Watch Cinematical's Todd Gilchrist Debate Devin Faraci On G4!
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Optimus Prime's entire life has been leading up to this moment ... no, none of that Revenge of the Fallen stuff, but having Devin Faraci and Todd Gilchrist debate his latest installment on G4's Attack of the Show. Michael Bay's latest robotgasm has been at the center of a lot of debate and controversy all over this great Internet, and while CNN may ignore this crisis of fandom, G4 is right there to report on it.
As you know from hanging around Cinematical, Gilchrist liked the film (and was quoted by Roger Ebert in his review). Faraci hated the film, and was one of the first to really call foul on the racist robots with his scathing Little Black Sambots piece. I know from reading the comments pouring into our 1-10 poll that our readers are divided right down the middle on the film's quality and whether or not its employing questionable racist stereotypes. Therefore, you may pick one of these men as your champion, and decide who (if either) comes out victorious, before realizing Transformers' massive gross doesn't care what you think.
Watch the video after the jump
As you know from hanging around Cinematical, Gilchrist liked the film (and was quoted by Roger Ebert in his review). Faraci hated the film, and was one of the first to really call foul on the racist robots with his scathing Little Black Sambots piece. I know from reading the comments pouring into our 1-10 poll that our readers are divided right down the middle on the film's quality and whether or not its employing questionable racist stereotypes. Therefore, you may pick one of these men as your champion, and decide who (if either) comes out victorious, before realizing Transformers' massive gross doesn't care what you think.
Watch the video after the jump
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-30-2009 @ 12:13PM
Andy said...
The characters of Mudflap and Skids in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are obviously stereotypes ... but of gangbangers, not an entire race of black people. Regardless, there is no HATE behind the caricatures. To confuse the two is to imply that all black people act, speak and think like gold-sporting, krunk-wearing, rap-listening gangbangers (no offense to them), and such an implication is far more racist than anything in this movie.
http://www.thewordslinger.com/
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6-30-2009 @ 12:27PM
John R said...
Let me understand this. It's racist to point out racism in film?
Even the writers have acknowledged these "Minstrel-bots":
"Orci: Number one, we sympathize. Yes, the gold tooth was not in the script, that’s true.
Kurtzman: It’s really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it. I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie."
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/06/25/no-one-wants-to-own-up-to-racism-in-transformers/
Sounds like an admission to me.
6-30-2009 @ 12:39PM
pmac3522 said...
I have a hard time classifying those two robots as racist. They portray a lifestyle, not a race. They could have been "hicks" just as easily, but that wouldn't have made them racist against white people, it would have just been a joke about a certain stereotype.
BTW, I know more white guys that act like those two robots than black guys anyways.
6-30-2009 @ 12:18PM
John R said...
+1 on the Amos & Andy-bots. I'm not surprised at all considering what they did to the Jazz character.
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6-30-2009 @ 12:24PM
Chet said...
I honestly read Todd's review multiple times and couldn't figure out whether or not he liked the film -- and it took me a beat to realize that's not a bad thing. No fanboy blinders-on lovefest, no hear-me-roar rant, just an insightful distillation of how the flick works. Too many other reviewers seemed to think it was more important to step outside that role and proselytize against big dumb action movies.
The G4 spot emphasized Todd's professionalism.
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6-30-2009 @ 4:25PM
Corey Bean said...
Regarding the "Sambots" (love that!): If it were just the voices or dialogue of the characters, I think you could give it a pass; but what was with the monkey faces & the gold tooth? I think they went too far. I don't think it was an overt attempt to be offensive, just that in these types of movies shortcuts are always going to be used & shortcuts mean stereotypes. And it wasn't just those two characters, either. If Micahel Bay were a more talented, considerate director, I might be shocked.
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7-01-2009 @ 12:13PM
ML said...
So I'm one of the "twelve" people who haven't seen it? I'm torn ... it sounds like it's probably better seen on a larger screen because it is a spectacle, but it sounds like that is all it is. I probably won't see it until it until it enters the Netflix rotation after all.
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