# Dolemite Is My name (Eddie Murphy, Netflix movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** netflix, movies\ **Created:** [October 28, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616 "2019-10-28T19:37:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/21 "2019-10-31T14:59:07Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > To me those two points are an example of good editing. The story notes his unhappy situation early on and then moves on. Otherwise, it’s wasting screen time belaboring a point. Likewise, there’s no time to show the unfolding relationship between him and her when it’s not the central point of the film. So they have to have an instant bonding so they can move on to making the first Dolemite flick. I guess I just don’t enjoy good editing, because those two things (especially the latter) were sore points for me as well. The type of thing that makes me aware I’m watching a movie, and ironically takes me out of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/22 "2019-10-31T16:27:42Z")
I guess it’s a mileage may vary based on what you want out of a film experience. To me character growth and relationship development _are_ the central part. If I just want to know what happened in his life I can read Wikipedia. Very good movie but the relative lack of those things made it a bit like Mickey Rooney and hey kids let’s put on a show! Leaving the what made him tick as a person being going against his crappy father saying that he was nothing and nobody and never would be someone was a bit too superficial for my taste. And not convincingly acted for that part. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/23 "2019-10-31T16:42:43Z")
> [@planetcory](#): > > I guess I just don’t enjoy good editing, because those two things (especially the latter) were sore points for me as well. > > The type of thing that makes me aware I’m watching a movie, and ironically takes me out of the movie. Can’t please everybody all the time, I guess. Movies are always a trade-off of what to include and what to excise. And some viewers will always complain _why cut this and keep that_. I can usually forgive filmmakers cutting what may seem to be important to fit inside of the ~2 hour timeframe they’re given. I enjoyed the pacing of _Dolemite_, so I’m okay with the choices made. But different things will take me out of pictures, too, some which you may not mind. To each, his/her own. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/24 "2019-10-31T18:25:10Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I guess it’s a mileage may vary based on what you want out of a film experience. To me character growth and relationship development _are_ the central part. If I just want to know what happened in his life I can read Wikipedia. Very good movie but the relative lack of those things made it a bit like Mickey Rooney and hey kids let’s put on a show! Leaving the what made him tick as a person being going against his crappy father saying that he was nothing and nobody and never would be someone was a bit too superficial for my taste. And not convincingly acted for that part. I think a comparison I would make is to Rocketman. In that film I felt they spent too much time mooning about emphasizing angst, along with multiple scenes of the family berating him. In Dolemite they rely on the audience to get the point when they make the point and move on. As for Queen Bee, I’m going to speculate that they wrote and filmed more scenes with her and their relationship. But once it came time to edit the film down, they ended up on the editing room floor. Yes, it would have been good to give us more of her. But like so many films, there were 100 male roles to 1 female role. They included her for historical accuracy, and representation, but keeping the film from slowing down and running to 3 hours, choices are made. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/25 "2019-10-31T18:25:46Z")
At the risk of over-belaboring the point I don’t think this an editing for time issue as much as it is a writing and directing one. Same scene could have shown something of Lady Lane that stood out as talent and his recognition of it. They instead decided to go with an implication of his admiration and identification of her as someone being told they are worthless and fighting against it. And that just didn’t come off as real or … enough. The director or writer or both made a choice to tell more a chronology. The chronology was interesting enough that the movie was good but the same scenes better written and directed could have also had us feeling more about them. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/26 "2019-10-31T18:39:29Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > The director or writer or both made a choice to tell more a chronology. The chronology was interesting enough that the movie was good but the same scenes better written and directed could have also had us feeling more about them. Eh, to each. I saw it as a nod to the old The Seven Samurai tale - collecting the team, with the writer, director, Queen Bee, each one got a few scenes to establish them, then on with the story. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/27 "2019-10-31T19:14:18Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > … > The director or writer or both made a choice to tell more a chronology. The chronology was interesting enough that the movie was good but the same scenes better written and directed could have also had us feeling more about them. Yes, that’s true. They could have slipped in some more character development while advancing the plot. But I think the way they went was fine, too. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616/28 "2019-11-01T13:05:11Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > I loved it for all of the reasons already stated. I loved how it kept it as a pulls-onesself-up lets-put-on-a-show positivity. I loved how it created the time period and African-American culture without hammering on messages of societal racism. > > Regarding **SpeedwayRyan’s** comment, I kinda think that was a subtle artistic choice. Eddie wasn’t playing Dolemite, he was playing RRM. Even when he was in the Dolemite character, he kept it grounded in RRM being Dolemite, instead of Eddie being Dolemite. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Eddie get award nominations. Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen the original film so many times and I’m so familiar with the delivery…I didn’t expect Eddie to play RRM like Dolemite, but when he’s literally reenacting scenes from the film or doing the stage act (playing RRM playing Dolemite), I expected him to shoot for “Dolemite” levels. That over-the-top delivery is a big part of what makes the original film fun to watch, and showing him “turning it on” when the cameras started rolling or when he stepped on stage would have made it clear that RRM was playing a character and that he wasn’t Dolemite in real life. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolemite-is-my-name-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/842616.md?page=1)