Re:[5] Round Four: Rise and Vote, gentlemen and scoundrals
February 09, 2006 · by Burley Grymz · Permalink · comment on this post in the forum · Category: Original Version, the screenplay
Did I call you out?
No, you didn't--I don't think you had a problem with it, but some readers did, and also I think some people made comments during a live reading we had, although I'd have to dig through my notes to remember. But since we're talking about this more, I thought I'd dig up the scene and put it out there, let people judge for themselves. It was longer originally, but got shortened when for the version that was actually submitted.
To me, the interesting thing was that people seemed to take issue with a white guy writing a black guy doing something that lots of black guys do--talking about hip-hop. But, just because lots of black guys do it doesn't mean that all black guys do it, and therefore it's potentially a stereotype. To our credit, this same character also did a mean Groucho Marx impersonation, so he was far from stereotypical.
In this scene, set at the fictional Bierce Academy of Visual Arts, the three characters are students: David, the black character, a painter, Bernardo, a jazz pianist from Italy, and Sharpe, a "doll revolutionary" -- a bit of a full-of-himself rube and Bernardo's roommate.
INT. BIERCE CAFETERIA - EVENING
David and Bernardo are sitting at a round table. In
front of them plates that have been picked clean.
BERNARDO
But there is no melody, no counter point, no dynamic
range. It is all...
He pounds on the table with his fist BOOM BOOM
BOOM.
BERNARDO
...all the time.
DAVID
See, now, you're missing some subtleties. But the
biggest thing you're missing, besides that you ain't the audience, brutha, is
that hip-hop is a dialog....
Sharpe walks up with a full tray, and drops it noisily on the
table.
SHARPE
I fucking love hip-hop.
BERNARDO
I am glad you have headphones.
SHARPE
I love that hardcore, gangsta shit, man. Fuck the
poh-lice! Ha ha. Old school rocks.
DAVID
...aaaaand the dialog is over.
