The Ruse of Engagement: Black Masculinity and the Cinema of Policing

Sexton, Jared. 2009. The Ruse of Engagement: Black Masculinity and the Cinema of Policing. American Quarterly. 61 (1): 39-63

Sexton’s article addresses the intersection of black masculinity within films that deal with elements of “policing” and crime in the film industry. He uses director Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day starring Denzel Washington as a case study (although I argue that this is an accurate description of his analyses and methodology) in the discussion of perceptions of black “maleness” within the realms of cinema. In his assessment, Sexton analyzes past films with strong male leads, especially those starring Sidney Poitier made during the height of blaxploitation film making. Specifically, Sexton analyzes films in which black men are in positions of authority (i.e. police, detectives, investigators, etc) and how this was in stark contrast of society’s view of African-American men as subservient, threatening, unauthorized and unarmed (43). Comparatively, Sexton aligns the film making of Fuqua to those early blaxploitation film makers and discusses several ways in which modern films (particularly those with elements of policing/crime./authority) address similar issues of race, gender and sexuality.

I was particularly interested in several issues this article raises with respect to my own research interest.  The article raises issues of gender and sexuality with regard to African-American men in roles of “policing” yet there is no discussion of African-American women in those same roles. A good strategy in talking about  black masculinity in film is to juxtapose it against the display of “masculinity” in female roles of authority and policing.  There is only a cursory (albeit obligatory) mention of African-American women actors, specifically Halle Berry, and the message her role in Monster’s Ball may have sent with regards to gender and sexuality. The article is good in its assessment of masculinity in black cinema but fails in comparatively analyzing both male and female roles. It would have made the argument of black masculinity being subverted a lot stronger if  the subject was compared with similar female roles.

Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film

Massood, Paula J. 2003. Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Focusing on various urban landscapes as a “character’ in black film, Paula K. Massood’s Black City Cinema is an interpretive, critical discussion of the urban landscape as a vital element in defining the “black” experience in films.  From east coast ghettos to west coast “hoods” (145), much of contemporary black films target a largely male, black, urban audience. She identifies such tropes in African-American experience such as migration, transformation, nationalism, middle-class mobility struggles, and escapism which often play out against an urban backdrop. Massood focuses on the ghettos of Harlem, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles as well as the migration of films shifting from urban settings of cities to distinctly urban/black settings of  Southern and Midwestern areas.

Because most of blaxploitation is set against the backdrop of urban life, I felt that Paula Massood’s book would be vital to my understanding of how urban life, its issues and problems, helped to shape blaxploitation cinema. I was disappointed to see that much of the book focused on the works of Spike Lee and his urban settings and only one chapter (Chapter 3: Cotton in the City, The Black Ghetto, Blaxploitation, and Beyond) focused on the importance of urban areas in blaxploitation films. Furthermore, there is no discussion or implication of how the urban environment impacted portrayals of female characters in blaxploitation.  Much of the chapter focuses on the dichotomy of urban life and films with male leads (Superfly, The Mack, Sweetback). With the exception of one film (Bush Mama), much of the discussion focuses on how masculinity is discussed within the realms of the urban background.