Trailer Trash - Movies I may not watch

"The Help"

I am an avid fan of the work of Viola Davis. When I first took notice of her work in Law & Order in the episode "Badge" I was taken aback by the dedication to her role and knew right away that she is the kind of artist that makes you love her work. You cannot turn away from her powerful performance.

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Whenever she has any work coming out I rush to find out all I can about the work, prepare myself weeks ahead for the movie, read the book if the movie is an adaptation, then sit back and enjoy her interpretation. Did I say I love Viola Davis? Just in case you didn't hear it - I LOVE VIOLA DAVIS!

So, I'm trolling the interwebs, reading the blogs I subscribe to, catching up on useless news and other clever articles when suddenly I come across a trailer of The Help. It is a movie based on a novel written by a first time author, Kathryn Stockett, who grew up in the south at a time when the help used different bathrooms. 

I cannot give you a better gist of the movie than the trailer. Go on. Click play.

Sigh.
Double sigh.
Triple sigh.

My problem (I still love you Viola Davis) is that we are telling these kinds of stories too. Stories like these exist from our perspective that show a different kind of independence and quest for freedom and equal rights that cannot be understood by people who lived under the white privilege.

It is like a boat trying to tell the story of the sea. What does the boat know of the beautiful creatures that live within it? The crags it hides behind when it escaping from an enemy bent on devouring it for dinner, the cycle of life it has to traverse from hatching or birth all the way to death, raising its spawn within the murky depths that the boat cannot reach. What does the boat know of the sea?

I want to watch this movie, if only to support the actors in it (who have to work too) and I may do my entire MPR (Movie Preparation Routine), but nothing will ever dampen my desire to see so many of the novels written by black women who have experienced the oppression of the 1950s and 60s, translated into movies and I know many of us feel the same way.

Sigh. Let's keep writing folks.

What did you think about the trailer? Will you go to watch The Help?