Controversies in film that center around the subject of race
are continuously growing in popularity. As we discussed in class, 12 Years a Slave is receiving just as
much attention for Academy Award buzz as Django
Unchained did last year (and there are certainly many more films in a
similar category). Despite the harshness of the racism presented in both films
(Django consists of repeated uses of
the ‘N’ word and graphic violence), these films become critically acclaimed and
praised for their realistic portrayals of dark times.
I came across an article titled “Django Unchained and 12
Years a Slave: Two Takes on America’s Dark Past” that ultimately ends with the
idea that some stories may possibly be too harsh to be put into film. From an
outsider perspective, perhaps the reason for society’s “approval” of the
content of these films pertains to the cycle of news, which is very
unfortunate. Stereotypes and racist attitudes have not been alleviated over the
years and we are constantly bombarded with stories of horrible hate crimes in
the news. In one way, these films are raising awareness of how bad things used
to be and in another way, these movies are creating a difficult viewing
experience that only remind us of terrible societal actions that have not yet been resolved. It is almost as if the content of the news is what
sets the groundwork for film. I know that everything begins with the people in
society, but constantly seeing racial conflicts in the news is not reassuring
that resolutions are possible. One can almost infer that current films involving controversy pertaining to race are reflexive of content viewed in the news.
I agree with you Matt on your views of the controversy between race and films. Many films that do not seem to address issues of race or ethnicity are in fact doing the work of defining and stimulating such categories. Richard Dyer who wrote one of the articles we read in class called “Stereotyping in the media and cultural studies” he has argued that "whiteness" is a category that seems invisible because it gives the impression of being nothing; the power and domination of images of whiteness on screen are in the appearance of pervasive normality. Scholars studying these representations ask what has to be suppressed and what has to be controlled in production in order to make such images seem effortless and natural. Dyer has argued in his other works ive read for our research paper along with the article that ive mentioned before, that if "blackness" in Hollywood studio films represents physical expressiveness, emotion, sexuality, and proximity to nature, then "whiteness" signifies the opposite through controlled, cerebral, even deathlike images. Gone with the wind (1939), for example, was one of a series of plantation films from the 1930s that simultaneously masked and displayed the exploitation of African American labor through images of lavish plantations and dazzlingly wealthy white Southern families. In these films, the rigidity of whiteness is maintained through interracial relations whites dominate but are dependent upon blacks, to the point that the actions of African American characters onscreen function to express the emotions of white characters, so as to preserve the vision of whiteness.
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