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The Magical Negro is a supporting stock character in fiction who, by means of special insight or powers often of a supernatural or quasi-mystical nature, helps the white protagonist get out of trouble. African-American filmmaker Spike Lee coined the term, deriding the archetype of the "super-duper magical negro" in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.[1][2]
The following list presents examples of the archetype that have been proposed or discussed.
Lee cited four recent films in which there is a "magical, mystical Negro" character: The Family Man, What Dreams May Come, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and The Green Mile. In the latter film, Lee noted, a black inmate cures a prison guard of disease simply by touching him; in The Legend of Bagger Vance, a black man "with all these powers," teaches a young white male (played by actor Matt Damon), how to golf like a champion.
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Over the years, we've all seen too many anachronistic magic Negroes in movies like Forrest Gump and The Green Mile. The saintly African-American matriarchy of The Secret Life of Bees may appear benign by comparison
through the clock-keeper played by Bill Cobbs in "The Hudsucker Proxy"
the main twist being that it calls upon the exoticism of India to provide a dose of magic. ... The character of Ram Dass is of course an example of the magical negro trope even if it uses an Indian.
It must be said that Guy Torry, who plays Lamont, Derek's savior, fills the role brilliantly. But the part is just a lie from start to finish; it reflects a secret bigotry that sees black people only in terms of what they can do for white people, but has no other interest in them. And once Lamont has performed his miracle of healing, he disappears from the movie without a whisper.
I also think you have to cop to the fact that the Baraka character is the magic negro.
Larry Wilmore also compares Obama's pre-election image to that of other notable magic negro archetypes in fiction, such as Bagger Vance and John Coffey. ...
What's remarkable about the recent magical figure ... In The Matrix, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) helps Neo ... In The Family Man, Jack Campbell (Nicholas Cage) is shown the right path by ... (Don Cheadle). In The Green Mile, John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) ... In The Legend of Bagger Vance, Bagger (Will Smith) plays a caddie who helps Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) ... Unbreakable presents Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson) ...
Unfortunately cast here as the magical negro stereotype, the 'Black stock character ...
In The Legend of Bagger Vance, one of the more embarrassing movies in recent history, Will Smith plays a magical black caddie who helps Matt Damon win a golf tournament and the heart of Charlize Theron. ... The first is the Magical African-American Friend. Along with Bagger Vance, MAAFs appear in such films as, the upcoming Family Man (co-starring Don Cheadle) and last year's prison drama The Green Mile.
By far the funniest moment in Evan Almighty occurs when God (Morgan Freeman, in full-on magical Negro mode) appears to the wife of Evan Baxter, a congressman turned reluctant ark builder.
The easiest of these to spot is the tokenism that usually takes place in movies that make use of this particular trope. Again, think of four movies I mentioned above. Also think of other Freeman movies such as Driving Miss Daisy, Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, The Bucket List, Invictus and yes the entire Dark Knight trilogy.
Then there's Hounddog's Magic Negro -- less a character and more a plot device -- which is so thematically ill conceived that it makes Driving Miss Daisy look like Malcolm X.