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Chadwick “Black Panther” Boseman, 1976-2020
Chadwick Boseman passed Friday following a four-year struggle with cancer, according to the New York Post. The Black Panther film filled theaters here like none other, as mostly black audiences cheered and laughed and clapped and, at the end, gave it a standing ovation. A week after the opening. It was the biggest crowd reaction I’ve experienced.
He also played Jackie Robinson in 42 and Justice Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. Marshall is very good.
Rest in Peace.
Published in Entertainment
RIP, kid.
Bummer. I enjoyed his movies.
It’s amazing to me that he was able to keep his illness undisclosed for so long, given how much he was in the spotlight. Tentpole movies are also exhausting to film and promote. To get into the superhero movie physique and keep it while sick is incredible.
I was very sorry to hear about his death. A very talented man.
Oh! What?! How terribly sad. I had no idea.
What a damn shame.
The news of Boseman’s passing saddens and startles me. I will pray for his family. Thanks for reminding me of Marshall. I will have to look it up. 42 was terrific.
This gives Marvel an opportunity to make the Black Panther a woman or trans. Or better yet, a cis female white woman who identifies as a black man.
Cancer is an intensely personal battle for so many. I am thankful Chadwick and his family were able to keep their journey private until the end, which was obviously their desire. I wish the same for every other patient who seeks solitude during what are almost certainly the most difficult days of their lives. Chadwick brilliantly portrayed heroes and men of strength, and was surely that off the screen as well. Rest in peace.
I saw him in 42 and Get On Up, two completely different roles – the very controlled Jackie Robinson and the very out of control James Brown and he was terrific in both.
Black Panther was the only thing I’ve seen him in although Marshall has been on my Amazon watchlist for months. Oh, and this:
Holy cow – an SNL sketch from the last couple years that was actually really funny.
I know, right.
I was sad to hear about this. A tragic death – way before his time.
On a more cynical note (naturally), what’s the over/under on how long before someone of moderate “influence” blames his death on racism?
At least they didn’t try to say it was the CCP virus.
Didn’t Joe Biden claim that he would cure cancer if he had been elected in 2016? So there’s that, even if it’s hard to portray Joe Biden losing in 2016 as “racism.”
I left off one Boseman film I enjoyed. 21 Bridges is an excellent action film that deserved a stronger ending, but was very engaging nonetheless.
Frankly, I never watched “Black Panther” and never will, because the portrayal of the only highly-civilized high-tech black society being due to sitting on top of a “magic meteor” and the people still often behave as if they live in a jungle, is very racist while somehow pretending not to be; exactly what I expect from Hollyweird and the rest of the left.
The SNL clip is the same way. Boseman’s character is portrayed as the “weird” one.
Oil deposits were useless and men roamed the seas to hunt whales for months rather than drill in their back yard. Uranium was just a heavy metal until physics and engineering developed new applications for it. Wakandans did not just find a meteorite, they discovered how to make use of adamantium far beyond sling shot material. If anything, Black Panther claims the genius of scientific revolutions for all mankind, not just European origination ethnicities. Creating a fictional world where the axis of advanced technology is human but not, as racists have claimed since the Age of Discovery, the property of a specific, superior “race”.
And in between developing advanced technology and building great towers etc, they grab spears and stuff and fight like this over tribal rivalries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esSEiM3kAHk
c’mon.
It reminds me – not in a good way – of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Code Of Honor,” which I refer to as Planet Liberia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a49K-uzKMZQ
In ritual combat. Not as daft as a society that puts big cushiony mittens on their hands and then tries to wail the tar out of each other, but they get an A for effort. When they go to war, the weapons look the same, but looks are deceiving.
Of course, rather than trial by combat we select our leaders on the basis of who can attract big donors and scare the press into playing let’s pretend. With rare exceptions.