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Does Djimon Hounsou have a responsibility to stop playing certain roles?

Of course, Djimon Hounsou is being typecast. We can talk about race, or about Mr. Hounsou’s dark skin, or his African heritage, but we won’t.
    
We’ll talk about an actor who is known the world over; an actor who is the recipient of widespread industry praise and recognition for his talent; an actor who, on three occasions, has accepted the same role. The first time; okay. The second time; maybe. The third time; why?
    
Which role is this?  It is the role of the African Native enslaved [or imprisoned] who is set free in large part, due to the efforts of a white man (Anthony Hopkins, Amistad (1997); Russell Crowe, Gladiator (2000); Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond (2006).
    
Does money and fame, principle and integrity, injustice, age (he’s no spring chicken at 42) figure into the answer? Has he ever questioned his choices? Is he questioning his choices? If so, what has he told himself? I wonder.
    
At the end of the day, typecasting involves complicity on the actor’s part.
    
Naked.  Sweating.  Screaming.  Oh My.
    
Whenever I see him he is naked, half naked or at the very least, shirtless. In Amistad, he was full body naked. He was half naked in Gladiator. And again in Blood Diamond, he was full body naked at a point in the film. In the pic, In America (2002) his bare chest was there for us to see. In all those films he was screaming or sweating at one point or another. In his first onscreen appearance in In America his first utterance of dialog was wordless. Instead, he was screaming his head off. 
    
Yes; I know the roles called for him to be screaming… or sweating… or enslaved… or separated from his family. I understand this. When you consider each role individually, it makes sense. But when you look at these roles collectively, a disturbing pattern emerges.
    
Amistad
African Native enslaved and imprisoned, Sweating, Screaming
Separated from his family
    
Gladiator
African Native enslaved and imprisoned, Sweating, Screaming
Separated from his family
    
In America
Sweating, Screaming
    
Blood Diamond
African Native enslaved and imprisoned, Sweating, Screaming
Separated from his famiy
    
Does Djimon Hounsou have a responsibility to stop playing this character? I don’t know the answer to the question. I am, however, tiring of these images of this actor. That I do know. I really like this guy, though. And I hope In the future, he has better offers and makes better choices.    

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White Male Domination - Blood Diamond
Djimon Hounsou

White Male Domination - Blood Diamond

In Blood Diamond (2006) Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) was always the level-headed one in control. White male domination rears its head again in Hollywood cinema. We see this often. Too often.

    

It only makes sense, since these depictions are channeled through the eyes of the white males who dominate the industry. I expect these images will persist as long as this domination does.

    

(Of course, it is up to us to counter these images; but that’s another story; another post.)

   

For example, in the following scenes (discussed in order of occurrence) Archer demonstrates his confident swagger; from the very beginning of the movie. Archer's hubris is often manifest, image-wise, at the expense of black males in the film:

    

• Archer barks instructions to his comrade, the helicopter pilot, Nabil (Jimi Mistry).

 

• Archer sashays, all cool-like – with confidence and a cigarette, as he approaches the compound of Commander Zero (Percy Matsemala). In this sequence, Archer is in a situation of both power and defiance when he seeks to visit with Commander Zero, for the purpose of making a deal -– diamonds for weapons. In this sequence, Archer walks away from a guard –- his back facing the gun-toting, hostile guard who, moments ago, had Archer at gunpoint. When Archer forced his way into the compound to meet Commander Zero, he demanded Commander Zero pay him first for the weapons and when Zero didn’t come up with enough, Archer demanded he proffer up more diamonds. Archer makes threats. And he gets more diamonds. He wins. Winning. He is always in command of himself. Commander Zero, though heavily guarded by armed henchmen, complied and bent to this white man’s will and logical reasoning.

 

• Archer was intercepted at border security, attempting to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. He had the balls to try to bribe the border security. Confidence.

 

• There are the small things. I don’t think these things can be overlooked. There was a scene where Archer and Vandy were under brutal gunfire by the rebel soldiers and were running for their lives. here was an instance in the sequence when Archer says to Vandy, “lie low.” I’m quite certain Vandy’s innate instinct for survival would have led him to know to stay low. This “instruction” directive was unnecessary. But Archer was controlling that sequence. I’m just sayin’.

 

• Then there is the scene when Archer comes up with a brilliant idea. Before the idea was explained, during the scene, Vandy asked Archer, “What do I do?” (again, the small things; Vandy looks to the white man for guidance). The plan was for Archer to pose as a prisoner and Vandy would pretend to be a captor. Archer was planning to murder the RUF guards who blocked their way to the bridge. Well, sure enough, Archer killed the two guards and the third RUF scurried away in terror and was also killed by Archer. Amazed at the brilliance and execution of Archer’s plan Vandy stands there, awestruck.

 

• When Benjamin (Basil Wallace) was shot by the child soldier, Archer drove the car and saved the day and got the black man to safety and medical attention.

 

• The scene when Archer instructs Vandy to pretend to be a cameraman (another brilliant idea from Archer). Amid resistance from Vandy, Archer explains that if he wants to see his child again, he must do this.    

And that ties in with the fact that it is white people (Archer and Mandy), who have the power to reunite Solomon with his family.

    

• Another brilliant idea -- Archer asks Journalist Mandy (Jennifer Connelly) to occupy the guard while he goes into a tent to steal supplies. Specifically, Archer told her to interview the guard, and pretend she wanted his story and photograph for a magazine article. It was a ploy designed to occupy the guard’s attention.

 

• There was a scene when Archer threatened to kill Vandy if he left to get his son.  Archer finally gave in to Vandy’s demand to search for his child, but still mandated that if there was going to be any son-searching, it would be done at nightfall (which actually made sense. Ah... the voice of reason.)

 

• As it turned out, it was Archer who saved Vandy’s son.

 

… blah blah blah. There’s more.

    

These scenes are just a few examples of Archer’s white male domination. Over and over again we see Archer is always in command, never fearful, always in power, always needed, always has the upper hand, always smart, always clever, always crafty. Everything he does is done with confidence and purpose. He even dies on his own terms.

    

Archer was a soldier, previously. This might account for some of his actions. However, whether or not we are to believe Archer’s actions are governed by this fact is not in question here. The purpose of this post is to merely present another example of white male domination in Hollywood cinema. This domination often presents quietly, but it’s there.

 

 

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Djimon Hounsou

Does Djimon Hounsou have a responsibility to stop playing certain roles?

 

Save a White Woman (The Brave One)

In Terrence Howard’s film, The Brave One (2007), this dude (Terrence Howard as Detective Mercer) takes a bullet in the shoulder and a risk to his career for no apparent reason except to save a white woman and grant her wish to kill a man.
    
Let us examine this piece by piece.
    
Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) wants murderous revenge against the men who beat her boyfriend to death.  Understood. Not nice. But her motivation is understood.
    
Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard) empathizes with her pain and her desire for revenge. He’s human. There is a place for his empathy. Understood.    

He empathizes with her sooooooooooooooo much that he is willing to:
    
jeopardize his career... and risk serious injury – even death
    
… all to please the white woman.
    
I said…
    
JEOPARDIZE HIS CAREER! He would jeopardize his career in order to permit a woman he barely knows, to commit murder? What if, later, she has a change of heart and wants to reveal to authorities what happened? Why would he entrust this virtual stranger with the strings that his career hangs on? For all he’s worked for, we are to believe he would risk it all merely to satisfy her need to murder? He would do this for her? This would make him an idiot, now wouldn’t it?  This would make him stupid, wouldn’t it? This would make him a man whose judgment is questionable. 
    
RISK SERIOUS INJURY; EVEN DEATH!  When he asked her to shoot him to make the crime scene plausible, she was trembling and shaking like a leaf.  Mercer himself acknowledged earlier in the film that she was not a good shooter.  He deduced, early on, when he examined the grocery store crime scene, that she was a poor shooter since even though she was standing only a few feet from the man she killed; it took three shots for her to kill him. Only one bullet struck the man. So he knows she is not a skilled gunslinger, yet he urges her trembling hand to shoot him anyway.
    
This is preposterous.
    
The notion that this black man would desire to serve this white woman in this fashion and honor her wish to commit murder demonstrates what is often shown of black men on the silver screen…
    
Weakness.  And idiocy.