[2018 feels like
it’s been about ten years in one, but it’s almost done, so this week I’ll
AmericanStudy a handful of the biggest stories from the year that was. I’d love
to hear your year in review thoughts as well!]
On one more
takeaway from one of the year’s (and history’s!)
biggest films.
I wrote an entire
weeklong series back in March on Black
Panther, and am not going to pretend I have a ton more to say about the
blockbuster (seriously, per this AMC article
it’s currently the third-highest grossing film of all time!), groundbreaking Marvel
superhero film. But most of the subjects in this year in review series are
gonna be pretty serious and kinda dark, so I thought for Christmas Day it made
sense to highlight one of the year’s most feel-good stories instead.
That feel-good
side to Black Panther’s uber-success
is what I wanted to focus on in this additional BP post. A year and a half ago I wrote
about the effects of broadening ethnic and cultural representations in the
recent Star Wars films, particularly
the strikingly multi-national Rogue One.
Black Panther comprises a parallel
but also distinct case, as it’s a mega-blockbuster Hollywood film featuring
a cast that is striking due to its largely shared African
and African American cultural heritage. As that last hyperlinked article
illustrates, it’s difficult to overstate the effect of such a cast on audiences
around the world, from those viewers who see
themselves represented so fully in a blockbuster film to those who see
a wider range of African and African American performers than they have
perhaps ever encountered in any other cultural work. In each of those and many
other cases, Black Panther has helped
expand not only the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also the horizon of cultural possibilities
for superhero stories, action films, and popular culture overall.
That’s most of
what I have to say about that, but for one more holiday season present for you
all, here are some pictures of kids
dressed as Black Panther characters.
Enjoy, and happy holidays, fellow AmericanStudiers!
Next reflection
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? 2018 reflections you’d share?
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