Oscars for African-American Actors
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Bachelor Thesis Oscars for African-American Actors Brno 2017 Autor: Blanka Danielová Supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. Proclamation Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů. I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. Brno, 30 November 2017 ……………………………………… Author’s signature Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D., for hir constant guidance and encouragement without which this work would not have been possible. I am sincerely grateful for his unwavering support. Anotace Tato bakalářská práce s názvem “Oscaři ve vztahu k afroamerickým hercům” se zabývá čtyřmi filmy, které získaly Oscary v kategorii za nejlepší mužský herecký výkon. Během 88 let, kdy se koná udílení Oscarů, jen čtyři filmy (ve kterých hraje hlavní roli Afroameričan) získali tuto sošku. Cíl této bakalářské práce je dokázat, že mezi těmito čtyřmi filmy existuje jistá podobnost. Tato podobnost se vyskytuje ve filmových postavách, které jsou založeny na určitých filmových stereotypech. Vedle známých stereotypů jako je Strýček Tom, černošský hejsek a dětinský černoch se v devadesátých letech objevují nové variace těchto stereotypů; kouzelný černoch, nejlepší černošský přítel, zločinec a slavná osoba. Charakter a chování těchto postav je srovnáván s výše zmíněnými stereotypy. Annotation The Bachelor thesis “Oscars for African-American Actors” deals with four films that have won the Oscars in the category of Best Male Actress. Within the period of eighty-eight years only four Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading role have belonged to male African American actors. The aim of the Bachelor thesis is to prove that there is a certain similarity among the four films. This similarity occurs in film characters based on certain film stereotypes. In addition to well-known stereotypes such as Uncle Tom, Black Buck and Coon, new variations of these stereotypes appeared in the 1990´s; Magical Negro, Black Best Friend, Thug and Famous Person. The character and behavior of these fillm roles is compared with the above-mentioned stereotypes. Klíčová slova Sidney Poitier, film stereotypes, Denzel Washington, Thug, Magical Negro, Jamie Fox, Famous Person, Black Best Friend, Forest Whitaker, oscaři, spojitost mezi filmovými rolemi a stereotypy týkající se Afroameričanů, Uncle Tom, Black Buck, Coon Keywords Sidney Poitier, film stereotypes, Denzel Washington, Thug, Magical Negro, Jamie Fox, Famous Person, Black Best Friend, Forest Whitaker, Oscars, connection between film roles and African American stereotypes, Uncle Tom, Black Buck, Coon Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I 1 History of the African American Motion Picture Industry..................................3 1.1 African American Motion Picture Industry 2000-2017.................................... 8 CHAPTER II 2 Prejudices and myths of African Americans...................................................... 11 2.1 Basic male typology of stereotypes...................................................................12 2.1.a Uncle Tom...................................................................................................... 12 2.1.b The Coon........................................................................................................ 13 2.1.c Black Buck.................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER III 3 Innovative offshoots of well-known stereotypes.................................................14 3.1 Black Best friend............................................................................................... 15 3.2 Magical Negro....................................................................................................16 3.3 Thug .................................................................................................................17 3.4 Famous person....................................................................................................18 CHAPTER IV 4 Analysis of the selected films.............................................................................20 4.1 Lilies Of The Field............................................................................................20 4.2 Training Day......................................................................................................23 4.3 Ray.....................................................................................................................26 4.4 The Last King Of Scotland................................................................................28 5 Conclusion...........................................................................................................31 6 Work Cited..........................................................................................................32 Introduction This thesis analyses four Oscar films (Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading role) are Lilies of the Field (1963), Training Day (2001), Ray (2004) and The last King of Scotland (2006) and exemplifies that all these four film roles arise from unchanging film stereotypes. They do not offer the audience other unexpected aspects in the roles. The spectator has been forced to watch only few characters based on black stereotypes, no matter which African American actor plays the main role, for more than eighty years. The thesis will gather evidence that even when these films differ in a period of time, a plot and a style of narration, they have one thing in common; stereotypical behaviour patterns. The thesis focuses on Oscar winning films with Best Actor in a Leading role, therefore the stereotypes concern only African African men; not women. The first chapter desctribes the history of African American motion pictures industry regarding to significant film turns of African American actors and persistence of stereotypical roles. The second chapter concerns with commonly known streotypes and myths of African Americans, basic typology of film male stereotypes such as Uncle Tom, the Coon and Black Buck and modern offshoots Best Black friend, Magical Negro, Thug and Famous person which have emerged in the last thirty years. The focus on general stereotypes and myths will serve mainly to an interpretation of the newest stereotype; Famous person. This stereotype depict famous figures such as politicians, criminals, musicians and sportspeople and the film roles are based on combination of several stereotypes and myths. 1 Last chapter is dedicated to analysis of thefour Oscar winning films and analysis of a connection between the film roles of a main protagonist and stereotypes of African American male people. My convictions and conclusions are supported both by a collection of information taken from books written on the subject and from my own research. 2 CHAPTER I 1 African American actors in the motion picture industry This thesis focuses on African American actors therefore bigger emphasis on male stereotypes is given, even though a few commentaries on female stereotypes are presented as well. A list of significant film milestones shows how the history of motion picture industry has been connected with types of films where African American actors play a lead or supporting role. “The first presentation of African Americans was portrayed in minstrel shows (1830-1890) which were staged by white male travelling musicians. African Americans who have appeared on a film screen, were white actors with make-up who pretended to be African Americans. They overstated lips with a red colour around their mouth and wore flashy costumes. Terms Jim Crow and Zip Coon presenting male African Americans were introduced in the 1830´s. A white actor Thomas ´Daddy´ Rice danced a jig and sang a song ´Jump Jim Crow´ and George Dixon created Zip Coon who behaved in an arrogant way and spoke made a mockery of free blacks” (Padgett, 2013, [online]). Those two caricatures which presented African Americans turned into one stereotype called the Coon. As Donald Bogle mentions those minstrel shows were very popular and were used “to entertain by stressing Negro inferiority” (10). After the Coon a new stereotype called Uncle Tom was introduced by a director Edwin S. Porter, in a 1903 film Uncle Tom's Cabin. That stereotype presented male African American as a happy slave (Keller, 2017, [online]). First female stereotype the Mammy, as Jody Watley states, “was the first black woman stereotype between 1800´s to the 1950´s. An example of this stereotype is illustrated in Gone with the Wind (1939) where Hattie McDaniel plays the Mammy” (2008, [online]). 3 One of the most remarkable films which offers a vision of history and presents African Americans in stereotypical roles, is the film The Birth of a Nation (1915). “It tells a story about two families; the Stonemans of the North and the Camerons of the South during the American Civil War, the Reconstruction era and