AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.

Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!

Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories
Politics Daily
FEED
WOMAN UP

Why Must 'For Colored Girls' Be More Than Just a Movie?

2 years ago
  0 Comments Say Something  »
Text Size
Mary C. Curtis
Mary C. Curtis
National Correspondent
Author Bio »
Contact Author »
Subscribe :
I'll give Tyler Perry credit. His films can surely generate the buzz needed to maintain his bankable status, and for a black man in Hollywood, that's a monumental feat. For that, and in recognition of the underused acting talent he's keeping off the unemployment line, I salute him. (I also imagine one grateful makeup technician, providing an endless supply of glycerin tears cascading slowly down the cheeks of Perry's nonstop parade of wounded women.)
As I trudged off to see "For Colored Girls," his talked-about adaptation of Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf," it was more duty than anything else. Finally, I thought, I'll have an answer when the next black woman, and in a week there were many, asked, "Have you seen 'For Colored Girls' yet?"
Though the $20.1 million opening box office of "For Colored Girls" was lower than the openings for Perry's previous three films, according to The Wall Street Journal, distributor Lionsgate was perfectly happy with the performance of a serious drama that did not put Perry in Medea's dress. With marketing help, it's hoped that the movie will eventually break past an initial audience that was 81 percent African American and female.
But those black women turned out. At the showing I attended, a young woman, back for a second viewing, brought along her mother. The woman admired it, with reservations; the mother loved everything about the film and its numbing collection of abused women and deceitful men. "It was as real as I'm standing here," she said, explaining that she had heard similar stories and worse in her regular trips to the beauty parlor. My colleague Helena Andrews encountered similar mixed reviews.
Through reports from the field, I knew before the first frame that Perry's adaptation took liberties with Shange's choreopoem, mixing the poetry with literal-minded prose. He added characters, including a hard-driving career woman, played by Janet Jackson and dressed in dominatrix-like black leather when we first see her reducing subordinates to the quivers with a cold-hearted rant. (Must caring about your work and other people be mutually exclusive, Mr. P?)
We are definitely in Tyler Perry territory, the land of little nuance, where you can imagine him taking his actors aside and instructing them to "give me more drama" before the next take. Though Thandie Newton's promiscuous banshee is over-the-top scary, nothing can stop Loretta Devine from working her particular magic. There were some affecting moments, yet I was glad the sun was shining when I left the theater after a very long two hours and change. Rather than earning a moment of joy, at movie's end the women of "For Colored Girls" held onto each other for dear life.
The black men -- besides being beautiful to look at – were, with one exception, a pretty horrid bunch. That fact has garnered its own stream of criticism, as the reviews – judged both too harsh and too forgiving -- have become part of the Perry narrative.
It's just one filmmaker and his vision, and "For Colored Girls" is only a movie. It's not a documentary about the plight of black women in America. But it carries much more weight than it should. When there are so few portrayals of African Americans on film and TV, one movie means too much to so many, and that's a shame.
In the context of American history – when stereotyped cultural symbols have been used to justify shameful acts – images of victimized black women and brutish black men are not hard to find. Add to that Shange's work, a touchstone of black feminism and sisterhood, adapted by a successful and controversial artist, and there was bound to be a stir.
Yet, to criticize "For Colored Girls" is not to deny the reality of women who find it comforting. Finding fault with Perry's approach is not disrespecting his enthusiastic audience, despite his defenders' occasional effort to equate the two. And loving a movie does not mean you think that black men and women are one thing or the other.
In America, blacks have had to constantly proclaim their very humanity, their mix of strengths and vulnerabilities. It's no wonder we are sensitive to how others see us and how we see ourselves, particularly when projected on a movie screen.
Perhaps one day, a movie will be seen as less a political act than an artistic choice, to be judged on its own merits, without the cultural baggage dragged through hundreds of years, and portrayals of African Americans will be as complicated and interesting as we really are. Maybe there will be more big-screen choices for women and men so talented and lovely that they light up the cover of Essence magazine.
Until then, despite my less than glowing response to his latest melodrama, you have to hand it to Tyler Perry. I bought a ticket.
Filed Under: Race Issues, Woman Up, Culture
Tagged: For Colored Girls, Lionsgate, NtozakeShange, tyler perry
More articles from Mary C. Curtis »

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

4 Comments

Filter by:
Ayrika

Finally!!!! Someone gets it! Thank you Ms. Curtis.

November 15 2010 at 10:14 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
firstad

There are lots of stories to tell, and lots of voices out there. Imagine the difference in story telling from the point of view of Condolezza Rice and Spike Lee and you get the idea. This film is a small mirror being held up to the community. The good thing about the film is that it resonates with lots of women who want to see themselves and their friends lives on the screen. The question to ask when you walk out of theatre is...were you entertained?

November 14 2010 at 3:45 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
nellis

How about celebrating the average hardworking black male for a chance. Men like my late father, his brothers, my nephews and countless others I encounter daily.

November 12 2010 at 9:41 PM Report abuse +5 rate up rate down Reply
ettu

I believe the biggest problem is how blacks view themselves. They give themselves both too much credit, and too little credit.........too much for being far more put upon than any other ethnic group, and too little for not recognizing that they seem to be in the majority when defining a person by their color.

November 12 2010 at 8:14 PM Report abuse +7 rate up rate down Reply

Follow Politics Daily


  • Comics
%PostTitle%
robert-and-donna-trussell
CHAOS THEORY
Featuring political comics by Robert and Donna TrussellMore>>
  • Woman UP Video
politics daily videos
Weekly Videos
Woman Up, Politics Daily's Online Sunday ShowMore»
politics daily videos
TV Appearances
Showcasing appearances by Politics Daily staff and contributors.More>>

News From Our Partners