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June 1993

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From:
"ROBERT JOHNSON, JR." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 21:08:59 -0400
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"Menace" IMHO is an updated version of Cagney's "Public Enemy" with
a couple of characters reversed and language, violence, and sex that
would be just as shocking to the 'middle class' today as "Public" was
in its time.
 
As "Public" offered only the narrowest "insight" into the motivation
of the character to act out against society and become its top-rated
outsider,
"Menace" offers the same scenario without the possiblity of 'top billing'
on the FBI's (or local Police's) MOST WANTED LIST.
 
I found some of it refreshing.  I found some of it pointless.  The
(continued) focus of South Central LA reminds me of the old saying,
"the squeaky wheel gets the oil".  I wonder (need I really?) if half
of South Central hadn't gone up in flames would Hollywood even consider
a storyline that gave rise to these inner city voices.  (JOhn Singleton
has a new film about to be released with Janet Jackson starring opposite
the young actor from Erenest Dickerson's "Juice, in yet another So Central
story.)
 
Of course, the "other" and the "oputsider" have always had a fascination
for mainstream (US?) audiences.
 
I note that there has been little publicity for "MEnace" outside of
a few scattered posters (remeber the slo-mo of the "drive-by shooting"
that hyped Singleton's "Boyz in the Hood" ? noe of this for "Menace".
 
Perhaps Hollywood did learn something after all?
 
Robert Johnson, Jr
Framingham State College
<[log in to unmask]>

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