You have some valid points. I wish to argue a few.
-I don't know what the crime rate of NY is, but Erica found all those crimes because she went out looking for trouble. That's how she so frequently found it. I'd be willing to bet that if you continually ride the subway late at night, and go on long walks late at night, you'll find some interesting things. The first time she witnessed a crime, it just happened, at the mini-mart. And it wasn't so much general violence of NY, it was a crime of passion that happened to take place in NYC.
-Yeah, Erica's aim improved exponentially and unrealistically, especially since she never practiced in between killings.
-The portrayal of all Mexicans as "cholos" was quite blatant and obviously wrong.
-I don't think many black guys listen to Radiohead; it's not a racist thing to say, but they simply don't fit the major demographic, which is mainly composed of whiny, emo, melodramatic white teenage boys who feel that the whole world is a dreary, unfair place that would be better off destroyed, or at least filled with music that expresses the complete futility of existence. Black guys don't listen to Radiohead the way I don't listen to almost all rap.
-I didn't identify the caller as Latina; while the accent was exaggerated, I thought it was just supposed to be Brooklyn or the Bronx to show a "working class" type of person. Again, I'm not from NY, and am basing my knowledge of such accents on "My Cousin Vinny."
-The movie did have a truly terrible ending. It would've been one thing if Mercer hadn't been so resolute in his mission to bring the vigilante to justice; he did an inexplicable 180 in the cheesiest way possible.
-The black guys on the subway were also as appalling as the depiction of Mexicans; the only explanation is that they were extremely brief characters that had to pose a threat so Erica could kill them. It doesn't excuse it, it only explains it.
-I assume you think Jodie Foster can't play a straight woman because of the (probably true) rumors that she is a lesbian in real life. Sexuality doesn't automatically affect one's ability to play the opposite. You never hear someone say that an actor can't play a gay character to save his/her life. Perhaps they had so little chemistry on screen because they hated each other offscreen or something else. Perhaps it was just the wooden conversation that the script provided that made them unbelievable.
-This movie was NOT feminist. I am a feminist, and take offense every time someone says that this movie is feminist. This movie promotes the victimization that some "feminists" cling to; rather than showing Erica suffer that horrible ordeal and show her struggle to heal as a dynamic character would, they show her become Velma Vigilante and shoot up all the things that threaten, as you said, a white woman. It would be one thing if they showed her transform into a true monster, an emotionless, soulless killer who did so methodically and with a sense of purpose. It could've ended with her killing herself rather than going to prison for what she so strongly believed in. That might have been interesting. They could have completely changed the movie as I previously suggested; that could've been soppy, but it might've worked. They could have showed her seeking revenge on those who committed the pointless violence against her, and her personal struggle about whether or not to follow through. But no, they turn her into the willing "perpetual victim", who is torn apart by what she does every time. The reason the cops assume the killer is a man has nothing to do with feminism, either. The movie makes brief mention of the reason: statistically, women usually kill for personal reasons, rather than some warped sense of justice. The statistics are changing to be more equally dispersed, but murder is still generally a man's crime, especially when it comes to serial killers, as one could argue a vigilante is. Also, the pronoun "he" can be gender neutral; if you don't know the gender of someone, you usually say "he" rather than "he/she" or "vigilante killer".
-This movie certainly has social panic, escapist overtones. A woman is wrenched out of her idyllic perception of NY, and thrown into the brutal reality of its underbelly. Only the reality is accurate; it's a facade invented by rich screenwriters in LA.
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mjfoshee
16 years ago
you guys are acting like she was getting all shots with fantastic grouping. she jsut hit the target, and from only a few feet away. Its completely possible for an inexperienced shooter to easily hit a target from a good 10 feet away i know ive doen it. her sloppy hits on a human torso from 3 or 4 are beleiveable. The black guys on the subway were not that far fetched it would be pretty easy to find some guys just like that. You act like by showing a few mexicans ( pricks that attacked her and at that one mexican bitches house)that means that they are showing all mexicans that way. alot mexicans act that way, about half my *beep* school acts that way.
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pgrimmus
16 years ago
You dum**** they were puerto-rican, where do you think this movie takes place in California? I hope the Mexicans in your school kick your dum**** every day or else they are missing your ass.
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nickegeorge
16 years ago
You dum**** they were puerto-rican, where do you think this movie takes place in California? I hope the Mexicans in your school kick your dum**** every day or else they are missing your ass.
you are a dumbass as well , what makes you think they were puerto ricans ?
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tawdry_hepburn
14 years ago
They were...in...NYC. I suppose there coulda been some Cubans as well, but realistically, the Latin culture in NYC is Puerto Rican.
,Said the Shotgun to the Head--
Saul Williams
www.myspace.com/ohhorrorofhorrors
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xerxerxex
14 years ago
to Lizard:
I don't think many black guys listen to Radiohead; it's not a racist thing to say, but they simply don't fit the major demographic, which is mainly composed of whiny, emo, melodramatic white teenage boys who feel that the whole world is a dreary, unfair place that would be better off destroyed, or at least filled with music that expresses the complete futility of existence. Black guys don't listen to Radiohead the way I don't listen to almost all rap.
Thats not fair, I listen to Radiohead and I'm hardly emo, whiny, and melodramatic, and it makes me wonder have you ever even listened to Radiohead? You just stereotyped, way to go.
Don't worry, I saw Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to end this 17 times.
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mjfoshee
16 years ago
ok because the difference from mexicans and peurto ricans is *beep* huge with them both coming from native central americans and the spanish. the only difference is cultural and its not that big a difference, and yes i forgot a little bit, *beep* yourself. or else they are missing my dumb ass? what the *beep* does that *beep* even mean.
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Moondrop_C
16 years ago
You're sooo right. There's not that big a difference between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Aside from the following:
--Food is different
--Music is different
--Customs are different
--Holidays are different
--History is different
--Indigenous populations are different
--Climate is different--one's desert-y and attached to the southwest U.S., the other's a tropical island in the Caribbean
--There are language differences--yes, both speak Spanish, but there are words and phrases that are very much not common to both and to a Puerto Rican, some Mexican words and phrases are very foreign and vice versa, I'm sure.
--The accents are different
--In addition, from Wikipedia (yes, I know, but this doesn't seem to be in dispute there so far):
"Puerto Rican culture is a mix of four cultures, African (from the slaves), TaÃno (Amerindians), Spanish, and more recently, North American."
The genetic breakdown gets rather convoluted due to all the people who visited/moved to the island.
The Tainos are believed to have been from the West Indies. BTW, they were also made slaves by the Spaniards.
Notice, no Mayans or Aztecs, etc. The Tainos are believed to have been from the West Indies.
I won't even get into politics, as that gets rather involved, other than Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens--many people seem to forget or be unaware of that fact.
You're right, there are hardly any differences between the two.
Disclaimer: if it appeared that there was a bit of a Puerto Rican slant to this list, it's because I'm Puerto Rican and not Mexican, though I could hardly tell the difference either way, right? I'm not, however, trying to suggest that one is better than the other. Just pointing out the teeny, tiny, insignificant differences between the two. Don't get me started on Cubans, Dominicans, Spaniards, Guatemalans...
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capechick2730
16 years ago
Do you think the average white American knows the difference between a Mexican, a Cuban, a Puerto Rican or someone from South America?
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jimbob-50
15 years ago
I'm Irish and Italian and I figured they were Puerto Rican. Can the average American of any color tell the difference between a Pole and a Czech or a Swede and a Norwegian or an Welshman and a Scot? Can Most people from anywhere tell the difference between an American and a Canadian?
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Lizard51867
16 years ago
The subway was realistic, she was really close to them, and prepared to shoot as well. But the fact that she managed to shoot a moving target who was behind glass and almost completely obscured so severely that he completely lost control of the car and at the same time trying to push the girl out of the way seems a bit far fetched.
I have never known a black person to act so ludicrously "gangsta", and I went to a high school that was about 45-35-15-5 (white, black, Hispanic, Asian) and the people who acted that stereotypically were usually white suburbanites who had never even taken public transportation, never mind a subway train late at night.
I personally believe that the racism of the Hispanic characters comes not just from their depiction, which was quite stereotypical, but from their lack of depth. Here they were, people who managed to totally ruin this woman's life, and the filmmakers made them one-dimensional villains; if they had had mustaches, they would've twisted them evilly. They make them just "bad guy 1" and "bad guy 2"; there is literally zero characterization. The director doesn't even bother to make a point about the crime being tragically random or pointless. It happens in the first fifteen minutes and no more is said about it. I realize that it is a film about Erica and her coping process, but I think a great deal more depth could've been given to her character if they had spent more time on the nature of the crime and all the people involved, especially when the climax of the film and the closure she gained came from going after the guys who personally hurt her and made her what she was.
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nickegeorge
16 years ago
don't think many black guys listen to Radiohead; it's not a racist thing to say, but they simply don't fit the major demographic, which is mainly composed of whiny, emo, melodramatic white teenage boys who feel that the whole world is a dreary, unfair place that would be better off destroyed, or at least filled with music that expresses the complete futility of existence. Black guys don't listen to Radiohead the way I don't listen to almost all rap.
did not know you took a poll of black men to know what they listen to , dumbass
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Lizard51867
16 years ago
Just because you disagree with someone or believe them to be wrong doesn't make them a dumbass. And no, I didn't take a poll. Quite simply, black people don't fit the target audience that the record company and MTV try to reach with Radiohead. I didn't say that there has never been a black person who has ever listened to and enjoyed Radiohead. I said they don't fit the major demographic of Radiohead enthusiasts, which is true.
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nickegeorge
16 years ago
you know , i apologize for calling you a dumbass . should not of said that to you
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nbbrix
16 years ago
OP Xcard: Maybe or maybe not a dumbass, but a few coins short of the right change for sure.
It's a frackin' movie - get a life FFS.
You're probably the sort of person who would claim that the Death Star would only rotate like it does if it were controled by a Unix based opperating system which you noted, they didn't seem to have.
Mmm Xcard, Tell you what, why don't you pop down to some project housing areas in the 5 disricts, round up 100 African American males between the ages of 17 - 23 and get back to us with the results of a simple survey: How many of them & how much did they pay, for 'In Rainbows'
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sharkykt
16 years ago
Oh my freaking g*d.
Would it have made you, those screaming racism, would it had made you all happy if every single bloody person, ALL OF THEM, all those in the crime scenes as well if they were all white? Yeah that would be realistic wouldn't it in the most multicultural city in the world.
Everyone is always screaming racism this racism that, no one is ever stinking happy has to blame something else.
As for the black people and Radiohead, well then Howard's character Mercer is a racist cop because with Katt's character is running down the list of names on the iPod, Mercer makes a comment about Wu-Tang Clan. So what is he a racist too for basically saying black guys only listen to Wu-Tang Clan.
Give the racist crap a break it is so old.
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a-j-smith
16 years ago
It also called 'cross cultural communictions' too. All races have different cultures including music and thats a fact. Of course there are exceptions to sterotypes, but I would think that black cultures do not listen to Radiohead, and a good detective would notice this piece of evidence, of course its not hard evidence, but a good lead to start the investigation ...
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capechick2730
16 years ago
What the heck is "Radiohead"?
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Timescrew
13 years ago
Its a rock band. They are English, I believe.
They are probably most famous for their song "creep" but they have some other really good songs too.
Ever hear of Me and This Army?
They are a rap group, and the like Radiohead too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnIM3U47pVc
Although I wouldn't classify them as Emo I can say that Radiohead isn't necessarily for everyone.
There is no flavor text!
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dalldorfw
13 years ago
"It would be one thing if they showed her transform into a true monster, an emotionless, soulless killer who did so methodically and with a sense of purpose."
You might like 'Ms.45' It's a classic I tell ya.'
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