One Critic Has
`Hiss' Complaints

WILEY A. HALL III SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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K, so let me set the scene:
We are nearing the climax
of Independence Day, the
hit movie that is well on
its way to breaking box-office
records this summer. The aliens
have come, their titanic ships
casting menacing shadows over
the landscape.
Without preamble they incin-
erate the White House. They
blast New York City and flatten
Los Angeles. When a bunch of
innocents stand on a rooftop and
hold up a "Welcome to Earth"
sign, the aliens don't even hesi-
tate. They roast the innocents,
their sign and three-fourths of
the city.
Everything about these crea-
tures from space shouts "evil."
They've got oozing worm-like
complexions, slimy octopus arms.
And when the president of the
United States tries to reason
with one of them, he gets a suc-
cinct response: "Die," hisses the
alien, sounding like a demented,
homicidal snake — or at least
it sounded the way I imagine a
demented, homicidal snake
would sound.
So now, the good guys have
figured out a way to defeat the
aliens. (The solution is so lame
and so contrived that I wanted
to "boo!" the screen. But that's
neither here nor there.)
And now, two men fly off hero-
ically to destroy the alien moth-
ership.
And lcr, the fighter pilot hero
(Will Smith) is black.
And lo, the scientist hero (Jeff
Goldblum) is Jewish.
And "Oh, no!" I whisper as the
two heroes arrow into space,
"they're dead meat."
"Be quiet!" hisses my com-
panion, (sounding like a de-
mented snake) as she elbows me
in the ribs. My friends do not like
it when I talk in movies. They
like it even less when I'm cyni-
cal.
But who can blame me for be-
ing cynical about the way blacks
are served up on the silver
screen? I suspect many Jews are
equally dissatisfied with the way
they are depicted.
Hollywood portrays blacks as
either victims or victimizers or
they ignore us completely. When
we are allowed to escape those
stereotypical roles it is to be the
hero's sidekick or comic foil. And
when the rare movie comes
along in which blacks are neither

Wiley A. Hall III is assistant to
the vice president at Morgan
State University in Baltimore
and a columnist.

,

stereotyped nor cannon fodder,
it usually is a flop at the box of-
fice.
So, what are we to make of a
successful movie in which a
black man plays the hero, pairs
up with a Jew and saves the
world?
"Well, what do you say now?"
says my grinning friend as we
leave the movie.
I think about it. "I bet most
people didn't even notice," I ven-
ture. "I bet if you polled the au-
dience, most would say it was the
president [who appeared to be a
blond, white Anglo-Saxon
Protestant] who saved the
world."
"Oh please!" complains my
friend, rolling her eyes.
"I haven't heard a lot of critics
taking note of the fact that the
world is saved by blacks and
Jews," I continue, starting to
whine. "I bet most people don't
even care. I bet most people
didn't even see the heroes as a
black and a Jew but as two in-
dividuals."
"Well, isn't that what you
would want?" says my friend
with a sigh.
I think about it a little more.
"Well, why did the black guy
have to supply the brawn while
the Jewish guy was the brains?
Why couldn't the black guy be
the scientist?"
"You just like to complain,
don't you?" sneers my friend.
"No, I don't!" I protest quick-
ly, although she has struck a
nerve.
We've been neglected and
abused by Hollywood for so long
that complaining about movies
has become my favorite sport —
it ought to be made into an
Olympic event.
If there are no blacks in a
movie at all, I complain about
our absence. If the movie is dot-
ted with a black face here or
there, I complain about to-
kenism. I complain when the
black guy isn't allowed to have
a love interest. Then I complain
if he has a relationship, but it
isn't working well. And if a black
couple spend their time on the
screen billing and cooing at
each other, I groan that the
moviemaker is being unrealis-
tic.
There used to be too many
light-skinned blacks in movies.
Now there aren't enough. I used
to demand that black women be
treated like sex objects in movies
just like white women. Now that
this is beginning to happen, I

CRITIC page 20

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