Movies involving Racism

A Taste of Honey (1961) tackling themes of racism in Britain , also To Sir With Love highlighting racism and inner city education issues in London in the 1960s

Mississippi Burning...

Excellent film based on the subject.

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I understand Bluedeed's criticism but I think it's a bit too aggressive and fails to take into account three things:

1 - First and foremost: The awesomeness of the action sequences. I have noticed that film critics hate in general action sequences.
2 - A parody of racism doesn't need to be super subtle and depicting segregation using aliens is just brilliant. Because showing the aliens as completely inhuman in appearance but human in essence is the essence of the idea that people shouldn't "be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (MLK)
3 - Well, Africa is full of blacks so it's normal for a gang of Nigerians to be depicted by Black actors. It's not racism to depict blacks as secondary villains either (they are human after-all).

christine mentioned two strong films which naturally address racism in an intelligent manner while telling strong stories about other things as well.

This is the problem with these discussions. A film even tangentially making a comment about racism will always be attacked as racist by somebody. So a film trying to comment on the larger subject will always be lauded by many and ridiculed by others for lecturing or even being racist itself. The discussion of the film's merits and faults often comes down to people's interpretation of what's in the creators' minds and how the interpreters try to prove themselves better than the creator. It turns into a "Mine is bigger than yours" contest of ethics, and even if such a thing can be proved, it somewhat misses the big picture of an objective discussion of a film. This is even true of something like The Birth of a Nation, but let's not get into that here. I'm not pointing any fingers at anybody specifically or saying that it's a hopeless conversation, but this is one of the most-difficult topics to keep on-topic without name calling. See? I'm trying to be a referee and I'm namecalling. Boy, do I feel like an idiot.

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What I put was a quote from a mostly playful (just for fun maybe a better tern) article from a film journal that I read, not my individual criticism. I don't think the action scenes are relevant to the discussion. I'd love to be convinced otherwise, but saying that "critics" dislike action sequences is hardly a relevant point to the racial implications of the movie.

About your second point, I typically relish in subtlety and in normal conversation hardly ever say something directly. I just find it much more interesting and fun to phrase things in ways that will make people think about not only the content of what you're saying, but how you're saying it. So this is more of taste rather than evaluation.

On the third point. Yes, it's not implausible to have a gang of Nigerian mercenaries be villains, but when you assign the gang a witch doctor of sorts that commands them to eat the aliens your allegory gets a bit more troublesome. While the white establishment in the film is treated as corrupt and manipulative, the black gang is a pack of bloodthirsty savages who also prostitute women out to the aliens. It's hardly an even hand.

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Mubi

But isn't that the humour of it? It's the parody of the stereotype not the stereotype itself!

I'm not sure why you would say the latter is obviously worse than the former. I certainly don't think the film is clearly suggesting this. To say the film is racist is to say a) it's clearly making one worse than the other, b) it's doing this deliberately, and c) it's doing this for racist reasons. That's a tall order, given that some viewers (like myself) don't even agree with a).

If they were trying to show the slum gangs as being worse, they had a pretty funny way of going about it, given that responsibility for the entire situation is ultimately laid at the feet of the corrupt management and they're the ones that are confronted by Wikus in the finale.

Bonfire of the vanities---based on famous novel by Tom Wolfe , in which Wolfe coined the phrase ' masters of the universe ' .

A time to kill---based on novel by John Grisham .

Story in short---

A black man takes the law in his own hands and kills the rapists of his daughter . He is brought to trial . Should he be condemned or set free ?? Is vigilantism acceptable because the vigilante is a black man with a genuine grievance ? That is the question before the jury .

Yoda for ze touchdown.

@Bluedeed, you are right that District 9 is not the most subtle film about racism ever made but for me it doesn't need to be so subtle as it does for you. Try watching Elysium, it's 100 times more heavy handed than District 9.

Important distinction: being clumsy talking about race isn't the same thing as being racist. Or at least, I hope nobody's using the term that way.

District 9 is more a take on apartheid... even the name was inspired by District 6 in Cape Town, SA rather than just a metaphor using extra-terrestrials, African Humans and White Humans...

Don't worry Yoda I don't think anyone is

District 9 isn't a parody of racism it is the story of the apartheid told in a different format.

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I'll second DO THE RIGHT THING, but another Spike Lee film that I definitely think deserves mention on this thread is BAMBOOZLED.

Roots comes to mind. Technically a television mini-series about slavery. Racism shouldn't be ignored. It's like cancer. It needs to be addressed and kept from spreading.

Munich

Racism is still a live and movies like that may shove it down your throat but when you witness actually racial hate it is not subtle at all. Just this past weekend I went to a bar in LA called the cha cha lounge, its a pretty famous bar around here. Anyways this mexican guy started calling this group of black niggers for no apparent reason really. It ended up turning into a brawl in the middle of the street.

There was no reason for any of that to happen, and it all happened right next to me, it was literally shoved right in my face. Thats how racism is

yeah , had a lot of experiences of people calling out each other on the bus

so sad in the world we live in