Monster's Ball

[maria.gilmore]

Hm.  I personally thought this was a very toughly-told story of change and redemption;  a man goes thru a series of experiences, both shattering and revelatory, that lead him to examine his life and actually choose to renounce it, then to take a path in some ways a polar opposite to his previous life.  Not the most profound film I've ever seen, but at the end hopeful about the capacity of people to change and to forgive.   It sounds like you just didn't think that story was very believable:  to take a character with racist attitudes and show that character changing and in the process capable of a caring response to a person he would likely have held in contempt before.   I didn't see the character as being "glorified" for being able to grow. 
But actually, there was a message in "Monster's Ball" I picked up on that I didn't like...the message that it was somehow natural and good that a woman should be in desperate need of some man to "take care of her": not to help her thru tough times, to be a support to one in need, but very specifically, to care for her as a dependent.  I got that loud and clear especially towards the end, and I resented the casual sexism, so unlike the film's confrontational approach to racism.  

original Message ----- 

  From: BrownBingb at aol.com 

  To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com 

  Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 11:43 PM

  Subject: Monster's Ball 

  I

    From: joanna bujes <joanna.bujes at sun.com>

    I posted a note about this movie's racism a couple of days ago, which drew 

    some nods and some questions, so let me say first that I don't think it was 

    overt but unconscious racism; I don't think the filmmakers meant to make a 

    racist movie. 

    But OK. Let's start with the plot.

    -clip-

    I mean, why not just get a sledgehammer and whack the viewer 

    over the head a few times: LOOK viewer this racist slob is willing do 

    "demean" himself by going down on a black woman and then is SO sensitive 

    that he comes back up to check that she's OK....So, you see he's not 

    racist, he's not a misogynist, he's the fucking GREAT WHITE HOPE.

    So, that's why I thought it was racist. My nine-year old daughter just 

    thought it was a bad movie. She liked the little black boy the best and 

    didn't understand why he was made to disappear.

    Joanna

  ********

  CB: Thanks for the summary, Joanna. Now I don't have to go see it.

  Sounds racist to me.  At the deep structural level it has the old theme of the American ,white slaveowner raping Black, slave women, but the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemmings variation where they fall in love, but of course with the woman being under a certain duress to fall.  

  Whose the "monster" in the title ? Its use almost suggests the author is aware of this "deep structure" implication.

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