Movie Talks Archives

Posted by: wildandhairy at February 16, 2006, 11:26 am

Topic: King Kong!! WOW! (Reviews) Forum: JoBlo

Well, I can see your points about GWTW. Again, it is a great example of storytelling. What I really am reacting to are people (not necessarily yourself) who describe it as a terrific American film etc etc and completely ignore the race elements. For example, that the word 'slave' is never used, that the reality of slavery is completely ignored, and that the Reconstruction period was pictured as looting by the North--partly but hardly completely true. The AFrican Americans outside of Scarlett's care were pictured as ignorant buffoons easily swayed by Northern carpetbaggers. A film that deals with the Civil War so extensively, both what caused it and what happened after it, but that does not have the guts to even use the word slavery is, in itself, racist. And not acceptable as "a sign of the times." It was indeed a racist sign of the times then, and even today when people celebrate it as a great American film (it is) but ignore its inherent racism. Again, watching GTWT you'd think the Blacks Scarlett owned were not slaves, but loyal employees. What is totally skewed about that picture? By the way, the point about Butterfly McQueen was not that she was not a good actress (she was) but that her character, who I think had the largest speaking part of any Black in the film, was a total moron. I don't recall any dignified Black character, except perhaps the butler. It is hard to see the stereotyped depicition of the "Mammy" as not being racist. One of the reasons why one should be concerned about racism in US films (or Canadian films, I suppose, for that matter) is that so many people simply choose to ignore offensive material rather than deal with it. For example, High Sierra is a terrific film noir with Humphrey Bogart, made (if I recall) right before The Maltese Falcon. You are probably familiar with the film, which is a tragedy depicting the downfall of a recently released felon (Bogart). For me the film is forever tainted by the totally racist depiction of the single Black character in the film--who is superstitious, rolls his eyes, and indulges in every despicable stereotype John Huston (of all people) and his screen writer (W.R. Burnett?) could drag up. This was pandering to an audience at its very worst, feeding it racist stereotypes. No one writes this about High Sierra, they just describe it as an American classic and ignore the blatant racism. I don't think ignoring racism, or dismissing it, is a good idea. It is one reason why there remains so much racism so today, that people do not deal with it. Perhaps you can tell that, in my day job, I am a Human Rights Officer.

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