For Colored Girls | Movie Review
A few days ago, I watched a movie entitled For Colored Girls. Well, although the title says "for colored girls", it does not mean that us, boys, are not allowed to watch this movie! So here is my review about the movie.
As a play-inspired movie, For Colored Girls offer its viewers with the experience of watching plays in a movie. It can be felt once you watch it. In the opening of the movie, there are nine Black women having monologue but each monologue corresponds to each other. It is a great opening. The nine Black women deal with each individual conflict, probably as consequences of becoming woman in general and Black woman in particular, such as rape, abortion, love, infidelity, etc. The nine Black women have their own plot but each plot correlates.
I am not going to provide a plot summary in this review since me myself find it difficult to summarize the plot of the movie. So, if you are interested in reading the plot summary of the movie, I can recommend that you read Wikipedia as it provides reliable plot summary (click here).
Having watched For Colored Girls, I more think about "woman". I think that no matter strong they are, at some point "woman" always becomes the victim of many social issues in life. It's not that I am saying woman are weak by nature. Rather, I argue that it is caused by many practices in various society and culture (in this case I am referring to Indonesian culture and American culture) that have positioned women in the weaker positions.
For example, I am taking example of a scene in the movie that shows Yasmine being raped. She cannot charge the raper because she "invites" the guy to have dinner in her house. She is told that if she presses charges she will only be ridiculed since the prevailing norms and customs in American culture says that when a woman invites a man to her house means that she welcomes him to have sex with her. Yasmine, however, really has no intention to have sex with him. She cries when the man forcibly rapes her. But once again, she cannot do much about it since the prevailing norms.
Probably it is in par with what happening in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta. The prevailing raping cases in public transportation triggered Fauzi Bowo, the Governor of Jakarta, to blame it on the girls for wearing mini skirts (A nice addressing about this issue is provided by my friend, Safitri Bonea in her blog posting entitiled Oh Rok Mini). These instances point to the same thing i.e. woman is always the one to blame.
For me myself, after watching For Colored Girls, I have more appreciation for woman in general. Watching this movie makes me realize that it is never easy of becoming woman. They have issues and problems that we, men, will never understand. I think For Colored Girls become a bridge to understand woman's feeling. I personally find the movie interesting for people who are concerned in gender issues.
Well, generally I am in favor of the movie plot. I love it. However, there are so many drama/play elements that make layman who are not play literate or at least "literature" literate find it difficult to understand. Some of the monologue are even not easy to grasp. Therefore I will give the movie 6 of my 10 points
Technorati code: RP6YZ2PEJUR8
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| For Colored Girls Movie Poster from Rottentomatoes |
As a play-inspired movie, For Colored Girls offer its viewers with the experience of watching plays in a movie. It can be felt once you watch it. In the opening of the movie, there are nine Black women having monologue but each monologue corresponds to each other. It is a great opening. The nine Black women deal with each individual conflict, probably as consequences of becoming woman in general and Black woman in particular, such as rape, abortion, love, infidelity, etc. The nine Black women have their own plot but each plot correlates.
The characters are represented by a color: Jo/Red (Janet Jackson), Juanita/Green (Loretta Devine), Yasmine/Yellow (Anika Noni Rose), Tangie/Orange (Thandie Newton), Alice/White (Whoopi Goldberg), Gilda/Gray (Phylicia Rashad), Crystal/Brown (Kimberly Elise), Nyla/Purple (Tessa Thompson), and Kelly/Blue (Kerry Washington). (For Colored Girls, Wikipedia)Well, it may feel so "crowded" watching nine main characters in the movie, each with her own heartbreaking story.
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| The nine characters of For Colored Girls from CHUD.com |
Having watched For Colored Girls, I more think about "woman". I think that no matter strong they are, at some point "woman" always becomes the victim of many social issues in life. It's not that I am saying woman are weak by nature. Rather, I argue that it is caused by many practices in various society and culture (in this case I am referring to Indonesian culture and American culture) that have positioned women in the weaker positions.
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| Yasmine and the man who eventually rapes her, from encorentertaintment.blogspot.com |
Probably it is in par with what happening in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta. The prevailing raping cases in public transportation triggered Fauzi Bowo, the Governor of Jakarta, to blame it on the girls for wearing mini skirts (A nice addressing about this issue is provided by my friend, Safitri Bonea in her blog posting entitiled Oh Rok Mini). These instances point to the same thing i.e. woman is always the one to blame.
For me myself, after watching For Colored Girls, I have more appreciation for woman in general. Watching this movie makes me realize that it is never easy of becoming woman. They have issues and problems that we, men, will never understand. I think For Colored Girls become a bridge to understand woman's feeling. I personally find the movie interesting for people who are concerned in gender issues.
Well, generally I am in favor of the movie plot. I love it. However, there are so many drama/play elements that make layman who are not play literate or at least "literature" literate find it difficult to understand. Some of the monologue are even not easy to grasp. Therefore I will give the movie 6 of my 10 points
Technorati code: RP6YZ2PEJUR8
haven't heard and even watched the movie.
ReplyDeletebut from the review above, i conclude that this movie is full of 'need-to-think' scene. but it can inspire use to appreciate women.
and the poster is nice. pop art.
oh yeah indeed, that's the point 'inspiring us to appreciate women' :) although it is not an easy movie to digest, for me at least hehehee
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