Posted on 11/14/2009 7:04:55 PM PST by Steelfish
Race Row As Black Stars Are Airbrushed From Couples Retreat Film Poster
By MILES GOSLETT 14th November 2009
Omitted: Kali Hawk is removed from the 'simplified' British poster [Pic in URL]
The makers of a hit Hollywood film are at the centre of a race controversy after removing two black actors from a poster being used to promote it in Britain. The American advert for Couples Retreat, a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kristin Davis, show all eight principal actors – six of whom are white and two black. But the poster in Britain, where the film is on general release, omits actors Faizon Love and Kali Hawk.
Couples Retreat, about four couples who go on holiday together and receive therapy to improve their relationships, has taken more than £70 million at the box office worldwide since it opened last month.
A spokesman for makers Universal Pictures confirmed the poster had been changed to ‘simplify’ it for the UK and international market outside America. The studio said it regretted causing offence and has abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Airbrushed out? No, it’s a totally different picture.
Oh puh-leeze! They aren’t “airbrushed” out. It’s a different photo, with the actors in different poses. In the US version, the black couple is the least significant in the shot, so it would make sense to remove them entirely if you wanted a “simplified” version.
Just another piece of Hollywood dreck, pandering to the basest human foibles in an effort to masquerade as comedy.
(Yes, I have formed this opinion without seeing the film, and while paying only the barest of attention to its trailer.)
And, I will never know if I’m correct, since I will never watch the film. My wife, however will probably revel in it.
I love her anyway, and I don’t need either a retreat, or a celluloid surrogate to know it.
Apparently, movie posters are not nearly as important in selling movies as they used to be. Most of the ad stuff I see at theaters now are big cardboard sets. Here's a movie poster from what I consider the best movie poster artist ever, Richard Amsel:
Oh, you horrible brute. I’m just like you. There aren’t but a handful of movies that I care anything about and this one will never be added to the list.
Don’t act surprised. Europe has been practicing this since time began and never had to deal with it. It is the old world.
Remember - the only place an Irishman can get ahead in Ireland is in America.
That line tells you those walls may come down, but ever so slowly and not in your lifetime.
From the gruesome reviews I’ve read and heard so far of this dog movie, Hollywood may have actually done these two a great service to their careers by not associating them with it.
I agree - it demeans the language to use the term airbrush here.
On the other hand it is fun to watch them eat themselves.
They should have just “airbrushed” out the whole movie.... I hear it sucks!
That is a great flick. Long live the Duke!
Note, though, that the artist refused to depict John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart as black.
Nice pic post- makes the “airbrush” point abundantly clear
Europe? The story says
A spokesman for makers Universal Pictures confirmed the poster had been changed to ‘simplify’ it for the UK and international market outside America.
This was done by Americans.
This is mindset - it doesn’t really matter who did it, but why they did it - and that is because Europeans talk a good game about race but they are the last ones to play it.
Reading the story at the link, I can only conclude that Archie Bunker’s Theory of England must in fact be correct. Any marketing department that would deliberately remove Kali Hawk from a poster clearly doesn’t understand the only reason any guy would be caught dead watching a movie with no explosions or science fiction special effects.
And I should give a tap-dancing damn if they were or were not, why?
Beautiful.
Art.
Now extinct....:(
You don’t think Universal has offices all over the world taking care of the local markets?
http://www.bobpeak.com/art.cfm?catid=2
As you probably already know, the point of my mini-tirade was that the movie is so inconsequential that slights to its staroids are of less than no import. Come to think of it, they probably staged this thing to give themselves some exposure.
Bronx Cheer.
That’s right. They aren’t airbrushed out. It is a different photo.
The movie was awful from the few reviews I saw. One where getting removed from it all would be a good thing looking back.
The only freaking movie I *wanted* to see [even to the point of actually setting foot in a theater] was the new Sherlock flick.
People have ruined that for me by posting homo-erotic innuendo about it and frankly, I don’t care what movie poster has/has not whomever in it, now.
[and I’m desperately SICK of “minorities” whining every damn time they’re not the center of global attention]
Glasgow Grin.
For a long time Eddie Murphy's career was hamstrung because Hollywood executives didn't think a black actor could draw a crowd in the lead role of a major movie. So they kept pairing him with white actors like Dan Akroyd to try to offset his blackness. Then they finally gave him Beverly Hills Cop, where he was the sole lead, and the movie was a runaway hit, even though Hollywood didn't promote it much at first. Clearly the American audience was way ahead of Hollywood.
This poster is a slap at the British public. If anything Hollywood considers them not cosmopolitan enough and having black actors on the poster is a risk they don't want to take.
If I were the actors, however, I would be less upset at my picture being removed than MY NAME from the top credits. This is much more important to their careers. Certainly deals have been broken, maybe even knife fights have broken out over the order of names in the credits above the title. They have been relegated to bit roles in the UK.
Amsel was more consistently good, and a better portrait artist. I thought Peak screwed up his anatomy sometimes, which could be particularly jarring, because so much of his work looks so right.
Peak used a more ethereal style, and more vibrant colors. Amsel's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" poster was probably one of the best movie posters ever made. I know we've wandered off topic, but I think we both agree that the poster that was the subject of this article was major suckage. Note also, that Peak and Amsel were contemporaries. I'd wager each influenced the other.
Wasn’t anyone associated with that movie competent? In this photo, the people are supposed to be the subject, but the photographer has the focus plane at the food in front. If he wanted the food in front to be in focus, he should have at least increased his aperture enough so that the people in the second row aren’t completely out of focus.
AND, the only reason Murphy got the part was because the first choice, the man the role was written for, turned it down. I still can't imagine Sylvester Stallone playing that character. That would have been worse than Frank Sinatra, who was the first choice for Dirty Harry.
Really can’t get too excited about a 300k photo blown up beyond its limits showing some lack of detail.
It’s not lack of detail, the part that’s supposed to be in focus is out of focus. The little tiki drink cup and the chips in front are in focus. The actors aren’t.
I get what you mean about anatomy, but it's kind of an apples-and-oranges thing. Peak's style, which has always reminded me of reflections on a rainy street, is just so interesting to me. I'm not taking anything away from Amsel, but Peak's style was just more original and interesting to me.
And the past 20 years have been awful for movie posters, mostly because they’re all selling the stars, not the movie, not the story.
Yeah, Peak could really create an atmosphere. On those Something Wicked This Way Comes posters, he caught that dark thunderstorm mood perfectly.
I was an art major and used to do portraits, and would struggle for days with faces. That’s what always hit me with Amsel, was that his faces always looked exactly like the actor, but slightly idealized. I always admire people who can do stuff I can’t.
I saw the original Raiders poster when Tom Selleck was supposed to be Indiana Jones, and just went, “Jeez, I kill myself trying to get a face right ONCE, and he just erases Tom and puts in Harrison like it’s no big deal.”
I like the Raiders poster well enough, but agree with you that The Shootists is outstanding. It really captures the man and the autumnal tone of the movie.
Disagree. I don't think Peak screwed up, it was a stylistic choice. Amsel wasn't nearly so ambitious or creative, more pedestrian. Not taking anything away from him, but his work was more conservative (in the non-political sense). If there's one area in which I dislike conservatism, it's in art.
Hey, the communists, esp. in Russia/Soviet Union, perfected the airbrushing out of purges kommisars, Molotov, Bulganin, etc. Check any photos of a MayDay parade at Red Square, and you will see who Stalin eliminated from the year before.
Just wait till Obama’s propagandists start airbrushing out the reds he chose as czars and kommissarinas.
Just a bump to say what a great poster this was. I had this as a one sheet years ago and it was frightening and beautiful just like the film.
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