MovieChat Forums > Get on Up (2014) Discussion > Why should we care when the hotel racist...

Why should we care when the hotel racists dance to Cold Sweat?

posted 9 years ago by Binkconn
6 replies | jump to latest

The scene when Allison Janey is complaining about sharing the hotel pool with ni$$ers, than later we see her and her husband grooving in the hotel bar as he rehearses Cold Sweat with the band (a much longer cut of their dance is on the DVD). Are we supposed to give a s$#@ that James reached these creeps with his music? If the director was trying to convey how Brown's music transcended race, he could have had a had a scene of white kids dancing in the audience at the Apollo, like my dad did in '67-'68 while attending Columbia law school. "Oh, he reached the racists, isn't that touching?" Barf.

[–] AngelCake56FJS 9 years ago

I haven't seen the movie yet but it wasn't unheard of racist White people enjoying music of Blacks.

[–] nammage 9 years ago

Yep. Look at Charley Pride. Now, yes, he sang country but so did a lot of other blacks back then (before going to rock) and they weren't allowed to play white audeinces, especially when found out they were black and not white. They loved Charley Pride, though, but I doubt most of them would have invited him over for dinner.

-Nam

I am on the road less traveled...

[–] Portlis 9 years ago

I viewed it as more of the white racists being hypocrites than anything else... I don't think the goal was to make it touching.

[–] avamac 9 years ago

Blacks have been accepted, even lauded, as entertainers by whites since Day One. That didn't mean mixing socially. Big class, as well as race, distinction....

[–] Huskie_Jon 9 years ago

Because JB's music was a uniting force, even for white racists. He was also able to quell the racial tension in Boston after MLK got shot.

There was scene in Ray which I think only appears in the director's cut. Ray is riding in a bus late at night in Mississippi, and a group of white sailors, one with a guitar, are trying to sing "Anytime" by Eddie Arnold, but they forget a verse. Suddenly, Ray who is sitting a few seats in front of them, fills in the missing verse. They thank him, and one sailor asks him why he is wearing sunglasses. He says he is a jazz musician, and they accept that. I don't think they even realized he was black. I thought that could have been the most powerful scene in the movie.

As for the scene in Get On Up, it may have been a little over the top with the snobbery and lousy dancing, but I think that was the message.

_______________
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[–] Howlin Wolf 8 years ago

It doesn't have to be 'touching', so long as it's accurate... and I have no doubt that there WERE racists who did enjoy the music.

There's no requirement to be profoundly moved by this incident; it's just included for posterity.

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