There were a few interesting reviews of Precious on Ishmael Reed's online Konch Magazine.
http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com
I haven't actually seen the movie. Maybe if I did, I'd like it. Maybe I wouldn't think it was the least bit racist. I doubt it, but it wouldn't be impossible.
Hariette Surovell writes a long review, very interesting. Discusses the racist elements of the movie, of course, and also goes into just how bad it is otherwise. Anachronisms abound. It's set in 1987, but Bill Clinton is president of the United States. And she points out how lousy the writing is.
... Her first child, a girl with Down Syndrome (or, as Precious informs someone, “ Sinder”-- an arbitrary and completely false note--why would she not know the word “syndrome”?...
And...
Despite being so illiterate that she is unable to read a sentence from a children’s book, Precious is a “ninfe”-grader, who is “good with numbers” (except, apparently, the number “nine.”) ...All the other students in Precious’ math class are not only svelte, they are fashionable and attractive…
Isn’t there anyone as unattractive as Precious out there? Not even one other overweight person in Harlem, other than Mary?....
When the principal, Mrs. Lichtenstein, calls Precious to the office. Points out that she is pregnant with her second child. "The audience is confused," Surovell writes, "how ever could she tell?"
Precious tries to attack the principal and flees the school.
We hear Precious’ thought process, such as it is. Not, “Oh no, I’m in real trouble now, I tried to attack the principal and she called the guards on me” but:
“Nosy ass white bitch mad ‘cause
she can’t come over my house.
I don’t be coming to this
bitch’s house in Weschesser.”
I didn’t buy it. First of all, why would she think she would be entitled to visit the principal in her home under any circumstances? Secondly, how would she ascertain that Mrs. Lichtenstein lives in “Weschesser”? Precious doesn’t know the word “syndrome”, even though she is the mother to a Down Syndrome child. It’s all illogical, arbitrary writing, i.e., bad writing.
The principal tries to get Precious to enroll in an alternative school:
Precious doesn’t know what the word “alternative” means (why not?), and Mary wants her to stay home and collect Welfare, but Precious is nonetheless inspired to go. We’re not quite sure why she is so determined to take advice from a principal whose lily-white ass she so recently wanted to kick. The confusion mounts when about ten minutes of screen time is devoted to Precious making numerous attempts to discover the meaning of the word “alternative” (an office worker finally fills her in.) Why did she want to go there so badly if she didn’t even know what it was?
Precious enrolls in her new school. In just a few months, she goes from being unable to recognize the letter E to being "so super-literate that she is asked to explain what Ms. Rain means when she discusses 'a protagonist’s unrelenting circumstances.'"
The teacher writes notes to Precious:
“Dear Precious, You are not a dog. “ (Whew! Whatta relief. I was worried for a while…) “You are a wonderful young woman who is trying to make something of her life.
"I have some questions for you.
"1. Where was your grandmother
when your father was abusing you?
"2. Where is Little Mongo now?”
I had some thoughts about this, too. I wondered, ‘One, where has Ms. Rain been throughout all this?’ and ‘Two, why is Ms. Rain deliberately disobeying the New York City law mandating that teachers report suspected child abuse cases to the authorities?’
And when Precious tells her new social worker played by Mariah Carey that her babies were fathered by their grandfather:
Mrs. Weiss looks startled (as startled as Mariah Carey playing a social worker, or, well, playing anybody, can look), but does nothing. She doesn’t make an effort to locate Precious’ father, nor does she talk to the police or the district attorney’s office about getting a warrant out for his arrest, because in Movieland Harlem, fathers can impregnate their daughters repeatedly without legal consequences.
Check out the review, and check out the link to Hariette Surovell's website.
I don't if that link is working. You may have to copy and paste.
http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/
Sandra Goodridge's review
Sandra Goodridge worked in the social service system of New York, with victims of crime, abuse and incest and was offended at how such people were portrayed.
The tragedy of this film, Precious, is multitudinous. In the clumsy and greedy hands of Sapphire and Lee Daniels a number of weighty social issues: mental illness, incest, poverty, child-protection, social service delivery systems, race and caste are all given the short-shrift in exchange for some simplistic, "shock and awe" drive-'em-to-the-box-office filmmaking. The film’s plot was slight and the character development of the principals (Precious, her mother, abusive father and nurse characters) were nascent. Film-makers were too busy manipulating the audience to pity Precious and indulge in layers of whiny victimization. This was clearly more important that telling a complex, multi-faceted story of redemption, hope and true recovery.
She tells about an unpleasant encounter with Sapphire, the author of the novel the movie is based on, at Hunter College. An interesting review.
Two movies I haven't seen and an episode of Hill Street Blues
There was sort of a mini-Precious in the middle of an episode of Hill Street Blues.
Renko and Bobby Hill (hey! Isn't that the kid on King of the Hill!) go on a call. An impoverished black family. The mother is holding her unemployed husband and teenage daughter at bay with a butcher knife. The daughter is topless, holding a towel in front of her. It seems the young lady's stepfather has been molesting her. Renko wants to arrest the stepfather and the mother. But Bobby Hill instead starts yelling at them. Stop threating your husband and daughter with a butcher knife! And you there! Stop molesting your stepdaughter! And for God's sake! Put your shirt on! How do you expect your poor stepfather to control himself!
You would never see anything like that on TV with a white family.
It was, in my opinion, a variation on the old stereotype that Southern whites knew how to control black people, but northern whites were ineffectual. You can see it in the old movie, The Prisoner of Shark Island, if you're interested.
The new version of the stereotype was that nominally successful formerly working class blacks knew how to deal with poor blacks, but poor blacks wouldn't listen to whites or bourgeois black.
That was the stereotype in those days exemplified by the movie Lean On Me, the "true" story of moronic thug Joe Clark, praised by the Reagan administration for threatening black teenagers with a baseball bat at the high school where he was principal.
At least Precious went against this stereotype, although the one it used in its place may not have been any better. The black social worker in it was worthless. It was bourgeois whites and blacks who rescue Precious.
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