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Monster's Ball Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 85 Reviews)

Good Film though filled with Racist Stereotypes of black female sexuality
In one of my university courses we had a discussion about black female sexuality in society. It seems like black women in pop culture are still depicted as either the mammy roles such as Queen Latifah in "Bringing Down the House" or the whore such as Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball." A lot of people say the explicit sex scene was necessary I disagree. I also believe the sex scene takes away from the film. It just didn't make sense.
Angela Bassett turned down the role and she told Newsweek in an article in 2002 she didn't want to be in a movie that exploits black female sexuality. Look at the subliminal messages of this movie. So a black woman has to SLEEP with a white man JUST to win an Oscar. When is a black woman going to win an Oscar for merit. Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar in 1990 she's the only other LIVING black woman to be an academy award winner I think that says a lot about Hollywood and a lot about American society.

If You Haven't Seen It Yet, Definitely Check It Out
Monster's Ball is a riveting movie that takes you into a world many of us don't inhabit. Great performances are the icing on the cake here as well.

I'm in complete disagreement with comments that remark the film shows 'a black woman is sexually servicing a white man' - it's obvious the comments were written by someone who hasn't seen the movie and is just aware of the contoversial scene. Halle Berry doesn't play a prosititute in the film and Thornton is not her john, there is no money exchanged and no 'servicing' going on here. In fact, if the reviewer had watched the entire movie they would have found it quite clear that, if anything, Thornton's character was 'servicing' Berry's character. But when two lovers have sex, I've never found it common to describe either person has servicing the other. In addition, describing a film as 'racist' when it clearly and intentionally portrays at least two characters as racists is just a poorly framed comment written by someone with a chip on their shoulder. Berry did not get an Oscar for the sex scenes in the film, she won in spite of them.

Also the New Yorker's comments about "the plotting is sheer Hollywood in its schemes and coincidences" are misleading. The most interesting stories in our lives are full of coincidences and surprises ("you won't believe what happened to me today... you wouldn't believe who I ran into today"), they are what make a story worth telling in many cases.

The casting makes this story unbeleivable
THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN BECAUSE AMAZON RECOMMENDED THIS DVD BECAUSE OF MY HISTORY.

The story line is interesting. A woman becomes involved with a guard who was at her husband's execution. But the reason behind the realtionship is one of desparation.

For this to work, you need to have actors that this is reasonable. But Hallie Berry is just too beautiful and they have done nothing to make her look any less beautiful. As presented, she would have no problem attracting a variety of desirable men. There are a number of actress who would be physically better suited or they could have just made Hallie look plain but no, they had to not only go with the flavour of the year and make her look glamourous too boot.

Additionally, they give her a child that would never be hers and her husbands. But was choosen again to further the storyline.

This is an interesting story that was ruined by casting for dollars. While beautiful actresses have played plain characters (see Ann Margaret in Return of the Soldier) but they toned down their looks to be more realistic. This was not done for this movie.

Therefore, my final analysis is good story but unrealistic execution.

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