Watermelon Contest (1896)

Although the films clearly belong to a racist context that is characteristically US, the sad truth is that White (himself a Canadian) was here simply remaking for Edison a series of films made a few months earlier by the Scotsman W. L. K. Dickson (formerly of course an Edison employee) for Mutoscope with G. W. Bitzer, no less, at the camera. Bitzer would go on to shoot even ghastlier racist films (Human Apes from the Orient 1905 is probably his all-time low) before even working on that masterwork of racist cinema, The Birth of a Nation. That must have been a real treat for him! Dickson and Bitzer shot three rather unpleasantly racist films in Manhattan in September 1896 - Dancing Darkies, A Hard Wash (you can't get a pickaninny white however hard you wash it - advertised as particularly enjoyable watching for children)and A Watermelon Feast.White and Heise at Edison's simply reshot the two more novel ones in October - retitled Watermelon (Eating) Contest and A Morning Bath Happily for the reputation of Dickson and Bitzer it is the White/Heise versions that survive. There is no question of their popularity. Signumd Lubin also made a version of Watermelon Contest in 1897. White remade it as Watermelon Eating Contest (with four contestants rather than two) in 1900 Sigmund Lubin also remade Morning Bath as New Morning Bath that same year, while Selig remade Watermelon Contest in 1903.Things were only a little better by then at Edison's under Edwin Porter and Wallace McCutcheon who produced The Watermelon Patch in 1905 (caricature but, this time, a shade more human, a good deal more humorous and even arguably somewhat at second degree - poking fun at the stereotype as well as the stereotyped).

This is basically all that happens in this 18-second short film from almost 120 years ago. The director is silent film pioneer James H. White. Apparently, he found this subject far more interesting than I did as he made another film like this (only with 4 men) eating melons 4 years later. But back to this one: In here, the two men talk while they are enjoying the delicious meal. I have to say if this film has any impact or lasting impression, then it is probably that you would like to eat a juicy red melon as well. So you see the only color I mention here is red. Who cares about the men being black. It's about equality, so the color does not matter. Is it racist if two white men eat crackers? It's just two men having a meal and seemingly enjoying the very delicious taste. People need to stop being so over-the-top politically correct. Apart from that, it's still not a good movie as it's simply not really interesting. The version with four men I mentioned earlier is more fun to watch I guess.

. . . as the United States Government's official Library of Congress, the Edison National Historic site, and the Museum of Modern Art all agree that this 1896 kinetoshort is WATERMELON EATING CONTEST, not "Watermelon Contest" (which would denote a watermelon GROWING competition!). Furthermore, (though someone pointed out that technically itz not cricket to refer to other reviews in your own review) I cannot restrain myself from pointing out that two-thirds of the previous reviews for this bit TALK ABOUT A DIFFERENT Edison flick, 1903's WATERMELON EATING CONTEST, which features four contestants compared to the two who were willing to be filmed seven years earlier. Secondly, the other third of reviews places this remake in 1900 (the Victorian Age), rather than prescribing it correctly into the Edwardian Epoch. These "contests" must have been pretty informal; no kind of umpire or referee is present, so each of the entrants spit out what looks to be 99% of their bitten-off melon (exactly 6 expectorations apiece during the 18.48 seconds this so-called competition runs). I can only assume the government is preserving this until someone is found who remembers what the contest rules actually were (maybe the object was to swallow the seeds, and spit out the fruit?!). At any rate, the 1903 remake is equally clueless--still no referees or judges, but just as much spitting of fruit by the participating quartet.

It is in black and white. Short. About 13 seconds.Four black men participate in a watermelon contest---I guess there trying to see who'll win. This short film is disturbing. It's how they eat the damn fruit. Especially the man in front (who irritates me more than the rest) is chewing on his watermelon so savagely and lustfully you'd think there was no tomorow. The black man in the far right corner is laughing and smiling. The dipiction that African Americans love watermelon and that people are laughing about it--is just.... real disturbing! Also, I want to know why the hell these men offered to do it? Why they wanted to be ridiculed? For the money? That's sad. But that's what it was like back then.What really bugs me is that this short clip was intended to be a comedy----to be fun. But like I said, that's what it was like back then in the 19th century and that's the way it always was.