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Diversity in film and television is a conversation that predates
"Black Panther" (Marvel Studios). Click here to see what
Hollywood has to say about itself relative to diversity.
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Although it could take a couple more viewings to give you the cinematic evaluation of the films artistry, complete with metaphoric comparisons and fancy superlatives , I intentionally waited to watch Black Panther because I did not care about the films artistry when it came out in ads, or when I sat down to see it myself. For me, there was a strong and obvious message in the casting alone, so the artistic brilliance of the actual production was an absolute bonus.
Black Panther is extremely artistic in its fashion and form with an engaging plot and visuals to match. It is a Marvel origin film (of sorts), but it is also jam packed with scientific geeky stuff that any Marvel movie lover anticipates as a lifeblood of the genre. Although we are meeting an ancient civilization as we watch Black Panther, we are not traveling back in time to do it, which makes this film a lot more about the origin of life and all of us and less about the origin of the hero whose name is on the banner.
You could say that this was a film about a super hero, but there's an entire cast of heroes that serve a vital role in understanding and forming the central character, including a few highly relatable villains. You will probably leave this film either affirmed, or reaffirmed that women are the true super heroes in the real world just as they clearly are in this films unfettered world of humanities origin.
You could say that this film was about gender, race, colorism, politics, religion and a few other social issues that derive from the animus of humans on this planet, but you would be narrowing the movie into a central message and there are too many messages intentionally laced within this film to bog down on one or another.
The strongest message I saw for black people and women is one of a life and a world without stigma. Despite a black cast full of powerful male and female characters, you will only make significant notice of those things if you are one of those things and unaccustomed to seeing yourself free from a world of stigma: a world like Wakanda (the fictitious land of Black Panther's origin).
In recent anthropological discoveries, women and black people are actually just people who would love for their race or gender to be ignored like it usually is with white men. For a couple of hours in the comforting movie theaters of Wakanda, stigmatized people get to take a break. I quietly suspect that some of the multiple return visits to see this movie are more about mental health and relaxation than searching to find that plot nugget you missed, because the plot isn't that deep, even if some of the messages are. For a few hours in a movie theatre, certain people in the audience will get to shed their inferiority.
From that perspective alone, Black Panther achieves a first. It is not the first black cast or the first subject to need one, but it is a first for reasons perfectly obvious to the stigmatized- slightly unclear to "the rest".This is likely where the actually stigmatized among us will depart from Black Panther, as few blacks seem willing to accept our distinction as the original people as well as being the probable cause for our wayward, melanin deficient offspring.
Black Panther goes in on this and several other aspects of the challenges of race without making any of its less-than-subtle digs bigger than the cinematic achievement. Some people will make a fuss about one touchy dig or another, but those people typically make a fuss about every touchy subject, and lies rarely bring out the fuss in us, so those people are not really a fair measuring stick.
That is my review of the film as a film, because, as a film alone, Black Panther deserves to be reviewed and evaluated on the merits. The phenomena is real mostly because this film is great.
As a statement of social impact, the phenomena makes much more sense to me because this movie is transformative.
I wasn't personally anxious to see the film for the review aspects because modern films are what they are; stuck in a space between technological ability and the long-standing demands of good film making. In reality, humans have never needed all the tricks of cinematography that filmmakers think we need. When done well, movie tricks are amazingly cool but they always require time, money and a reason for being in the film in the first damn place to not become a waste. Getting to know people, characters and why humans do the things we do has never needed technology beyond what cameras, actors and film already provide.
It will always be hard for me to have a favorite movie like "Citizen Kane" and still fully love everything about "Black Panther" or any modern movie. I didn't hurry out to see the film because I wanted to do a review without fear of spoilers, but mostly, I just don't hurry to see movies anymore. They all come out on DVD too soon for me to wonder if I would have preferred seeing it for $25 with my wife amidst an obnoxious crowd of people instead of $4.99 plus whatever we find in the fridge. Stovetop popcorn is better anyway.
That last paragraph is important to understand because I will go back a few more times to see Black Panther before I can get it cheap and watch it at least as many times as I've seen Coming to America or all of Tyler Perry's stuff. I always knew I would watch it again and again even before it came out. I never knew I would watch Good Times over and over and over, especially when I think about how obnoxious JJ (Jimmy Walker) was at a time when I hated the stigma he seemed to perpetuate against us black boys. Nonetheless, I will watch me some Good Times every chance I get because I now embrace it for everything it stood for at the time, including being a black first like Amos and Andy, and for being something white people needed as much as me, just like Black Panther.
Some things in this world are bigger than themselves, and Black Panther joined those ranks long before the film was even released. Fortunately, the filmmakers of Black Panther knew the gravity of this project and did their job with full recognition of what they would be adding to the social construct of society. Black Panther makes no apologies for addressing the matters of blackness while, at the same time, making blackness hardly matter somehow.
Black Panther offers the kind of pride some of my people have never seen in themselves. I specify some of us because I left Aurora, Colorado at 18 and found myself at Morehouse College in the heart of the Atlanta University Center which encompassed Morris Brown, Clark College, Atlanta University (Clark and AU merged), Morehouse and Spelman. Watching the Morris Brown marching band or my first fashion show event on the campus of Spelman felt much like Wakanda to me. Every time I return to visit that beautiful city and campus, I see Wakandan roots through and through even though no one has shown me their secret mark yet. I thoroughly enjoyed Black Panther, but I did not view the film with my spirit in utter amazement as did my immediate family who did not attend an HBCU for college.
One of my 5 daughters did attend an HBCU. She enjoyed Black Panther enough to see it three times already simply for the connection it gave her to college life in Atlanta . The rest of my family left the film with salty tears dried on their face. All of us made plans to see it again even though our reasons were different.
In fact, a 7 year old white male family friend shared his review of the movie saying that "the Panther was cool and the women were really awesome". Whether he didn't notice the black part or had been taught to refrain from saying the words 'black people', he could not refrain from recognizing the elevated view depicted of women in this movie. Women will embrace this film as if it was made by them and for them, even though the central character is a man they all serve.
If I had to decide on the movies greatest achievement, it is that Black Panther truly allows you to enjoy an epic Marvel film experience and ignore the issue of race even while race is thoroughly in your face. As I reflected on this article it came to me that the entire production could be symbolic of the name of the main character.
You see, a panther is not really a thing at all. It is a description of a leopard (or jaguar) with a black (melanin rich) outer coat that hides the exact same spot pattern that you would see in their sister or brother leopards.
Whenever they cut open Black Panther in this movie, he always bleeds red.
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Did U know? Two spotted leopards
can't produce a black leopard (panther)
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Furthermore, the word black is used to attempt to describe a color, when in essence blackness is the absence of color. If you peel back the layers on Black Panther- and maybe even the layers of Stan Lee's vision when creating the comic hero- they are majestic,
regal and misunderstood creatures that encompass every color even as they appear to represent just one.
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