Lifetime to remake "Steel Magnolias" with all black cast

[marceline]

Why not? I think there are very few movies that "need" to be made but that doesn't change the fact that this one was. I consider Magnolias to be a universal story and because of that I welcome any variation in casting and staging. I'd love it if they did a Latino version, an Asian version,an LGBT version, etc...I'd love to see this show interpreted in whatever variations the human imagination will allow.

Also I'd follow Alfre Woodard into the fires of hell so that's all I need from this.

[Mr. Vixen]

I love this cast, I just don't think the movie needed to be remade.

[Wales2004]

Just for clarification, I didn't mean that a multiracial version would be a bad thing and it was actually a poor choice on my part.

I don't like remakes of any movies, shows or songs when I think the original is fine as is. Some things just don't need to be touched.

I do recognize that there are certain times when improvements can be made.

As it pertains to all black or all whatever casting, my issue is not about the casting but that it has to be made into a big deal. A while back, there was a multiracial version of Cinderella which was pretty seemless. I wasn't paying attention so I don't know whether or not people made a huge deal over it (I suppose someone did). It's just sad that it has to constantly be pointed out. And it's also sad that there are people who feel that they cannot enjoy shows or movies unless they see someone who "looks like them."

Unless race or nationality is part of a storyline, I don't give that any thought when I watch a movie or show.

In an ideal society this sort of thing would not be an issue but unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world.

I totally respect your opinion, it just differs from mine.

I meant to type "seamless" not "seemless."

[All My Shadows]

No. There's a suggestion that this story is universal and can be told with an all-white cast or an all-black cast or any other group of culture while retaining its emotional core. Should non-white women never have the opportunity to play these great characters?

[Wales2004]

I don't think you understand at all what I tried to convey. Women are women not matter what race they are and their emotions are emotions no matter what race they are. I didn't say that non-white women should never have opportunities to play women. Generally when all black casts or predominately black casts are in movies, the movie suddenly becomes labeled a "black" movie which to me suggests that the labelers believe that there are special "black emotions" and "black situations."

As far as I know, blood is red. Pain is pain.

Shouldn't there be a great movie with great characters in which non-white women are cast without people having to make a big deal out of the fact that say, a black woman is cast in the lead role? Should we always be told that if there is a black female lead that no one but black people will be interested in seeing her unless it's Halle Berry?

My opinion isn't any more right or wrong than anyone elses. I stand by what I said: there is a suggestion that women of different races are incabpable of having the same types of human emotions.

BTW, there is no need for my statement to be wrong for yours to be right. What did you do except say the same thing differently?

All I said, in an appaently convoluted way, was that it would be great if they could have said the movie was remade without having to point out that the cast was all black. I could have read the cast list or watched the beginning of the movie and figured that out myself.

I hope no one else will feel compelled to think I'm picking on non-white casts.

[SFK]

Wales, I hear what you're saying re: the universality of emotions. And I agree that "all-black" versions of historically white plays and movies can come across as gimmicky (even if I'm a sucker for them in theory, especially when it's a great piece). All-black productions of Shakespeare, Chekov, Ibsen, et cetera, became popular in the '60s/'70s, and at that time it was just seen as talented black artists gettting a chance at the classics, an opportunity they'd historically been denied. Plays written by blacks are almost always about the BLACK experience because it's an experience that commercial drama otherwise ignored. And while emotions are emotions, the fact is, the black experience is NOT an universal experience, hence the need for "black" plays. I think making a fictional white group of female friends, or dysfunctional family, or pair of tragic star-crossed lovers black definitely shades the piece subtextually and I think that's fine, maybe even awesome, as long as the source material isn't hurt. I suppose the "easy" answer to this would be having more black themed plays and movies to begin with so blacks wouldn't have to "borrow"? But it's really not so black and white, pun intended/unintended, because the playing field is unlevel.

[SFK]

I'm reminded of when My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out and the ads would run "Jewish/Italian/Black" or whatever in place of Greek and I loved that, to show the universality of the wedding experience, and the people I know who saw it really agreed with that.

Michael Kahn did a reverse cast Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre in D.C. where he had Othello played by Patrick Stewart (are you squeeing, marceline? ) surrounded by an all-black cast. Kahn was interested in playing the dynamic of a lone white man among blacks. It's like, what are the implications of that, for white Othello (if only subtextually), for the audience watching (makes you wonder, were some people at their core feeling, "They can't demonize a WHITE man like that.")

So I think it can be brilliant when there's thought behind the decision. And ultimately we can yay or nay the "brilliance" or the "gimmick". I'll definitely watch this but I could barely get through the tralier without playin the original movie side by side in my head. Those lines are like soundbites, everybody knows them. The same task of seeing revivals of the play.

[Wales2004]

SFK,

I don't believe in race. I don't know that I ever did but I know that being part of society means I have to go along with things because "that's just the way it is." It doesn't mean that I have to embrace it though. For the most part, I see people as people. I don't want to care whether a person is Chinese, Japanese or Thai unless there is a reason to care.

I don't believe in any "black" experience. Jenny in Sudan may have more things in common with Penny in Poland than she has with Karen in Harlem but because Jenny and Karen are both black then their race automatically makes them the same person. A black child and a white child can come here from Paris, France. They both speak French but we automatically insist that the black French child should sound like our stereotypical version of how we believe all black Americans speak. We are quick to say that black people originate from the African continent but then behave as if black Americans are the standard of "blackness" and expect all black people to be the same way.

Obviously, some black people see themselves as black first and others just want to be individuals. We'd rather force everyone into the same black box rather than let individuals decide for themselves.

Race is an emotional topic and it's probably easier to just go along than to try to find the real logic in how two people can be considered so completely different from one another based on their looks. If those two people are trapped on an island together fighting for their survival, how is race going to make their experience any different? Are they even going to care about race at that point? I coulc make a joke of this and say of course, the black one is going to pray more fervently to God because black people being more spiritual and all....but if the person happens to be an atheist the whole thing goes out the window.

Segregation within integration or separate but equal doesn't make things more harmonious in my book but I enjoy my own island.

Thanks for sharing with me.

[All My Shadows]

I think I understand you're thoughts a little bit better, so thanks for clarifying. However, I think, as noble as it is, the whole "color blind" thinking that so many whites and blacks claim to have and want others to have is a mistake. It's foolish to pretend that different races with different historical experiences are "exactly the same." Inherently, our emotions may be exactly the same, but we're living in a world that's been here for thousands of years. Race relations from all throughout time have gotten us to where we are today, and there are many things that do make us different. The goal should not be to gloss over those differences and pretend they don't exist but to acknowledge them without trying to make one more important or significant than any others.

This isn't just a race thing, though. I mean, it's Steel Magnolias, for Chrissakes. I don't care how much women in NYC or SoCal or London might love the movie. There are things that are particularly southern about it that they can't fully relate to because they don't live in the south. Doesn't mean they can't get emotionally connected to it and its core, though.

[Wales2004]

I haven't expressed myself well because I'm not claiming to be color-blind or wishing people were. In fact, I sort of laugh anytime I hear someone say they are color-blind (especially when they get to purple and all those other colors humans are not). People are different colors and that's great. That means that beauty comes in a wider range of skin tones.

I just happen to see race as more of a social construct. I don't believe that in the beginning of time (whether evolution or however else people think that life was formed) that race was a factor. People made it a factor over time as everyone became "more intelligent/enlightened." Just as I don't believe that differences in appearance including skin tone was anything more than light/dark. Today there are those who are convinced that these differences make one race of people superior to another intellectually, athletically or in whatever other areas they want to claim. I don't believe any of that.

I don't really care if others embrace race, racialism, racism or whatever. I really just wish people wouldn't try to trap others with it. If someone wants to believe there is a "black experience" and that every black woman should be no nonsense, finger snapping, and angry, that's cool. Just don't turn around and say that someone who is not is less black or a sellout, etc. Individuals should be free to embrace individuality.

This is kind of lost on me because I didn't suggest that women could not feel or relate to something because of race or regional differences. I said emotions are essentially universal.

I may not be a fan or remakes but that's neither here nor there since they get made anyway. I just wish that there was more creativity and originality.

I should have waited until after I saw how it was promoted by Lifetime before I commented but I was having a moment.

[All My Shadows]

Well, when you're suggesting that it would be better if we don't talk about the fact that a movie where the characters were all originally white is now being remade with the characters being black, I would have to assume that you subscribe to the "color blind" mode of thinking. If you don't, then I apologize for the assumption.

I don't think SFK is or I am saying that, though. I like your example above about the girl in Sudan, the one in Poland, and the one in Harlem. I agree with that, and my own personal example is how my family, growing up, was more like the Conners on "Roseanne" than the Huxtables on "The Cosby Show." But, on the other hand, there are still things that bind a large percent of American blacks together. Not all, but a good bit. This isn't to say that non-black people can't relate to some of those things, though. Religious services, for example. I'm not even a religious person in the least, but I know that there are huge differences between the black Baptist churches and the white Baptist churches in my hometown. There are dozens of ways one could try to draw the line to explain what makes them different, but the fact of the matter is, it's all down to race and history. You can put on any of the many depictions of the black church that have popped in movies and TV shows, and many black people (but again, not all) will recognize that because it's something they've experienced first-hand. How many white people will have that same experience? Some, I'm sure, but not a wide majority. There are a wide variety of subjects that fit into this same category. Once again, not all black people can relate, and not all white people can't relate. I can play a Michael Jackson song and most (if not all) of my white friends will know it and sing along to it. If I put on "Clean Up Woman" by Betty Wright, I can promise you none of them will have ever heard of it or Betty, but my black friends will know all the words. No one in the situation is greater or lesser; it just is what it is.

And people SHOULD be free to embrace individuality. Just don't say that a black woman (in real life) who is no-nonsense, snaps her fingers, and gets angry is a "stereotype" or is "perpetrating a stereotype." Sometimes black women are like that...just like white women are (Roseanne)...just like white men are (Simon Cowell)...just like black men are (Judge Mathis)...etc.

You didn't. I was just going off on my own tangent there.

[Eric83]

[Mr. Vixen]

Thank you! I was sitting here like

[Y&RWorldTurner]

For a second, I thought that was Kristen Alderson's ugly face...

[Mr. Vixen]

Holy [!@#$%^&*] it kind of looks like her.