Film and Fiction Last Flashcards
(43 cards)
1
Q
Overview of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
A
- Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and abolitionist
- Deeply religious man Tom is sold and separated from his family.
- He befriends Eva, the daughter of his new enslaver, but a subsequent enslaver kills him because of his religion.
2
Q
When was UTC published?
A
- 1852
3
Q
How many copies of UTC were sold in first year?
A
- 300,000
4
Q
How did Lincoln greet UTC?
A
- He remarked that Stowe was the author of the Civil War by emphasising abolitionist attidues against slave owners.
5
Q
Why did UTC become critical?
A
- The book put black Americans in a subservient position and ‘Uncle Tom’ became a phrase used for black Americans that were subservient to whites (E.G. MLK being against black power)
6
Q
How were illustrations of Uncle TOm changing?
A
- As time went on, Uncle Tom increasingly demeaned black people, reflecting increased Northern white unease over black migration
7
Q
Summary of Huckleberry Finn
A
- Mark Twain, an abolitionist, tells how Huck escapes his father and befriends Jim who has escaped as a slave.
- Huck and Tom save Jim from slavery again by white Americans.
- Jim scarficies freedom to help Tom, who reveals that Jim’s former owner had freed him.
8
Q
When was Huckleberry Finn published
A
1885
9
Q
Why is Huck finn controversial?
A
- Twain sought to engage his audience by portraying Jim as unintelligent and depdent which was a condescending attitude that reflected white opinion.
10
Q
Why did the NAACP criticse Huck Finn?
A
- Deemed to belittle racial groups
11
Q
When did Huck finn become a standardised novel for children in schools?
A
- 1957
12
Q
Who wrote Gone with the wind and when published?
A
- Margaret Mitchell, published 1936
13
Q
Summarise Gone with the Wind..
A
- Tara, Scarlett’s plantation, is devestated after the Civil War.
- Scarlett seeks to marry a rich man to save her and marries Frank Kennedy, who later dies in a Ku Klux Klan defence of her honour after she was attacked by a black man.
- Scarlett’s later marriage with Rhett fails.
14
Q
Why is gone with the wind critisised?
A
- Romanticises the KKK
- Depicted black Americans as unable to care for themselves
- Scarlett being attacked by a black man reinforces the view that black freedman were rapists.
- Enslaved people who were loyal are seen as stereotpical
- The language of the novel is from Civl War and Reconstruction which was less acceptable in the 30s, such as Mammy’s face being compared to a monkey’s face.
15
Q
Who directed the Gone with the Wind Film?
A
- David Selznick
16
Q
How did Selznick divert the controversial aspects of Gone with the Wind’s novel in his film?
A
- Removed racial language such as the N word.
- Worked with Walter White, NAACP leader to help
- Made Scarlett’s attacker white
17
Q
Who wrote TKAMB?
A
- Harper Lee in 1960
18
Q
Overview of TKAMB
A
- TKAMB tells the story about Atticus Finch agreeing to defend Tom Robinson against the charge of raping white trash Mayella Ewell.
- The children save Tom from a lynching and although Tom is innocent, an all-white jury finds him guilty and he is shot trying to escape.
19
Q
Criticisms of TKAMB?
A
- White southerners critisised Mayella’s attraction to Tom Robinson which was forbidden in the 30s.
- Marginilisation of black characcteers which Tom relying on white saviour.
- However liberal views later on saw Tom needing a white man to defend him as realistic due to the lack of black lawyers in the 30s.
20
Q
When was beloved published and who wrote it?
A
- Toni Morrison in 1987
21
Q
Summary of Beloved 1987
A
- Summarises that there is struggle with the memory of slavery as it was so crippling.
- Sethe kills her daughter to prevent her from going through slavery.
- She is haunted by this and a girl who might be the dead daughter comes to the house and ruins Sethe until the black Community forgives Seethe.
22
Q
Critiques of Beloved?
A
- Admired by critics but a box office disaster suggesting that thoughtful books had more reception than thoughtful movies
23
Q
Summary of the Help (2009)
A
- Kathryn Stockett’s novel tells of young white college graduate Skeeter, whose liberal views on race relations are different during 1960.
- Skeeter collects the stories of local black domestics who nurture young white children then watch them grow up to be pro segregation.
- Skeeter is forced to leave Mississippi
- Jackson’s leading racist stops harming domestic workers as she could be exposed for greed.
24
Q
Responses to the Help (2009)
A
- Book and movie were successful as white Americans wanted to hear that there were good white Southerners during Jim Crow, and that exploited black domestics lived happily ever after.
- However, the Association of Black Women Historians derided both book and film for stereotyping black domestic workers, depicting them as subservient and in need of Skeeter, a white saviour to save them.
25
How were black Americans portrayed visually in the 1850s?
- Demeaning portrayals were common such as Harper's Weekly, the most popular contemporary publication.
- Shows white Americans using black face to present black Americans as unintelligent, idle and carefree.
- Black Americans commissioned pictures and photographs designed to demonstrate similarities with white Americans such as Sojourner Truth in middle class attire.
- Abolitionists aimed to create a feeling of sympathy for black Americans.
26
How did photography become more important during the Civil War?
- There were photographs of black soldiers in the Union uniforms which symbolised black empowerment.
27
What were post-war, Reconstruction portrayals like?
- Mostly demeaning
- Uncle Tom's Cabin saw subsequent illustration which presented Tom as aged, dependent upon Eva's tuition and subservient to whites.
28
When was Birth of a Nation released and directed by who?
- D.W. Griffith, the son of a Confederate, in 1915
29
Summary of Birth of a Nation?
- Based on the Klansmen novel, the silent film was a response to the poor depiction of the southern Confederacy in an Uncle Tom play.
- The film's hero, Ben Cameron, is a Confederate, whilst villains are lazy, black politicians who aim to disenfranchise white Americans.
- When a black soldier attempts to rape Cameron's sister, this inspires the formation of the Ku Klux Klan that lynch the black soldier and restore white control.
30
Reactions at the time of Birth of a Nation
- Phenomenal success across white audiences, with 1 million moviegoers in New York City alone in its first year.
- Woodrow Wilson praised the film
- Black commentators agreed that it influenced white perceptions and behaviours and inspired the re-establishment of the Ku Klux Klan.
31
How were movies changing by the 60s?
- Movies were beginning to challenge racial stereotypes and attitudes with Hollywood incorperating more black charactwers into their films.
32
Summary of In the Heat of the Night
- Sidney Poitier stars as Mr Tibbs, a black detective, who is falsely arrested for a murder because he is black.
- White police chief Bill Gillespie discovers that Tibbs is a detective and they work together to solve the murder
33
Significance of in the Heat of the Night for race relations
- Tibbs slaps back at a racist showing black assertiveness and power.
- Hollywood made the film cheaply so didn'y worry about the lack of southern White audiences .
- Sidney Poitier was afraid to film in the south and recieved white antagonism during filming.
- Sidney Poitier insisted that the movie be filmed in the North because of an incident in which he and Harry Belafonte were almost killed by Ku Klux Klansmen during a visit to Mississippi
- Film recieved mostly positive outcome.
- Audiences wanted to see Poitier as he was an Oscar winner in 1964.
34
Summary of Mississippi Burning
- Told the story of an FBI investigation into the murder of 3 civil right activists during Freedom Summer 1964.
- Two FBI agents find the murderers and trick the Ku Klux Klan into revealing their guilt.
35
Responses to Mississippi Burning
- 1988 (remember)
- Many critics were positive but black activists questioned white saviour portrayals rather than black empowerment to stand up to violence at a time of brave civil right activism in 1964.
- Film wasn't a massive hite as white audiences had perhaps become tired of black victimism of white racism.
- This was shown through Boys 'n' the hood (1991) which expored the problems of black youth without blaming white racism, which audiences liked.
36
Contradicting opinions about Malcom X (when released?)
- Malcom X released in 1992
- First choice director was white, angering some black Americans such as Spike Lee who later became director.
- Black nationalists saw Spike Less as a directer which would distort Malcom to appeal to the black middle class.
- Criticism of the movie for glossing over the 'weird' Nation of Islam beliefs.
- Critics loved the film but black Americans constituted the majoirty of the audiences so the movie had little or no opportunity to influence white America.
37
When was the Wire released?
- Early 2000s
38
Summary of the Wire's depicton of black Americans and responses
- Both black and white characters had flaws but the majoirty of crimes were commited by black Americans
- Portrays black Americans as stuck in ghettos and crime with few opporrtunities for escape
- However, criticisms included the focus too much on class rather than race, containing little racial tension with an absence of white police brutality against black Americans.
- Low view count (1.6 million people per episode of season 4
- Mass white audiences were not keen on being educated on black problems unless there was a happy ending.
- As a result, the Wire had little influence on attitudes to race.
39
How were more black actors being encouraged within television during the 50s?
- Television became America's most popular form of entertainment.
- NAACP claimed that black characters were exploited through stereotypes as servants.
- By 1967, more black actors were being uses and this recommendation was followed by both black and white people.
40
What was 'blaxploitation'
- During 1969-74, blaxploitation films reflected contemporary black radicalism within ghettos, but this was criticised by the NAACP, who saw it as a glorification of drug dealers and gangester.
- White audiences increasingly saw the films which creates a sense of white sympahty but also just a desire to see the trendy action movie.
41
How did television dramatically revolutionise white perceptions of black Americans in the 70s?
- Roots fictionalised the acocunt of the enslavement of his ancestors..
- Kunta Kinte was a black warrior from West Africa who was enslaved and sold to Maryland.
- His descendants meet unpleasant white people, who are depicted as the villains.
- One white American chops of Kunta Kinte's foot.
- Eventually, Kunta Kinte's ancestors are freed and farm their own land.
42
Response to Roots?
- record breaking 100 million people watched the last episode, which was half the American population.
- White Americans watched more because of the solid cast of familiar actors as well as characters that didn't demean the white race (slave captain had a conscience)
- The story was an American Dream and was relatable.
- Critics loved roots
43
Why is there no hard evidence that Roots schanged white attitudes?
- Racial antagonism still remained a key feature, as seen in the continuing contemporary opposition to integrated schools, and the ghettos remained without help.
