Thinking Precious
Seminar in Visual Culture 680/683

Not a paying DA member so please complete the poll in old school fashion by posting it with your responses. Please respond to the posted article above and/ or the poll. It’s actually for a class assignment and I need lots feedback.

If you saw "Precious" tell me what you thought:

A.) Enjoyed it - found it uplifting or motivational
B.) Liked it, but it was way too depressing
C.) Indifferent
D.) It just wasn't my kind of movie
E.) Felt it was too stereotypical
F.) Disliked it for other reasons

* Please keep in mind that the paper (full article) is written for a class on visual culture, and it will get intellectual when I discuss the theories of psychoanalysis, structuralism, post-colonialism, and a brief history of Black cinema in the U.S. The article is in progress, and needs the online responses in order to be completed.

And now for the full article:

Visual culture in the film industry constantly falls into multiple genres and at times, becomes confusing. In an average movie going experience, the viewer attempts to equate some aspect of the film or storyline to their life. I find that the same is true with the movie Precious, and would like to take the time to critique the film by applying it to the concepts of visual culture and some theoretical perspectives of film. A brief summarization of the film is necessary, followed by an application specifically to the theoretical schools of psychoanalysis, structuralism, and post colonialism. Along with this research, personal associations were applied and audience responses were accumulated and reviewed through the websites of: Oprah.com, IMDb.com, Spout.com, Facebook.com, and Deviantart.com.


Lee Daniel’s movie Precious (2009) is based on the novel Push (1996) by Sapphire, takes place in 1987 Harlem, New York. Precious is an illiterate, overweight teenage girl, pregnant for the second time by her rapist father, and living with an abusive mother. Frequently struggling in class, and to fit in with her peers, the school believes that she would make better advancements at an alternative school. Despite her belittling mother, Precious decides to enroll at “Each One, Teach One” where she slowly begins to open up and make progress. Her new classmates share various personal problems of their own, but overall, they are all struggling to get their GED. Precious finds ways to cope during unbearable moments of her life by creating a fantasy world where she is a celebrity, and everyone loves her. When she needs advice, she looks at pictures of her mother or teacher, and pretends that they tell her everything that she wants to hear. Even though Precious is able to get the help she needs, life only gets harder, and it seems that she has escaped all ties to her old life. By the end of the film, Precious is persevering with her new life and her children even though all odds remain stacked against her.


The film encompasses the direct use of psychoanalysis when Precious talks to people, who aren’t necessarily psychologists, but still fulfill a psychological role in her life. From an indirect psychoanalytical perspective, it is evident that through Precious’ fantasy scenes, that life is so traumatic, that she must pretend to be someone else, somewhere else. On a reactionary psychological level the audience members attempt to put themselves in her position and genuinely feel her story. Precious is also a Laconian and Freudian movie. Freudian in the aspects of depiction when Precious’ unconscious and conscious desires to be someone else take over and Laconian in scenes of powerful “gaze,” where Precious feels undermined by her mother, and boys her age (Manlove 2007). Precious herself, at times when feeling stronger, returns the gaze with her own defiance.


Structuralism plays a role in this film because many people in Precious’ life want to help her achieve the American norms of education, despite her difficult situation. Her schoolteachers, medical staff, classmates, and social and welfare workers, all contribute to aiding in her safety, health, education, and future. They resemble many of society’s structural institutions, where Precious desires to belong. Structuralist theorists, such as Levi-Strauss, would categorize this film as structuralist in the sense that Precious embodies and becomes a mythological heroine, once she gains her voice, and begins to “speak” to the cultures of young women everywhere (Kurzweil 1980).


It is post-colonialism; however, that plays an unavoidable role in the film, but before this is discussed, it is important to note that Precious relates to all audiences despite race, age, and gender. Precious is for everyone who has struggled with a problem in life which they had to overcome. It is for people who live in similar environments or can relate on some level to similar situations. More specifically, the audience members are young women, and African Americans. With this in mind, post-colonialism deals with the culture of people who have been colonized, and in this case it reflects how the industry of Black Cinema in the United States was formed (Struken, M & Cartwright L. 2009). Thus, explanation of Black cinema is necessary in order to understand what role the film has in today’s society.


Black cinema ironically, does not begin with Black producers and directors, and in some cases, barely shows a large amount of Black actors. Outside of Black cinema, (perhaps Robert Townsend’s, blaxploitation parody, Hollywood Shuffle (1987) shows it best), African American actors were frequently typecasted by their race, or casted in minor roles, and supporting roles. The first Black cinema films were usually historical documentaries that would depict slavery (such as Roots 1977), and eventually the civil rights movement (such as the more recent Malcolm X 1992). Birth of a Nation (1915), was a silent film directed by D.W. Griffith, where Klansmen are shown in a positive light as heroes, and the most racist African American stereotypes were born. This extreme example is undoubtedly unacceptable today, but the impact of its negativity and cultural damage, continues in black cinema through old and new stereotypes, even if it is watered down. It was not until 1969, that African Americans had control in Black cinema. The 1970s-1980s were the popular eras of blaxploitation. Movies such as Foxy Brown (1971), Shaft (1971), and Across 110th St. (1972), portray the stereotypes of the black drug dealer, pimp, and hit men. Black filmmakers of this era were aware of blaxploitation, and used it frequently until the formation of the Coalition Against Blaxploitation plead against it (Hayward 2000).


Although blaxploitation has decreased over the years, it has been replaced by a need to represent the urban culture and voice of the African American society. In some cases this has been positively done, at times in movies such as Spike Lee's, Do the Right Thing (1989), and even in Precious. In other instances, such as John Singleton’s, Baby Boy (2001), it is strange to find some of the old stereotypes once again utilized and recycled by an African American director (Grant 2004). Even though Singleton probably wouldn’t classify his characters as negative stereotypes, (nor would it have been his intention), his characters haven’t fallen far from the former blaxploitation stereotypes. Blaxploitation by African Americans in Black cinema today, is still debatably an issue, whether is it seen as a negative portrayal of a culture, or as a representation of a “sometimes relatable” urban society’s environment.


When concerning Precious, Black cinema’s biggest names in today’s film and media industry took a part in the making of the film. A lot of hype was built around the movie due to the celebrities that appeared in it, as well as by its biased producers: Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and the novel’s author Sapphire. When interviewed about the film all three praised Mo ‘Nique, (who usually plays typecast comedic roles), for her fantastic serious, leading role, and her groundbreaking performance of Mary Jones. Sapphire was pleased with the Lee Daniels’ work, and how involved he made her feel by constantly asking for her input and how he remained true to her story. She further explains that she originally wanted to discuss the politics and the racism of the 1970-1980s, and it was through the character of Precious that she was able to find and express this voice. It is her belief that the novel redefines the term family through Precious’ need to be a family with her own children, and the examples of her extended family who are her classmates, or her teacher and her lesbian partner who offer her a place to stay. Tyler Perry spoke out about the film, and related Mary Jones to his own abusive father, and believes that it is an inspirational movie. Oprah discusses “an underlying arc of hope” in the movie, and how strongly she felt about everyone seeing the movie, despite the fact that it is only showing in select theaters. Oprah continues to say that the film shows what it is like to feel invisible as a person, and that it is a motivational film for all young women (Lions Gate Films Interview, O. Winfrey, T. Perry & Sapphire, 2009).


For me, Precious is a great drama, but it’s not necessarily uplifting. Sure, Precious is now better off than she was before, but she still has many hurdles to overcome, and although she will no doubt do her best to succeed, the whole film was just depressing. This film showed the wrongs and the horrors of teenage pregnancy, rape, abuse, STDs and their outcomes, but didn’t express or inform how young girls should seek help in such situations. Precious herself didn’t completely seek help for her problems; she fell into and went along with “help” due to the structuralist members of her society. In the final scene, Precious is walking with her two children and looks at peace with her life. It seems as though she has decided to keep her children for now; however, she also says that deep down, she knows in order for herself and her children to grow, that she can’t handle them right now. The audience is then left to their own assumptions about what Precious will ultimately choose to do, and if she will do it in time.


The whole concept of playing in “select theaters only” is what bothered me the most at the end of the film. I’ve always found it unfair that I had to wait until a film was released to DVD in order to watch it because there’s no way I could attend a showing halfway across the country, but I do understand that this is an industry of business, and that it’s all about the money. Theaters only buy the movies that will make money in their areas, and obviously will choose to show movies that meet the demographics of their target audience. What was most unsettling to me, was when I searched for where the movie was playing, and found that it played in what are notably considered by many residents, as “bad neighborhoods.” I immediately overlooked the fact that these areas were predominantly African American neighborhoods, (which is probably the most marketable audience) because I was too busy thinking about how I used to be a resident of these areas. Now, I became an even closer member of the target audience, due to environmental circumstances, and I began to wonder if the industry and theater’s saw my old town, as a target audience because of its “urban” environment. This made me increasingly uncomfortable, because I would hate to think that the residents of my old neighborhood were considered a target audience based on someone else’s assumed opinion that they’d relate their own environment to the extremes of Precious. On a rational note, I don’t feel that the theater selection was intended to offend me, or that Precious displays any evidence of intentional blaxploitaion, but I do think that through individual psychological associations Precious sparks an interest in everyone.


As I watched the show the audience responses were the most interesting. Overall people seemed to have liked the movie. Interestingly many people who watched agreed that the events that happened to Precious by her parents were wrong, yet they themselves, took their infants, and young children to the show, to see such a violent movie. I also found it a little unsettling that a lot of people were laughing during an abusive scene, where Precious gets hit by a frying pan, and then kicks it back at her mother. Mary’s quick - lipped response is reminiscent of a more comedic quip that Mo ‘Nique would normally say in another movie, yet this was a serious scene, and many were laughing. After posting parts of this paper on various online websites, I had a multiple number of reactions. Some interesting points made by other audience members include/ discuss: