A scene from Stomp the Yard involving, you guessed it, dancing negroes!
Aww Yeah. I’m back! There’s been a lot of buzz on “teh interwebs” and in conversations about Stomp the Yard and it’s got me thinking… not just about this film, but about the state of black cinema as a whole. I must say that the more I think, the more pissed off I get. Allow me to share my thoughts on the subject of the deterioration of black cinema.
Looking at the trailer for this movie, I see that it’s more of the same thing. Hollywood loves to repackage the same stories and black people loooove to eat it up. Look at the plot for You Got Served, Freedom Writers, Coach Carter, Gridiron Gang and a dozen more of these after school special films targeted at young negroes. The same story. Good kids in bad situations find salvation through dancing/poetry/singing/sports. The message Hollywood is sending is that if you want to be somebody you’d better get to dancing nigga. Get a jump shot, catch a football, or sell some rocks!
Hollywood never just depicts black people in a positive light, we’re always clawing our way out of the dark ages and bullet-ridden streets. Our young people never see that there’s more to life than struggle. Hell, white people need to see that we’re not all reformed thugs.
Will It Blend?
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Stomp the Yard might as well be called You Got Served 2: Electric Boogaloo. I’m a comedic genius… I know. But seriously, this film looks like the writers took the script for School Days, Dangerous Minds and You Got Served (maybe even a dash of Rize *shudder*) and ran them through a computer that looks suspiciously like a blender and put this movie together from the results.
I like to use the analogy of inbreeding. Without fresh genes in the pool, eventually the babies come out retarded… Don’t believe me? Try watching Soul Plane. That’s what I thought.
Soul Plane. Worst. Film. Ever.
I understand that we as black people need to support the black arts, but while doing so, we should be demanding a broader gamut of black films to choose from. I understand that I’m being a bit cynical… Stomp the Yard may be a good film. The reason I’m upset is because in my opinion, it is more of the same. As it stands we’ve got, at any given time, about 4-5 types of movies to choose from:
- street teen movies like You Got Served or Stomp the Yard
- Barbershop/Beautyshop/Big Momma-type fims
- over-the-top comedies by Eddie Murphy or someone named Wayans
- the occasional action film starring Will Smith or Denzel Washington
Every once in a while, a movie will break this mold of dancing and clowning (last year, that movie was the Pursuit of Happyness and Idlewild, before that there was Ray) but for the most part, all that we’re getting are variations on the formula. That’s all we’re worth? One or two movies a year that are worth watching? Hell, most years we don’t even get that!
Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles
What happened to the films about black love? Where have the films like Soul Food or Love Jones gone? Where is this generation’s Color Purple or Zulu?
Is the problem really Hollywood?
I wonder sometimes, if the problem is that Hollywood won’t give us better or that we, as a black nation, have stopped demanding better. I mean, a film like Idlewild comes out and breaks the mold, and black people (the most powerful buying force in the world) can’t even get it to number 1! Stomp the Yard has been number 1 for two weeks and we all know what’s gonna happen already because we’ve seen it before!
I know, some people will argue that Hollywood puts out tons of lame white movies too… but we are black people. We are creative beyond belief and I just expect more out of black cinema than these safe re-blends of old movies. We are the same black people who birthed Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and a host of other African American writers. There are almost 200 black writers listed on Wikipedia.org, among them Hughes has 31 novels, non-fiction stories and plays by himself and we can’t get more than 2 good black movies a year. We can’t adapt any of that to film?
Black people… y’all tripping.
I totally agree with you sir. The state of Black Cinema is a hodgepodge of nothingness. I’m forced to consider the chicken or egg syndome here, but my conclusion is that Hollywood isn’t doing this to us, we are doing it to ourselves. I’d like to see less formulaic films starring black actors and actresses, but the problem is, as a whole, the “regular black folk” actually enjoy these forms of mediocre entertainment. The get a gussied up and take the family out to the theater for Barbershop 2… they feel “cultured” doing this. What they need to do is go to a history museum or check out a Broadway show or Opera. But then I’m probably wrong there too because there in lies the difference between blacks and whites. The opinion of what constitutes a “quality, cultured event” is drastically different for blacks and whites. If someone like you.. or even me decided to make a film, it would be far from typical.. but I think that has less to do with race and more to do with personality and interests. That’s just my opinion. Thanks. Good day… I said Good day!
Thanks for your comment. I understand where you’re coming from when you say that our people need to be in museums, but IMHO a museum isn’t a form of entertainment as much as it is an educational hub. We can talk about black people and edu-ma-cation all day, but I’m gonna stick to the current subject of entertainment.
I know we worked at a movie theater, so it’s easy to look at a movie as uncultured… but do not underestimate the power of cinema. Film is an art form, don’t forget. Of course, Soul Plane and White Girls are not cultural films, but Hotel Rwanda is. Crash is. Films have the power to change lives on the same level as opera or Broadway, more so actually because of their accessibility. Which is why it’s important that we have more diversity in black cinema.
Additionally, while I’m upset at the lack of diversity, I don’t necessarily think that all of the current black cinema is bad. I don’t look down on my brothers and sisters for seeing Barbershop 2. I saw it. It was funny. I guess that makes me “regular black folk” and I love it. I’m proud of that.
There is a place for these films, but that place is amongst a wide gamut of films. There’s nothing wrong with laughing or dancing, but that can’t be all that you do. What I’m saying is that I want more. I want all of black cinema to look like Don Cheadle’s filmography with dramas, comedies, action, biopics, historical films and some weird stuff tossed in to keep you on your toes…
Well My theory has always been once people stop watching the same type of films they will stop making them. Thats why i find myself watching more foreign films lately.
well, i’m boycotting stomp the yard! personally, i think it is crap, and when i sat down and thought about it, either i missed the point of the movie or they writers missed the point of the black greek organizations. all of my students keep asking me if i went to see it just because i’m the step team coach, and i’m like NOOO!!! at first, i was all excited and i wanted to take my team, but then as i kept watching the previews, it’s a travesty.
hollywood is getting rich off of our affinity for seeing one another down and out. even tyler perry has reduced himself to creating sitcoms about crackhead mothers burning down their house for insurance money and leaving their children? now that he’s making the money and not living in his car on the streets of ATL, i guess he feels like he can exploit us like everyone else.
if you really think about it, there are no hollywood originals. they’re making Rocky XXV and Spiderman 10, so why not just remake black movies and change a few moves? as young adults, i think we should be trying to expose these little knuckleheads to more than “leaning and rocking” and try and inspire them to think outside of the little pea brains they possess. we as black people have the most spending power, and we could boycott everything and put the govt. out of business, but our priorities are completely chopped and screwed.
when people get sick and tired of being sick and tired, they’ll stop buying into this stupid modern system of slavery and liberate themselves. we’ve got a long way to go and i have decided that i want to be a part of the solution. so i do my best to expose my students to a variety of music, art, and life in general. if we can help one person see the light, our living hasn’t been in vain. (i sound like a PSA)
Update: Okay. Okay. I saw it. A friend of mine absolutely had to see it so I went with her. I was absolutely correct in my assumption that it is in fact, You Got Served: The College Years. Jeez, Meagan Good is there too playing what could be argued as the same damn role.
The dancing is interesting, though I refuse to accept “krumping” as a true dance form. The message is there, but the handling of the character development seems rushed and predictable. I promise you that I knew just about everything that was going to happen before it happened.
It wasn’t what I’d call a “bad movie” but it was far from good and even farther from original. They obviously paid the choreographers WAAAY more than the writers.
When I saw the commercials for Stomp the Yard, I instantly knew that I was not going to see it. I could tell that it was going to be an extremely poor depiction of greek life. It’s basically a “You Got Served Reloaded”. I mean, really. Can we stop with the pointless black films? I thoroughly enjoyed Idlewild, I actually went to see it opening day. But of course ignorant negroes don’t want to see a movie/musical that actually has a plot, climax, and theme.