For Colored Girls, Analysis and Observations (not a Review)

I thought that I could review For Colored Girls, but I couldn't. So there are no spoilers here. What is interesting about the film is the integration of the poems "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf " into the film (it is not one poem, but actually 20). Nine women are the primary cast and six men consist of the supporting cast. There is a lot going on in this film, but what remains consistent is how far out what these women experience are.

If you could take the plot of Precious and multiply that by nine you have this film. But I actually enjoyed Precious a lot more. You have to read the poem to really appreciate this film, because dramatic climax in the recitation of lines from the original poem, sort of how songs are sung during dramatic, understated or ironic moments in a musical. I would have enjoyed it more if there weren't any obvious references to the poem, which is what I was expecting. It felt as though the movie stopped, then resumed, then stopped again, when the poem was being recited.

It wasn't really the flow I was expecting. But then again I am not really a fan of movies that follow too many characters anyway, but I can see where it works for someone else. Tyler Perry was the right person to lend his talents to this film because the stories play out in a similar fashion to those found in many of the plays and movies he has created to date. The stories were strong, and the emotion is felt and everyone delivered strong, compelling performances, unlike his other films with Janet Jackson where she typically steals the show.

The only criticism I would have is that it feels like a literal translation of the poems into a film. It would have been interesting to see Nzingha Stewart who was initially supposed to direct the film, bring it to the big screen. While Tyler Perry does okay with translating stories, and in this case, a series of 20 poems, to the big screen he isn't the best in Hollywood and there are a lot of other directors who could bring something different to the works he has adopted. But I have always had mixed feelings about Tyler Perry. I am still waiting for that film that goes outside of the box of the victimization and redemption of Black women. We all know that Black men are foul, but I often wonder if Tyler Perry's opinion of Black men is worse than that of the characters in his films.

The movie should have played out over time and fully exploit the depth of the work presented in these 20 poems. Spread it out over two or three films, make the films 3 hours a piece. If it weren't for the strong emotional performances tying it all together I don't know. Then again, this film will not disappoint fans because every single Black woman worth watching is in this film. Don't tell me that I didn't like the film because of the way that men were portrayed. I can get through these types of films, and even though I wanted to compare this film to "Waiting to Exhale" the collection of poems this film is based off is almost as old I am. Plus there were parts to "Waiting to Exhale" I actually liked.

To be totally honest, the women were portrayed about as negatively as the men were in this film. One highlight was Jo's husband telling her that wasn't gay, but just loves to have sex with men that he is not in love with and emotionally detached from. I wish that I could relate to that but I don't. For me if you want to have sex with people you are emotionally detached from you pick up women at a strip club or find a dark alley somewhere. But I guess the whole "down low" thing is about being in denial in the first place; men who want to be perceived as being masculine but in reality are struggling with their homosexuality. To me masculinity is more of a fleeting, state of mind, how I feel about myself at this moment type of thing. I was never a thug or a "man's man" or hyper-masculine or anything of the sort; I'm not a fairy or a fruit or anything like that but I am in touch with that softer side, or my femininity, or whatever. If I feel like crying I am not going to do anything to hide that from anyone, but it takes a lot for me to cry to begin with.

Yet I have to wonder, if we feel that bad about ourselves as Black men and we are just that pitiful exactly what is the point to our existence. Take the guy that did everything he could to come across as the perfect gentleman and was that boyfriend that everyone dreamed of. At the end of the day he was a serial rapist. That is the guy we all hear about, and that guy that no one really respects but if anyone actually knows him in real life no one is really doing anything to help him either. You just figure that is one sick dude and he can do what he wants to do but if he touches your family or anyone that is close to you one would have to kill him. I often wonder if the reason why men are so screwed up is because they know that they would never get any support from other men if they were to express the way that they truly are. Women hate them, but men hate them as well. All Tyler Perry can do is show these guys for the scum that they are and kill them off by the end of the movie, but the movies contain an endless series of men that are discarded that can easily be thrown away. That is the real reason I have a hard time getting into his male characters, because we rarely get to see what makes these guys tick and we are forced to see them through a woman's point of view.