Tower Heist (2011), the new movie starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, is the latest installment in blatantly racist movie-making. Stiller plays a high-end condo manager in Manhattan who bails out a local criminal (Murphy) to steal a stash of cash that one of the wealthy condo residents swindled from the condo staff. It’s been nearly thirty years since Murphy played nearly the same character in his breakout role in 48 hours, and the fact that he is still cast as a jive-talking criminal speaks to how little has changed when it comes to portrayals of black Americans in popular culture.
Hyperbolic racial stereotypes are still sooooo amusing to some people. As LA Times film critic Betsy Sharkey writes, “Murphy and Stiller are a good pair, with Murphy once again mainlining his ghetto-comedy crazy and Stiller suited up for another straight-man gig. These are the kinds of roles they both do best… ” (Now reverse the names in this quote to see how racialized and racially offensive it is.)
Perhaps more disturbing is the way in which film critics are talking about this movie as a comback for Eddie Murphy (“Eddie Murphy’s Road to Reddemption,” “Tower Heist: Murphy is Back on Top,” “‘Tower’ Heist Features Eddie Murphy Back in ‘Classic ’80s Form“). What does it mean when playing a stereotypical black criminal is deemed “redemption” for a black actor whose movies have grossed nearly $7 billion worldwide? And where, exactly, did Eddie Murphy go? The Shrek series grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide, while his Nutty Professor and Doctor Dolittle franshises grossed $428 million and $470 million, respectively. Murphy has appeared in a steady stream of successful movies in the past decade, including Dreamgirls for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.
Closer examination of media critics’ analysis reveals a nostalgia for Eddie Murphy’s role as a felon in 48 hours. Jon Niccum writes, in Tower Heist, “Murphy shows flashes of the aggressive, non-family-friendly persona that made him a superstar following ’48 Hours.’” Aggressive? Non-family friendly?
To summarize, Eddie Murphy making oodles of money as a successful director, producer, writer, and actor in films featuring him as a doctor, a veterinarian, a dedicated father, and the voice of a beloved donkey in the second highest-grossing animated film of all time is considered some sort of failure, but playing a jive-talking thief is redemptive. Huh?
There are many ways to interpret this — that Hollywood and movie critics (and many in society) are more comfortable with black actors playing damaging, stereotypical roles involving criminality, violence, and deviance (remember back in 2002 when Denzel Washington finally won the Oscar for playing a crooked cop?); that male actors are failures if they appear in family-friendly movies, regardless of how economically successful these movies may be; that to be considered successful, male actors have to appear in movies geared towards male audiences.
Whatever the reason(s), it is embarassing for Hollywood and its “critics” to continue to be so ignorant. Eddie Murphy called out the movie industry’s racism at the 1988 Academy Awards during his presentation of the Best Picture award: “I’m going to give this award, but black people will not ride the caboose of society and we will not bring up the rear anymore. I want you to recognize that.” Two decades later, Murphy finds himself riding the caboose, furnished by the creators of Tower Heist.
Sigh.
It’s because this is, supposedly, the first time in a while that he has actually been funny.
I’m a 40-something childfree woman who runs as fast as she can from any movie described as “family friendly.” I don’t go to the theatre to see dumbed-down, bowlderized pablum, especially if chances are the audience will be full of screechy kids. I’m fine with violence that’s appropriate to the plot; I’m fine with sex that doesn’t reinforce rigid gender roles; I’m fine with crude humor; I’m fine with profanity; I’m fine with serious discussion of serious subjects. And I’m not a rare outlier, either.
Yeah, it’s shitty that an economically successful Hollywood figure like Murphy can’t “come back” unless he takes on a stereotypical role. That said, I can’t be the only viewer who’s tired of successful male comics settling into “serious” patriarch roles. Not just African-Americans like Murphy or Bill Cosby, but white ones like Bill Murray and Robin Williams. Being funny takes a hell of a lot more talent and work than standing there and pulling a serious face.
So what else is new?Hollywood is controlled by racist dumb-a**es with 54 IQs who are playing to the fears of Tea Bagger,Re-“Thuglican” racists who’ve slagged Pres. Obama since the moment he arrived at the “White House.”(If THIS IS HOLLYWOOD LIBERALISM,BRING BACK THE MINSTREL SHOWS AND STEPIN FETCHIT-LIKE CHARACTERS.AT LEAST HOLLYWOOD HAD THE “DECENCY” THEN TO BE OVERTLY RACIST AND NOT FEIGN PROGRESSIVENESS WHILE DELVING INTO OLD STEREOTYPICAL PORTRAYALS OF BLACK MEN.)Let’s face it,ifHollywood isn’t racist,why isn’t a life-size Brett doll-in my case,a boyishly handsome,58-year-old black Canadian lad said to resemble a handsome black cowboy in my Wranglers AND LAY IT DOWN EVEN BETTER OUT OF THEM!!!-such as Yours Truly in a role such as a re-make of the 1991 girlfriend gothic “Thelma And Louise,”with my portraying the Brad Pitt stud role????
SOLID!!