MovieChat Forums > Head of State (2003) Discussion > Does this movie glorify Black people too...

Does this movie glorify Black people too much?

posted 10 years ago by arcticdragon340
1 reply | jump to latest

I'm an Asian American. In fact, I was born in Canada. So I like to think my perspective is entirely unbiased and neutral.

I get it. There are a lot of great influential Black people in American history. But to me, this movie appears to juggle between a small town alderman rising up the office to fight for the needs of the little people, and a Black man fighting for Black people's rights to be considered equal to White people, even for the president's seat.

My point is, the movie started out with Mays Gilliam being an amateur in politics who knows the needs of the people, and wants to become the president to make improvements for their sake. And Mays' opponent is Vice President Lewis, a guy who thinks that America is not broken, and wants to be elected to prevent some amateur nobody from trying to fix it. But as the movie reaches the debate scene, Mays' priority appears to be fighting mostly for the Black people's rights to greatness, and he cites various famous Black people as examples of amateurs who rose to greatness.

I mean, sure, they didn't expect Mays to win, but even if they wanted to pick some nobody to run for president and lose, if they didn't want Black people in the office, they would have made more effort to pick a White nobody for the job instead. Nobody had a problem about a Black man being nominated for president. But being a Black nominee was not good enough. Mays felt that if a Black man such as himself fails to become president, then Black people's equality as Americans will be incomplete forever.

Anyways, maybe I'm just getting the wrong expectations from this movie. I kind of figured that this movie is a comedy movie starring a comedian actor as a good-hearted goof earning the admiration of everybody as he proves himself and runs for president. But if that's the case, if this movie was starring Adam Sandler, they probably would not have made such a fuss about Black people and their rights to prove themselves.

The thing is, this is not a movie about racism or Black people's rights. Mays is fighting against racism and for the acknowledgement of Black people, but he's not actually fighting against anybody.

[–] johnmichael-2 9 years ago

I would actually argue the exact opposite. It displays a wildly stereotypical presidential campaign as run by a redneck's nightmare of a black person, complete with cussing, "Hot in Herre," and general ignant behavior. Obviously this is all for the purpose of comedy, and clearly Chris Rock (who also directed and wrote the film) is playing off white panic when he makes his characters act the way they do.

But no, this movie definitely doesn't "glorify black people too much." It's really just pure, goofy comedy. It acts so absurd because at that time, the very idea of a black person being president was also absurd to a hell of a lot of people, both to those who wanted a black president and those who didn't. It's funny to think about now, since we got a black president just 5 years later, but that was the attitude back then. Even Chris Rock, in standup comedy he did around that time, seemed to think the idea of a black president was a pipe dream.