Life, prison and the new slavery

I’m a big fan of Eddie Murphy’s acting chops. Even in movies that most people hate (Norbit is a great example) he demonstrates remarkable character-acting. This post is not about Murphy specifically, so I’ll refrain from attempting to further explore the nagging question of why he has not been able (or willing) to do what other 80s comedians (Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton to name two off the top of my head) have – be taken seriously doing drama while still being able to dabble in comedy periodically.

This post is about the 1999 movie Life, perhaps Eddie Murphy’s greatest. He’s had many great movies (Coming to America pops to mind on many levels), but Life is yet at another level still.

What’s my name? Coming to America and self-determinism

I've got the Lakers/Thunder game on and there's a stream of tweets ridiculing Metta World Peace (born Ron Artest) for his change of name. I find it all the more remarkable as I reflect in the context of Black History Month.

It was 1967. Cassius Clay had changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Leading up to one of his earliest fights after the name change, opponent Ernie Terrel continued to refer to him as "Clay," publicly disrespecting Ali's decision to change his name.

Ali spent 15 rounds beating Terrel up while yelling at him, "What's my name?!"

The Distinguished Gentleman

I am an Eddie Murphy fan. Pound for pound, he may be the best "actor" in Hollywood. In any given movie, he can make you believe he's a cheesy lounge singer, or Jewish, or Asian, or a geek, or a professor, or the professor's mother, or father, or grandmother, or a robot...I'm not speaking to the scripts he accepts, but insofar as playing a role, he's covered plenty of ground from cop to crook.

Most people who remember his 80s material will long for those more earthy roles against the kiddie movie fluff he's been doing of late (although, as Disney can tell you, there's money in kiddie fluff). However, it isn't to say all his earlier films are nothing but "filth, flarn, flarn, filth" - an all too easily forgotten gem is The Distinguished Gentleman.