The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 05, 1980, Page Page 22, Image 22
Blacks i
while at
Beulah Land, the troubled
NBC miniseries about love
and life or ian antebellum
cotton plantation, has been
billet* by its critics as
television's Birth of a Nation
- a loathsome conseienpp
balm, portraying blacks
happily shuffling through
slavery.
The criticism was part of
the reason NBC delayed
showing the film as
scheduled last May, and
entirely the reason that NBC
ordered certain changes in
the film and is now in the
process of "selling" it to the
press.
FOR THE PAST few
weeks, NBC has arranged
special press screenings of
the six-hour miniseries,
followed by discussions with
me neiworK s ueulah Land
consultant, Dr. James
Blasingame.
And the press, for the most
part, has left these sesions
muttering "tempest in a
icapoi, jusi as iNBt naa
hoped.
Indeed, Beulah Land
doesn't seem especially
racist or derogatory to an
eye accustomed to such
abominable historical
romances as ABC's recently
rerun Love's Savage Fury.
And NBC's point that the
institution of slavery is not
the focus of Beulah Land, but
the background, seems p
Dorne out Dy tne rum.
For the most part, the
black slaves in Beulah Land
go about their dreary tasks
obligingly. They do not
appear to be overly joyous,
nor especially reluctant.
Resigned.
THIS IS what irks some
blacks, who insist that the
white-controlled movies and
f? ?- I ?*
icicviaiun ilUVC 1UI' SU lOIlg
sought to ease white guilt
over slavery by portraying it
as essentially humane, the
media owe some sort of
balancing consideration,
that is, the black point of
view.
For example, in one
seemingly benign scene
from the movie, a slave
woman is shown suckling
two children - one white, one
black - at her breast. It's
generally accepted that this
arrangement was fairly
common in the slave-owning
South, and the scene would
seem not inappropriate in a
romantic period fiction.
But Robert Price, a black
writer and member of the
Coalition to Stop the Airing
of 'Beulah Land,' says,
"That scene was conceived
of, written and shot as a
thing of joy, from a white
man's point of view.
"I would have like to have
seen how the man who slept
with that slave woman felt
about it, and how she felt
about it. Did she do it
willingly? If so, There is no
black point of view in this
movie.
AH, BUT that is what
Roots did and Beulah Land,
it can be argued, is not
I
orotest r
ztors stri
trying to be Roots. "Beulah
Land" is, on its bottom line,
a soap opera, nicely
photographed but not
especially probing.
Or, as one woman opposed <
tf> Roul/ih fyinW cniH "If ie
not revolutionary
television." i
NBC, at last check, was |
not in the revolution ?
business. 1
But if NBC has been under
fire for Beulah Land, it is
nothing compared to the i
strike problem confronting p
all three networks and c
threatening to cancel the j
whole fall television season. [
The strike by 67,000 actors
that has crippled the film s
ana television inaustry a
during one of its busiest s
seasons heads into its 43rd tl
day today, eclipsing the u
longest-ever Screen Actors r
Guild walkout against the Ii
>1.5 billion industry. si
tl
PRODUCERS REJEC- w
TED a new union proposal
this past weekend, and tl
although talks were continuing
"off an on" there was n
no sign of progress. And that pi
means more trouble for TV
networks that alreadv havp u
scheduled reruns instead of nr
new shows for their fall s
lineups. F
Contract talks continued B
late Sunday between movie a
and TV producers and union ?i
Im r " " _i * Ti
rseeu tsirn
Inform.
All informcition stric
All methods of bird
Convenient clinic h?
I.()\v (:osl ic>r service
VI) tosting/treatmer
I Yc^nnnry leslin^
Family Planning
| 1411 Barnwell St. Colurr
Iii
The la tost looks art waiting si
for you. Whether you're *53
bound for a football game, or
an evening out, you'll rate
straight A in an outfit from
Happy Dschery. Blasen by
Austin Hill, Justin, Eva, In
tv|niw. rrom 900
The ,
i/~ I
I Harden Street In I
Hbmmhmmbhmhhhh/. . A
MBC mi
Ike cont
representatives of SAG and
the American Federation of
Film and Television Artists.
The strike also has idled at
least 20,000 non-striking
craftsmen and technicians.
The longest previous SAG
walkout was in 1960, when
Ronald Reagan, the GOP
presidential candidate, was
serving his sixth term as
Dresident of the Guild.
TWENTY YEARS ago, the
mion was seeking com>ensation
for use of movies
>n regular television, plus a
>ension, health and welfare
>lan.
That six-week strike was
ettled when producers
greed to pay TV residuals
tarting in 1960. However,
he producers refused the
nion's demand for
etroactive pay to 1948.
nstead, they paid a lump
um of $2,625,000 to establish
le pension, health and
rf?lfarp nlan
Sunday's
round of talks in |
le current strike came on
le heels of management's
ejection of a new union
roposal Saturday.
"The chief negotiators for
oth sides have been
leeting today off and on,"
AG spokeswoman Kim
ellner said Sundav. 1
argaining had broken down
fter the first week of the
frike. which beean Julv 21.
ti Control!
ation?
:tly confidential 1
control available
ours/location
/S
2[>4-7rjr>[{ I
lbia, S.C.
/
|i yi i '
niseries
inues
but resumed Aug. 21.
"EVERYONE ASSUMES
we'll meet day-to-day until
it's settled," Ms. Fellner
said, "but that's not certain.
It all depends on what's on
the (bargaining) table."
Phil Myers, the producers'
negotiating committee
representative, said he could
not "predict what will
happen now."
*
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