nobledruali
Well-Known Member
I agree with this article wholeheartedly.
Would like some feedback/opinions on this as well.
Mean Green
Green Lantern is just the latest Hollywood comic book film that makes black guys look bad.
By Armond White
Green Lantern Directed by Martin Campbell
Runtime: 105 min.
Green Lantern is a watchable if unexceptional entertainment, spinning an overcomplicated moral about guardians of the universe; will, courage and fear; and putting Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in a body suit made of light. All amusing enough until the filmmakers…bring on the black guy.
No matter how fanciful, quixotic or faithful to their original source, most of this year’s comics-based movie sink when their pop-art legends are confronted with the modern world. The fantasy-figure heroes and villains cannot transcend cultural archetypes which means these contemporary, multimillion dollar productions keep dragging audiences back to the oldest, most decrepit social stereotypes.
It has become a particular annoyance this year. Given the essentially frivolous nature of these comics-derived films, it’s worth pointing out how their fleeting but constant offense prevents the movies from being the progressive fantasies they pretend to be. They spoil their own lessons about good and evil through their non-conscientious use of cinematic imagery and character presentation.
Here are three recent disappointments:
Idris Elba in Thor. While translating the gods of Norse legend into the modern day Hollywood universe, the makers of Thor challenged familiar thinking by thinking multiculturally. Casting black British actor Idris Elba as Heimdall, Guardian Sentry of Asgard, confronted archeological complexities more than it disputed history. Why shouldn’t a deity be portrayed by an actor of color? Problem is: Elba’s Heimdall never significantly figured into Thor’s action. The character’s conception was, essentially, a butler. His purpose was to admit and greet—aligned with 1930s Hollywood stereotype rather than divine or cosmological possibility. (Read the review here)
Edi Gathegi in X-Men: First Class. During the round-up of “Mutant and Proud” superheroes, Gathegi as Darwin becomes the first to graduate to oblivion. He is gruesomely dispatched when his sketchily revealed “gift” is used against him. Darwin never gets to display heroism; instead, he is horrifically calcified. It’s a tip-off that the movie probably won’t use any of its characters satisfyingly. Even though Gathegi (also brutally dispatched in Gone Baby Gone) was felled by convention, the only dramatic surprise was that it happened so early in the story. Gathegi’s Darwin was X-Men: First Class’ Second Class citizen. (Read the review here.)
Michael Clarke Duncan in Green Lantern. Duncan voices a character named Kilowog, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, brother from another planet. He’s drafted to train Hal Jordan physically although Duncan’s speech patterns seem to dictate the character’s physical appearance; he looks like a police suspect sketch (a dark-skinned, menacing hulk as if derived from the British racial epithet “golliwog”). Essentially emulating the famous Lou Gossett Jr badass drill sergeant role, Duncan suggests that racist stereotyping exists even among alien cultures.
Would any of these actors ever get a chance to play a superhero comics protagonist? Will the comics audience ever be educated beyond typical racist conventions? Can fans ever recognize the ideological roots of their heroes and villains and respond intelligently to how these pop myths are constructed?
Only Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet escaped this problem and did so primarily through Gondry’s sophisticated approach to the nature of comic-book heroism. Gondry, Seth Rogen and Jay Chou explored the stereotypes by which white male characters (and their audiences) presume heroism via social convention that gets mistaken for natural right. It leads to Britt Reid and Kato’s rivalry (Caucasian to Asian) which brings these issues into play rather than ignoring them and perpetuating the traditional biases and outdated cultural codes.
Racial stereotyping may be organic to the creation of comics lore (a simplistic genre) but Gondry’s Green Hornet proved it’s not essential to one’s enjoyment. Ironically, Green Lantern’s entertainment value comes from defying certain genre conventions. Ryan Reynolds brings an agile presence and light humor to the part of brash test pilot Hal Jordan. As a child who witnessed his test pilot father’s death, Hal’s frightened, arrogant psyche responds to the possibility of Green Lantern Corps heroism as a test of his maturity. Reynolds plays the seriousness better than Robert Downey in Iron Man or Toby Maguire in Spider Man. He also displays wit without resorting to camp like George Clooney’s Batman.
Because Reynolds is an unconventional comics type, it helps ground the film’s delirious lessons in humanity. He makes Hal’s scenes with Blake Lively as aviatrix Carol Ferris sexy and credible (“I think we both know I’m pretty good at walking away”) and straight-facedly represents Hal’s struggle with fear, weakness and will. It’s proof of what original casting can do for a comics movie. Director Martin Campbell is a reliable craftsman (The Mark of Zorro, Casino Royale) who raises the level of this genre even if only in terms of technique. The F/X of Hal creating objects out of his ring’s green light are successfully, modestly fantastic. Such professionalism needn’t resort to dumb stereotyping.
Is it possible that the comics franchise is inherently retrograde? Does the commitment to childish characters and mindless action prevent creativity, believability, intelligence? Hal Jordan’s magical ring of virtue, given to him by the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps is a talisman devolved from Wagner and Tolkien. And co-screenwriter Greg Berlanti (The Broken Hearts Club) doesn’t sustain Hal’s interesting family subplot nor detail his romantic rivalry with hydrocephalic super villain Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard channeling Brad Dourif). The action stays superficial despite Campbell’s advance in the depiction of disaster as spectacle; disaster doesn’t just happen but is full of threat and, importantly, witnessed by many (surely a Spielberg influence).
Green Lantern should be better than it is but improvement would begin with sustained enlightened casting and characterization. What’s happened in comics movies this year has not improved on the casting in 1930s Hollywood serials. Actress Sanaa Lathan (star of Alien Vs. Predator) recently snapped “Nothing has changed!” when describing her role as an embittered 1930s black film actress in Lynn Nottage’s current play Meet Vera Stark. Lathan and Nottage’s collaboration is more meaningful and entertaining than all the comic-book franchises—or any other Hollywood movie—so far this year. Stereotyping has gotten so bad that smart viewers have come to expect the insult. They know beforehand that if it’s an action movie and there’s a black guy in it, his doom is certain—the ultimate spoiler.
Would like some feedback/opinions on this as well.Mean Green
Green Lantern is just the latest Hollywood comic book film that makes black guys look bad.
By Armond White
Green Lantern Directed by Martin Campbell
Runtime: 105 min.
Green Lantern is a watchable if unexceptional entertainment, spinning an overcomplicated moral about guardians of the universe; will, courage and fear; and putting Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in a body suit made of light. All amusing enough until the filmmakers…bring on the black guy.
No matter how fanciful, quixotic or faithful to their original source, most of this year’s comics-based movie sink when their pop-art legends are confronted with the modern world. The fantasy-figure heroes and villains cannot transcend cultural archetypes which means these contemporary, multimillion dollar productions keep dragging audiences back to the oldest, most decrepit social stereotypes.
It has become a particular annoyance this year. Given the essentially frivolous nature of these comics-derived films, it’s worth pointing out how their fleeting but constant offense prevents the movies from being the progressive fantasies they pretend to be. They spoil their own lessons about good and evil through their non-conscientious use of cinematic imagery and character presentation.
Here are three recent disappointments:
Idris Elba in Thor. While translating the gods of Norse legend into the modern day Hollywood universe, the makers of Thor challenged familiar thinking by thinking multiculturally. Casting black British actor Idris Elba as Heimdall, Guardian Sentry of Asgard, confronted archeological complexities more than it disputed history. Why shouldn’t a deity be portrayed by an actor of color? Problem is: Elba’s Heimdall never significantly figured into Thor’s action. The character’s conception was, essentially, a butler. His purpose was to admit and greet—aligned with 1930s Hollywood stereotype rather than divine or cosmological possibility. (Read the review here)
Edi Gathegi in X-Men: First Class. During the round-up of “Mutant and Proud” superheroes, Gathegi as Darwin becomes the first to graduate to oblivion. He is gruesomely dispatched when his sketchily revealed “gift” is used against him. Darwin never gets to display heroism; instead, he is horrifically calcified. It’s a tip-off that the movie probably won’t use any of its characters satisfyingly. Even though Gathegi (also brutally dispatched in Gone Baby Gone) was felled by convention, the only dramatic surprise was that it happened so early in the story. Gathegi’s Darwin was X-Men: First Class’ Second Class citizen. (Read the review here.)
Michael Clarke Duncan in Green Lantern. Duncan voices a character named Kilowog, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, brother from another planet. He’s drafted to train Hal Jordan physically although Duncan’s speech patterns seem to dictate the character’s physical appearance; he looks like a police suspect sketch (a dark-skinned, menacing hulk as if derived from the British racial epithet “golliwog”). Essentially emulating the famous Lou Gossett Jr badass drill sergeant role, Duncan suggests that racist stereotyping exists even among alien cultures.
Would any of these actors ever get a chance to play a superhero comics protagonist? Will the comics audience ever be educated beyond typical racist conventions? Can fans ever recognize the ideological roots of their heroes and villains and respond intelligently to how these pop myths are constructed?
Only Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet escaped this problem and did so primarily through Gondry’s sophisticated approach to the nature of comic-book heroism. Gondry, Seth Rogen and Jay Chou explored the stereotypes by which white male characters (and their audiences) presume heroism via social convention that gets mistaken for natural right. It leads to Britt Reid and Kato’s rivalry (Caucasian to Asian) which brings these issues into play rather than ignoring them and perpetuating the traditional biases and outdated cultural codes.
Racial stereotyping may be organic to the creation of comics lore (a simplistic genre) but Gondry’s Green Hornet proved it’s not essential to one’s enjoyment. Ironically, Green Lantern’s entertainment value comes from defying certain genre conventions. Ryan Reynolds brings an agile presence and light humor to the part of brash test pilot Hal Jordan. As a child who witnessed his test pilot father’s death, Hal’s frightened, arrogant psyche responds to the possibility of Green Lantern Corps heroism as a test of his maturity. Reynolds plays the seriousness better than Robert Downey in Iron Man or Toby Maguire in Spider Man. He also displays wit without resorting to camp like George Clooney’s Batman.
Because Reynolds is an unconventional comics type, it helps ground the film’s delirious lessons in humanity. He makes Hal’s scenes with Blake Lively as aviatrix Carol Ferris sexy and credible (“I think we both know I’m pretty good at walking away”) and straight-facedly represents Hal’s struggle with fear, weakness and will. It’s proof of what original casting can do for a comics movie. Director Martin Campbell is a reliable craftsman (The Mark of Zorro, Casino Royale) who raises the level of this genre even if only in terms of technique. The F/X of Hal creating objects out of his ring’s green light are successfully, modestly fantastic. Such professionalism needn’t resort to dumb stereotyping.
Is it possible that the comics franchise is inherently retrograde? Does the commitment to childish characters and mindless action prevent creativity, believability, intelligence? Hal Jordan’s magical ring of virtue, given to him by the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps is a talisman devolved from Wagner and Tolkien. And co-screenwriter Greg Berlanti (The Broken Hearts Club) doesn’t sustain Hal’s interesting family subplot nor detail his romantic rivalry with hydrocephalic super villain Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard channeling Brad Dourif). The action stays superficial despite Campbell’s advance in the depiction of disaster as spectacle; disaster doesn’t just happen but is full of threat and, importantly, witnessed by many (surely a Spielberg influence).
Green Lantern should be better than it is but improvement would begin with sustained enlightened casting and characterization. What’s happened in comics movies this year has not improved on the casting in 1930s Hollywood serials. Actress Sanaa Lathan (star of Alien Vs. Predator) recently snapped “Nothing has changed!” when describing her role as an embittered 1930s black film actress in Lynn Nottage’s current play Meet Vera Stark. Lathan and Nottage’s collaboration is more meaningful and entertaining than all the comic-book franchises—or any other Hollywood movie—so far this year. Stereotyping has gotten so bad that smart viewers have come to expect the insult. They know beforehand that if it’s an action movie and there’s a black guy in it, his doom is certain—the ultimate spoiler.
