Black masculinity

I agree with a lot of the stuff in the readings for today, but I also disagree with some of it. However, the point is that it always depends on who is crafting the movie. Ed Guerrero's way of looking at Beverly Hills Cop or other Eddie Murphy vehicles from the 80s sound reasonable in that the black character is excluded from black society and rather fulfills a white-pleasing role or fulfills white expectations of a good black character. The last film I saw was Red Dust, a South African/BBC co-production about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with Chiwetel Eijofor as the male lead with Hilary Swank as female counterpart. The film succeeded in portraying the cruelties of apartheid, and managed to tell the apartheid experience through the eyes of a black main character, who provided considerable potential for identification. In dealing with the experiences of torture that still haunt him and a dark secret from his past, he was portrayed as a tormented but nevertheless strong character whose personality was given enough space throughout the film to develop enough depth of character.