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Spoiler Alert: A Critical Review/Analysis of the Black Panther Movie

2/17/2018

7 Comments

 
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I remember a great deal of anticipation within African communities in the U.S. when Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" movie was released in the fall of 1992, but with the presence of social media today, that buzz 26 years ago was nothing compared to the excitement being generated by Marvel's "Black Panther" movie.  "Black Panther" is opening this weekend to sold out theaters everywhere.  Like lots of people, I grew up idolizing and reading the "Black Panther" comic book in the 1970s and he was my favorite Avenger when reading that particular comic title.  Still, I've thought a lot in recent weeks about why people are so excited about this movie?  Clearly I'm involved, aware, and extremely active and supportive of my people's struggle for liberation and justice, yet I've wondered why people seem to be creating some sort of symbiotic bond between our people's struggle for justice and this fantasy Hollywood movie?  

I've concluded that part of this phenomenon is based in the strong image based appeal the movie has for our people.  Africans are used to seeing our people portrayed in all forms of media as buffoonish, and lacking character and especially dignity.  So, within that context, its not hard to understand the appeal of a movie that portrays plenty of strong, dignified, African people, living in Africa.  Its these types of images that the suffering souls of the ancestors living within our consciousness cry out for everyday.  And, "Black Panther" certainly had those images to offer.  Beautiful, intelligent, courageous, and confident African women.  Courageous, disciplined, and thoughtful African men.  A functioning and organized African society.  From church to school to television and movies, the message has been reinforced for us since birth that all of these conditions are not possible for our people.  That all we are capable of is chaos, death, and destruction.  So, for a people starving for dignity, the visual presentation of this movie is an injection of much needed adrenaline.

The other side of the equation is that for decades, Hollywood, California, U.S. has been, and continues to be, the primary conduit of imagery for the entire world.  The largest movie producing industry on the planet exists in Hollywood.  As a result, every country I've been too, and I've been to dozens of countries, not only has plenty of Hollywood films as a part of its daily dose to its people, but many countries have also set up their own movie industries based on the Hollywood model.  This is an important point because one of Hollywood's primary purposes is to serve as the primary education tool for millions of people e.g. what to believe, what not to believe, and how to see the world.  Most people are not engaging in regular and serious study of world events so their fundamental perspective of important affairs like the civil rights movement of the U.S., Africa, women's rights, LGBTQ communities, history, etc., are being shaped by what they see on television, movies, etc.  Forces who are interested in using the entertainment medium to shape public opinion, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for example, have long been aware of this reality.  During the Black power and anti-war in Vietnam era of the late 1960s and early 70s, the mood and perspective towards military and police within the U.S. was predominantly negative.  The FBI engaged in extensive research around this issue and determined that the best way to change this was to use Hollywood to re-frame the images of police and the armed forces.  These efforts resulted in the FBI pushing for massive funding for television series like "Dragnet" and "Adam 12" which followed "The Untouchables" as television series that cast police and FBI as heroes.  Today, movies depicting military and police bravery are everywhere and this plays a significant role in how people see these entities.  You don't think that awful movie "American Sniper" wasn't an effective propaganda tool in humanizing U.S. troops who kill innocent people overseas while furthering the continued dehumanization of the people the U.S. is fighting in these unjust wars?  How many people do you know who watch movies like that compared to reading books on the political history of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.?

So, the "Black Panther" movie has to be seen as a part of the massive effort from Hollywood to craft images and shape consciousness.  That's why its important that we talk about the subtle and extremely damaging elements of this very visually satisfying movie.  The first major issue is the portrayal of Michael B. Jordan's character.  He is portrayed as the long lost cousin to "T'Challa" the Black Panther who was played by Chadwick Bozeman.  Jordan's character was born and raised in Oakland, California.  He grows up without parents and experiences life as many young African men experience it in this society which is built and maintained on our oppression.  As a result, he grows to learn his cultural ties to the fictional African country of "Wakanda" where the Black Panther comes from.  Jordan's mission is to go back to Wakanda and stage a coup against the King Black Panther so that Wakanda's minerally rich wealth can be used - the character's words - to "free up millions of people on Earth who look like me and you!"  This position is of course the classic Pan-Africanist position.  Africa is the richest place on earth as it relates to mineral wealth while Africans are the poorest people on earth.  This dichotomy exists because Africa's rich resources are not controlled by African people.  They are controlled by multi-national corporate interests that bleed the continent dry.  Meanwhile, African people exist everywhere on earth as non-producers.  So, the vision expressed by Jordan's character is only articulating what African nationalists and Pan-Africanists have been saying for centuries.  The problem is Hollywood's consistent trick of suggesting that any African who takes an uncompromising position against our oppression has to be either crazy in the head or just simply not a good person.  The very insidious suggestion is that the capitalist system, despite its flaws, is still the very best thing that Africans could ever hope for, so anyone who suggests otherwise is insane and cannot be trusted.  Anyone who has been active in revolutionary and African nationalist politics knows this is the sentiment we battle in our people's perceptions of us and our politics everyday.  So, we know how to recognize it when the Jordan character, articulating this need for African self-determination, is portrayed as a bloodthirsty and brutal person.  Because the inference is that although he says he wants these liberation goals, as articulated by his character in the end of the movie when challenged by the Black Panther during their final duel, he's really coming from a place of anger.  He doesn't have a vision of justice at all.  Just revenge for what was taken from him on a personal level.  He has no plan for African liberation.  He actually doesn't even really possess any integrity and values because if he did, he couldn't and wouldn't work with racist white mercenaries, as he does in the movie, to get back to Wakanda.  This is an often and very tired refrain of African militancy.  It comes from a place of anger and a desire for personal power and violence.  This backward and dysfunctional depiction of our militant struggle for justice was carried out very skillfully in the "Black Panther" movie.

Also, The Wakandan people have extensive mineral wealth and they have used this wealth in the movie to develop their society on a technological level that not only exceeds the rest of Africa, but the entire world.  The suggestion by Jordan's demented character (the dysfunctional revolutionary of course) is that this wealth needs to be used to advance Africa and African people as a whole.  This again is the general concept of Pan-Africanism in a very broad sense, but the movie's subtle reaction to this is to have the people of Wakanda declare nationalism for Wakanda, not Pan-Africanism for Africa.  The outstanding general of Wakanda, played magnificently by Leticia Wright, declares this in clear terms when she states that she is loyal to the country and the king's throne.  This entire element of the film is a subtle nod to U.S. nationalism and Africa's micro nationalism which each stand on the long discredited concept that "I got mine, you need to get yours" which would be ok if the conditions were level, but you got yours - as was articulated by Jordan's dysfunctional revolutionary character - "by stealing from my ancestors" so there can be no you steal to your hearts content and then once you use my wealth to establish your empire, then, we need to start talking about me having to earn my way through you.  This type of limited and extremely reactionary nationalism is the problem for African people not the solution.  From African countries fighting each other over trivial colonialist terms to Bloods and Crips fighting over false pride and land space they don't own, this type of false nationalism displayed by Wakanda in the movie is not for us, yet the movie presents it as something we should all strive for.  And, most damaging, at the end of the day, the movie's subtle suggestion is that African liberation is a good idea, but a dream that of course, can never actually happen.  I won't even discuss the insane concept portrayed in the movie of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent being some type of hero to Africa.  The CIA has blood on its hands for tragedy in Africa's past, current conditions, and future.

Finally, the portrayal of strong women leading the military, facilitating the world's cutting edge technological advancements, of course will seem overwhelmingly positive for a people starving for dignity, but at best, like much of what this movie has to offer, this is token advancement at best.  At the climax of the movie, its still the masculine men, through the epic battle between the Black Panther and Jordan's character, or the strange tribe of all men who rescues the women warriors, the same patriarchal messages come up supreme, that men are the rulers of society.

Now, this lack of dignity thing for African people makes it so we lash out for any sign of dignity we think we can covet.  As a result, many people who just don't have the time and capacity to develop an analytical perspective on things like this are going to be upset at this piece because they want to stay in that realm of enjoying the visual strengths of this movie.  I've already seen several references to not criticizing the movie.  To just enjoy what it brings us, but an oppressed people can never relax in analyzing the conditions around them.  An oppressed people can never afford to "let stuff slide."  These subtle messages are breaking away at our people's ability to see our own vision by suggesting to us how we need to see ourselves and our struggle.  And, those messages are not coming from us.  They are being directed at us because even if we are confused, Hollywood understands that its primary responsibility is to uphold the capitalist system that it is the propaganda arm for.  So, enjoy "Black Panther", but understand what is actually being presented.  The messages are overwhelmingly anti-African liberation and anti-Pan-African.  The ending of the movie is essential in making this point.  T'Challa traveling with his technological genius sister played brilliantly by Lupita Nyong'o, end up in Oakland, California, to engage the community where the cousin - the dysfunctional revolutionary played by Jordan - grew up.  T'Challa decides to buy some buildings there and develop some sort of community center where he enlists his genius sister to develop the technological program for the center.  When the "Wakandans" make a space ship appear, the children playing basketball stop to marvel at the vessel.  One of the children asks T'Challa if the ship is his and who he is.  This is one of the most telling parts of the movie to me.  Clearly, the only reason Africans from the continent would travel to a U.S. ghetto would be to make a connection with their long lost people there.  Even the most ignorant and vehement racist would be able to understand the logic of that.  Yet, in this scene, instead of providing the most logical answer for the situation, which would be something like "I am your brother, family, etc." T'Challa smiles and says nothing.  This is how the movie ends and its fitting for such a massive Hollywood propaganda film.  You oppressed Africans can talk about liberation all you want.  You can come to our Hollywood movie dressed in African outfits and other forms of cultural warfare against your oppression.  You can even organize programs before, during, and after the movie.  But, at the end of it all, you will not be organizing yourselves collectively to seize back the minerals we are stealing.  You will not be gaining control over your lives.  You will not be breaking down the barriers that keep you divided and keeps us on top.  The best you will get is a good feeling when you leave this theater and maybe some basic reform program for a few of you in some ghetto.  But, at the end of it all, we thank you for your ticket and we must excuse ourselves.  We have a trip to the bank to make.






7 Comments
Bruce Wilkinson link
2/17/2018 10:09:00 pm

I saw it last night, glad to see this analysis, your words are right on. Marvel, especially Captain America, often refers to shady CIA or SHEILD actions that relates to real life both current and past. In recent movies it dealt with Operation Paperclip at the same time it dealt with the Snowden reveal about NSA spying for example. But it softens the blow, then cleans up the mess, like Cap A supporting the end of SHIELD but then SHEILD is reborn in the next movie as heroes once more. The Avengers are a sort of Blackwater type private military and intelligence firm, Cap A is against the government instituting laws that limit them in the last movie, especially in a distrust or rather a consistent concern of the ineffectiveness of the UN.

This leads to Black Panther, his father killed at the UN, blamed at first on Hydra which has shifted from a Nazi sort of formation to a USSR history in the movie. All of this is sort of inventiveness intentionally reframing and confusing and condensing multiple vague real world histories. I’d give the death of his father at the UN a total fictionalization of Gaddafi being brutally murdered by NATO supported rebels. Gaddafi had only recently been welcomed back to good standing, much like Wacanda being wealthy and opening up, giving a major speech before the UN. I think it interesting that the CIA in the movie played a part on both sides of the conflict. The Black Panther of course was guarded by a royal elite all women guard not unlike Gaddafi. The return of the royal challenger, himself a part of the CIA, is not unlike the return of the former royal family to Libya. Could the Black Panther be Saif al- Islam Gaddafi?

I haven’t been following this very closely recently but I think Libya is important to understand. Gaddafi of course was known to support militants in the US, it’s not unlike the back story, and if the new BP is Saif then it is about the very real shift away from supporting militant groups. Which I don’t think anyone currently thinks is a bad thing, even if we reserve the right for militant self defense, most elder radicals today, rather than belief in capitalism or gorillas, believe in democratic movement as the best way forward... in mentioning gorillas, wasn’t the mountain tribe of warriors gorillas?

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Akili
2/18/2018 07:00:43 am

I agree with the analysis. I came to the same conclusions upon watching the film. I have nothing to add in that respect. However, you've mixed up two of the actresses in the film. Danai Guerra played General Okoye, and Letitia Wright played Sheri, T'Challa's brother.

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Ashley
2/18/2018 02:20:00 pm

I appreciate this analysis and it’s purpose to continue dialogue. I think acknowledging that this film even creates a dialogue between so many groups of people with different backgrounds is important to note. In the US, investigation units was famous for spewing out propaganda that overmilitarized the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Movement and other regimes. I understand your points on ideologies such as Nationalism and Pan-Africanism. I also understand how Hollywood tends to spew propaganda that supports capitalism and shuns a revolutionary stances on changing ideologies as unacceptable, insane or less honorable. However, I disagree about the patriarchal message based on the climax fight scene at the end. Although it may have seem like the Jabari saved the Dora Milaje, it was Okoye who saved M’baku from being killed by a rhino. All she did was stand in front of him... she also spared the life of her ex-lover and ordered him to surrender. He asked if she would kill him and she said without question. There was also a slow motion shot where he realized that the Dora Milaje was willing to fight til death.

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Daev
2/18/2018 07:28:08 pm

Correction: That's Danai Gurira, not Leticia Wright.

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Sigh
2/18/2018 10:26:07 pm

The Gorilla warriors that come to help them fight were not all men. Their were women too. The movie is full of, at least, gender equality.

Otherwise. I concur.

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Urooj
2/19/2018 08:42:47 am

I think Killmonger was actually seen and portrayed as a very reasonable minded. It seemed that Black Panther could understand what his thoughts were, though BP didnt want to act in the same way to resolve those problems. Throughout the movie they discuss colonization as well. Also, Killmonger talks about US militarism, "I've killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, even my own brothers and sisters on this continent" when referring to his time with the Navy Seals.I think there's somewhat of a mixed message that isnt completely pushing for the US deep state. Ryan Coogler also wrote some of the script and probably tried to discuss colonization of Africa, and US militarism as much as possible.I dont like that there is any CIA connection, but Stan Lee and Marvel have that shit weaved in, since yeah they're still old white men who probably believe in the US deep state bullshit

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Damani link
2/25/2018 09:41:29 am

Well said, My Brother!!!
Long Live Killmonger!!!
Wakanda has the technology to bring him back. The question is will Coogler and Marvel bring him back. Killmonger had a positive affect on T'Challa as evidenced by his - clearly inadequate - outreach to Oakland.
You can see my (too) long review of Balck Panther here: https://onnidan1.com/forum/index.php?topic=133188.msg1022881#msg1022881

We agree on many points.

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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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