African American history is a valuable resource that remains
largely untapped by Hollywood. When one
of these stories actually makes its way to the big screen, it does so in an antiseptic
and often emasculated state. This is
sometimes the result of political correctness on the part of white filmmakers, (in
the rare instances that they don’t marginalize black characters in their own
story). Handing the material over to
black filmmakers might seem like an obvious solution, but that to can have its
drawbacks. So many of the old guard are solely
concerned with presenting positive black images, to the point where they forget
to allow the story to simply tell itself.
Its seems that great stories of the black experience in America may
never get the ideal treatment. Well, the
upcoming Red Tails aims to be the antidote
for all that ails black historical dramas.
