I just got home from a rough-cut screening of John Singleton’s “Baby Boy”, the latest of his inner city epics. It’s not a bad film, and I have to take into account the fact that it’s a rough cut, but it’s certainly not my favorite film. After the showing I got a chance to talk with Mr. Singleton and we “rapped” (notice my use of urban language here to show my understanding with the film’s subject matter) about one of the scenes.

The protagonist (I refuse to call him a “hero” because I never really liked him, though I was intrigued by the problems he faced in the movie) was forced to use a bicycle for transportation at one point, and he biked over to the neighbor hood liquor store and bought some wine. When he got back outside a young gangster was riding his bike. He tried to catch the thief, but in the process got his bottle of wine stolen by another thug. Stripped of his transportation and his booze he faced down five of these young ruffians and ended up getting jumped.

Now our protagonist enlists the help of his friend, and the two of them, now brandishing firearms, ambush the gang in a park at night. After frisking them the protagonist vents his anger on the young thug that stole his bike, punching him in the face and knocking him down but hurting his fist in the process. His friend then proceeds to demonstrate the proper way to throw a punch on the remaining four gangsters. This was one of the funniest sequences I’ve ever seen. It was stylish, well written, well acted, and very well directed, and I told all this to Mr. Singleton.

Much to my surprise, Mr. Singleton told me he intended that scene to be very serious, and he’s been very surprised at the response he gotten. Nearly everyone thinks it a hysterical scene, and he can’t understand it. I immediately thought about the article I wrote about Fear, and the Fear of being misunderstood. Here, standing before me was an A-List director who wrote and directed a scene he intended to be quite serious and almost everyone who sees it thinks it drop dead funny, and he was quietly amused about it all.

As a part of the whole it’s not a very important scene to the film, so if audiences don’t understand it it’s not going to warp their understanding of the movie’s message (I hope – it’s a very important message). If I were in Mr. Singleton’s shoes I probably wouldn’t freak out either. In a way, that scene become a part of a greater social commentary, kind of the same way the opening of the Terrance and Philip movie in “South Park” made people leave both the animated theater and the real theater. I took a coworker with me to the show, and she saw that scene as horrific – a demonstration of the extreme violence that urban blacks have to live with on a day-to-day basis. I saw it as funny - an ironic and satirical slapstick played out over a background of real life violence. This scene becomes different things to different people. It has taken on a life of it’s own, and it will be interesting to see how the public at large reacts to it.

As for the rest of the film, there are some weak points, especially with the acting. It’s as if you can tell where they’re trying to get Oscar and Golden Globe nods with their overacting and stilted lines. The camera angles can seem forced. The actors can come off wooden. At other times the dialogue, camerawork, staging, and everything are smooth and effortless. But as I said, it’s a rough cut. It was over 130 minutes long, and I could cut 20 to 30 minutes from it easily.

But I didn’t tell all of this to Mr. Singleton. Maybe I was being polite, or maybe I was being obsequious. Maybe I didn’t tell him, “this flick stunk” for fear of being considered a rude little Indy Boy begging for attention by tearing down a big budget movie. And maybe I didn’t want to embarrass the people who got me into the show who are personal friends of Mr. Singleton’s. Whatever my reasons, I didn’t tell him I only thought his movie was so-so. But we did talk about that scene a bit, and I liked talking to him – he was a nice guy. For that reason, and the fact I think the movie’s message is so important, I hope “Baby Boy” does well.