Live Poll: Blackface In Hollywood Movies

Yes, I thought the same about him, I just copied & pasted the list from Huff Post. As a matter of fact, I wasn't comfortable with Mickey Rooney on the list, either. I watched the movie a very long time ago. I do not remember the scene, I do not even remember him in the movie at all! I will rewatch it.

Oh no, believe me, Rooney (with all due respect) played a rather distasteful and needless role in an overall good movie, it's caricature worthy of the anti-Japanese war cartoons...

Speaking for myself, I'm not closed to the idea of someone playing a different ethnicity, it really is a case by case matter. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but doesn't hurt the film, sometimes it does hurt the film and it's just unbearably offensive.

Maybe you could ask us instead which "blackface" would we feel more indulgent about and then keep all the options you want.  Just because the concept is appalling from today's perspective doesn't make every single application awful.

:)

>Just because the concept is appalling from today's perspective doesn't make every single application awful.

I agree. I added two more examples just in case

What do you think about Fischer Stevens' role and performance in the Short Circuit films? I've got to admit that I actually thought for a long while that he wasn't the same actor from Hackers and Super Mario Bros, back in the 1990s. He has always been a bit of a chameleon, though.

I also have to inquire about "Say 'hello' to my little friend" Tony Montana, a great dramatic performance, but we all know that Al Pacino isn't Cuban and only almost look like it.

Well, maybe the poll should focus strictly on non-Black people portraying Black people.

The 80s and 90s were eras where the star made the film, you went to see the star so no one really cared about authenticity. Pacino, as well as Loggia, were Italian-American, but they could pass as Cubans and that's what mattered... just like Paul Muni was a Jewish actor who could play the original Tony Camonte, an Italian. But I guess it's another issue... not the same as Laurence Olivier playing "Othello" but then again, it's Laurence Olivier.

Well, given the setting, Othello is kind of special, though.

Why not Sidney Poitier instead of Laurence Olivier? It looks very snooty of Hollywood to leave out a good African American actor instead of a completely established white acting veteran. I don't know, if they haven't heard of him or if there were scedule conflicts, but for me as an outsider it looks like the first I wrote. Oliver Parker has drawn Othello 1995 with Laurence Fishburne as lead. Times change.

For me the most appalling one is Buster Keaton's. He has an make-up apeface! Absolutely no-go!

It's neither funny, nor intelligent in any kind.

@Breumaster

now that you mentioned it, I removed that image, because he is actually playing a monkey, not a person. I also was shocked by that image.

From Wikipedia:

The second half of the film finds Keaton's character falling for a girl who happens to be a twin. He has difficulty telling the twin who likes him from the one who does not. An uncredited Virginia Fox plays one of the twins. Edward F. Cline co-wrote the production and appears, uncredited, as a monkey trainer, whose monkey Keaton impersonates onstage after accidentally letting the animal escape.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012570/mediaviewer/rm2671540992/

removed

@mariojacobs 

Then it was wrongly put on the list from the beginning. I didn't watch that movie. But according to the title of the idea, you had to calculate such reactions. It's good you put it off the list. How does it come that it's on the list? When I see such things in movies and know it's done to scorn black people without any catharsis or "those who are affected perspective", I stop the movie and reject it. The impression was suspiciously close according to the title of that poll idea. I'm not firm about knowing whether he was a racist or not. But with such unexplaines images, the impression could grow. Thank you for explaining.

P.S.: Mainly edited for typos, ...

I have not watched it either, I based the choices from Wikipedia

• Buster Keaton, in vaudeville[20] in the short film Neighbors (1920), possibly with satiric intent: he alternates in and out of blackface, receiving a very different reaction from a policeman;[49] also in The Playhouse (1921) and College (1927)
• 
  

Wonderful how he eloquently presents and addresses the question of big time studios being able to or even interested in creating a script that would do the life/legacy of Henry Christophe, a historical figure, any justice. I do find agreeable one of the remarks in the comments section for the upload that the interview questions on the topic of the "letter to an editor" might have better belonged in an interview with the author of the letter.

Well, on account of the limited space for choices within the poll, I did already suggest that maybe the focus should be on non-Black people portraying Black people, the literal blackface technique. Otherwise, the options could be limited based on notoriety "level", if ever such a thing could be determined.

Since the subject is blackface and it is defined as portrayals of black people, you should probably remove all characters who are not supposed to be black. This includes Mickey Rooney, the Wayans, Johnny Depp.

FYC: Flora Robson (an Oscar nominee, playing a West Indian)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038053/mediaviewer/rm3793195521/

@Peter_pbn

removed 

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls500983248/mediaviewer/rm251313921/

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls500983248/mediaviewer/rm2989624576/

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls500983248/mediaviewer/rm3611403520/

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls500983248/mediaviewer/rm497830656/

slide show added

and I think it might be interesting to leave 2 Othellos (moor) performed by super famous actors like Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles.

@Peter_pbn

I included your image suggestion 

It says "predominantly". And they are definitely wearing black makeup.

@Peter_pbn

Which Blackface image (still frame) is the most appalling one?

Is this poll a beauty contest? If so, the question should be formulated differently.  You can choose whether you see "blackface" as the act of painting yourself a different skin tone to mock a culture or to make a cultural appropriation, or merely as the act of painting yourself in black. The latter definition, I believe, lacks sensibility and understanding of the prejudices blackface caused/causes. Anyway, if, as I assume, the poll aims to sensibilize voters to blackface and the offense it causes, the word "appalling" shouldn't be used to describe the performances of Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover. They were denouncing the culture of racism in entertainment, not promoting it. 

I rest my case. We should delete Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover. I believe, to denounce racism in all its forms, we should have included "non-black" blackface such as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

@cinephile

what adjective do you suggest? 

>the word "appalling" shouldn't be used to describe 

@cinephile 

It could reveal how many people would pick the denouncers of blackfacing as appalling. Them who would pick them, probably know those actors and roles. Why else would they pick them? Just from the simple effect of the image itself? I voted for the Othello role, because there was a black actor who would have done better, I guess. Even though I don't know if there were sceduling conflicts or other reasons, because I'm not in film biz.

@mariojacobs 

My complete sentence is:  

the word "appalling" shouldn't be used to describe the performances of Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover. 

It is a challenging issue. Since the poll is published, you can't drastically change the question nor remove the option (it already has 2 votes). I can't give example, but I would formulate the question a tad more neutrally. Perhaps, I would use the pronoun "you": "Which do you find...", "Which [...] you the most."

Is it really all that clear that Othello is Black (like Sub-Saharan) for certain? Couldn't he be dark-skinned Caucasian, as in a Saracen kind of way? Most people maybe don't give a lot of thought to the nuances of Human phenotype, and the same may be true of the author of Othello, whose intent in the matter should be important to us.

@jeorj_euler 

Seems you never saw that story. The skin color was a main subject of the story. It was a subject in many of the dialogues. He was a Moorish general in the storries. There was a dialogue dealing with the honor of Othello, which said when noble-mindedness and honor would lead to white skin, instead of black he would pale white. The Doge said that.

But only skin color? Meaning no concern given to hair texture, nose shape, lip shape or bone structure? You do understand what I'm getting at, right?

@Konjahman​ thank you, I included an image from your suggestion in the original list...

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls500983248/