First and foremost, I would like to complement the films construction of the character Elgar Winthrop (Beau Bridges). Winthrop has a certain likability factor that works for him throughout the movie. His genuine interest in the residents of the tenement immediately wins us, the audience, over and we side with him over his family. However, at one junction of the film I was rooting for a tragic event to devastate Winthrop. His sexual actions endangered his ‘likability factor’ and though being murdered with an axe is far too gruesome, I was hoping for something along those lines to happen…until he ‘did the right thing’ and took custody of his baby.
However, I would not like to focus on Winthrop doing, or not doing the right thing, but rather shift my attention to the film as a whole. The setting of the film positions Park Slope to undergo a change. However, quite the opposite happens. Soon, Elgar no longer wants to convert the building into a stylish flat; instead he opts to help the residents. Though it was challenging in gaining acceptance from everyone, this “runaway” from home gradually fixes up the place to an extent.
With the original idea of transforming the tenement into a high-end flat gone, the film takes on another position – one of gentrification. If Elgar did continue to pursue his interests, then the movie might have been seen as the ‘typical’ idea of the white man winning against the black. However, it doesn’t and this is what is essential to the movie. There is no gentrification. Yes part of the tenement is restored but there is no ‘displacement of low-income residents,’ as put by Princeton.edu. This influences the context of the film immensely. It shows that the white and black man can get along which was a question posed to us last week with the ending of Do the Right Thing.
Lastly, Edgar does embody the spirit of what gentrification should be. Gentrifying essentially means putting the lower class into an ever lower class. There are multiple reasons this is wrong, the primary being the relocation of residents. Instead, Edgar goes against this definition. He looks to solve the problems of the people and diverts his efforts into the Park Slope community, taking on a higher role than being the landlord.
