Within Our Gates Film Analysis

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The four films serve our historic visualization of the past’s realities. What the four films share strongest are the representations of African Americans in the past, and what we can see as immoral today. The earliest of the four films Within Our Gates by Oscar Mischuax depicts a lot of these historical messages/representations that all four films share. The title says it all, it brings an inside perspective of what it would have been like as an African American in the 1920’s. During this race film era we have the infamous Birth of a nation that paved the way for false black stereotypes of the future. One of Mischuaxs soul purposes of his film is too respond to D.W. Griffiths Birth of Nations false representations of the south and blacks in …show more content…
The films plot is essential to background history and again shares historic accuracy just as the other three films. The film is set to take place on an island in the west indias. The divide of social inequality between the British (upper class) who colonized the island, and the (lower class) native population. The Upper class is predominately white with the exception of only David Boyeur (a young African American man emerging as a powerful politician). The lower class/native population consist of only of a black cast. The biggest evidence of the social inequality within the native population consist of the jobs on the island. Labor jobs seemed to be the only choice for this lower class. This included sugarcane harvesting, fishing, and farming. All white characters in this film are wealthy or are in the position of authority. We also have characters of have inheritance of plantations of the island. We see many scenes of African Americans hard at work while the boss is in charge. Obviously this is exploiting the former existence of slavery and hierarchy of the Whiteman being on top. A positive image of the African American is the use of David Boyeur. His character as a leader and a well-spoken black man of intelligence is the opposite of the Black stereotype. He has power politically evidently in many scenes. Boyeurs relationship is also a step forward in film industry but also shows truth that interracial relationships are acceptable. Boyeur has an interracial romance with Mavis Norman a white female of status. The film is a step forward to an extent. Reasons being, viewing a film of this stature today we find in the scenes of hard labor being glorified with songs and positive emotion. We also never see Boyeur and Norman kiss or show any physical contact. For the film being produced in the 50’s it had its limitations. The country and Hollywood

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