Photographer, filmmaker, poet, musician, author, activist, businessman.
Gordon Parks was one bad mutha-shut-yo-mouf...
Blog by reformed leftist "Paul Hue", and his friends, including some UnReformed Leftists; the headlines reflect these competing views.
9 comments:
I read The Learning Tree as a young boy, and very much admired his film Leadbelly. However, Shaft doesn't stand up, though it was sure important.
The score on Shaft was more important than the film itself. It is irritating that the media is highlighting that film as his best known work. He was famous before he made that movie. That was just his biggest commercial success.
This is what is wrong with this society. Success as an artist (or anything else in life for that matter) is determined by the amount of money you make, and not by the quality of the work or the lives you touch.
I guess you'll be perfectly happy being a starving artist the rest of your life then, huh?
No. It sucks. But I don't believe the quality of my work has anything to do with how much money I make at it. If anything my being a starving artist says more about my lack of business skills than it does about my art.
"But I don't believe the quality of my work has anything to do with how much money I make at it."
Unfortunately you are absolutely correct here, as is evidenced by the total crap that gets passed off on as "art" on and gobbled up by the public.
Actually, from what I've observed, you seem to be pretty good at both aspects of the biz. I like, for the most part, at least what I've heard anyway, your music (although, the political content of some songs may alienate as many listeners as it attracts, but that's another subject) is very good and you seem very organized and polished in your business approach.
The problem is, in the end the music biz is still a crap shoot. Right place, right time, that kind of shit.
Let's not get *too* down on Shaft. Yes, it's preposterously plotted and acted, but it has many great shots of gritty '70s NY, fully taking advantage of GP's photographic eye.
And let us all give props to the wardrobe department. Richard Roundtree had more style than any ten of today's stars.
No doubt. Shaft provided the template for a generation of film and tv cop dramas as well.
Tom: I haven't seen Leadbelly since we were kids. I remember it as excellent. But I also incorrectly recalled Shaft as excellent; a recent viewing sunk that boat. But parts of it, including the charactor "Shaft" and the theme song it inspired, achieve genius status.
People incorrectly recall "Shaft" as "blacksploitation." Actually, it was not. "Blackploitation" films were created mostly by whites catering to the audience that Shaft proved existed, but with garbage that didn't even try to be good. "Shaft" tried to be good. And the self-taught high school dropout Parks was taking his first shot. In the process he made a movie that at the time was dangerous and revolutionary.
Post a Comment