Wm Lambe

It is funny that half the people who admire this film for its activist components claim it has nothing to do with the Bush-bashers, just oppression in general - yet the other half admire it for putting the Bush administration in its cross hairs very specifically. They love to find the many inside code words and concepts that do this, but then miss the main point... that this film does glorify terrorism as a legitimate tool of revolution. "Blowing up buildings can change the world." Those who agree with the admittedly anti-Bush filmmakers place themselves firmly behind the hijackers who flew planes into the WTC and the Pentagon.

Whether Bush lied about Saddam Hussein or WMD (pretty much disproved because of the recent Hussein tapes that ABC released) makes little difference. Terrorism is evil by definition - and two evils do not make it right.

Interesting how the show used news cuts of Reagan embroiled in Iran-Contra or other derogatory reports in order to mark the time frame of the scene. The show ended with a Voice-over attesting to how Reagan's everlasting legacy will be making a creditor nation into a debtor nation.

Will Hollywood never tire of spinning political agenda instead of making good entertainment?

The characters were all parodies and the show seemed to be only about the wish of the creator to create a legacy. The actors chosen looked like John Forsythe, Linda Evans, and Joan Collins and were passable lookalikes - but were not credible acting impersonators. The show seemed aimed at defining the creator and producer - everything else was unimportant. Even the average viewers who were cut to every so often were parodies. If an unemployed overweight couch potato grousing at everything and his wife were the target demographic group then how the show ever made it past the first season is unknown. It seems "Muldavia" and "Crystal's evil twin" were Dynasty's self proclaimed Fonzie jumping the shark on waterskis wearing his leather jacket.

The Australian and New Zealand actors and camera teams seemed to distance the work from the Hollywood elites - but they are what they are. I noticed none of the directors or producers allowed their names to be attached to the actual presentation. They must have feared for their reputations or careers - yet put their idealogy out front.

Cambridge does an interesting lob playing a white man turned into a black man, but Van Peebles evidently wanted to make some pejorative assessments of both cultures. The negativity of the film is offset by slapstick and schtik - like the moment of awareness of the transition when Gerber goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night and when he gets off the toilet, a big black rear end fills the screen. The transition, itself, is never adequately explained: recessive gene gone berserk, sardonic God teaching a lesson, who knows?

The sad part of the film is the inability to ever find purchase in the community. Not everyone is bigoted but they are all portrayed as one big cliché. Any normal unbiased people are immediately put off by the reprehensible actions of Cambridge - so there are no friends or allies except of the same race - or more purely - of the same anger.

How nice this movie could have been if Van Peebles had allowed Gerber to rise to the top in spite of everything - to showcase hope instead of futility.