It's one of those stories where you're out late walking through a bad neighborhood, back alley, empty parking garage or seedy bar, etc.,you know you shouldn't have been in in the first place...
At one point or another almost all of my friends have related their own personal ‘wrong place/wrong time' adventure(s) to me. Less than half but more than a couple of these stories have a similar plot thread: The highest point of anxiety was when the person was approached by a big black guy. Now, what you can't pick up from reading this is the intonation used on the words "big BLACK guy". It's almost a verbal wink which suggests that the extra fear is so universal that even I, being black myself, should understand and sympathize. *Sigh* I don't blame my friends or even bother to get annoyed by this anymore. These are intelligent, liberal-minded people who are as susceptible as the rest of us to the negative images bombarding us everyday. Not so much from anything as blatant as the news but from many more ‘harmless' forms of entertainment that access our subconscious regularly. Take for example the much beloved sitcom CHEERS. It was certainly MY favorite show when it was on. During it's eleven year run CHEERS managed to have only one black character...for all of two episodes. He was Louis: a BIG, black, lazy and incompetent mailman (oxymoron?) with a deep voice and a violent streak. The two episodes (which were both very funny) centered around Cliff running around scared that Louis was going to beat him up for getting him fired. Now, I don't think that CHEERS is evil or that there's anything inherently wrong with ‘Louis', except for the ratio. In eleven years(!!) on America's most popular tv show there was not one other black person to contrast him with, thus he added to the already growing stereotype. I could site hundreds of more examples but what would be the point, really? Neither of us wants me to suit up and fight every dragon out there. I mostly try to stay out of it...Still, sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do...
...BULWORTH is the story of conservative Democratic senator, J. Bulworth (Warren Beatty), who suffers a nervous breakdown and begins publically telling the bitter ugly truth about what goes on behind the scenes in American politics, much to the chagrin of his staff and the establishment...he's also taken out a $10 million policy with the insurance lobby, put out a contract on himself and yadda, yadda, yadda..."hilarity ensues".
The political moments of BULWORTH are inspired and biting in their candor. What's more shocking than what Warren Beatty says is that he's allowed to say it. For example, when addressing the congregation of a black church J.Bulworth is asked why he hasn't fulfilled his promises to minority voters and his response is "Well, you haven't contributed any money to my campaign, have you?". He goes on to explain that the insurance and tobacco lobbies DO finance the very expensive campaign he needs to stay in office which puts him pretty much in their pocket. In fact, he implicates Clinton, Bush and all politicians as being caught up in the standard S.O.B. corruption of the machine. Okay, so if you listen to NPR or Pacifica News everyday the movie just confirms what you've already pieced together. BULWORTH spares almost no one and some of these moments are genius (if you consider telling the truth ‘genius'). In one scene Halle Berry's character gives a valid explanation as to why there are no definitive black leaders these days...Unfortunately, she spews it as if she were auditioning for a MicroMachines commercial...AND it's the only intelligent dialogue to come out of a black characters mouth in the entire movie. The film is most successful when J.Bulworth is ‘kicking the knowledge', but the other 80% is banal and insulting- and not in the way you might think. J.Bulworth is no more offensive than Melvin Udall (AS GOOD AS IT GETS) or Archie Bunker, both who I loved. BULWORTH is extremely insulting in it's portrayal of black people. It's as if everything Warren Beatty (who also wrote and directed this) knows about black people he learned from repeated viewings of HIGH SCHOOL HIGH and the WB Network sitcoms. When J.Bulworth has his breakdown he becomes infatuated with Nina (Halle Berry) and spends alot of time in the ‘hood. There's ALOT of black people in this movie, yet none of them speak or act realistically like anyone I've ever met. More to the point, they're all idiots. They made ME want to cut social programs.
But not everybody's gonna feel the way I do, you may not care about anything I've said so far. Maybe watching the WB and UPN networks is as multicultural as you want to get. Say you just picked up a new frame for your NRA certificate and a signed, limited edition, hardcover copy of The Bell Curve and you're feeling pretty stoked that the Nazi party is starting to reform in Germany...Guess, what: The movie still stinks! BULWORTH forgets more of its inane plot lines than it remembers. The humor is all slapstick and ‘fish out of water' setups (Okay, "the rich white guy is hangin' with the homeys." We get it!). It's and endless string of "White men can't rap" jokes played to the hilt. So much so that they start to ruin some of the good scenes. Even if you can't get enough of that, it has an ending that I guarantee no one- I repeat, NO ONE will like.
I really wanted to like BULWORTH, too. I think it had the potential to be a very important film, but alas, it is a celluloid train wreck. The shoddiness would be understandable if it'd been made by a first-time or music video director, but this is Warren-freaking-Beatty we're talking about here! He's been making movies since 1961 and won a Oscar for REDS, which he also wrote and directed. For every brilliant scene in BULWORTH that makes me want everybody to see this movie there are four or five that make me blanche at the idea that anybody will ever see it... ...And you don't want to see a black man blanche. It's scarier than having him ask you for directions on a dark street.
-MARTIN
*Whew* I didn't think I could get through that without saying BULWORTH is Bull$#!+... ... ...D'Oh!
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