Our Metaphysical Movie of the Month Decoded
We (my wife & I) recently went to see a much talked about movie called "QUEEN & SLIM" released on Thanksgiving Day, a day of mockery of the defeat of the Moors/Muurs (Original Turk = Turk-ey; during the 70's "Jive Time Turkey" became a derogatory phrase used)! Moreover, It’s hard to overlook, for instance, that this movie arrives in theaters in the same year as the thirtieth anniversary of Spike Lee’s “DO THE RIGHT THING.” It’s written by a queer American Aboriginal woman (Lena Waithe), directed by an Aboriginal woman (Melina Matsoukas), stars two heavy melanated persons (Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith). Considering the fact that melanated people have spent the last few years extensively discussing police brutality and demanding that we stopped being shot and killed with impunity, a film that centers on melanated people trying to escape state-sanctioned violence by any means necessary — finding love and community and hope along the way — could be extremely attractive to the melanated audiences. This is the reason I went to go see it, but I definitely didn't want the ending. Lena Waithe (Writer) said that “I didn’t want to go easy on the audience,”as she tells Refinery29, “I didn’t want to pull punches. I didn’t want to give us some fairy tale because the mothers of the movement didn’t have that.” Well, I beg to differ as we see the exact opposite ending in the movie "NEXT 3 DAYS" (More about this later).
Nevertheless, let's begin with the metaphysical decoding and compare it to another movie with a similar theme. Queen is taller than Slim on the advertisement. This symbolizes the Moabitess matriarchy... the return of the Amazon Women. She's (Jodie Turner-Smith as Angela "Queen" Johnson played a criminal defense attorney) dressed in a tiger stripped print symbolic to the cat energy similar to the "BLACK PANTHER" as she stands next to Daniel Kaluuya as Earnest "Slim" Hines, who played in the movie "BLACK PANTHER" literally. NOTE: Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya are both British actors.
The plot follows the two who go on the run after killing a police man (Sturgill Simpson) in self-defense... key word "SELF-DEFENSE" during a traffic stop that was actually videoed for the world to see, not unlike the Rodney King incident. Also, Queen stating that she was a lawyer didn't have any affect on the situation, seemingly it made it worst. The racist white (pale) policy enforcer (Sturgill Simpson) draws his gun on Slim, and when Queen gets out and tries to record the incident on her phone, he shoots her in her left leg.
Queen experiences the most violence against her body; getting shot in the leg, dislocating her shoulder, and being the first to die from police gunfire in the heart. The only bit of backstory we get for her features domestic violence against her mother, which ultimately results in her mother’s death (Queen’s then forced to seek help from the man who killed her mother, who happens to be Queen’s verbally abusive uncle.) On the other hand, we only see Slim speaks with his father, saying "LOVE YOU" to each other over the phone. I can assume that he was motherless. Thus, both characters were motherless (There were NO mothers of the movement in this film). Even the young led astray Brother only had a father figure shown. Once again NO mother... So, what mothers of the movement?!!!
Furthermore, according to ancient Ta Marean (Kemetic) tradition, it is the left leg that goes forward to trample down EVIL. The fact that she was shot in the left leg showed me (Alim) that they were NOT going to make it, unlike in the movie "NEXT 3 DAYS" starring Russell Crowe as John Brennan and Elizabeth Banks as Lara Brennan where Lara Brennan is wrongly convicted of murdering her boss and is sentenced to life in prison. John becomes obsessed with breaking her out of prison. He studies escape routes, prison routines and buys a handgun. John tails a local drug dealer to a drug house and robs it of cash. Police are misled by escape plan fragments John has purposely left behind and delay the wrong flight. John, Lara and Luke successfully board a plane to Caracas.
Lena Waithe (Writer) obviously would say "NEXT 3 DAYS" is fantasy, while her version is reality? But she uses Cuba as the getaway destination for Queen and Slim. Maybe, it was naive to be hopeful about the couple's chances of survival. But this movie has been billed as for us, by us (FUBU). Moreover, we have a very realistic example? Assata Shakur, who actually escaped prison (Clinton Maximum Security, the same prison her nephew Tupac Shakur? was imprisoned for rape... THE IRONY!), made it out of the U.S. to Cuba. Assata Shakur is a former member of the BPP (Black Panther Party, 1970) & BLA (Black Liberation Army, 1971), who was convicted of the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. Beyond that, in the movie, Slim literally cites the very real escape of Assata Shakur to Cuba when Assata's life was endangered by the state. Thank God she’s still with us; she lived to tell her own story in her movement-defining autobiography; she’s still inspiring generations of us; and she’s still building her own legacy while alive in Cuba today. There’s real-life precedent for the "realism" crowd to allow Queen & Slim to escape, to be free, to be well.
Ok, enough of my rant, back to the movie "QUEEN & SLIM," Slim tackles the racist policy enforcer (Sturgill Simpson) before grabbing his gun and shooting him in self-defense. Queen tells Slim that they either have to go on the run or will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
On the lam traveling from Ohio to Florida. A sympathetic melanated policy enforcer stumbles upon them, but lets them go. The betrayer (a melanated male) leads them to a friend with a plane that can get them away to Cuba. He drives them to the tarmac, but as the two walk toward the plane, a squad of cops corner them. An overzealous white (pale) woman cop then shoots Queen in the heart (chest), instantly killing her. Devastated, Slim picks up her corpse and carries her toward the cops, leading them to gun him down as well. This is very reminscent of the image on front of the "102s / 101s MOORISH QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CHILDREN / MOORISH AMERICANS" with Prophet Noble Drew Ali carrying a woman. Prophet Noble Drew Ali has the woman lifted up in his arms. The woman symbolizes humanity. Life comes through the woman (wombman) and “No nation can rise higher than its woman!” Thus, this symbolizes the killing of a nation beginning with the woman. The (9) nine drops of water symbolizes the (9) months of pregnancy…completion, the bringing forth of life…the (divine seeds…Wombman and Man) salvation of the Moorish nation. There were nine policy enforcer cars, 9 shots... symbolizing the nine drops of water falling from the woman. News of the tragic end to the manhunt is publicized everywhere. Nevertheless, in the END they are killed! Hundreds of civilians attend their funerals and view them as martyrs and heroes
While the couple (the Brennans') in NEXT 3 DAYS survived and got away. Queen's and Slim's deaths are symbolic to the so-called white supremacists KKK and Masonic Shriners attempting to stop the rise of the Moors/Muurs. Queen symbolizes the "Queen of Mu (Moo) (Thanks Bro. HeruSut). Now add Mu and Slim = MuSlim (Moslem), i.e., the Moors. I heard complaints concerning the fact, "Why it couldn't have been "Queen and King?" Well in at least 3 scenes in the background, the word "King" showed up with Slim in the shots. No coincidences! He was a "King!" And she's was a "Queen!" NOT Quean in this case, eventhough her uncle (Bokeem Woodbine) was a pimp... Lol!!! NOTE: Indya Moore played the character Goddess, however, Indya Moore just happens to be a transgender. Even the "Goddess" can't be 100% woman!
Nevertheless, the movie QUEEN & SLIM doesn't heal. It is of no comfort that Queen & Slim live on in the short immortality of printed silk-screen T-shirts and murals. It is of no comfort that the community of the Queen & Slim universe will #SayTheirNames, which, the audience didn't learns of until after their deaths (Angela and Earnest). These are just two more names to add to the ever-growing list of so-called Black people murdered by police to store in our over-traumatized minds!