I think its very unfortunate and foolish that people are passing comment without having seen the film and trying to promote their own agenda.People like Toyin at Ligali.Who seems to make a good real-life version of Councillor Watts. Shoot the Messanger is a very good drama because of the topic.Its a film and it has to caricature stereotypes to broaden its scope.Its a mainly a discussion on the state of Black youth.How they have deviated from the hard-working and responsible older generation to the single-mums, men in jail and work shy violent youths.Before any myopic morons scream racism these are problems prevalent in the black community though not exclusive to them.However Black men make 1% of the British population but make up 12% of the prison popultaion.49% of Black families are single parents predominately single-mums. While single-mums try and do their best.Children with both parents are more well-adjusted and responsible than those from single-parent families.This is a fact! There is so far one can bury their heads in the sand and make excuses of racism.Why doesn't this racism effect Indians and Chinese.Its a wake-up call for better parenting and better role-models for young black men, other than their local gangsters, footballers and rappers.Unfortunately the target audience of black youths will probably never see this film and those denouncing it are in self-denial. They are making excuses and passing the blame rather than tackling the problem.The Black prison population and single-parents are a problem.Which need to be corrected.
A beautiful quote in the film by the middle-aged black lady who befriends Joe, "black people are crabs in a barrel, they wont escape because they will keep pulling each other down". I believe this is the essence of the film, when men like Joe, the writers,director and middle-class blacks achieve success they are derided as being "white" or traitors.If people take responsibility for themselves and do not belittle other blacks for achieving.They themselves will do well. This applies to all races and creeds.But this film is by a black cast to wake-up their community.The film is about self-analysing the problems in their own communities.There should be other films on other communities to reflect on their problems be it Muslims and honour killings, Whites and single parents or Indians and pressure on their children to study.They all exist and should be open to discussion and improvement, not to be swept under the carpet.
A beautiful quote in the film by the middle-aged black lady who befriends Joe, "black people are crabs in a barrel, they wont escape because they will keep pulling each other down". I believe this is the essence of the film, when men like Joe, the writers,director and middle-class blacks achieve success they are derided as being "white" or traitors.If people take responsibility for themselves and do not belittle other blacks for achieving.They themselves will do well. This applies to all races and creeds.But this film is by a black cast to wake-up their community.The film is about self-analysing the problems in their own communities.There should be other films on other communities to reflect on their problems be it Muslims and honour killings, Whites and single parents or Indians and pressure on their children to study.They all exist and should be open to discussion and improvement, not to be swept under the carpet.