that have been within our society for a long time. It was a well-done film that really questions the homophobic opinions and while this is still a very real debate in today’s society the film does a great job at arguing the homophobic opinions.
The movie is, most likely, done well enough to intrigue its intended audience. It captured the theme and story line of the book. It falls short, though, when compared to the beautiful, sensitive and contemplative prose of Natalie Babbitt. One could only hope that a viewing of the film will lead the watcher to try the book and be delighted all the more.
From the article, Davis’s main argument is that the mainstream society has developed the perception the black men are to blame for the
overall view of this film is that I think that it is a great portrayal
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
For instance, relating to the employment, there were two obvious hierarchical differences between the black and the white, and women and men. According to Kimberle (2015), in the late 1970, the employment opportunities for black people and women were still in the straitened circumstance, furthermore, even if there were chances for them, “... the black job were men’s job, and the women’s job were only for whites.” (Kimberle Cranshaw 2015). In other words, there was no opportunity for the black women. In this case, the unjust discriminatory treatment for black women simply resulted from their intersected identities as a “black” and “woman” both were marginalized in the society. In regard to this, however, the important point is that people did not analyze the cause of this situation through considering it from the both racial and sexual sides simultaneously. People ignored the experience of the others, and categorized the black women based on their sex as a “woman”. In other words, people, especially who were in the privileged position, just neglected the subtle “differences” of others, and they stretched the rules to their own advantages. Relating to these “differences”, Audre Lorde (1984: 115) explains that “ But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the
being black and being a woman. Scholars convey that African American women are involved in what’s called the “double threat” where membership in more than one oppressed social group results in cumulative risk outcomes (Brown 2000; Chavous et. al 2004; Childs 2005; Steele 1992; 1997). Black women may also experience stress due to unrealistic stereotypes. For example, research has revealed that black women experience “double threat” when they apply for housing from a white landlord. Results conclude that white landlords perceive black women as the “black single mother” stereotype, therefore they refuse to provide them with adequate housing (Iceland and Wilkes 2006; Roscigno et al. 2009). Black women actively seek to resist the positive and negative stereotypes for fear that embodying them will result in validation of those categorizations (Chavous et al. 2004; Fries-Britt & Griffin 2007; Rollock, Gillborn, Vincent & Ball 2011; Settles 2006; Steele 1997). Black women may not have intended to perpetuate stereotypes in the presence of others, but are subjected to social pressures to normalize these stereotypes for others and pigeonhole themselves in counteractive representations of black women (Childs 2005; Wilkins 2012). Steele (1992) described this process as “stereotype threat” which occurs when individuals perceive that negative stereotypes about their group as
They were held to lower standards and believed to be nothing but an object for men. The women were treated very poorly and were treated differently than the men. In many ways the women were shown to be little compared to the men. Since they didn 't have anything important in society the actions that were towards them were as if they 're peasants Woman had no possibility of ever been treated differently since they were ever going to have a better role in society. This movie portrayed how women weren’t held to higher standards but men
By dissecting the film, the director, Jennie Livingston's methodology and the audience's perceived response I believe we can easily ignore a different and more positive way of understanding the film despite the many flaws easy for feminist minds to criticize. This is in no way saying that these critiques are not valid, or that it is not beneficial to look at works of any form through the many and various feminist lenses.
...es, in the eyes of the modern moviegoers, this position is no longer reasonable due to the strides already made by women in quest for equality. It is a reflection of how the past American society treated its women and draws to the traditional inclination of the Americans to achieve financial independence as seen in this post war film.
Rubin, Roger H. "Matriarchal Themes in Black Family Literature: Implications for Family Life Education." The Family Coordinator 27.1 (1978): 33-41. JSTOR. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.