Drop Squad

What's the lesson the film makers are trying to get across? 1. If a black man tries to succeed, he is betraying his roots. 2. All white people are bumbling dunderheads with no sense of rhythm or street savvy. 3. All white people are racist whether they realize it or not.

This is the most thick headed racist film I've ever seen and the only reason it hasn't been labelled as racist by the press is that it's anti-white and many people are afraid to label that racist. Racist is racist, whether anti-black or anti-white and films like this only encourage ignorance.

Although a little heavy handed at times with the central theme, "Drop Squad" is an excellent movie. The characters are developed in a way that uses stereotypes to highlight major issues in the black community with identity and the moral responsibility of its members. It is a well directed film and well worth watching.

My only strong criticism of this film is that it requires an active viewer. It is doing a lot and sends a lot of messages. Minor characters are not explained more than brief sound bites and quick flashes on the screen. You have to make an effort to keep up and if you don't pay attention to the details you are going to get lost. I wish the director had spent a little more time developing these characters, especially since it is clear that they are meant to represent elements of the community he means to and does criticize. If the characters were important enough to recap at the end, then they were important enough to explain in the first place.

In a Black community, the Deprogramming and Restoration Of Pride Squad is kidnapping Black folks who have forgotten their Black culture, and restoring their Blackness to them. Everyone's on board with the kidnapping, although there is some argument about the deprogramming. Some want to use persuasion and the love of their family. Others want to beat the **** out of them.

It has a good cast, including Eriq La Salle, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ving Rhames, and Vanessa Williams. It's produced by Spike Lee, which may make you think you're going to get one of his offensive-to-all satires, like CHI-RAQ or BAMBOOZLED; instead, the rough stuff is limited to one of the to-be-programmed characters who has gone to work for the advertising industry, creating commercials for advertiser Spike Lee that hit every stereotypical button. Instead, it examines the conflicts within the community that lead to a rising tide of violence in far more sober terms.

In a sense everything the original poster says is correct but ironically their judgment is guilty of the same short sighted-sightedness as the movie. Race, identity, culture and politics are deeply complex sensitive issues. Most works of art (or general comments like these) can only address a handful of those issues from a single perspective. The "great" artists and their works are able to encompass the multiplicity of views rendering the complex simple enough to digest yet learn from (for the converted choir and the alienated masses).

Unfortunenately Drop Sqaud is not one of these works of arts. Yet I do not believe its content should be dismissed with such an easy wave of the hand. For me I found something valuable from this movie yet I completely see the original poster's comments. I am writing this comment/rebuttal not to debate or argue the worth of Drop Sqaud but to urge those of you interested in this movie to give it a chance knowing that their is "something" there even if it's buried in a bunch of "nothing".

peace

As a proud White American I must say that this movie is a powerful structure that requires a tremendous amount of understanding for another culture while swallowing a little pride of my own.

For those who think this movie is racist only proves that more movies like this one need to be made. You can't tell a race of people to just move forward if they are not sure where they come from. You can't just say, "Slavery is over! Now go out and be successful," without understanding the conditioning slavery left behind. Economically and internally. Not to mention when African Americans try to reconnect with their past they are constantly bombarded by some of the same Whites who at times, seem a little bit too concerned with keeping this connection at bay, as if it were a threat of some sort. Meanwhile our toddlers are at school learning about their distant past great leaders like Caesar. Thus, encouraging them to be great leaders. While the black toddlers are learning about slavery and their minor, more modern American accomplishments like the creation of peanut butter or the civil rights movement, making their steps of stride smaller, surviving from day to day, check to check, with hopes of purchasing an apartment or a car as a major accomplishment.

Why are we afraid for African Americans to learn they're history? Is it because there were some Black leaders greater than Whites. Is it because most of our history might be tainted with a lot of lies and cover up? If we Whites really want to be Equal (and not just announce it all the time) then we will encourage more Blacks to become one with their distant past. And if it puts some of Europeans most powerful parts in history to the background then so what? We didn't have a problem when we where in the forefront, so why would it matter now if we're in the background? If we truly aren't racist, it shouldn't matter at all. One thing Hollywood and our school system shows us is that Europeans have done great things. But not all great things. And maybe, not even the greatest. But that in itself proposes a powerful question. What if Africans have done greater things, would we be willing to accept that? The truth is, we all know we won't. Does the psychological scar of racism really cuts that deep?