Difference between revisions of "Rodney King (2017)"

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[[File:Rodney King.jpg|thumb|250px|Rodney King (2017)]]
 
[[File:Rodney King.jpg|thumb|250px|Rodney King (2017)]]
  
This is a one-man stage show about the life and times of Rodney King by the actor and writer Roger Guenveur Smith. Smith delivers a stark, spare, breathless blast of prose-poetry which seems to inhabit both King himself and the persona of some aghast, sympathetic chorus.  
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Rodney King (2017) is a one-man stage show about the life and times of Rodney King by the actor and writer Roger Guenveur Smith. Smith shares the story using breath-taking poetry that inhabits King and the shocks with a sympathetic chorus.  
  
 
== Plot ==
 
== Plot ==
Smith takes us through King's adult life, including his two-year prison stint (in a cell block with Ike Turner, strangely) and his post-beating experience as a celebrity who never wanted to be famous, at least not for that. Most of the time Smith is the omniscient narrator, but occasionally he'll slip into King's psyche, or into the head of another character, such as a hypothetical black conservative who goes on the Internet to warn against canonizing King. <ref>Seitz, Matt Zoller. [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rodney-king-2017 Rodney King]. Roger Ebert. 29 April 2017. Retrieved January 15 2021</ref>
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Smith talks about King's life, including his two-year life in jail and his experience after beating as someone who never wants to be famous for it. Some of the time, Smith talks as the narrator, but some other time he will start play as King, or other characters. <ref>Seitz, Matt Zoller. [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rodney-king-2017 Rodney King]. Roger Ebert. 29 April 2017. Retrieved January 15 2021</ref>
  
 
== Racial bias and discrimination ==
 
== Racial bias and discrimination ==
The show is a preacher’s howl of anger and frustration at the personal and political forces which crushed King – racism, alcoholism, depression, crime, poverty, alienation and his own poignant unpreparedness for a media maelstrom – as well as his rejection from some following his well-intended plea for everyone to “get along”.
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The show is a preacher’s howl of anger and frustration at the personal and political forces which crushed King – racism, alcoholism, depression, crime, poverty, alienation and his own poignant unpreparedness for a media maelstrom – just as his dismissal from some after his all around expected request for everybody to "get along".
  
Smith's explaining the Racism and Police Brutality that Rodney King went through, on those days and their aftermath. With its dazzling wordplay and densely layered profusion of history and biography, Rodney King is an experience as cerebral as it is visceral. Smith’s powerfully crafted performance does nothing less than restore the humanity to a man who has, over a quarter-century, been reduced to a talking point and a symbol. <ref>Linden, Sheri [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/rodney-king-998623#:~:text=With%20its%20dazzling%20wordplay%20and,talking%20point%20and%20a%20symbol. ‘Rodney King’: TV Review]. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 15 2021.</ref>
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Smith's explaining the Racism and Police Brutality that Rodney King went through, on those days and their aftermath. With its stunning pleasantry and thickly layered bounty of history and life story, Rodney King is an encounter however cerebral as it seems to be instinctive. Smith’s powerfully crafted performance does nothing less than restore the humanity to a man who has, over a quarter-century, been reduced to a talking point and a symbol. <ref>Linden, Sheri [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/rodney-king-998623#:~:text=With%20its%20dazzling%20wordplay%20and,talking%20point%20and%20a%20symbol. ‘Rodney King’: TV Review]. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 15 2021.</ref>
  
Smith offers a sharp insight when he says that Rodney King was history’s first reality TV star. His celebrity predated the smartphone and social media age, and he went viral before such a term existed. But the show tacitly underscores a larger truth: people realised it was the “accidental” recording of the incident that was extraordinary, not the beating itself. This sort of legally deniable thing was happening all the time – it just hadn’t been filmed before. And then, King became a more conventional type of reality TV star: a fallible, vulnerable, bewildered soul, burning through the payout he got from the civil suit and taking cash for appearing on shows that only extended his lonely ordeal. <ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/apr/27/rodney-king-review-spike-lee-netflix-la-riots Rodney King review – Spike Lee's Netflix special is a bleakly poetic howl of rage]. The Guardian. Retrieved January 15 2021.</ref>
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Smith offers a sharp knowledge when he says that Rodney King was history's first unscripted television star. His big-name originated before the cell phone and online media age, and he circulated around the web before such a term existed. In any case, the show implicitly underscores a bigger truth: individuals acknowledged it was the "unplanned" recording of the episode that was uncommon, not simply the beating. Such a lawfully deniable thing was going on constantly – it simply hadn't been shot previously. And afterward, King turned into a more ordinary kind of unscripted television star: an untrustworthy, powerless, dazed soul, consuming the payout he got from the common suit and taking money for showing up on shows that solitary broadened his forlorn experience. <ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/apr/27/rodney-king-review-spike-lee-netflix-la-riots Rodney King review – Spike Lee's Netflix special is a bleakly poetic howl of rage]. The Guardian. Retrieved January 15 2021.</ref>
  
 
==References==
 
==References==

Revision as of 06:34, 7 March 2021

Rodney King (2017)

Rodney King (2017) is a one-man stage show about the life and times of Rodney King by the actor and writer Roger Guenveur Smith. Smith shares the story using breath-taking poetry that inhabits King and the shocks with a sympathetic chorus.

Plot

Smith talks about King's life, including his two-year life in jail and his experience after beating as someone who never wants to be famous for it. Some of the time, Smith talks as the narrator, but some other time he will start play as King, or other characters. [1]

Racial bias and discrimination

The show is a preacher’s howl of anger and frustration at the personal and political forces which crushed King – racism, alcoholism, depression, crime, poverty, alienation and his own poignant unpreparedness for a media maelstrom – just as his dismissal from some after his all around expected request for everybody to "get along".

Smith's explaining the Racism and Police Brutality that Rodney King went through, on those days and their aftermath. With its stunning pleasantry and thickly layered bounty of history and life story, Rodney King is an encounter however cerebral as it seems to be instinctive. Smith’s powerfully crafted performance does nothing less than restore the humanity to a man who has, over a quarter-century, been reduced to a talking point and a symbol. [2]

Smith offers a sharp knowledge when he says that Rodney King was history's first unscripted television star. His big-name originated before the cell phone and online media age, and he circulated around the web before such a term existed. In any case, the show implicitly underscores a bigger truth: individuals acknowledged it was the "unplanned" recording of the episode that was uncommon, not simply the beating. Such a lawfully deniable thing was going on constantly – it simply hadn't been shot previously. And afterward, King turned into a more ordinary kind of unscripted television star: an untrustworthy, powerless, dazed soul, consuming the payout he got from the common suit and taking money for showing up on shows that solitary broadened his forlorn experience. [3]

References

  1. Seitz, Matt Zoller. Rodney King. Roger Ebert. 29 April 2017. Retrieved January 15 2021
  2. Linden, Sheri ‘Rodney King’: TV Review. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 15 2021.
  3. Rodney King review – Spike Lee's Netflix special is a bleakly poetic howl of rage. The Guardian. Retrieved January 15 2021.