Memo to racist, sexist movie reviewers: ENOUGH!
By Teresa Gutierrez
Most mainstream Hollywood movies do not merit precious space
in this newspaper. But when a New York Times review attacks a
movie on a racist, sexist--and even class--basis, it's worth a
word or two.
The thriller "Enough" was maliciously reviewed by Stephen
Holden in the May 24 New York Times. Holden described the film,
starring Jennifer Lopez, as an example of "a new Hollywood sub
genre: the male yuppie horror film.
"The unspoken premise behind it," he continued, "suggests
that a new generation of cold young men has arisen who are so
obsessed with fattening their portfolios and chiseling their
abs that they have forgotten to grow souls."
The movie, he says, "also exploits an ugly undercurrent of
class warfare."
The movie is by no means a classic. But the film that has
earned the ire of this one reviewer addresses one of the most
horrible byproducts of a sexist, capitalist society: woman
battering.
The main character in the movie--played by Lopez--is a woman
who is a victim of a mean and incredibly misogynist and racist
male with lots of money.
What appears to have really gotten this reviewer so mad is
that the character decides to no longer be a victim. She fights
back. And she fights back hard.
Moreover, she wins.
That's why Holden is so angry. To top it off, the woman is a
waitress. The fact that a worker--and a worker of color to
boot--wins out over a real estate magnate is the "ugly
undercurrent of class warfare" that Holden refers to.
I went to see "Enough" to find out why Holden was so
indignant. I sat in a theater full of Latinas and Latinos. All
were cheering Lopez on. They were cheering her to go all the
way, in a show of righteous people's justice against someone
who thought he could always get what he wanted.
What will Holden write when not only women--but all the
Latino masses, other people of color and workers and oppressed
everywhere--say "enough" to all capitalist oppression?
We can hardly wait.
Reprinted from the June 13, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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