It's not always easy to be a black man on film. You don't always get the best roles and, in the worst cases, you are doomed to die first. If you are lucky, you just have to be 'wacky.' Only progressive filmmakers like Peter Jackson allow you to be strong characters and die fourth instead. One little forgotten film dares to play the role exactly as it should be for the time it is set in, even though it was actually made in 1961. Yeah, it was made right before the election of Kennedy and the Voting Rights Bill was being considered. Good times, good times. Let's take a look at the politically-incorrect nature of...
Mysterious Island
This adaptation of Jules Verne's book feels pretty similar to the source material at face value, only deviating a bit at the end. This is what you need to know: a group of people rebelling against the Civil War flee in a hot air balloon. One of them is an escaped slave, although he is mostly treated as equal by the progressive people in the crew. That said...
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The first glimpse they get of the giant animals on the island is when a giant chicken attacks them. They manage to fend it off (although the effects are sort of 'eh') and cook the beast. Nothing wrong with that on the surface, except for the scene that immediately follows it. They celebrate with a song, which causes the one black cast member to dance in a cliched manner. So, to review, the black man eats fried chicken and dances a little dance. Yeah, good times.
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I don't think that this scene was made with malice, just carelessness. Maybe you guys should not try to be 'historically-accurate' to the pre-conceived notions of that time!*
Up next, Sammo Hung pokes fun at black America. Should I be worried? Stay tuned...
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