CNN screen shot
Last weekend, Straight Outta Compton was released and, to surprises from fans and critics alike, the film shook the box office world with opening record-breaking numbers exceeding over 60 million dollars in ticket sales! Fans and press paid attention to its success…including “Good Ol’” CNN.
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The cable network reported with the surprising headline, “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON: HIP-HOP FILM HAD LONG LINES, NO VIOLENCE.” Are you surprised, CNN? Is it really so surprising that hip-hop fans support a quality film depicting a crucial and important story of poverty, AIDS, under developed communities, free speech and First Amendment rights?!?! Or is it surprising that five black men from Compton, CA could be so impactful and revolutionary using lyrical honesty, dope beats and a little attitude?
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Frankly it’s unnecessary to have a security presence for the film, and no, the lack of altercations wasn’t because of the additional security. The American people came out and supported this film in peace because the movie influences unity, not violence. Straight Outta Compton is as real today and N.W.A’s message is as relevant today as it was in the early 1990’s. Police brutality and harassment, unjustifiable imprisonment and killing of unarmed black men are still prevalent issues in 2015.
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But, let’s get back to CNN. Unfortunately, in these troubled times there may be a need for security at movie theaters, however NOT because of the nature of a film’s topic, but for the violent nature of human beings. James Eagan Holmes terrorized, injured and killed movie goers in Aurora not because Batman motivated him to do it, but because he was a violent man committing a violent act.
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