character's race?

no, the 'titanic' has a slight 'drift.' dale earnhardt 'drifted' a bit. i'd say this is worse.

who's overweight and latina catholic (isn't that almost a redundancy? are there latina muslims? i suppose you mention it to point out her devoutness, eh? lol)? because i might be interested in some pictures of that. in an abstract way, mind you.

okay, i'll stop now, D, i promise. i mean abstractly, of course.

who didn't like that bike riding rasta man in the desert who blew funny smoke in the airhole?! Thelma and Louise

LOL Thanks for reminding me of that. The rasta athlete out in the desert on his bike. Cool little riff.

yes, nice catch. surprised i haven't caught that scene as 't&l' is, i think, running on a continuous loop at the moment on tv. not sure what aspect of men he represented to be criticized or poked fun of, but if nothing else he was good comic relief. i wonder if they made him rastafarian just to justify him having pot?

on a serious note, since i don't live anywhere near the desert, i can't really say if that's out of place or not.

I'm thinking rasta bicyclists are a departure from the norm in the canyonlands.

Unlike guys who look like Morgan Freeman and show up to pal around with Robin Hood.

Which comes back to the weight of an apellation, in a way. I once mentioned to somebody that Black merry men weren't all that common in the woods of Olde Englande and they gave me that supercilious look and said, "He was a MOOR."
So...what's in a name?

NikeeGoddess said:

who didn't like that bike riding rasta man in the desert who blew funny smoke in the airhole?! Thelma and Louise

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Hand goes up!

It seemed to me like an awkward moment - that Callie Khouri needed something to lighten the moment so we wouldn't dislike T and L for locking the guy up, to show that he was OK and didn't die because of them, and the scene not only seemed out of step with the rest of the movie, but employed such a lazy stereotype that it made me squirm.

I think I quoted this in a thread I started called 'bad scenes in good films' or something.

ya know - sometimes people make huge assumptions. this scene with the rasta dude was added during the production. here is what you'll find in the final "shooting" script. the rasta episode had nothing to do with CK's script.

EXT. NEW MEXICO SIDE OF ROAD - DAY

A battered old pickup truck is parked by the New Mexico State
Patrol. An old man uses a crowbar to pry open the trunk.
The New Mexico State Patrolman hops out of the trunk.

Click to expand...

for what it's worth - the rasta dude scene is so much funnier and much more interesting and the decision to use him could have been made by any of tptb. the actor could have been one of the crew members b/c the old man in the pickup truck didn't show up for work or something. these things happen all the time.

well, most men who watched the movie squirmed because it brought out every single terrible part of men-dom there is, made a character out of them, and watched helplessly as the movie went on to be huge (going on memory here, so kindly cut me some slack if there was a male character who wasn't represenative of some kind of awful aspect). kinda like listening to your wife cheer on lorena bobbit.

that's okay, though: chicks need this kind of 'empowerment' fantasy. the trick is to realize that they'll be all hepped up on stuff like this for awhile, so's best ask for a sammich for a week or two. maybe bring 'em some flowers. ask them if they've lost weight. one thing's for sure, chances are we're not getting laid after our lady watches that flick. thanks, hollywood, thanks a lot.

where was i? ah, yes, i think smoking pot is part of their religion or something, isn't it?

Wow. You guys really get far afield. I assume if you are going to specify the race of a characteri is for a good reason. There is nothing wrong with it. All things are character and elements of an individual makes them what different. Are you stereotyping in a secondary character? Sure, you are. Sometimes it's just short hand. That';s not laziness. It's a matter of time. IF my Rastaferian is a card carrying republican, maybe I have time to explain that if he or she is a main character. Maybe that's a whole film. But ssometimes the biasis we hold about a character type is just simple short hand.

On the flipside of the "only define race when important" argument are writers like me. For some of my scripts I wanted to show a mixture of types, so I defined a lot of specific races to some of my characters in my Western and Cyberpunk scripts. Admittedly it is something from my days as a comic book geek, where you need to define to the nth what any character looked like, which included race.

FR

i'm not a big fan of the "only define race when important" but i must say that it was lou gossett, jr who made it easier for casting directors to assume that not all undefined characters need be white when he fought for his role in an officer and a gentleman

another good thing - when you pitch to someone who's "into" your story they usually you who you see for this role or that role. then you can bring up any actor, any race and steer things in your direction. you can also pitch and use the actor's name in place of your character's name which gives your story even more visuals because they can see who you see when you tell it.

chicks need this kind of 'empowerment' fantasy

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lol!
fatal attraction is always a good flick to keep your man from straying too far from the nest. michael douglas tried to reverse the effect in disclosure but it backfired b/c women just don't rape men.

well, i define race, and description. i like my characters, and when i invent them they have a specific look, or i'm thinking of a specific actor/actress who could play them (in my mind, never put names like that in a script). i put a race description in for the leads etc because it's important for me tha tif they ever do get filmed, they'd get cast as close to my vision as possible.