Soul Man

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Soul Man is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Steve Miner and written by Carol L. Black. The film got involved in controversy because it is portraying a white entertainer in blackface, provoking some people to protest against its release. The film was widely criticized for featuring a white actor wearing blackface. In spite of the movie is controversial and critics gave then negative reviews, Soul Man was successful, profiting $35 million on a $4.5 million budget. [1]

Plot

The film's hero is a UCLA graduate who poses as a black in order to qualify for a scholarship to Harvard Law School, and the movie follows him through his first semester, as he spars with a black professor, falls in love with a black woman and experiences racism. [2]

Controversy

The plot concerns a young, white man who is accepted by Harvard Law School but can't come up with the sky-high tuition until he hits on the idea of pretending to be black. After turning his skin dark with an overdose of tanning pills, Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) applies for and gets a scholarship that should be open only to black students. The filmmakers simply don't understand (or, at any rate, know how to dramatize) anything about being black, and that limits their ability to find the humor in the situation they've established.[3]

References

  1. Soul Man (film). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 17 2021.
  2. Ebert Roger. Soul Man. Roger Ebert. Retrieved January 17 2021.
  3. Boyar, Jay. 'Soul Man' Just Goes to Show Discrimination Isn't Funny. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved January 17 2021.