Review of Soul Man (1986) by Kevin T — 12 Jul 2018

It's weird, I used to like this movie in the 80's & 90's. Back then it seemed like a movie promoting integration & hating Racism. It seemed like it was a reasonably good comedy about how Racism is bad, but I just watched it again after a long period of not seeing it, & now it seems actually a little bit racist.

It Now I am older, less innocent, & more well read, I have started noticing a few things in the movie that make one feel uncomfortable. There seems to be definite read between the lines undertones of actual racism & pretending to not be racist.

I have always loved the song SOUL MAN by Sam & Dave. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this. I would have thought there would have been public outcry and anger if they had heard what I have heard on this movie, when it first was shown at the cinemas.

During the Basketball scene, they play Sam & Daves - SOUL MAN song, & at the end of the song, I am sure I can hear a dubbed bit of the song with someone else saying the line "...and be your MONKEY boyfriend" - the actual songline should be ".

..and be your only boyfriend"... Which has left me wondering.. is it just my video copy that has this dubbed line? Was it on all versions of the Soul Man movie? Did people hear this when the movie came out and complain about it? Am I the only person who has noticed it? Who put this line in the song? And why? Because to me, that is the most racist part about this movie, & I only noticed it yesterday.

How was the movie allowed to be released with this line in it? I wonder if James Earl Jones knows about it? I wonder why he was in a movie that was supposedly against racism, but has actual real racist undertones to it.

I no longer like this movie, even if I liked it when I was younger...