Comments on: Top 10 American Films about Race & Prejudice

By: Caz - Lets Go To The Movies

Caz - Lets Go To The Movies — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:35:11 +0000

Brilliant post and then list. To Kill A Mockingbird really does have a special hold over me. I read the book for GCSE English at school and we watched the film a few times as well. Which I totally loved, even though at the time I was not impressed with having to watch something in black and white but now realise just how brilliant it all is.

Remember the Titans is another of my favorites. Denzel Washington really is just amazing in that film. But so is the story, I love how sport can play such a massive part in changing a community and culture.

By: Ross McG

Ross McG — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:31:51 +0000

man, im a real sucker for Remember the Titans – one of the great guilty pleasure sports movies
very comprehensive piece Dan, will have to go back and rewatch a lot of those – Hackman grabbing Rooker’s nether regions is super.

By: Dan Stephens

Dan Stephens — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Without ignoring the wider concerns of racial prejudice depiction in American movies (ie. the Jewish or Asian experiences) I did feel that the best examples featured the African-American struggle as clearly exampled above. However, in the accompanying text you will see that I haven’t neglected the fact that other nationalities and backgrounds have formed both American and American cinema’s history over the last 100 years. Above I talk about “Gentleman’s Agreement” (looking at the Jewish struggle and class issues in New York), “The Crimson Kimono” (which seeks to investigate interracial relationships from the Japanese-American perspective), and, I also made mention of James Dean’s “Giant” (which looked at the Mexican community).

I presume you are referring to “The Pianist” and not “The Piano” in your comment above. “The Pianist” is an a excellent film but couldn’t be considered for this top 10 since it isn’t an American film. It was made by French director Roman Polanski and was a French-Polish co-production with additional financing from UK and German production companies.

By: Adam (the great one) Smith

Adam (the great one) Smith — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:36:56 +0000

wheres schindlers list or in fact any jewish predjudice film i.e the piano just cause its a war film does not mean its not race and predjudice

By: Gavin Bollard

Gavin Bollard — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:10:00 +0000

For a modern audience who doesn’t have the patience/tolerance to sit through a “old” film, particularly one in monochrome, “A Time To Kill” is quite accessible.

By: Dan Stephens

Dan Stephens — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:53 +0000

Thanks John. I’ll have to seek out those two films. In researching this article I came across and consequently watched a few superb films I han’t seen before – notably, “A Raisin In The Sun”, “The Crimson Kimono”, and “The Defiant Ones” (although I had seen the Quantum Leap episode that based itself on this film previously).

By: John Hodson

John Hodson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:56:44 +0000

Nice work Dan.

Two films which rarely get a mention in this context, indeed are rarely screened these days, are ‘Jim Thorpe – All American’ (with Burt Lancaster as the eponymous lead) and Delbert Mann’s ‘The Outsider’ with Tony Curtis as Ira Hayes – worth looking up for anyone that hasn’t seen them.

By: Rodney

Rodney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:43:20 +0000

Great article, well researched with plenty of infomrtaion. To be honest, I’d completely overlooked The Color Purple when thinking about films with racism or discrimination; I’m glad you reminded me…. May be a film I might have to tackle myself at some point….