"Do you know what I just saw? A gopher. Do you know what gophers can do to a golf course?"
Posted on 06/08/2005 11:10:24 PM PDT by El Conservador
NEW YORK - When Jackie Gleason was growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in the 1930s, many of his neighbors resembled his family, Irish and working-class. Today, the residents remain mostly working-class, but almost all are black.
Perhaps, then, it makes sense that a film remake of Gleason's classic TV comedy "The Honeymooners" would feature a mostly black cast, with Cedric the Entertainer as the new face of loudmouthed Ralph Kramden.
The film, which opens in theaters Friday, reflects a growing trend in recent years called cross-casting — casting minorities in roles originally played by whites. Halle Berry starred in "Catwoman," Lucy Liu was one of "Charlie's Angels" and Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac recently starred in "Guess Who," which inverted the racial casting in the 1967 classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
Colorblind casting in remakes, some say, is a hopeful sign that Hollywood executives are increasingly understanding that talented actors of color can fill prominent roles — and drive ticket sales.
"It's the last three or four years that we've seen this, and I think it's financially advantageous and culturally responsible," said Delia Salvi, a film professor at UCLA. "It's a recognition of the fact that whatever went on in `The Honeymooners' went on in every family, whether blue-collar or white or black."
Cross-casting along gender and racial lines has been used in the theater for years, starting with productions of Shakespeare. On Broadway now, Denzel Washington is playing Brutus in "Julius Caesar" and James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams headline "On Golden Pond." In 2001, a film version of "Hamlet" set in the post-Civil War South included a black Polonius played by Roscoe Lee Browne.
Such casting does not always go smoothly. In Glenelg, Md., last month, a high school production of "Huckleberry Finn" had a black Huck Finn and a white Jim, but the copyright holder objected to the cross-casting and the performances were edited out of a C-SPAN talent show. And when Ving Rhames took the title role in the new "Kojak" on USA Network, critics brought him to tears during a promotional event in Los Angeles when they pummeled him with questions about how he could be believable in a role originally played by a Greek-American.
Still, many say cross-casting is positive.
"I do think this is what America would call progress from the civil rights movement," said Jesse A. Rhines, a screenwriter and author of "Black Film/White Money." "`The Honeymooners' is a staple of American television tradition. Does the audience accept (the new casting)? Maybe it doesn't make a difference anymore. I have a feeling it doesn't."
The trend, he said, compares to the casting of minorities in commercials, a common practice fueled by market research showing that whites are no less likely to buy a product if a person of color pitches it — but that minorities are much more likely to use it.
Hollywood, he said, has also found a way to attract new customers, particularly young adults who are frequent filmgoers and a sought-after demographic.
But when it comes to ethnic diversity, most studio heads "think like their grandfathers," said Gabrielle Union, who plays Alice Kramden in "The Honeymooners."
"The younger demographic wants diversity," she said. "Give them what they want."
Critics say it's no coincidence that much of the colorblind casting in Hollywood comes in remakes, which are less risky and typically less imaginative.
"It shows they couldn't come up with something fresh," said Vic Skolnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, N.Y., which highlights international and independent films. Though he had not yet seen the new "The Honeymooners," and he acknowledged there are relatively few roles for minority actors overall, he said actors of color need to be cast in more thoughtful films that tell culturally specific stories.
"There's enough real stuff in African American life that it shouldn't have to be some sort of copycat kind of thing," he said.
Though not all films with largely black casts are lucrative, there have been notable successes.
Going back to the '80s, Eddie Murphy has scored with such box-office hits as "Coming to America" and "The Nutty Professor."
Just this year, Ice Cube — whose "Friday" and "Barbershop" franchises have done quite well — led the cast of "Are We There Yet?" which took in nearly $83 million domestically, and "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" stunned many when it was the nation's top movie the weekend it opened. It eventually made $50 million.
A survey by the Motion Picture Association of America showed that 42 percent of blacks, 45 percent of Latinos and 33 percent of whites were frequent moviegoers (seeing more than one movie a month).
David Friendly, who produced "Big Momma's House" in 2000 and is also the producer for "The Honeymooners," stressed that his new production was not conceived as a black film.
The screenplay was completed before any roles had been cast, he said. He and other producers thought perhaps James Gandolfini or John Goodman might play Ralph Kramden, but when Cedric's name came up in a meeting, Friendly said: "That was like a eureka moment. They said, `THAT'S a fresh idea.'
"It wasn't calculated enough to say, `Let's do "The Honeymooners" black and let's write it for African Americans.' If that had been the case, the dialogue would have been blacker."
As it happened, Cedric signed on and minimally tweaked the dialogue and other nuances to make the film culturally appropriate. But the plot centers wholly on Kramden and his upstairs buddy, Ed Norton, played by Mike Epps, as they scramble for the cash to move from their cramped apartments into a nearby home.
There are generous nods to the TV show. The film is set in working-class Brooklyn and Kramden drives a bus, plays pool and often loses money in a string of simpleminded get-rich-quick schemes.
And, in a less menacing version of Gleason's perennial threats to his wife, Cedric tells Union with a flirty smirk, "I'll take you to the moon, Alice."
___
On The Net:
The Honeymooners movie: www.honeymoonersmovie.com
On Golden Pond: www.goldenpondonbroadway.com
Julius Caesar: www.caesaronbroadway.com
I preferred "On Golden Blonde" myself.
The absolute worst is the remake of what was a classic children's movie, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" with that creepy Johnny Depp in the Gene Wilder title role.
I wish Hollywood stop it with all the remakes already.
"he said actors of color need to be cast in more thoughtful films that tell culturally specific stories."
This guy doesn't get it. That, in itself, is racism. Why should a black actor restrict himself to "culturally specific stories"?
That said, I can't imagine anyone but Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden. Bang Zoom, to the moon, Alice...
prisoner6
I don't think "The Honeymooners" is going to sell many tickets.
It's not a remake because both films are based off of a Roald Dahl book. The Depp/Burton version is much more closer to the original work, which like much of Roald Dahl's books, is pretty creepy.
But just you wait until there's a white version of "The Color Purple" and watch how tolerant some are of diversity.
The numbers cited actualy tell the real story. Whites don't frequent the movies as much because the scripts today are unimaginative and recycled. Minorities with less income have less entertainment options so more and more movies are skewed for that demographic.
Movies. Another "old media" that is slowly dying from a lack of an original thought.
i was always partial to romancing the bone or caddy shack up myself
I think part of the reason for so many remakes is because many of them are rather pure and innocent. Hollywood can't stand that. So they have to remake them into "modern" remakes where some of the characters are gay, f-bombs are hurled frequently and any portrayals of the nuclear family are shown with subtle ridicule.
Hollywood seeks to sully these classics for future generations so as to further their aims at social deterioration.
Reminds me of the Brady Bunch remake.
RACISTS! Look at where they're taking themselves: We don't want none of that Whitey product. We don't want none of that Whitey news. We don't want none of that Whitey educatin'!
I admit I've become hyper-sensitively suspicious to the severe drop in whites in ads. It's nice to see it isn't paranoia but a genuine phenomena done for the reason I suspected: whites are colorblind when it comes to product ads, minorities are not.
Huh? Where I live, most of the moviegoers are white. I guess you live in the ghetto.
What's next? A hip-hop version of Grease called "Greasy?"
No, a Gay version called "Lube."
There are more in the pipeline, I'm sorry to tell you. It's such a void of creativity and that they think changing the skin tone of the cast makes a remake edgy demonstrates how devoid of fresh ideas they are in Hollywood.
I wondered today, before seeing this article, how the Dukes of Hazzard remake avoided the ethnic recasting. Must be that Confederate Battleflag on the General Lee.
I object to some of this ethnic cross-casting. They'll cast a black actor as Kingpin of Crime (character was always white) in DareDevil but heaven help you if you cast a white woman as Storm in X-Men (character is a black African). The new Kojack is a bit of an egregous example since the classic involved a lot of his Greek ethnicity and, in effect, robs one ethnic group of its TV icon. How is this so much better than using blackface makeup?
Why is it you seemingly can't do mixed casts these days? The Honeymooners could've been different ethnicities in this remake. They didn't do it. How often do you see tokenization in black sitcoms or films? Why not a cross-section?
Notice the exception to this supposed "colorblind" recasting: you can't have a white Jim and black Huck.
Interestingly, you can have hetero/homosexual cross-casting. No one (except religious conservatives) cares.
Racial division continues to line the pockets of Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, Jackson-Lee, Conyers, Simmons, Dre, BET, et al. With La Raza, Univision, Telemundo, Azlan and others learning that game too.
Self-segregation, refusal to assimilate and share a common language, fracturing of media... America's in trouble deep.
Case in point, the remake of "The Longest Yard".
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