MOVIES: "BLACK PANTHER"

Multiple Oscar-winner “Black Panther” is a triumph for Marvel Comics and African-American filmmaking, as well as Black youth the world over. “Entertainment Weekly” quotes a Black teen after screening BP: “So this is how white people feel all the time?” Each Academy Award (costume design, production design, original musical score) was well-deserved, although I didn’t think there was anything terribly new about the heroic, dime-a-dozen soundtrack with just a few African drums thrown in. I was expecting something much more distinctive, more of a stand-out, something hummable.

WOMEN OF WAKANDA

Wakanda is a fictional small country in Africa (thought by the rest of the world to be a Third World country with little power, resources or influence). But in reality, they are a highly-developed technological society, also harboring the world’s strongest substance, vibranium, which obviously gives them an advantage in battle. Battle with whom? Only four of the five warring tribes in the area put themselves under the Black Panther (that consummate all-around actor, Chadwick Boseman) as their king-ruler.  His generals are all fierce, high-tech-spear-wielding women. His mother (the ageless Angela Bassett), sister and ex-girlfriend (Lupita Nyongo) are all formidable women to be reckoned with. His mischievous, scientific sister runs a James Bondesque lab for weapon gadgetry. However, there is a harmonious blend of ancient, primitive Mother Africa with her incomparable landscape (and some rhinos)—why would you give that up?—and the ultra-modern: skyscrapers and electronics. Dress, accessories and bodily adornment is a colorful pan-African mix.

I SEE WHITE PEOPLE

There are a few white people in the film, side characters—but they are not tokens, fools, whipping boys or scapegoats. A few are accurately villains in a way only white people (meaning those in power, those who, at the moment are privileged/at the top of the food chain) can be (i.e., stripping/robbing others of their cultures, cultural appropriation). But the film doesn’t take the tack of dismissing Caucasians as “the problem” (a form of continued enslavement/subjugation?)—rather the film wants the Black community to find their own solutions within. Not everything in BP is a thinly-veiled reference to a real-life twenty-first century inequity. This is a fun, fantastical adventure as it should be! But one can certainly draw parallels without too much trouble.

TO FIGHT OR NOT TO FIGHT

The conundrum, question and quandary of violence is always lurking beneath the surface. “Wakandans only fight when necessary.” One character even chooses a path of self-destruction in the face of being wronged. It seems the film is sympathetic to his choice, but that will not be the route the film will propose. The film proposes overcoming together, not despairing alone.

The mythology of Wakanda is straightforward enough and not too complex. The intricacies of the story lie in the family ties (including the Black Panther’s deceased father), the loyalties (or not) to Wakanda, the prospect of revenge and the Black Panther’s throne being challenged, and finally the future of Wakanda potentially thrown into disarray: “I don’t want to serve my country, I want to save my country!” Wakanda needs to be strong together before it can help the rest of the world.

WHO RETELLS THE STORIES RULES THE WORLD

BP is good-hearted with a large view and a true social consciousness. There is deserved, justified anger toward colonialism, but it takes the high road and transcends injustice by controlling the narrative to the point of having the upper hand and the ability to condescend, but chooses not to! Kinda brilliant.

BP is a clever, clever meta-retelling, reclaiming of Black power at the top and the bottom, even to the point of Wakanda “taking responsibility” for “creating monsters” because they abandoned “their own” in the world (along with the rest of the world). “Wakanda is strong enough to protect itself AND help others.” The implication is that not only should Wakanda NOT take up arms and fight colonizers the world over, but rather help the poor things. Otherwise, there’s always the danger of “becoming like the people you hate.” And isn’t that always the dilemma? Falling into the master-slave dynamic, the Marxist oppressor-victim relationship—as though there were no other choices? Just an endless cycle of the victim becoming the oppressor becoming the victim becoming the oppressor.

#OscarsNotSoWhiteAnymore

Oscars 2019 seemed to be a sincere effort to listen to African-American stories with new ears, eyes and heart. Although Hollywood is international, it’s also American, and there are the proverbial “two Americas”: black and white. The Black stories brought to the fore are not only the older stories of the horror of U.S.-style slavery (a particularly heinous form of human slavery)—but more recent grievances—and not only grievances and reactive stories, but fresh, proactive stories. Spike Lee’s speech, Congressman John Lewis’ speech, “BlacKkKlansman,” Barbra Streisand’s speech, James Baldwin’s “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Green Book” winning Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor/Actress awards didn’t feel patronizing. It felt like recognizing true achievement and honoring diversity. I know not everyone will agree with me, but at very least it seemed like a step in the right direction. But of course, I’m not Black.

MORE OF THIS, PLEASE

I want to see a sequel to “Black Panther” with the BP on the streets fighting injustice on the micro-level, teaching kids or something. I think there’s so much potential for a sequel to go in any direction it wants after doing the macro thing with this “first” filmic tale. All I can say is: “Wakanda forever!”

OTHER STUFF:

--Not that BP takes itself too seriously, but I wouldn’t have minded a TAD more humor.

-- I’ve often heard people say: “Slavery is long over!” As though it should be forgotten, as though there were no fall out, as though attitudes have completely changed, as thought it weren’t just a few lifetimes ago (I met a woman in her 90’s in the 1980’s whose MOTHER was a slave as a child. Think about that). I also heard that after “Twelve Years a Slave,” Hollywood is kind of tired of slavery movies. Tired? We’ve only just begun! Can there be too many World War 2 stories or Holocaust stories? Now, more than ever, we need to tell these stories. Now that we have such an incredible screen story tool box of MOTION PICTURE ARTS & SCIENCES.