I am a true fan of Halle Berry. I think that she is gifted, talented, afrocentric, intelligent, strong, and beautiful. I look at her and I see a fellow fiery Leo and a sister warrior. I am appalled at the hatred, envy, and slander that she has received for her superior performance in Monster's Ball. All of the venom that she is enduring is fueled by envy, ignorance, racism, and colorism.

I adore Halle because she chooses not to be eurocentric, like Jennifer Beals or Lenny Kravitz. She chooses to proudly proclaim herself as an afrocentric African-American rather than an apolitical bi-racial artist. It is a noble choice that I admire and that very few of her peers ever make.

I also adore Angela Bassett. Physically, Angela is even more beautiful than Halle. I believe that Angela has the right to hate Monster's Ball. I have only heard Angela praise Halle for her performance in this flawed film. Unlike Angela and many others, I do not hate this film. I agree that its sex scenes are unnecessarily and gratuitously graphic, even pornographic. I am certain they were difficult scenes to perform. I admire Halle because she did so expertly. I agreed with Angela when she told MSNBC that a white actress of Halle's caliber would never have been so degraded. Likewise, I respect Halle's professional right to regard that graphic sex as something other than degradation...

I have received droves of hate mail urging me to review the film. I am very busy in a new post as an instructor. I recently completed graduate school, so I am belatedly viewing a backlog of films as quickly as my schedule will allow. I finally saw Monster's Ball on video. I expected to hate this film based on the hostile reviews that I have received. I did not hate this film. I hated the sex scenes. They could have been shot far more tastefully, like those equally graphic but far more appealing sex scenes in Brooklyn Babylon, Jason's Lyric, Set it Off, or Desert Hearts.

As usual, there are racist and sexist images in this film. Black men are portrayed as apathetic bosses and doomed criminals. White women are portrayed as suicidal spouses or sleazy prostitutes. Yet, in this film we also see the gifted and beautiful Mos Def play a responsible father who protects his sons from racist abuse and demands respect. Reality is filled with both positive and negative images. My problem with Hollywood is the racism, colorism, sexism, and homophobia that grossly limit the diversity of images we see in films. It is the real life monsters who ball behind Hollywoods' cameras that haunt me.

As I viewed this passionate film, I wondered why Billy Bob Thornton's character had to be white? And, why Billy's character had to be Halle's character's lover's executioner? Why did he have to cowardly hide the deeds of his former occupation from her? Why did she have to fall in love with him before she knew this? I am bored to death with the exclusive bombardment of interracial heterosexual images on film. I want to see some passion expressed by black people loving and caring for black people, heterosexual and gay. I crave more films like Love Jones. I long for more films with black gay characters like those in A Luv Tale, Joey Breaker, Bad Company, Get on the Bus, and The Women of Brewster Place.

I adore Billy Bob Thornton's acting. He was married to black actress Cynda Williams when they filmed the classic One False Move. I loved him in Sling Blade and U-Turn also. In his Monster's Ball character, I saw learned racism and chosen redemption. I saw cowardice and deception. As always, Billy shone.

I saw a beautiful, though imperfect, love story when I watched Monster's Ball. Two lonely people who abused their tragically lost sons came together and bonded. Two people filled huge voids in each other's lives, and shared great sex simultaneously. Yet, I completely understand the venom of those unable to share my clarity about or fondness for this film. I understand why so many people hate this film.

Black men worship Halle like I worship Janet Jackson, Theresa Randle, Vanessa Bell Calloway, and Pam Grier. They worship her like many black women worship Denzel Washington. Black men want Halle to be the star of every black film. I have read that Halle is set to star in a remake of Pam's classic Foxy Brown. Theresa did a great parody of Foxy in Girl 6. Theresa should be cast in this remake. Halle looks nothing like Pam Grier. She is too short, too petite, and too light skinned. Theresa is closer to the chocolate amazon that is Pam. But, Theresa is not yellow like Halle. Colorism rules all...

If Halle was dark skinned and having graphic sex, brothers would not be so enraged. The brothers certainly had nothing to say about the graphic sex scenes of dark skinned actresses in Rosewood, or The Color Purple, or Mandingo etc...And, they are absolutely silent about the exclusive barrage of interracial films like Othello, O, Save the Last Dance for Me, etc...

The unique problem with Monster's Ball is that brothers have witnessed the defiling of their yellow Queen on film, by a white man with an overseer quality about his penal persona and character no less. The brothers are enraged. They could not care less that it was appropriately passionate for the raw film. It does not matter that it was just pretend. And, if it were any of my idols in those sex scenes with Billy, I might feel the very same rage...

In spite of the rage that these graphic sex scenes have caused, Monster's Ball is essentially a powerful and realistic love story. It is scripted and filmed well. Although, it is yet another in an increasingly boring and infuriating barrage of exclusively interracial films. Reality is rarely racially correct or emotionally comforting. Reality is always colorist in Hollywood.

However, I really liked this film. I hated that Billy's character was P-Diddy's character's executioner. I hated watching P-Diddy's painful attempt to act even more! I hated how abusive Halle's character was to her fat dark skinned son. I hated that she had no family or friends to assist her so that she had to appear to barter sex for care. I hated that the only visible black men in her life were a callous and oppressive employer, and an absent partner and criminal corpse.

I liked this film because it told a captivating story. In reality, there are needy, dependent, displaced, lonely, burdened, desperate, and abusive persons who hate fat kids, love drunken rough sex, and embrace love, passion and kindness wherever they may find them. Admittedly, I know of no persons who sex up their lover's executioners though...But, truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Movies are stories. There are millions of stories even more tragically engaging...

For related info, see these additional columns herein:

FILM REVIEW: INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE - FLAWLESS PERFORMANCE/FLAWED FILM

OSCARS 2002: COLORIZED HISTORY/COLORIST REALITY

FILM REVIEW: ROSEWOOD

And many more!

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