The controversy behind Denzel Washington’s character in the film Training Day directed by Antoine Fuqua is plain as day. The issue at hand is Denzel’s depiction as the “Black Buck” stereotype. Washington’s character was a rogue cop who is crooked and corrupt and takes advantage of his own black community. Even at this late age, male African American characters were still being shown as evil, oversexualized men who wanted to rape and pillage. The character was painted as someone the audience should hate, whereas Washington’s supporting actor ( Ethan Hawk), a white man, was the one the audience should praise. This movie is another example of audiences and directors making a white character prevail as the black character is demonized.
One thing from the readings that caught m y eye as interesting was the depiction of slaves in The Patriot starring Mel Gibson. This film was one of my favorites growing up because of its brutal realism of the American Revolutionary War. It was until I red this chapter that I realized that this film was not as realistic as I thought. A key feature was missing. What is that feature you may ask? Well the lack of realistic evidence on the treatment of slaves. Yes, it did acuratly show that slaves fought in the war, but it was not willingly. Most slaves were at the will of their owners and were made to fight and werw simply just used as cannon foder which I fiund to be diaturbing. The slaves in the film were also depicted as happy, which would be demonstrously false. The fact that Bogle brought this to my attention made me rethink how much I enjoyed the fim.