The narrative follows Todorov’s Narrative Theory and focuses around Jamal (Martin Lawrence) who is employed in a menial job at a medieval theme park. This is important as it shows black people to be employed in jobs which take a low brain capacity.
Through a series of comedic events, Jamal falls into the moat while reaching for a gold amulet. He is then transported by the amulet, back into medieval times.
Jamal reaching for the gold amulet provides negative connotations as it gives the impression that he is incapable of gaining wealth through conventional means.
After Jamal has been transported back in time, he is very isolated throughout the film, as he is the only black person and he is also the only contemporary character. He does not know medieval ways and customs and often appears ostracized.
One of the key scenes relating to the ideology of the text is when Jamal wakes up to find the king’s daughter has snuck into his room and slept in his bed with him, but then the king walks in and blames Jamal who is then ousted from the castle where he had worked his way up to being a close advisor of the king, this is another display of black people being portrayed as subservient.
Not only does this give connotations that black people cannot achieve success without doing something wrong, but the fact the king is white also gives subliminal messages that white people should have power over black people. This scene shows black people as easy targets for scapegoating. It also gives the impression that white people should always be believed over black people.
Another key part of the film is the battle scene. This is the penultimate scene and this is important in terms of the fact it has many subliminal messages and negative connotations. Jamal rides into battle dressed as the ‘Black Knight’ to save his army of peasants who are getting beaten in the battle. The Black Knight was originally a white man dressed in black armour. This connotes that he could only achieve success by emulating the actions of a white man. He goes to the battlements to fight the white villain of the film, and is losing dismally until he is saved by an elderly white man, who shoots the villain with an arrow and kills him. This connotes that an elderly white man is more capable of emerging victorious from a fight than a young, fit, black male, and also that in a battle between an evil white man and a righteous black man, the evil white man will triumph. This challenges the dominant ideology that good will always triumph over evil and connotes that the victor of the conflict can be determined on racial grounds as opposed to who is virtuous.
The final scene is also vital in terms of representation of young black males in the Hollywood film industry as after Jamal has helped to save his army, in the next scene which is the final scene of the film, Jamal wakes up and realises everything was a dream. This gives a clear representation that a black person can only be the hero or heroine of a story in fictional tales.
The ideology of the film is that black people cannot be genuine heroes. This appears in a variety of different contexts within the film and in many different forms as I have demonstrated using the scenes I have previously discussed. In each of these scenes, Martin Lawrence’s character is covertly isolated and the connotations of the portrayal of his character are that black people are not worthy of being trusted as they will abandon responsibility and that despite even the most valiant efforts by a black person to succeed, that it is more likely for a Caucasian to accomplish goals.
The target audience is seven to twelve year old children in the demographic social groups B, C1 and C2. This in inappropriate because members of this age range are impressionable and there are many subliminal messages given out in the duration of the films which could be interpreted as racist.
The representation of black people in the film Black Knight are mainly negative and even when Martin Lawrence’s character is shown in a positive way, it is only temporarily as he is then quickly shown in a negative manner. The representation of women in the film is also derogatory because they are shown simply as sex objects and play no major role in the film except to seduce the men. Women were given no positive moments in the film and this gives sexist connotations. The lack of disabled characters in the film shows the attitude of Hollywood towards the handicapped, the fact that they have no representatives in the film shows that they are not considered important.
Tom Blazak
