In this essay, I will talk about the social commentary Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? demonstrates into the world of film and the influence it had on the community. In addition, I will discuss how the director included certain things in order to display the historical events that had occurred during that time period. The director of the film, Stanley Kramer, was a famous American film director and producer who wasn’t afraid to tackle controversial issues and display them in his films. Kramer was born in New York City, New York, and his love for film was first discovered after spending some spare time with his mother. Kramer’s mother had a job work inside an office for “Paramount Pictures.” After graduating from New York University and obtaining …show more content…
was a consequential film when it came to touching the topic of civil rights. 1967 was an important year when it came to demonstrating equality between Whites and African-Americans. Edward W. Brook was the first popularly elected African-American into office. In addition, the film was released in the year in which the Supreme Court had placed laws in more than a dozen states in order to ban mixed-race marriages. Also, there were plenty of civil right movements that have been occurring this time period which had led to the unfortunate assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The plot of the film starts with Joanna Drayton and John Prentice (a black doctor) arriving in San Francisco so that he can meet Joanna’s parents about their engagement. Joanna feels that her parents would accept the engagement since they are more liberal and support the idea of everyone being equal. Yet, when Joanna’s parent confront the situation, they start to think about the racial comments that the public might rise when they are seen in public. John’s parents attend the house and disapprove the marriage at first. After the parents have had discussions with their children, they accept the fact that Joanna and John are in love, and that love has no …show more content…
When Joanna mentions to her parents that she had been engaged to a successful doctor she doesn’t mention the fact that John is black. Later on, when John is introduced to the Draytons, the parents became skeptics and are aroused to the fact that Joanna had really been engaged to a black doctor. That specific scene had displayed the tension between blacks and whites at the time and how they were not to be seen together. Although coming from the lenses of Kramer, he wanted to demonstrate that there should be equality between everyone no matter the circumstance. Kramer had no shame in displaying his views and opinions onto the big screen so that the public can understand where he is coming from. Kramer enjoyed challenging his audiences and wanted to implement something into the script that would somewhat allow the audience view something they would not typically witness. For example, in the film we see the Kramer challenged the more legalistic Southern white folks with the scene of John and Joanna kissing on their way to Draytons. Kramer knew that the kissing scene would tick off the Southerners and as a result, Kramer had received a lot of negative comments and letters that had mentioned death threats after the film had been released. Katharine Houghton, who portrayed Joanna had also received death threats because she had done something
of the blind hatred of blacks at the time this story took place. By blind hatred
Michael offended his coworkers with a Chris Rock routine and people brought this up to corporate. They sent Mr. Brown to talk to the whole office about this issue, but the seminar was mainly directed to Michael. Michael, however, attempted to teach the office with Mr. Brown, and acted as if diversity was something that he respected. He called out Stanley by saying he doesn’t see him as another race and that the office is a “colored free zone”- this demonstrates that he is 1) lying because he makes racist jokes regularly, which means he does notice people’s race and 2) saying that avoiding color will fix the race issue in the office. Mr. Brown immediately tells the office that they should not act as if they are color-blind, so
In chapter 7, Starr addresses Hailey about her racist joke. No one thought it was amusing, other than Hailey who finds it so funny. On the other hand, Starr does not find it humorous; she takes offense to it. Because she knew the objective of the joke wasn't innocent or meant to be amusing, it was targeted to start the only black girl in the room. She did not forgive Hailey for her actions, even if they were friends.
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was an amazing film filled with laughs and emotions. I was very intrigued with the movie because of the acting portrayed. The facial expressions of shock and the body language of all the parents was comical and real to their characters. You could see some annoyance, uncertainty, sadness, and terror in the parents expressions when John and Joanna introduced their significant other to them. John's character was very powerful during the scene when he was defending himself to his father. With a deep tone and emotional facial expressions, Sidney Poitiers performance made me feel all the emotions he was portraying. From going to angry and yelling to emotional and sad was very impressive. Likewise, Joanna's fathers performance
He was an African American Baptist minister who followed Mohandas Gandhi's beliefs. He fought against racial discrimination toward colored people. He wanted to end segregation in our society. In doc 2, Martin encounters discrimination when he is arrested along with two hundred eighty other students. Martin said,”I would extend an appeal for volunteers to serve”(doc. 5). He means he wants people to join him for equal rights. In Doc 5, Martin would tell his volunteers to give up all weapons that they had in mind. When he said no weapons,he meant it you couldn’t even use a toothpick. King’s success in coming together was such an impact that people were not frightened and they didn’t resist arrest (Doc. 8). That led to many people going to the sheriff's office and turning themselves in and being upset if they weren’t arrested. King was arrested 37 times and jailed 14 times (Doc.
Drummond implies that Brady's religious beliefs are narrow and stagnant, preventing him from considering any of the scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. As the two men continue to talk on the porch, the audience can see that they are rocking in their chairs at opposite tempos, pulling against each other as religion and science often contradict one another. At this point the camera angle is at face level, allowing each man half of the screen space. This equal division suggests Kramer's belief that society is based on a balance of religion and science.
Joanna Drayton returns unexpectedly from Hawaii to announce her engagement to an intelligent, accomplished, world traveling doctor. The only problem with the intended union is that he is African American and she is white. The Drayton’s come face to face with their own principles and realize that their daughter is the way they brought her up to be – non-prejudicial. Turmoil and anxiety ensue as Joanna insists that her parents give their approval by the end of the night. A dinner with both sets of parents follows, where the parents must come to terms with the bi-racial marriage. This film gives an insightful look into the realities of interracial marriage and proves to be useful in examining the
Kramer used America's new reality of segregation ending to make a film to try to put the country in a more accepting place. He used this film to try to shape America's views on the new America of inclusion instead of separation with the two characters one black and one white. In doing this Kramer also mirrored some options that were not in favor of the changing world, for example the mob wanting to lynch the men. When examining the mob scene although at first look might seem like a step in the wrong direction the scene shows equality. Joker uses the fact that he is white as a reason not to be lynched. The mob doesn’t care about him being white. They are still willing to lynch him. This is Kramers way of of starting to show segregation and equality, instead of just lynching they black man they want to lynch both. The mens race means nothing to the mob.
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of many great civil rights activists that have fought for equal rights. Throughout the 1960’s he persevered through many things such as, “On March 7, 1965, a civil rights march, planned from Selma to Alabama's capitol in Montgomery, turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. King was not in the march, however the attack was televised showing horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen demonstrators were hospitalized leading to the naming the event "Bloody Sunday." Everyone, young or old, gay or straight, women or man, everyone should get equal rights and this man shows why and how we can do it.
The film “Guess who’s coming to dinner” surprised me. It was surprised me that a white girl and a black man would get married. It was surprising because in the 1960’s it wasn’t normal for a white and black person to get married. It surprised me that the mom was okay with their marriage so easily because I expected the mom to be like the dad and say no, but the mom was okay with her daughter marrying a black man because she knew it would make her happy. It stood out to me that Joanna didn’t care what her parents thought and told her parents that they were still going to get married even if they said no. It stood out to me that they were getting married so fast because I thought everything was happening really fast too just like their parents.
If I could host a dinner party and I could invite anyone. I would invite Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Huey P. Newton. Martin Luther King Jr. led the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and also in the 1960s Malcolm X was a national minister and spokesman of the Nation of Islam and Huey P. Newton led Black Panther Party in 1966 through 1987. I would invite these three men because they led different organizations to gain equal rights for African-Americans in the 1960s. They had different views on getting equal rights. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. believed in peaceful protesting and turning the other cheek but Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton believed by any means necessary that means they will do anything and everything to get equality. I would ask questions about how did they organization’s start and how they overcome all of the naysayers. I would serve roasted chicken and water served as a drink. We would talk about their deaths and did they felt they could have done more before they died. Also, we would talk about the current situations with African-Americans. I feel like we could use different tactics to get the job done. I think they will be upset how blacks are treated by society today. They probably thought after their deaths African Americans will be treated with more
In a review of Bamboozled, by Roger Ebert on October 6, 2000, the film critic begins by writing that “producing a satire is challenging because no matter how the image that is being ridiculed is portrayed, it will remain the same if the original message of the image is too strong” (www.rogerebert.com). In Bamboozled, Spike Lee attempts to expose the media’s role and manipulation of black demeaning stereotypes to gain profit and increase ratings in the entertainment industry. Although Ebert understands Spike Lee’s purpose, he does not believe that Lee succeeded in communicating his message effectively through this film because he believes the use of blackface overshadows the underlying message of the film. To support his argument, Ebert references an incident that occurred in 1993 when Whoopi Goldberg’s former boyfriend, Ted Danson, showed up at her roast at Friar’s Club wearing blackface. Members of the audience were stunned and tension filled the air (similar to the first reactions of the audience in the film). Danson makes matters worse by sharing a story of when his parents asked Whoopi to clean up after them during dinner time. Ebert thinks that possibly, the story would have been a little humorous if Whoopi had shared the story herself, but it definitely would not have been funny if she had told it while wearing blackface. Even in 1993, neither white people nor black people found blackface to be amusing. To conclude, Ebert wrote that the negative stereotypes depicted by
Such as being told to date someone who you do not like. Dating a person of your same gender is not much different of dating the complete opposite. So basically it is just wrong to judge someone on their appearance. Skeeter could not believe what she was witnessing at the time, and could not believe on what black people had to go
When she knocked on the door, the women at bridge club unsuccessfully hid from her. When she went to the window, she spotted a few of them and at first did not understand that they were hiding from her. She slowly realized they were trying to avoid her. When she got back home she told Minny, “They made me stand there like I was the vacuum salesman” (Taylor, 2011). This is just one example in the movie of prejudice that is bordering on discrimination.
The movie Kramer vs. Kramer follows a young married couple living in New York. The wife's name is Joanna Kramer and the husband is Ted Kramer. Through the first few scenes of the movie you find out that Joanna is very depressed due to her marriage and decides to file for divorce. This leaves Ted with the tremendous task of caring for their young son Billy. All the while he must maintain a job and build a relationship with his son.