The Cultural Politics of Eddie Murphy: Coming to America
This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series The Black Pack: Rewriting American Comedy. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
In person: Introduction by Artel Great, associate professor, San Francisco State University School of Cinema, and author of The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance.
The Five Heartbeats trailer (1991)
Robert Townsend pens a soulful love letter to Black popular music in this film loosely inspired by Motown-era vocal groups. It follows a fictional quintet from 1960s chart success through industry exploitation, infighting and addiction.
Coming to America (1988)
Here Eddie Murphy stands at the center of the Black Pack as Prince Akeem, heir to the throne of Zamunda, who leaves royal luxury for Queens, New York, in search of love on his own terms. The most commercially successful Black comedy feature of its era, this blockbuster is also a case study in power and authorship, as Murphy gives a tour de force performance of multiple characters and earns a “story by” credit. Ultimately, the film shows how box office clout enabled Black cultural specificity while embedding sharp critiques of race, class and respectability within mainstream studio comedy.
Director: John Landis. Screenwriter: David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein. With: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones.
Director: Robert Townsend. Screenwriters: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Robert Townsend. With: Robert Townsend, Anne-Marie Johnson, Helen Martin.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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