Here I have posted Charles Burnett's 1973 short film entitled The Horse. I believe it has a strong relationship to Morrison's discussion of the black figure in American literature being used solely as a symbol and not humanizing the characters to the fullest extent. I will elaborate on this comment further in the upcoming days.
click the link below to watch the full video.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/charles_burnett.html
I'd like you to elaborate on your comment; I'm not sure I understand what you mean. What I see in Burnett's film is the centrality of the two black characters--the chatterbox idiot white guys wait for the man to come to kill the horse. The boy waits too, but he has feelings, compassion, care for the horse, for his father, for himself...Whereas the white guys talk brutally, kick stuff around, toss a switchblade, are disrespectful, abusive and incapable of doing anything...They are cardboard figures, not subjects. The boy is as close to a subject as you get in this film; he and the horse stand in close and necessary relationship to one another.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I see it anyway. And it makes sense--Burnett's calling was to make worthy, thoughtful African American cinema.