'Objects In Space'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Thanks, Liese, I know how important Tolkien's work is to you and I know how seriously you think about these issues.
I think everybody has to do a dance around these things, whether it's the anti-semitism in some beloved cozy old British mystery or the problematic sexism in the Rolling Stones.
Some are harder to swallow than others.
I am very much enjoying this discussion. I can't seem to get my thoughts into coherent sentences but I really want you guys to keep talking so maybe somebody will speak for me.
David, one difference that I see is that LotR and A:TLA exist within the wider context of cinematic history, a history that has been dominated by white people. So if Asian actors can't even get cast in leading roles in a movie based on anime that draws very very obviously from different Asian cultures, how do they get cast? Also, those are whole cultures, not necessarily ugly stereotypes.
I think it's valid to use race as shorthand artistically.
I was annoyed at Airbender because I wanted to see an Asian play Aang and Pacific Islanders as the Water Tribe but I think Shyalaman's full of shit when he says it wasn't a concious choice to make all the bad guys brown.
I'm mad that Al Pacino's not Jewish (though I admit I haven't seen his Merchant of Venice).
I remember the first time I saw Dances With Wolves, I didn't give the movie time to explain itself when I saw a non-Native American woman in Sioux clothing, I just got indignant.
It was really distracting watching Prince of Persia when all the Persians were white dudes with British accents.
I think it's valid to use race as shorthand artistically.
Do you think it's also valid to use something like sexual orientation artistically? Homosexual as token symbol of other?
I remember people getting all up in arms that Tom Cruise was playing "The Last Samurai" but if you watch the movie you see it's actually Ken Watanabe. (And according to imdb he got top billing)
Homosexual as token symbol of other?
I'm not sure how this would work. Is there an example?
And I can't say I'm not bugged that whites are so constantly portrayed as the good guys. Race is problematic because racism is a problem. But if people of so many different ethnicities hadn't been used to portray Native Americans over the years, I wouldn't have missed a major plot point of Dances with Wolves.
I remember people getting all up in arms that Tom Cruise was playing "The Last Samurai" but if you watch the movie you see it's actually Ken Watanabe.
Huh, I had no idea. But you can see how one would be confused.