I read the book in English class, and now we are watching the movie in class. We're almost done with the movie. It sucks. It's scarring. And I think that the book was just as bad.
I will never be able to look at Oprah the same way again.
The End.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
I hate this movie too. I thought it would be good since Oprah was in it. -_- What the hell was I thinking? Lol It was disturbing and just...not good. After I saw this movie my respect for Oprah just vanished. It's sickening.
"Oh wait, I don't have a cell phone! 'Cuz I'mma pothole!"
sickening? Wow. I mean, you guys are definitely entitled to your own opinion. But this book (mind you, Toni Morrison won a Nobel Prize for it!)speaks of a humanity deeper than many today will ever understand. Within that humanity is a hardship and a suffering that is nearly unbearable. Morrison sought to bring this to her readers - to help them understand and get inside the mind and soul of slaves that were treated as less than human. The beauty of this book and of the movie can be scarring, yes, because of its extreme shock nature. But I believe it is necessary. It is necessary for us - whether white, brown, or black - to understand what happened to those people as slaves. To understand the way they were treated.
shareYeah, well AlGore won a Nobel Prize. Suffice to say they've diminished in value. As for the movie, Oprah's in it. What more can you say? Outside of screaming fire at the top of your lungs, I can't think of a better or faster way to empty a theater.
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She didn't win the Nobel Prize for Beloved, she won the Pulitzer, and they don't hand those out like they do Nobel Prizes.
sharesorry, that's what I meant. Pulitzer. ;) And I'll admit I found the book MUCH better than the movie. I was not particularly "stunned" by Oprah's performance.
shareShe won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer for Beloved.
shareOK, before I state my opinion, I want to say that I'm a black woman. Now this film was one of the most disturbing and awful films I've ever watched in my entire life! Through out the film, it was so dull, dark and depressing. There was no breaks in between. It was just a sad and mentally abusive to watch. After the film had ended, I felt this dark depressing cloud looming over my head. This was 10 years ago. I haven't watched it since. I will never watch this again. By the way, I have watched slave movies before and most of them have never made me feel like that at all.
shareThen maybe the movie did its job. Slavery was disturbing and awful and if the other slave movies didn't make you feel that way, then they weren't effective.
shareIt was the most confusing movie I've ever sat through. I spent the whole 2 hours trying to figure out who was who, and what was going on, and why. It was a mess. Surely SOME part of a movie should be linear, not jumping all over the place. This was a vanity piece for Oprah, and it lost a lot of money because no one could figure it out.
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I wholeheartedly disagree. The movie is very ambitious and not that hard to understand if you pay attention. There are some things that could benefit from better explanation, but I don't think it debilitates the movie at all. As for the novel, maybe something is wrong with the reading skills of some of the posters here. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I'll give mine: Toni Morrison's novel is a masterpiece and I'm not the only person that thinks so.
shareAn unbiased fan of Toni Morrison's book can still accept that whatever its merits, there will be those who love or hate the book/film for highly personal reasons. These posters may be citing the film's murky point of view but that is only one reason; not everyone can express themselves with the eloquence of a writer and there is always much more going on emotionally when someone likes/dislikes a film. There's rarely one reason. Beloved disappointed me and my bias (fondness, actually) for Jonathan Demme would predispose me towards the film. I needn't go into all the reasons why I feel it's lacking because I'm more interested in why other viewers feel it succeeds or fails. You've expressed your opinion strongly, but it's nonetheless a compelling point of view until you denigrate the reading skills of previous posters. A highly educated, well-read person may fail to enjoy a book, or in this case, a film, for numerous reasons. I daresay in your lifetime there are a few classics or other highly regarded books that you didn't enjoy; even some you didn't finish reading. That doesn't make you a poor reader, only a selective reader.
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Alright, It's not like I have an A in AP English Literature and Language or anything... you don't know anything about me; to insult me like that is just rude. I am entitled to my own opinion, and I did not like the book. I thought it was creepy and portrayed both slave owners and slaves, and freed slaves in a bad light. I've also read another of her books, "The Bluest Eye", and it was just as bizarre and scarring. There was no need for you to insult my intelligence or my so-called "brain capacity" just because my opinion differs from yours.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
haha as if an A in AP English Literature means anything... grow up. Yes, you're entitled to your own opinion, but don't try to act like you know more than you do.
This apple may be fake but at least it has stars on it.
I'm not trying to act like I know more than I do. I know that honestly, I know basically nothing. I'm just trying to state that this person's insult about my "brain capacity" was ridiculous and unfounded. It was also just an unnecessary attack on me personally that wasn't needed for that person to get his/her point across. That's all.
p.s. Did/do you go/went to Duke? Did/do you like it?
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Duke you certainly don't "rox" to me -- you're just downright abusive and insulting towards posters who have done nothing to earn your ill-placed (if not also weakly supported) venom. Your cattiness towards poster "runagain" was expressly uncalled-for. It's said that a person who stoops to insults is a [person] who is admitting that s/he is incapable of debating the other person's statements (paraphrased).
Feel free to 'hate' the book and insult it and/or it's author all you like, but here's one fact you can't argue with: Not only did it sell a stunning number of copies, it also spent innumerable weeks -- in some cases, months -- in the top five of numerous *notable* best-seller lists.
Aside from the prestigeous awards this book garnered, suffice it to say that no less than hundreds of thousands of people in multiple countries found "Beloved" to be an incredible book. As far as I'm concerned, that certainly doesn't give much credence to the comparatively miniscule few who didn't care for it on this thread, or even this entire board.
Alright, this is a pretty old post and I wrote it when I was in high school, but here goes. I don't think I was unnecessarily rude at all. It's true, an A in ap literature means absolutely nothing. Honestly, I don't think your response to me is seeping with understanding either. Seriously, "abusive," "insulting," "catty"? It was one freaking sentence, not a tirade. And I don't see what it has to do with you at all.
This apple may be fake but at least it has stars on it.
i liked the book..im not sure what put you off about it in specific terms but it was gruesome and seemed over the top at times but im not sure if thats because my own lack of knowledge about the validity of the book and journey im suppose to go on whilst reading..
shareThe thing with Morison's novels is that 70% of the time you need to be really well versed in literary theory to understand and appreciate what she's trying to get at. She writes extremely literary novels, and there's a subtext to everything she says. If you have the tools to decode all that I think you will at least appreciate what she's putting across. And I stress the word 'tools' in that sentence, because this isn't about being 'clever enough', or 'too dumb', it's just about learning to read in a certain way. Having said that all of Morison's novels are depressing, and for that reason definitely not something I would indulge in for pleasure. They take a lot out of you, and really mess with your head. I read 'The Bluest Eye' a year ago, and I'm still not over it, but I did gain a lot from it as well.
shareLet's be real, 'code'??? Seriously are you going there???? Let me tell you and everybody else, I've done a Creative Writing Degree and I've read her book The Bluest Eye. It was disturbing!!! She's all about getting people to tap into the dark side. Let me tell you that it is foul!!! So was Beloved. Peversion sells and so does sex. It sells more when you mix the two together. Just because it sold so many copies, doesn't mean its morally right. An example, the novel Lolita; that was so disturbing I only read a few chapters and took back to the shop and got my money back. That was peverted and Pedo to a T!!! That nasty book sold very well too. It doesn't make it morally right.
shareI've read her book The Bluest Eye. It was disturbing!!!
She's all about getting people to tap into the dark side.
Let me tell you that it is foul!!!
Perversion sells and so does sex. It sells more when you mix the two together.
An example, the novel Lolita; that was so disturbing I only read a few chapters and took back to the shop and got my money back.
Simple.... One of the greatest books in modern English Literature was translated into one of the worst adaptations of film on screen. I think it is very challenging to adapt a book (especially one of such high quality) to be done by a Director who is able to portray their vision with originality mixed with loyalty to the source material. Few Directors are able to accomplish that, such as the great Kubrick, Jonathan Demme is a good director but not nearly technically gifted enough to adapt this brilliant piece of literature (no disrespect but this is no "A Silence of the Lambs)
shareHaving done a Creative Writing degree does not make your statements any more valid. I hold an English Literature Degree, have specialised in post-colonial literature and studied Morrison's work in depth.
If all you got from reading The Bluest Eye is 'sex and perversion sell' then you are completely missing the point. The novel isdisturbing. I don't enjoy reading Morrison's work for this very reason, and would/have never read her novels from personal choice.
Having said that, The Bluest Eye is a commentary on the psychological damage racial prejudices cause. It shows how people of colour can destroy their own and each-others lives through internalising racism.
The thing with Morison's novels is that 70% of the time you need to be really well versed in literary theory to understand and appreciate what she's trying to get at. She writes extremely literary novels, and there's a subtext to everything she says. If you have the tools to decode all that I think you will at least appreciate what she's putting across. And I stress the word 'tools' in that sentence, because this isn't about being 'clever enough', or 'too dumb', it's just about learning to read in a certain way. Having said that all of Morison's novels are depressing, and for that reason definitely not something I would indulge in for pleasure. They take a lot out of you, and really mess with your head. I read 'The Bluest Eye' a year ago, and I'm still not over it, but I did gain a lot from it as well.
In other words, it's pretentious shit. It's what supposed to pass for "art" these days according to the snobs.
shareIn other words, her writing is dense and inaccessible. In other words, she does not write clearly. That’s known as bad writing, self-indulgent writing, a book written for the author and not for an audience, sometimes mistaken for genius.
EDIT Strat, I’d not read as far as your post before writing this, but we’re on the same page. I don’t have to read the book to know that I don’t want to read the book at this point, because I like myself too much to read it. And name me one good movie with Oprah in it?
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I couldn't agree more. I read it in my English class 20 years ago and I didn't have the slightest clue as to what was going on in that book on any single page I read. Nor did it make me want to care! I'm watching the movie on tv now and it makes more sense to me now but still seems very bizarre and an unnecessary movie.
Before Beloved in that English class we read Catch 22, now that was a book that kept me turning pages not to mention laughing in hysterics!
You people are on crack. Beloved is one of the best American novels ever written, bar none. There is no argument to be had here. Sorry.
shareYes, people are on crack. The problem is, these days, that true readers and real movie lovers don't like or understand books and movies with artistic merit. Anything that goes outside the general populations safe zone is a prime target for derision.