I only just found out that Netflix has that international biopic The Black Prince, about the Duleep Singh, the last maharaja of Punjab. All the dialogue is dubbed in Hindi, but the subtitles are in English, making it a bilingual film. You can sometimes tell when a character speaks English names and phrases, though. It's written and directed by an Indian filmaker, so it looks at the British Raj with a more critical, less nostalgic viewpoint than the rose-colored glasses of movies like Victoria and Abdul.
I found the movie fascinating, though a little hard to follow at points, because I didn't know Indian history that well, and I didn't know terms like Khalsa, which apparently means the whole community of Sikh believers--like saying "all of Christendom" for Christianity. Duleep was crowned Maharajah when he was 5, with his mother as regent, after years of succession struggles among his father's heirs. The British East India Company took advantage of the power vacuum by arresting Duleep's mother and annexing Punjab after a couple of Anglo-Sikh wars. Young Duleep was apparently made to sign the peace treaty of Lahore and "gift" the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria. After he was deposed at 10, Duleep was sent to live with an army surgeon Dr. John Login and his wife. The Logins encouraged Duleep to convert to Christianity, and ultimately took him to England to live far away from any connection to his home country. Queen Victoria met him and developed a friendship with him, giving him a pension to live on. Strange how Queen Victoria had so many Indian favorites in her life, yet she never gave back that diamond, given how dubious it was to force the boy to sign any treaty or gift any of his family's wealth away.
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Colorism and Historical Fiction
I watched all of Netflix's Self-Made and then the movie The Sapphires. Both of these are "inspired by" true stories of black women.
Self-Made stars Octavia Spencer as Madam C. J. Walker, originally born as Sarah Breedlove. Sometimes there are fantasy sequences as she imagines building her business empire up. The first episode especially frames her competition with Addie Munroe as a boxing match like Jack Johnson and his match with "the great white hope" often mentioned by the characters. I liked the lesbian storyline with her daughter Leila, and also her lawyer/business partner Freeman Ransom. The miniseries touches on important issues of racism, feminism, sexism, respectability politics, and lynching. Colorism is also frequently touched on with Addie Munroe as a "high yellow" black woman, but there is also a light-skinned Dora who betrays Sarah with her husband and her business rival. When Sarah's husband starts talking about a black "Walker Girl" to compete with the Gibson Girl ideal, Sarah starts to feel jealous and threatened, as if she's being compared to a thin, light-skinned ideal.
Addie Munroe is made to be such a prominent villain in the story that I was disappointed afterward to read that she was a heavy fictionalization of the real life Annie Malone. Annie Turnbo Malone was not half-white, and she actually employed Sarah as a sales agent, so the depiction of Addie Munroe laughing and sneering at the idea of hiring Sarah is a big lie. That's why they changed Annie's name, because they changed her character so much from real life. I do see why they wanted to touch on colorism between light-skinned and dark-skinned black women, but surely they could have done that with just the Dora character and other fictional characters?
Meanwhile The Sapphires concerns four Australian Aboriginal women who sang in Vietnam for US troops, and it too touches on colorism. For many years, the Australian government had a racist policy to remove light-skinned Aborigines from their families, and give them to white boarding schools and white families to raise them white. (Very similar to what the US did to Native Americans.) One of the characters in the film is part of these Stolen Generations, though she remembers how she used to sing with her darker cousins as a child. When two of her cousins come invite her to sing with them again, Kay is at first hesitant, but later sneaks away from her current white friends and jumps wholeheartedly into singing with them. Yet she still fights with mamabear Gail, who calls her a "coconut" confused and ashamed about her race. Gail even slaps her for dating a black American soldier, and I keep thinking, "Why? It's not Kay's fault that she was stolen from home, and you're the one who invited her to join you guys on the singing tour." Kay sincerely is trying to reconnect with her Aboriginal identity. She makes a point of telling Robby, "I'm black. I'm just pale black." Anyway, the movie is fairly enjoyable, with great songs and romance. It also touches on racism among the American soldiers against the Vietnamese as well as against the black soldiers.
However, just like Self-Made, this is historical fiction. The white character Dave is complete fiction, and the fact that he as the manager tells the girls to switch from country-western to soul music is rather insulting. In real life, The Sapphires had been touring in Australia for some time, and they switched to soul music after meeting a New Zealand Maori band. No white assistance needed. Plus, in real life, only two sisters toured Vietnam, because the other sisters stayed behind in protest of the Vietnam War. I mean, the movie was co-written by one of the Sapphire's sons, but I wish he had tried to be as faithful to real life as The African Doctor was. Why let Hollywood fuck up the important details so much?
Self-Made stars Octavia Spencer as Madam C. J. Walker, originally born as Sarah Breedlove. Sometimes there are fantasy sequences as she imagines building her business empire up. The first episode especially frames her competition with Addie Munroe as a boxing match like Jack Johnson and his match with "the great white hope" often mentioned by the characters. I liked the lesbian storyline with her daughter Leila, and also her lawyer/business partner Freeman Ransom. The miniseries touches on important issues of racism, feminism, sexism, respectability politics, and lynching. Colorism is also frequently touched on with Addie Munroe as a "high yellow" black woman, but there is also a light-skinned Dora who betrays Sarah with her husband and her business rival. When Sarah's husband starts talking about a black "Walker Girl" to compete with the Gibson Girl ideal, Sarah starts to feel jealous and threatened, as if she's being compared to a thin, light-skinned ideal.
Addie Munroe is made to be such a prominent villain in the story that I was disappointed afterward to read that she was a heavy fictionalization of the real life Annie Malone. Annie Turnbo Malone was not half-white, and she actually employed Sarah as a sales agent, so the depiction of Addie Munroe laughing and sneering at the idea of hiring Sarah is a big lie. That's why they changed Annie's name, because they changed her character so much from real life. I do see why they wanted to touch on colorism between light-skinned and dark-skinned black women, but surely they could have done that with just the Dora character and other fictional characters?
Meanwhile The Sapphires concerns four Australian Aboriginal women who sang in Vietnam for US troops, and it too touches on colorism. For many years, the Australian government had a racist policy to remove light-skinned Aborigines from their families, and give them to white boarding schools and white families to raise them white. (Very similar to what the US did to Native Americans.) One of the characters in the film is part of these Stolen Generations, though she remembers how she used to sing with her darker cousins as a child. When two of her cousins come invite her to sing with them again, Kay is at first hesitant, but later sneaks away from her current white friends and jumps wholeheartedly into singing with them. Yet she still fights with mamabear Gail, who calls her a "coconut" confused and ashamed about her race. Gail even slaps her for dating a black American soldier, and I keep thinking, "Why? It's not Kay's fault that she was stolen from home, and you're the one who invited her to join you guys on the singing tour." Kay sincerely is trying to reconnect with her Aboriginal identity. She makes a point of telling Robby, "I'm black. I'm just pale black." Anyway, the movie is fairly enjoyable, with great songs and romance. It also touches on racism among the American soldiers against the Vietnamese as well as against the black soldiers.
However, just like Self-Made, this is historical fiction. The white character Dave is complete fiction, and the fact that he as the manager tells the girls to switch from country-western to soul music is rather insulting. In real life, The Sapphires had been touring in Australia for some time, and they switched to soul music after meeting a New Zealand Maori band. No white assistance needed. Plus, in real life, only two sisters toured Vietnam, because the other sisters stayed behind in protest of the Vietnam War. I mean, the movie was co-written by one of the Sapphire's sons, but I wish he had tried to be as faithful to real life as The African Doctor was. Why let Hollywood fuck up the important details so much?
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Don't Panic
Coronavirus has been dominating the news lately, and they even canceled the St. Patrick's Day parade. Some states are even shutting down schools, bars, restaurants, etc. All the movie theaters have shut down and sports seasons were delayed rather than play without audiences. I mean, I know the pandemic is serious and people should do "social distancing" but I think some of this should be voluntary, not mandatory. Think of all the workers that can't work from home, that can't get childcare and/or food if schools are shut down. Not everyone can order stuff online in good times, much less without money since they don't have paid leave.
As for testing, it's so pathetic in the US, that Chinese billionaire Jack Ma had to donate tests and masks to the US. Trump is such a failure, that I was surprised he put Mike Pence in charge instead of Jared Kushner. Even Israel had to postpone Netanyahu's bribery trial and they are still struggling to form a government.
Meanwhile, the Census mailed me a packet, so I'll have to fill that out when I get a chance to go through it. I'm glad that the citizenship question was blocked. I am naturalized, but we still need an accurate count of undocumented people as well to draw voting districts, provide adequate government services, etc.
As for testing, it's so pathetic in the US, that Chinese billionaire Jack Ma had to donate tests and masks to the US. Trump is such a failure, that I was surprised he put Mike Pence in charge instead of Jared Kushner. Even Israel had to postpone Netanyahu's bribery trial and they are still struggling to form a government.
Meanwhile, the Census mailed me a packet, so I'll have to fill that out when I get a chance to go through it. I'm glad that the citizenship question was blocked. I am naturalized, but we still need an accurate count of undocumented people as well to draw voting districts, provide adequate government services, etc.
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Miss Fisher and The Banker
With so many movies getting delayed by the coronavirus, like Lovebirds and Mulan, I worried that a lot of movie theaters might close or cancel more showings, so I decided to see as much as I could before it's too late. I decided to go see The Banker after all, since I was going to be in the area anyway. It's an interesting period drama, though the story is more complicated than suggested by the trailer. Bernard Garrett and his wife move to Los Angeles and live in a relative's shed temporarily while he sets up his real estate business. Colm Meaney plays his first white business partner, and they make a lot of money. But then he dies, and the widow forces Bernard to sell his half of the company back to her for a fraction of its worth. He can't sue, since his name is on none of the properties. Burned by this experience, Bernard asks Joe Morris, a black businessman, to invest with him in buying the Bankers Building. To clarify, he wants to be a landlord to several major banks, in order to have leverage when getting loans to buy more real estate. This is when they recruit the white man to front for them in the deal. Everything works wonderfully while they expand and fight segregation in Los Angeles. After the initial purchase, Bernard and Joe don't even hide their identities; everything is out in the open, and they succeed in their empire.
However, when Bernard goes home to visit his family in small town Texas, he feels he has to use his talents to help black businesses and homebuyers get fair treatment. He talks his partners into buying a small Texas bank with him. This time he doesn't want to be just a landlord; he wants to run the bank (through Matt) and get black people loans. This is where their scheme starts to unravel, due to resistance from within the bank, and also due to their inexperience with banking. This is where they have to keep up their secrecy and pose as chauffeurs and janitors. The white man Matt has good intentions but makes mistakes, trying to prove himself competent; his wife complains about having to move from Los Angeles, and he also wants to be his own man after this long apprenticeship. However, Matt is gullible and panicky, and through his reckless actions, he gets two different banks in federal trouble. Bernard and Joe have to figure out how to defend themselves from the disaster. They are offered immunity if they testify that they are guilty of intentional fraud, so that a Congressman can use their example to enact tough banking regulations. Bernard instead takes a principled stand, insisting that he was trying to do good, not cheat people out of their money. Bernard and Joe get convicted and sentenced to prison, but the movie suggests that their testimony helped get some fair housing legislation passed. And Matt partly redeems himself by calling Bernard and Joe out of guilt, and agreeing to do them a favor before all their assets are seized. I don't know if that part is true, and Bernard Garrett apparently had multiple wives, not just the one we see in the timeframe of the movie, so clearly there was some fictionalization. Interesting bit of history, nonetheless.
I also saw Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. It was a pretty fun romp, though some of the dialogue is corny, and the final murderer reveal comes out of left field. Hugh, Dot, Bert and Cec have a brief cameo, but they remain in Australia while most of the story takes place in Palestine and England. Aunt Pru is in some of the England scenes, but the focus is mainly on Phryne, Jack, and the new characters. Apparently, after flying her father back to England, Phryne took a case for a sheikh who needs her to rescue his young niece from prison in Palestine. She rescues the niece, who reveals that her parents were murdered ten years ago; Phryne promises to help her solve the murder, and they escape, by the skin of their teeth. Phryne is mistakenly reported as killed, and Jack comes to England for her memorial.
For some reason the wealthy Lofton family is throwing the memorial with Aunt Pru, and the sheikh is visiting. Phryne shows up, is surprised that anyone thought she was dead, doesn't think to apologize for the misunderstanding, and doesn't greet Jack with enough enthusiasm for their long-awaited reunion. Jack is hurt and storms off, but eventually she is able to lure him back with the mystery, which starts to incorporate more murders and fantastical things like Alexander the Great's tomb, a giant emerald, and an ancient curse. The sheikh at first seems somewhat sinister, dismissing his niece's claims and conspiring with British people to sell out his country for a profitable railway, but later he nixes that deal and believes his niece enough to want to open an investigation. Of course, then he gets murdered, and eventually everyone heads back to Palestine to search for the legendary lost tomb. For some reason, they have to break the curse before the 7th solar eclipse since the emerald was stolen. Any way, it's a little muddled, but well worth seeing Jack and Phryne kiss and make up for their misunderstandings.
However, when Bernard goes home to visit his family in small town Texas, he feels he has to use his talents to help black businesses and homebuyers get fair treatment. He talks his partners into buying a small Texas bank with him. This time he doesn't want to be just a landlord; he wants to run the bank (through Matt) and get black people loans. This is where their scheme starts to unravel, due to resistance from within the bank, and also due to their inexperience with banking. This is where they have to keep up their secrecy and pose as chauffeurs and janitors. The white man Matt has good intentions but makes mistakes, trying to prove himself competent; his wife complains about having to move from Los Angeles, and he also wants to be his own man after this long apprenticeship. However, Matt is gullible and panicky, and through his reckless actions, he gets two different banks in federal trouble. Bernard and Joe have to figure out how to defend themselves from the disaster. They are offered immunity if they testify that they are guilty of intentional fraud, so that a Congressman can use their example to enact tough banking regulations. Bernard instead takes a principled stand, insisting that he was trying to do good, not cheat people out of their money. Bernard and Joe get convicted and sentenced to prison, but the movie suggests that their testimony helped get some fair housing legislation passed. And Matt partly redeems himself by calling Bernard and Joe out of guilt, and agreeing to do them a favor before all their assets are seized. I don't know if that part is true, and Bernard Garrett apparently had multiple wives, not just the one we see in the timeframe of the movie, so clearly there was some fictionalization. Interesting bit of history, nonetheless.
I also saw Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. It was a pretty fun romp, though some of the dialogue is corny, and the final murderer reveal comes out of left field. Hugh, Dot, Bert and Cec have a brief cameo, but they remain in Australia while most of the story takes place in Palestine and England. Aunt Pru is in some of the England scenes, but the focus is mainly on Phryne, Jack, and the new characters. Apparently, after flying her father back to England, Phryne took a case for a sheikh who needs her to rescue his young niece from prison in Palestine. She rescues the niece, who reveals that her parents were murdered ten years ago; Phryne promises to help her solve the murder, and they escape, by the skin of their teeth. Phryne is mistakenly reported as killed, and Jack comes to England for her memorial.
For some reason the wealthy Lofton family is throwing the memorial with Aunt Pru, and the sheikh is visiting. Phryne shows up, is surprised that anyone thought she was dead, doesn't think to apologize for the misunderstanding, and doesn't greet Jack with enough enthusiasm for their long-awaited reunion. Jack is hurt and storms off, but eventually she is able to lure him back with the mystery, which starts to incorporate more murders and fantastical things like Alexander the Great's tomb, a giant emerald, and an ancient curse. The sheikh at first seems somewhat sinister, dismissing his niece's claims and conspiring with British people to sell out his country for a profitable railway, but later he nixes that deal and believes his niece enough to want to open an investigation. Of course, then he gets murdered, and eventually everyone heads back to Palestine to search for the legendary lost tomb. For some reason, they have to break the curse before the 7th solar eclipse since the emerald was stolen. Any way, it's a little muddled, but well worth seeing Jack and Phryne kiss and make up for their misunderstandings.
Sunday, March 8, 2020
The African Doctor
I saw this French film on Netflix, and it's based on a true story of a Congolese doctor who moves his family to a small French village in the 1970s. Apparently The African Doctor came out in 2016, and I missed it. The movie is told in French with English subtitles (American English since they refer to soccer), and it's co-written by the doctor's son Kamini, who had a viral video in 2006 where he told his life story of growing up in Marly-Gomont.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
If Not Now, When?
How is it that for 2 or so years, we've had too many people running for President, even billionaires jumping in late and buying their way into debates, yet now we've suddenly dropped down to too few? Super Tuesday was big, yeah, but there are still many many states that didn't vote yet, and they'll only have two candidates to choose from now. (Nobody considers Tulsi seriously.)
Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race after much pressure. I'm sad and disappointed, but trying to look on the bright side. At least she battered Bloomberg enough that he dropped out too. At least she's still in the Senate and will keep doing good work there, unless the next President appoints her to something in his Cabinet. Plus, Warren crafted so many great plans, which can be reused as the party platform and drafts for legislation in Congress. In some ways it's a repeat of my disappointment about Kamala Harris dropping out, while I try to hope she'll get picked for VP or Attorney General. One can always hope.
I mean, Biden's okay I guess. He has faults and baggage like all the other candidates had, but I do think he's sincere and will appoint good people to all the critical posts and departments that Trump has fucked up with his criminal cronies. Just because Biden keeps talking about getting along with Republicans, it doesn't mean that Nancy Pelosi has to cave in the House; she can still be a badass getting stuff passed, hopefully with a new Senate that won't block legislation. Presidents can propose agendas all they like; it's still the Congress who has to make the proposals into concrete laws, so one can always push things that are more radical than what the President himself would do. We'll see.
Anyway, in all the Super Tuesday drama, I forgot about Israel's elections. Somehow Netanyahu's party got more votes, but the opposing parties might join together to form a government and get him out. I don't understand parliamentary government with multiple parties. I'll hope they can succeed, but no matter what, Netanyahu is scheduled for trial on fraud and bribery charges soon. Why is it so hard to defeat this guy? Is it like how in Texas we could never get rid of Rick Perry until he retired to run for President?
Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race after much pressure. I'm sad and disappointed, but trying to look on the bright side. At least she battered Bloomberg enough that he dropped out too. At least she's still in the Senate and will keep doing good work there, unless the next President appoints her to something in his Cabinet. Plus, Warren crafted so many great plans, which can be reused as the party platform and drafts for legislation in Congress. In some ways it's a repeat of my disappointment about Kamala Harris dropping out, while I try to hope she'll get picked for VP or Attorney General. One can always hope.
I mean, Biden's okay I guess. He has faults and baggage like all the other candidates had, but I do think he's sincere and will appoint good people to all the critical posts and departments that Trump has fucked up with his criminal cronies. Just because Biden keeps talking about getting along with Republicans, it doesn't mean that Nancy Pelosi has to cave in the House; she can still be a badass getting stuff passed, hopefully with a new Senate that won't block legislation. Presidents can propose agendas all they like; it's still the Congress who has to make the proposals into concrete laws, so one can always push things that are more radical than what the President himself would do. We'll see.
Anyway, in all the Super Tuesday drama, I forgot about Israel's elections. Somehow Netanyahu's party got more votes, but the opposing parties might join together to form a government and get him out. I don't understand parliamentary government with multiple parties. I'll hope they can succeed, but no matter what, Netanyahu is scheduled for trial on fraud and bribery charges soon. Why is it so hard to defeat this guy? Is it like how in Texas we could never get rid of Rick Perry until he retired to run for President?
Monday, March 2, 2020
A Study in Honor
I was looking for a new mystery series and stumbled on a modern update of Holmes and Watson by Claire O'Dell. The book was classified as a cozy mystery, and I thought it would be a treat to get a gender-flipped, race-flipped modern pastiche. But it's not a cozy, not unless you count some cooking scenes, and it's not a mystery either. It's a near-future science fiction thriller about spies, elections, and war trauma. The writing is fine for what it is, but it's a jarring disappointment if you were expecting something completely different.
More than that, although there are nods to book canon in the names of characters like Jacob Bell, this novel reads more like it was influenced by BBC's Sherlock, dropping the name Anderson and casting the Irene Adler equivalent as a traitorous villain profiting off the war. (FUCK YOU, MOFFATT once again for making Irene Adler an amoral, greedy mercenary instead of a wronged woman whom Holmes respected and admired!! And FUCK Elementary too for making the leap to combine Irene with Moriarty as well. Fucking bastards need their sexy, crazy Catwoman, and need to convince everyone this is the correct interpretation of Irene!!)
But I digress. Back to A Study in Honor:
More than that, although there are nods to book canon in the names of characters like Jacob Bell, this novel reads more like it was influenced by BBC's Sherlock, dropping the name Anderson and casting the Irene Adler equivalent as a traitorous villain profiting off the war. (FUCK YOU, MOFFATT once again for making Irene Adler an amoral, greedy mercenary instead of a wronged woman whom Holmes respected and admired!! And FUCK Elementary too for making the leap to combine Irene with Moriarty as well. Fucking bastards need their sexy, crazy Catwoman, and need to convince everyone this is the correct interpretation of Irene!!)
But I digress. Back to A Study in Honor:
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