Mario Van Peebles's Panther and Popular Memories of the Black Panther Party
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07393180701520900
ISSN1529-5036
Autores Tópico(s)American Political and Social Dynamics
ResumoAbstract The 1995 movie Panther depicted the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as a vibrant but ultimately doomed social movement for racial and economic justice during the late 1960s. Panther's narrative indicted the white-operated police for perpetuating violence against African-Americans and for undermining movements for black empowerment. As such, this film represented a rare source of filmic counter-memory that challenged hegemonic memories of U.S. race relations. Newspaper reports and reviews of Panther, however, questioned the film's veracity as a source of historical information. An analysis of these reviews and reports indicates the challenges counter-memories confront in popular culture. Keywords: FilmJournalismCounter-memoryPantherThe Black Panther PartyMario Van Peebles Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago, IL in November 2004, and at the National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar at the University of New Mexico in July 2004. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago, IL in November 2004, and at the National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar at the University of New Mexico in July 2004. Acknowledgements The author extends thanks to Dana Cloud, Emmett Winn, Barry Brummett, Linda Steiner, and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Notes Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago, IL in November 2004, and at the National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar at the University of New Mexico in July 2004. 1. Less mainstream representations of the Black Panther Party have appeared more recently in the documentaries A Huey P. Newton Story (Lee, Citation2001), Eyes on the Prize II (Bernard et al., Citation1990), and Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (Kagan, Citation1987), and in the lyrics of several hip hop artists’ songs, including Tupac's “Can UC the Pride in the Panther?” (Citation2000), Kanye West's “Crack Music” (2004–Citation2005), Lil Kim's “The Jump Off” (Citation2002–2003), and Dead Prez's “Enemy Lines” (Citation2000). 2. According to the Internet Movie Database, Malcolm X (1992) earned $48 million at the box office, Mississippi Burning (Citation1988) earned $34 million at the box office, and Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) earned $13 million (http://www.imdb.com). 3. Mississippi Burning, which earned $34 million at the box office, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture; the film won an award for cinematography (Curry, Citation1988, p. 1D). 4. According to the Lexis-Nexis news database, the newspapers with the broadest circulations, and therefore the ones used here, are: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Buffalo News, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Columbus Dispatch, Daily News, The Denver Post, The Hartford Courant, The Houston Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The New York Times, Newsday, The Omaha World Herald, The Plain Dealer, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The St. Petersburg Times, The Star Tribune, The Times-Picayune, The Tampa Tribune, The Times-Picayune, USA Today, and The Washington Post. 5. As Gitlin (Citation1980) and Watkins (Citation2001) indicate, news media frames tend to naturalize politically mainstream perspectives by neutralizing political protest as deviant. Eberly (Citation2000) describes topoi as the topics or thematics in deliberations about public discourses that serve as both source and limitation for further discussion and deliberation about the role of fictional texts; such topoi enable fictional texts to effect social and political changes. 6. Variety magazine (“Mississippi Burning,” 1988) wrote that Mississippi Burning “captures much of the truth in its telling of the impact of a 1964 FBI probe into the murders of three civil rights workers” (p. 12); Canby (Citation1988) described the film as “utterly authentic” (p. C12); and Carter (1988) declared that the film was “at its most honest” when it portrayed “the raw brutality of Klan terrorism” (http://www.wsj.com/archives). Additional informationNotes on contributorsKristen Hoerl Kristen Hoerl is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University
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