By Hipolito Munoz, Managing Editor/Publisher
“Dolemite is My Name,” it is not for children, and it raises flags, but it also brings to the screen so many super talented artists that we would not see working together otherwise. At the core, this is a film about pursuing your dream. It is about what it takes to pursue your vision, and how to roll with the punches of rejection in a world that does not believe in you. A perspective through the eyes of a struggling dreamer and its also a lesson on what it takes to be an independent filmmaker; an entrepreneur, a necessity if you are a person or color or a woman.
The story is a perfect representation of what we expect to see from Eddie Murphy, and everyone in his cast, except for Wesley Snipes, I did not expect that… there is a tendency in financial Hollywood to not support stories that they do not recognize, care for, or connect with to be told. It takes outsiders, titans in this industry, such as Eddie Murphy, to illuminate pioneers such as Rudy Ray Moore, who died in 2008. It takes story tellers of all backgrounds to help us understand the full story of the world, and it takes the wild eyed dreamers to accomplish what others that just want to live a regular life, only think and long for, the active dreamers risk, and although many lose, some, enough of them like Rudy Ray Moore and Eddie Murphy succeed and inspire others to be bold and create opportunities for those that need that leader who is willing to choose to risk and lose.
We need more of these films, as crude as it feels and is, it wakes up the senses of those who understand why films, regardless of the distribution platform, are so important. Whoever finances the films, can control the creative, can control distribution and can influence cultures. There is much that people can dismiss about a story, but a story that is seen throughout the world, changes perceptions, opens up minds and can create the type of change of heart that influences actions, good or bad.
There is no way to tell the story in a G rated fashion, just as we can’t really tell the story of those represented in the film in a less than PG-13 rating. The character’s lives are tough, and the world they live in has created a system designed to make their lives rough and dismissive, that tradition continues today.
“Dolemite is My Name” is a gift, a crude gift, but gift none the less to those who dream and are dismissed, it’s a challenge to those that do not take them seriously and a reminder that we must continue to dream and a guide on how to do it. If you are “woke,” you will cringe… and then laugh.
