Brian's Song : REALLY Racist Movie

There was a lot of unnecessary racist banter by Piccolo in the film: *beep* Spade Piccolo, chitlins, et al

Was Piccolo really this way, or was this movie just a sign-of-the-times, like "All in the Family"?

Shut up!

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Shut up!

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ditto

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Man is the warmest place to hide.

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Oh please. Depending on the context, most guys will share rude, sexist and racist statements as a show of male comraderie. I know that throughout high school and college, my best friend would throw racist remarks at each other in good clean fun.

He would call me "wetback" and I would call him a "mick". At no time did either one of us feel anger because we knew it was meant in fun. If two people are comfortable with each, than stereotypical racist tags are not taken at face value. Piccolo and Sayers were comfortable with each other and the use of those terms was meant in fun.

BTW....despite my best friend and I calling each other "wetback" and "mick"....I ended up being his best man at his wedding.

johnfuen, I agree with you 100%. I do NOT think this movie was racist -- quite the contrary -- and I think it showed inter-racial closeness and harmony in a very racist time.

Spoken by the Thought Police. Piccolo was no racist and you can ask Sayers himself and get the same answer. Get lost.

agreed. all this dialogue was typical jock talk. Bring'n out the shhheeet to deal with it. NBD.

He was joking around. Go preach to somebody else.

I know. Cut out the race card.

first off, Piccolo, both in the movie and in real life, used stereotypes of all kinds to break down walls and show how silly they are ... in real life, one Bears front office executive was assigned the task of making sure all the black players were getting on ok, no problems with white players etc, since, after all, this is 1965 ... Piccolo would always go over whenever this exec was around and start harping on him, 'what'cha doing for the dagos? what about us wops? we need looking after too' ... disarming and not racist but showing how silly all the attitudes are

and if i may add that Lenny Bruce said in many of his stand-up routines that if we just keep using these racial epithets over and over and over they will eventually just lose their potency, their ability to hurt, they'll just be words and that's all ...

this move shows that dancing around the issues, avoiding them at all costs only allows them to fester and grow stronger in the darkness ... sunlight is the best medicine

You mean like the "n" word? Even Piccolo couldn't say it.

Really racist movies? Any movie that supports abortion, which kills minority babies at higher rates than white babies.

Shut up!

Ah, but Brian DID say the 'N word,' in Gale's basement when they were doing the leg lifts.

Pick: *beep* CHICKEN *beep*

Gale: Oh, Pick! Don't make me laugh! Please!

Brian (after Gale teases Brian about 'trying' to call him a *beep* Lay off, man! What was I SUPPOSED to do? Call you a WOP?

Gale: Now, that'd make me MAD!

PS--In case anybody doesn't know, 'wop' is considered a racial slur against Italians, much like the 'n word' is against blacks.


<i>"Has anybody ever told you you have a SERIOUS IMPULSE CONTROL PROBLEM??[/i]"

Euromarkusx,
You must be some kind of pussy who never played sports or had a friend from a different race. Get real.

You are one dumbass. Grow up.

The movie was not racist. It was loosely based on the friendship of two real life people. I am sure that the writers. directors and producers took some liberties with the movie, but the fact that Piccolo used what we "politically correct" people nowadays would consider a racial slur shows the era in which they lived. Remember the part where the coach said something about Piccolo being the first player to have to share a room with a black player? We are talking early 60's, and the racial slurs at that time were par for the course.

In 2015, if a black man calls another black man the N word, everyone is up in arms about it. I say what's the big deal? You only need to be sensitive about stuff like that if you do not know who you are. If you do know who you are, then you don't let something that small get you all worked up.

I get your point, and to some extent it _is_ a reflection of the era, but the truth is you'd hear a lot more of this sort of thing now than people realize. You're expected not to be a sensitive flower at an NFL training camp (or at NBA preseason training, and for the most part in MLB spring training). It becomes an issue when something leaks to the public, and then everybody has to do the required bowing and scraping for PR purposes. But for the kind of people bothered by the kind of talk in this film, it's probably a good idea to stay away from environments like that. Or better yet, they might want to just go find a place to toughen up, for God's sake.

Over your hypersensitivity yet?

I'd suggest avoiding any environments like an NFL camp or NBA preseason training.

Ditto to that sage!

Yeah ya moron, see we used to live in a world where people could take a joke. We used to live in a MUCH better place.

A white man with no close black friends, or a black man with no close white friends would say something like what you say here.

Shut up.

Why should he shut up, as what he said is the truth.

Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

There seems to be a very fine line between being racist, sexist etc and genial banter these days.

It is odd that some of the racial banter in this 46 year old made-for-TV movie is now bleeped out when the film is shown on TV. Personally, when I hear someone talk the way Brian Piccolo speaks in this movie, I come to one of two conclusions: 1.) Either the guy is unapologetically racist, or 2.) The guy is so comfortable around a racially mixed race environment that he can lessen the racial tension around him by making fun of it, with no hurt feelings.

In this film, I believe that Piccolo falls into the second category.