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IMAGINARY_BRICK

                  From an alt.gothic post:   December  6, 2006
                                             November 18, 2011

   In my original review of

      BRICK

   I commented:

      "A complaint: I think the movie is racist, though most
      of it is relatively subtle -- there are slimey white
      people, and slimey people of color, and to my eye
      there's a different character -- perhaps 'trashier' --
      to the people of color.  The smoking gun on that, I
      would argue, is a rather incoherent plot detail where a
      latino guy with a knife suddenly attacks and chases
      after the main character, thereafter disappearing from
      the story -- they needed a monster to inject some
      action, so they conjured up a Mexican With a Knife."

  I might stand behind that vague impression
  (in Brick-land, darker skin = trashier), but my smoking
  gun (or rather, flashing knife) is completely wrong.

  This odd guy-with-a-knife *isn't* latino.

  That's some weird overlay on the story that came out of my
  own brain, which is perhaps not as free of racism as this
  sort of posturing on my part would indicate.


                As to why it's a knife: Chandler's
                take on "hardboiled" plotting is
                that when things get slow, you
                have someone walk in the door with
                gun in hand.  The gun gets
                transformed to a knife, just for a
                change, and presumably because it
                seems more plausible in a high
                school setting...

                     RULE_OF_REVERSALS


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