IMAGES: TALLADEGA NIGHTS
An Exercise for Decoding Trailer & Microcosm Symbolism
Talladega
Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby took in a whopping
$47M upon its initial release recently. Regardless, this
box office success behooves us to turn the aesthetic
spotlight on African Americans such as Michael Clarke Duncan
who plays Bobby’s “Chief Crew” much like a manservant and
even more so as a systemic, tragic-comic death’s-head;
superstar tennis champions Serena Williams and Venus Williams who both personify a Southern “picture of
perfect health”; and countless others in speaking and
non-speaking “subliminal blips” who, by
certain key delineations, may not be aware of
desecrating messages their “veteran performances and cameo
appearances” suggest by way of a peculiar conveyance
of the four aesthetic elements—form, motion, sound and
color—the bases of our paradigm shift, the Tetranalysis™.
We invite
all, especially writers, cast and crew members of Nights, to send us an email with comments about these black
“roles” and their significance to entertainment or
defamation of African American images in The Ballard of
Ricky Bobby, a white man—shrouded in red, white and blue—a comic “dunce” who only knows a
single Richard Millhouse Nixon “number one.”
For Stills
Photo of Nixon giving his trademark “victory” sign and of
Ricky Bobby [Tricky Dick] flashing his Talladega, dark
comedy, “black gloves” sign of the winner, see the
historical real and parody imaginary pair at:
http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/acsrmn1_9_1f.jpg
and
http://www.img.slate.com/id/2147122
For a quick
link listing of writers, producers, directors, stars and
crew, go to
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pcbs.dll/section?Category=FEATURES0301&FilmID
For Studio Stills Photo of the players
within the real and imaginary, “grinning context” of opening
celebration, go to:
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0415306/Ss/0415306/1158.jpg?
Michael
Clarke Duncan is cast as “Lucius Washington” in extreme
contrast to the “hero-writer” Will Ferrell—that is, paired black-white in a sublim, death’s-head scene whose aesthetic and ideological composition is
strikingly similar to that of Ester Rolle in Cape Fear
(1991) [see Archives]. The given name Lucius can
mean “snake,” “serpent,” “wisdom,” “light” from the Latin on
to Rome leading to Germany, King Arthur as a soldier, and to
Graham’s contemporary denotation of a patron of recurrent light.
In Nights as well as in other movies with similar “black sidekick”
as Lucius, there is a tendency to subliminally depict him as
a “patron” who looms as an icon of White Supremacist Mockery
and “Demonstrative Buffoonery” of the juxtaposed “Other”—in
short, as Lucifer the Devil!
As to
executing this exercise for decoding trailer images, two
tasks must be performed in order to participate in the
ensuing discussion to follow.
Having said
all this, the first task is to see for “self” by viewing
images within Talladega Nights trailers, and by
emailing to us, thereafter, your own “scene capture” of
Lucius as a classic patron of recurrent light (The
Manichean Leitmotif, Graham, 1972) within a certain
trailer sequence that is symbolized by a “dart of death,
prop” talisman within the positioning of triadic demons. Spot also, if you will, the still that captures
best the “microcosm” of the overall theme that is to be
played out as the movie’s “leitmotif—the Negroes.”
Today,
unfamiliar terminologies such as “leitmotif,” “death’s
head,” “sublim,” and “microcosm” should be at the command of
actors and viewers who need to be at the cutting edge of
critical awareness and creative not exploitative
presentations. This exercise is designed to demonstrate the
often “hidden” relations between the language of motion
picture “arts and sciences,” related subliminal thought patterns, and demonstrative behavior—real and
imagined, on and off camera.
Our second
task proposes: Take a Hint My Friend, Or Read and Run To No Good End. The hint, of course,
is to be cognizant of the “microcosm” of a movie as thematic myth structure, a deliberate, craft indicator that is usually supercharged with subliminal,
sexist, racist, and ideological messages.
Image Analysts’ thematic microcosm pick is among those stills photo at the quick link to Herald
Tribune, mentioned above @ www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pcbs.dll/section?
To complete
the exercise, each participant must compare his/her “pick
from the stills” to our designated pick and
interpretation that will be revealed at a later update to
this discussion. For the seminal critique behind
this Trailer Analysis™ exercise, see “Jane Fonda:
Back with the Wind,” in Arthur Graham’s Subliminal Racism
Essays, pp. 58-61.
Viewers may
examine the entire movie, and this is recommended for
“balance”; however, we maintain that certain preliminaries
reveal “craft” tendencies that more or less allow the astute
moviegoer to spot a lemon before purchasing it and to
neutralize a rotten egg without breaking the shell. That
“shell” could be your hard earned money dished out on
subliminal racist junk food. Eating blindly without cutting
edge analysis guarantees you will not be merry
psychologically. Do not confuse entertainment aesthetics as
“arts and sciences” with real life, past, present or future.
Be aware of
Hollywood Color Code and its “tricknology” or necromantic,
mystical negation and psycho-social control. End mental
slavery; be conscious of deliberate identity
formation through subliminal media images. You know what to
do about liquor and cigarette commercials inducing bad
habits and ill health. Do likewise to curb subliminal
racism!
Image
Analysts will post results after receiving the first 100
comments; we will inform you via NewPost Alert™ email contact. Together, we will explore the responsibility
of African American actors, within the “content and context”
of role playing, to be aware of and to individually and
collectively refuse to play subliminal roles. Our aim is to
infuse insightful directions—in regard to professional
practices and moral standards—into our ongoing discussion of
negative and positive images in the media. For an
historical perspective on our point of view, see
“Self-Regulation” in Image Coverage: Academy Awards and
Other Movie Reviews, 1995, by Graham and Coffee.
Click Trailer Analysis™ to post comments and to email scene capture requested.
Trailer Analysis™
©2006 SubliminalRacism.com
An Image Analysts Exclusive!
