Jo Arendt - Antwone Fisher Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/embed/kA4iq4dgZwY
Antwone is shown battling a range of emotions: anger, fear, anxiety, desire. This trailer sets the viewer up to expect the story of Antwone's journey to understand the feelings that come up from his troubled past, as well as find his family along the way. The trailer uses dramatic music and the most emotionally volatile clips from the film to highlight the personal journey that the film entails.
Antwone opens up to his psychiatrist, Davenport. Washington, Denzel. "Antwone Fisher (2002) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers." 0:50, 2002. https://youtu.be/kA4iq4dgZwY.
This film highlights the social restraint society puts on Black men in terms of their ability to express "weakness," psychologically struggle, and vulnerability. This is highlighted through Antwone's struggle with aggression, which he discovers is used as a coping mechanism to protect him from the traumas he experienced growing up. This is significant because it reframes the misguided and racist expectation that Black men uphold masculinity through emotional unavailability. The film does so by portraying Antwone as someone who lives in the fear of this societal expectation, yet is surrounded by a strong support system, including a psychologist. In this way, Antwone, the love interest, and the therapist all benefit from this system that circumvents the repression of emotion.
-The film does not portray Antwone as the exact opposite of expectations of Black masculinity and instead allows him to have both strong and soft facets of his character. How does avoiding polarization of the issue strengthen the film's impact?
-What does it strengthen the film's impact to tell this story strictly through Antwone's perspective, rather than third-person omniscient or by braiding other character's stories?
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