{"id":41469,"date":"2011-11-07T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=41469"},"modified":"2012-01-08T15:11:35","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T20:11:35","slug":"tower-heist-acclaim-reveals-hollywood-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/11\/07\/tower-heist-acclaim-reveals-hollywood-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Tower Heist Acclaim Reveals Hollywood Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Racialicious<\/a> and\u00a0Caroline Heldman’s Blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Tower Heist<\/a> <\/em>(2011) the new movie starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, is the latest installment in blatantly racist movie-making. Stiller plays a high-end condo manager in Manhattan who\u00a0bails out a local criminal (Murphy) to steal a stash of cash that one of the wealthy condo residents swindled from the condo staff. It’s been nearly thirty years since Murphy played nearly the same character in his breakout role in\u00a048 Hours<\/a><\/em>, and the fact that he is still cast as a jive-talking criminal speaks to how little has changed when it comes to the portrayal of black Americans in popular culture.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Hyperbolic racial stereotypes are still sooooo amusing for some.\u00a0 As LA Times film critic\u00a0Betsy Sharkey<\/a> writes,\u00a0“Murphy and Stiller are a good pair, with Murphy once again mainlining his ghetto-comedy crazy and Stiller suited up for another straight-man gig. These are the kinds of roles they both do best, and their face-off in the front seat of an out-of-control car is worth the price of admission.” (Now reverse the names in this quote to see how racialized and racially\u00a0offensive it is.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0more\u00a0disturbing is the way in which\u00a0film critics are talking about this movie as a comback for Eddie Murphy\u00a0\u00a0(“Eddie Murphy’s Road to Reddemption<\/a>,” “Tower Heist: Murphy is Back on Top<\/a>,” “‘Tower’ Heist Features\u00a0Eddie Murphy Back in ‘Classic ’80s Form<\/a>“). What does it mean when playing\u00a0an insultingly stereotypical black criminal is deemed “redemption” for a black actor whose movies have grossed nearly\u00a0$7 billion<\/a> worldwide? And where, exactly, did\u00a0Eddie Murphy go?\u00a0The Shrek <\/em>series grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide, while his Nutty Professor <\/em>and Doctor Dolittle<\/em> franshises\u00a0grossed $428 million and $470 million, respectively. Murphy has\u00a0appeared in a steady stream of successful movies in the past decade, including Dreamgirls <\/em>for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.<\/p>\n

Closer examination of media critics’ analysis reveals a nostalgia for Eddie Murphy’s breakthrough role as a criminal in 48 Hours<\/em>.\u00a0Jon Niccum<\/a> writes that inTower Heist <\/em> “Murphy shows flashes of the aggressive, non-family-friendly persona that made him a superstar following 48 Hours<\/em>. Aggressive?\u00a0 Non-family friendly?<\/p>\n

\"eddie-murphy-comeback-stern\"<\/p>\n

To summarize, Eddie Murphy\u00a0grossing oodles of money as a successful director,\u00a0producer, writer, and actor\u00a0in\u00a0films\u00a0featuring him as\u00a0a doctor, a veterinarian, a dedicated father, and the voice of a beloved donkey in the second highest-grossing animated film of all time is considered some sort of failure, but playing a\u00a0jive talking felon\u00a0is redemption.\u00a0Huh?<\/p>\n

There are many ways to interpret this \u2014 that\u00a0Hollywood and movie critics\u00a0(and many in society) are more comfortable with black actors\u00a0playing damaging, stereotypical roles involving criminality, violence, and deviance (remember back in 2002 when Denzel Washington\u00a0finally<\/em> won the Oscar<\/a> for playing a crooked cop?); that male actors are failures if they appear in family-friendly movies, regardless of how economically successful these movies may be; that to be considered successful, male actors have to\u00a0appear in movies\u00a0geared towards\u00a0male audiences.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason(s), it is embarassing for Hollywood and\u00a0its \u201ccritics\u201d to continue to be\u00a0so\u00a0ignorant. Eddie Murphy\u00a0called out\u00a0the movie industry\u2019s\u00a0racism at the 1988 Academy Awards during his presentation of the Best Picture award: \u201cI\u2019m going to give this award, but black people will not ride the caboose of society and we will not bring up the rear anymore. I want you to recognize that.\u201d Two decades later, Murphy\u00a0finds himself\u00a0riding the caboose, furnished by the creators of\u00a0Tower Heist<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Racialicious and\u00a0Caroline Heldman’s Blog. Tower Heist (2011) the new movie starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, is the latest installment in blatantly racist movie-making. Stiller plays a high-end condo manager in Manhattan who\u00a0bails out a local criminal (Murphy) to steal a stash of cash that one of the wealthy condo residents swindled from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[129,343,283,285,1760],"class_list":["post-41469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-media","tag-tvmovies","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41469"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43598,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41469\/revisions\/43598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}