The Offensive Movie Cliche That Wont Die

Tiffany Williams
Feb. 3, 2014
Prepared for Dr. Dugan
Summary #2
"The Offensive Movie Cliche that won’t die" Summary of "
The Offensive Movie Cliche that won’t die
"

Part one Matt Zoller Seitz is a freelance movie critic who works for New York magazine and is also the founder of the online publication of “
The House next doo r ”.
In His article "
The Offensive Movie Cliche that won’t die " he observes in a critique of the character called the "Magical Negro" he argues that white america is trying to strike a deal because they no longer have complete control of the cultural and political agenda. Forty years ago, the word "negro" started to fall out of fashion, it's a transitional word that fell between "color" the white comforting word and the more militantly self­determined and oppositional word "black".
He continues to make his point by referring to many movies such as "
What
dreams may come " and "
The Matrix ". He defines " A Magical Negro " as a saintly
African American character who acts as a mentor to a questioning white hero, who seems to be from the community but is adored too much, has an ability to say and do exactly what needs to be said and done to keep the story going right along in the heros favor. A candidate to chair the republican National Committee made out a song entitled
"Barack the Magic Negro". There was a sense that with the Obama candidacy that it

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was a time to rebuild, repair, and move forward. Not just towards a post­bush society, but a post­racial one. Obama at first resisted endorsing this but soon played up his status as the first non­caucasian man to pursue and win the democratic presidential nomination. This election triggered paranoia and rage in roughly half the population
(most were entirely white sector immigrants who embraced the idea that "we have to protect or reclaim" our country from them). He continues on with more references to movies where blacks are actually quite influential, not literally magical. He concludes by stating the " magical negro
" is a glorified walk on role, a narrative device with a pulse, who doesn't drive the story but is there within white society not attached to anything. It is a screenwriters distraction that obscures the characters detachment from the heart of the narrative ­­ and the characters essentially decorative native. Part two After reading this article I was actually really confused. I think it would have been better if Matt Zoller Seitz put more of his opinion in it. I just think that there were too many references taken out of the movies it seemed like it was every sentence to me. I do understand that yes he is a movie critic and that is what he does but i was just overwhelmed and if you are not someone who has seen everyone of those films such as myself if you don’t know what he’s referring to its a bit confusing.

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