[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

My issue with some of the points made here is that they really refer to Hollywood conventions at that time: be it the "Mammy" character in Gone With the Wind or Rita Hayworth (real name Margarita Carmen Cansino) being forced by her studio to have cosmetic surgery so she'd look less Spanish. The subject matter of the Western obviously made it more visible but essentially a film like MDC was applying the same attitudes towards race that Hollywood applied to all its pictures, Westerns or otherwise. And I maintain it was actually applying those attitudes far less rigorously than most Westerns at that time.

yeah man i am not singling out ford for the firing squad. although i read that people like charles burnett have?.

one of the problems i had with academia during grad school and getting a career there was that criticism has become all about fault-finding and ideological witch hunts. they go to the other extreme—there’s no beauty, there’s no art, there’s only politics, and everyone is guilty, or will eventually be found guilty.

some of that has permeated into popular culture these days. “everyone is terrible” etc etc. but in popular culture it’s worse because it’s not just the idea that is bad, it’s the person, wholesale, that suddenly becomes “trash”.

i am not about that. i forgive the artists. everyone has their limitations, whether their limitations are personal or an issue of their time.

what’s your take on casavettes? genius? mysogynyst? alcoholic? messiah?

hahahaha, le tigre. maybe he was all that. sure he had his problems, but i love his movies.

i can even appreciate the art and contributions of the nazi propagandist leni riefenstahl (she claimed she wasn’t, i call bullshit), although her outright nazism is repugnant and military parades have always put me to sleep.

all art is problematic. and that’s okay with me. i can handle the problems without tossing it to the trash bin.

but the thing is, a lot of this goes by unnoticed by most people. it’s not obvious, and can’t be skipped, and should not be the whole extent of the discussion... but needs discussin’.

Originally Posted by TheDom

Mama mia!

I wrote a long post and lost it. Fuck!

Condensed form: My intent wasn't to be flippant or neglect and negate the racist stereotypes (they're there - I don't see anyone trying to deny it) but to highlight other nuances that I believe to be in the film(s) and why they resonate with me. Other then that I don't have much to argue.

"it’s... therapy!

gotta hash it out to move past it" - I hear ya and am with ya on that. I'm definitely not impervious to the stereotypes. My love of the film is not a co-sign on the racism.

Idk - my other response was better but I don't feel like recreating it and I think this one has been combed over. Hope you enjoyed that Negroni!

yep. i love rereading hemingway and man he had some issues lol.

negroni was tasteeeeeeeeeee