Hate to break it to you guys but from what I am hearing from its world premiere from the festival's there is no romance between them, just friendship..The film hasn't been completely spoiled but there is a huge hint in one review that Jennifer's character is gay and if that is the case I am certain the film will find a black woman for her love interest. Anyhow this same review ever points out how the movie appears to be steering itself to a romance between Jennifer and Bryan but then sort of "course corrects" itself or something like that. If I am wrong about this I apologize ahead of time. But, hey, take comfort in that apparently the writers of The Woman King manage to manufacture a made up romance between one of the black female soldiers and a white dude fighting for the enemy. You know how Hollywood likes its IR in only one form.
Here may be some alternative choices to get somewhat excited for "Dead For A Dollar" is directed by old-school director Walter Hill who had a history of making movies with better than average black male characters back in the 80s and 90s. The subplot of the Buffalo soldier and the white wife intrigues me as does the fact there is another black male with a major role too. Now I am sure some of you will be triggered by the quick stretch that starts at 1:44 but perhaps we should not jump to conclusions. The film looks a bit too old-timey but it has gotten decent reviews out of the Venice film Festival. Empire of Light is a major film by a bigtime filmmaker and its clear intent is to win awards. So-so reviews have lesson its chances of doing so unfortunately. There is an IR love story of a sort going on in the film involving a black guy and a white woman. Unfortunately she is MUCH older.
Yeah they sold this as a dramatic romance until people actually saw it and from the reviews I read it sounds like a friendship with a gay woman.
Olivia Coleman is 48. Sometime a different non "glitzy"(so to speak) IR romance is good. The trailer left me intrigued by their story. Dead For A Dollar reviews are seem to be describing Rachel Brosnahan and Brandon Scott's character into a black man and woman giving the audience of how they both face discrimination. It seems like a political relationship more so for the film goer. Empire Of Light has my attention more.
That description of Dead For A Dollar pisses me off, when it comes to discrimination a White woman is not in the same boat as a Black man and I hope they make that clear in this movie. If they do that I'll just have to see how it plays out maybe they will fall in love or something. I just read a review and it sounds like she might be using him. I find Empire of Light more intriguing and I have no problem with a young Black man older White woman pairing.
Yeah I don't care how young, hot or famous the actress is in bm/ww relationships the story and their relationship arch are the main components to the formula that will make it worth watching. Now I say this with the knowledge that some people have differences of opinion on how they like a story and relationship arch but regardless they have to be good!
We have a movie coming out getting raves that is largely based on true events called "The Woman King" which deals with Africans fighting against European colonizers during the period of the slave trade and the writer and filmmaker had the audacity to throw in some subplot (which is not based on true events) that involves a forbidden romance between one of the African women and a European colonizer. I'm sorry but I am too damn pissed off over THAT nonsense to have any anger to spare for what upsets you about Dead For A Dollar. With all due respect. I just finished watching that Hulu Predator film "Prey" and I couldn't help but notice that even for a work of pure fiction, the people behind that movie had the common courtesy and sensitivity to not have our Native American female lead fall for any of the largely repugnant French settlers who were doing harm to her people. But in a story like The woman King which is about pushing back against European exploitation and is based on real life events, hooking up a black woman with a white guy is still a priority. In my opinion (and its just an opinion) black men need to prioritize where we direct out anger towards. White guys will overrun the YouTube comments section of a relatively innocent 30 second commercial that has a black man and white woman at the center, making accusations of agendas, agendas and more agendas. I apologize for going on a tangent. Maybe I'm in a bad mood. But I wish black men would wake up and focus on the limitations being placed upon characters who look like them. And, so, getting back to Dead For A Dollar....yeah, black men had it worse overall than white women. But white women were still nonetheless lacking in rights given to white men. So, yeah, in theory a black male and a white female could share some common ground. Hell, black men got the right to vote in America (though it was later taken away) before white women did.
I've heard about that Woman king movie and that's par for the course and pisses me off even more but that don't have a thing to do with what I was upset about when it comes to Dead for a dollar so I don't know why you coming at me. I have the right to be upset and offended if they try to equate the Black man's experience with that of White women. White women have had enough power to play a role in the oppression and subjugation of Black men. Black men haven't had that power over White women or anyone else for that matter. I don't have a problem acknowledging some of the rights that White women lacked but I am not cool with the false equivalency in comparison to what Black men have had and still has to deal with.
Well the movie is based on the Dahomey tribe whom had a MAJOR role in the Atlantic Slave Trade. There is history of european slave traders marrying Dahomey women because they could not just take slaves contrary to popular belief. Read 'Daughters Of The Slave Trade' or at least research it. So it is plausible for them to add that in there. It went on but probably not in the way the film wants to portray it.
I am amazed that you can interpret my response as me coming after you . I voiced some frustration but not any aggression. And where is this strawman’s argument you keep going for regarding the comparison between the status situation of black men and white women? Where in that article and/or description of the movie did it mention that the story was trying to EQUATE the suffering of one with the other? Its not a contest. A person can be more oppressed than another with the two of them still being victims. People in terrible circumstances can find common ground without making a measurement of whose pain is worse. An extreme weather event hits a village and one man loses his wife while another man loses his entire family. The latter obviously got hit the hardest but that doesn’t mean he can’t relate to the other guy who “only” lost his spouse. In the times this movie takes place the main advantage white women had over black men was that they were part of white society and the law would protect them more. But they did not run things. They did not make the law. They were essentially property to their husbands and their fathers. Their rights were limited, restricted. As tone deaf as it may seem to us today there was a reason why the white women who started the women’s movement in the early 20th century compared their situation to the slavery of blacks or second, third, fourth class citizenship status of black people. Obviously that was an exaggeration but people who are under better circumstances are often too blind to realize they have it better than others. That being said not only did white women lack the right to vote or for the most part, own property and keep their inheritance rather than having to give it over to their husbands, not only were they kept from administrative positions in government or not expected to do anything more than raise a family, they were also raped and killed and faced domestic violence at a rate that history books overlook. So with real scenarios out there, is it too much of a leap that a white woman and a black man in the Old West could see themselves as kindred spirits who suffer from similar slights and societal pressures?
Yes, you are correct that that nation was involved with the slave trade. And of course white men mated and married with women of foreign nations all the time. But I am unaware of any record that any of these female warriors mated with white men, the enemy they were eventually sworn to kill. Regardless of that there was no need to go down that road in THIS film. That’s a choice that was made. Lets say someone decided to make a film about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and came up with the idea of including a Romeo and Juliet type of subplot in which the young son of a black pastor has a romance with the white daughter of a rich businessman who owned the buses? Hell, that’s not totally unrealistic and it presents an interesting dynamic. But black audiences would be OUTRAGED. Recall when black people made a stink about the absence of black female characters in that film “Detroit” despite the fact the story stayed true to history by taking place one night in a motel in which black women had the fortune of not being trapped in? Anyway, black folks would be demanding answers for why the filmmakers would include such a bmww romance in this imaginary boycott film I’m suggesting. They would point out how it is distracting from the true intent of the story and that it was a slap in the face for a black male to be pursuing a “whyt” woman during a moment in history in which African Americans were fighting and dying for their freedom. Of course if the subplot had been about a black woman and a white man in this boycott flick those same people wouldn’t say a thing.
As a black man maybe I'm sensitive and I can understand finding common ground but it all depends on the structure of the story for me. I can't help but think about the indisputable fact that White women have historically aided their White male counterparts in the oppression and subjugation of Black people and that makes things muddy. White women benefit from White supremacy in some way even more than the men and usually at the expense of Black people. I have to always acknowledge and be mindful of that no matter how strong the attraction is.
ABSOLUTELY! But we all(at least most of us on here) know why they did it in this film. Just like they didn't want to address the viciousness and cruelty and roles this tribe had in the slave trade. I don't want to get into the politics of hollywood but I wasn't surprised, in fact when the trailer came out I had a gut feeling they were going to throw in some lovin with the white enemy.
Spoiler from this review The actor who play Malik, the romantic interest Someone on twitter who watched the movie during the premiere in Canada said that Malik end up helping to kill the other slave trade playing by the white actor.
The trend continues. Also I find it interesting that this is Rated R being as though how the trailer played out. It came off as a PG-13 teen drama movie.
I watched Come Away with Angelina Jolie and David Oyelowo last night. Good movie. Jolie and Oyelowo played a good IR couple. Plus Oyelowo's character showed a good way, a better way, to discipline children.
There is a movie called Out Of Office that was on Comedy Central starring Milana Vayntrub the girl from the AT&T commercials and she's paired with Jay Pharoah.