Discussion: Does The N.W.A. Biopic Mark The End Of The White Savior Movie?

Discussion for article #239438

Maybe Eazy-E is Jerry Heller’s magic negro?

Perhaps a “spoilers” label might have been appropriate for folks who don’t know NWA’s full story and plan to see the movie. Ugh. I really should have thought about it before starting to read this article.

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Do biographies really have “spoilers”?

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Perhaps they refuse to depict Jerry as either a white savior or a white oppressor because they know people are more than one thing.

Which is exactly what makes human beings just so damned fascinating – our layers and contradictions, changes over time.

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Yes. “[F]or folks who don’t know NWA’s full story and plan to see the movie.”

EDIT: Its not like we are talking about how a biographical film about Abraham Lincoln ends.

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Since most biographical and historical movies are merely “based on actual events” I’m sure the studio could come with alternate endings for the DVD box set.

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MC Ren sees dead people.

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I bought the cassette the week it came out and still listen to NWA today. That album holds up.

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I’ve been a fan of NWA for more probably 25 years, and I thought I knew their full story…until I read this article.
Still, it’s a great piece, and I don’t think it necessarily takes away from their story. I plan to see the movie this weekend, and I’m still excited to see it.

It really, really does. Seeing Dre’s success (can you believe Dr. Dre is a freakin’ billionaire? The thought always puts a smile on my face) and Ice Cube’s film career (really, Ice Cube does kids movies!), I can’t help but wonder what Eazy would be doing if he’d lived. To this day, one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, and I remember it like it was yesterday, was Eazy’s wife at the press conference where they announced he was dying of AIDS. Heartbreaking.

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Is there an archetype for film critics who try to foist archetypes on everything whether it deserves it or not? Could we see the end that archetype?

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Aaah, as all the members of NWA can be seen now as pretty much mainstream participants in the entertainment world, what the hell is this article about? Is the writer older than 28?

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Damn Ray Charles and James Brown’s white managers who helped launch their careers for not betraying them so they could destroy that white savior archetype on film.

(rolls eyes)

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Would it kill the author of this article to define what the hell N.W.A. means???
I searched and searched and couldn’t find it.
Call me an old fogey, but I’m getting really tired of this new trend in using undefined acronyms or whatever they’re called.

Niggas With Attitudes.

I am not sure that I agree that movies have avoided this area. The 70’s were pretty big with having race as a driving force and heroes being African American. Even before that. Many were not big productions but I would not discount them.

If you’re a somewhat old fogey like me, you know at least who they are. If you’re a really old fogey or a young person, you’re probably not interested in seeing the movie.

Also, how much did you really “search and search” when it comes up in the preview of the second hit in a Google search for NWA, which is their Wikipedia page?

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You forgot Marshall Chess and what he did to (not for) his stable of artists, most notably, Chuck Berry.

That being said, ripping-off all artists was SOP in the music industry until quite recently. The Beatles were destroyed as much by the death of Brian Epstein as by John surrendering his free will to Yoko. Allen Klein, who’d already fucked over the Rolling Stones, pretty much sealed the deal helping to “fix” Apple Corp. But I digress.

Well, I was simply responding to the two mangers who didn’t skim from the artists they worked with mentioned by the article in other biopic movies.

I haven’t seen it, but HBO is touting “Show Me a Hero” – the story of the Yonkers mayor (white) during a public housing controversy.

So I would guess, “no.”