‘Soul Plane’ creating turbulence among African Americans

The “first black-owned airline” has barely lifted off, but a determined campaign is already under way to ground it — or at least clip its wings.

“Soul Plane,” the new hip-hop-flavored comedy film about fictional NWA Airlines starring rapper Snoop Dogg, has run into cultural turbulence inside the African American creative community.

Director Spike Lee, who declared in a recent speech that the movie is “coonery and buffoonery,” is one of a number of entertainment figures who say it’s among the most offensive ever in terms of showing blacks in a negative light.

Other actors, writers and directors have called “Soul Plane” a modern-day minstrel show and a throwback to films in the 1940s and 1950s, when blacks were mostly shown as lazy clowns.

“There is definitely a feeling in the community that this is the film that really does cross the line, that doesn’t have any conscience whatsoever,” said Lee Bailey, publisher and executive producer of the Electronic Urban Report Web site.

But the makers of “Soul Plane” and other supporters say the film is a brash and wild comedy in the vein of “Airplane!” or “American Pie.”

“First and foremost, this is a comedy that is an equal opportunity offender,” said Peter Adee, MGM’s president of worldwide marketing. “It takes shots at everyone.”

Jessy Terrero, a music video director making his directing feature debut with “Soul Plane,” said he cut out many of an early script’s jokes about race.

“I’m part of Generation X, part of the hip-hop culture, and I just wanted to make a good comedy for my generation,” Terrero said. “I don’t see this as a movie about race, it’s a movie about class.”

“Soul Plane” is the latest in a slate of urban-based films being developed by MGM after the crossover success of the studio’s 2001 release “Barbershop,” which also drew its share of controversy. The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton threatened to stage a boycott against “Barbershop” because of jokes about Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Though last year’s “Bringing Down the House” was a hit with black and white audiences, some African Americans criticized some of Queen Latifah’s more outrageous antics as an ex-con who turns out to be Steve Martin’s Internet dream date.

Lee himself came under some fire for his 2000 film “Bamboozled,” which used the popularity of a televised minstrel show to poke fun at racism.

The dominant image of “Soul Plane” in its trailer and advertising is a purple-colored plane equipped with hydraulics that allow it to bounce like a lowrider car. NWA Airlines is headquartered at Malcolm X Terminal, which is also home for a “99 cent” store and a basketball court.

Passengers in “low class” snack on fried chicken and sip malt liquor out of 40-ounce bottles. There’s a dance club and a craps table on board. Several of the boarders are sex-crazed, including one excited couple who take the “mile-high club” to new heights inside — and outside —the plane.

The “pilot” (played by Snoop Dogg) hired at the last minute has no idea how to fly a plane, but has no trouble getting “high” in the cockpit. Co-stars include comedian Kevin Hart, Method Man, Mo’Nique and D.L. Hughley. Tom Arnold plays one of the few white characters — a bumbling vacationer named Elvis Hunkee whose young girlfriend becomes attracted to a black male passenger who brags about his anatomical gifts.

The “N-word” is sprinkled liberally throughout the film.

Actress Anne-Marie Johnson, the national chairwoman of the equal employment opportunity branch of the Screen Actors Guild, said the filmmakers and cast have no respect for the “scars ‘Soul Plane’ leaves on the culture.”

Johnson, who starred in the 1987 comedy “Hollywood Shuffle,” which makes fun of black stereotypes in Hollywood, added: “Nothing has changed since ‘Hollywood Shuffle.’ In fact, it’s gotten worse.”

Despite the furor, “Soul Plane” has more than its share of defenders who call it a comedy with attitude that merely points out differences within and between cultures.

“Why are black people so insecure?” said Walter Latham, the creator behind the successful “The Original Kings of Comedy” tour and film that featured Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac, D.L. Hughley and Steve Harvey.

“We put so much energy into criticizing films like this instead of addressing what’s really relevant, such as our economic state,” Latham said. “Black people should accept the fact that our heritage is different, and we should embrace who we are as a people. If there was a black airline, they probably would serve ribs and collard greens. That’s who we are.”

The cultural rift over “Soul Plane” is indicative of a generational gap that becomes more dramatic with the growing prominence of hip-hop culture, said the Electronic Urban Report’s Bailey.

“The young people who are the target for this film didn’t grow up in the era of civil rights,” he said. “They cannot even remotely relate. It’s all about having a party.”

Chuck Wilson, one of the film’s writers, said too much importance was being placed on the shoulders of “Soul Plane.”

“I feel that we as African Americans should have evolved well beyond the point where one movie or a group of movies can define us,” said Wilson, who is black. “White filmmakers can make ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ But that’s not a statement on all white people.”