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The Big Chill: Bigger and Blacker

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 2:40 pm by Jami

Regina King will star in and produce a remake of The Big Chill with an all Black cast. The original is quite good. Estranged college friends reunite for the funeral of a mutual friend. They spend the weekend together to reminisce about old times, remember their lost friend, and get reacquainted. It’s a timeless sort of story with universal appeal.

The one thing that prevents The Big Chill from being completely universal is the cast. I honestly didn’t care when I saw the film, but the entire cast is White. It’s still a great film with an amazing soundtrack. And the lack of minority representation did not take away from my enjoyment.

If the point of doing a remake of The Bill Chill is to update the story to reflect more diversity, an all Black cast is no better than an all White cast. You’re still only portraying one race. You’re still ignoring the fact that other races go through similar experiences.

A truly diverse update would include characters of all ethnic backgrounds. That’s what I want to see. If you’re going to make a statement about race by redoing an all-White movie, show just how universal the themes of the film are by bringing together people of all colors.

I’m disappointed by this news. We really haven’t gotten much closer to the promised land, have we.

[Via Variety]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Movies, Remix. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “The Big Chill: Bigger and Blacker”

  1. AvatarD-W
    Posted: Jun 13th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
    1

    I see you arguement. I will say that I think that while the general theme is universal, there are problems and experiences that are unique to individual races. I’m willing to bet that the story will probably focus on those uniques qualities. I don’t get the feeling from the article that they are looking to update the story in regards to diversity so much as change the perspective. I think I would put this movie in a category like “Soul Food”, assuming that they take this movie seriously.

    That said, it would have been interesting to see a mixed group of friends.

  2. Avatarnsfox
    Posted: Jun 14th, 2007 at 4:01 am
    2

    I’m sorry… I think doing something like this is a crock of shit. Being black, every time I went near relatives during the holidays all I would hear is “white people” this and “white people” that.

    Then everyone would look at me shifty eyed because I had white friends.

    Racism is racism. It doesn’t matter which race is doing it, it’s the same thing all the same. You’re right though, the way to show diversity is to have a diverse cast. This just sounds like a BET late night movie.

    Such blatant hypocritical nonsense is frustrating, especially since I’ve been disowned by my own race for not living up to the stereotype. Apparently I’m too articulate for the local communities.

  3. AvatarNR
    Posted: Jun 14th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
    3

    There should just be a black version of everything and be done with it.

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