This afternoon, on Netflix, I noticed the movie was queued up. I decided I'd watch it.
WOW! What problems I have with this movie.
It is not like me to compare books and movies (so I will try to refrain from doing so here). The movie is, at best, okay. Even if the book had never existed, I would maybe give the movie three stars out of five.
For those of you who are interested in how the movie and book compare: they don't. They are very very different. But who cares, really. They are two different mediums - they should be different from one another. Let's be honest. 6% of the viewing audience has read the book - the film makers are not catering to the readers.
But that is not where my problem lays.
My problem is that they casted this wonderful woman as Mrs. Whatsit:
But when she transforms into "her true self" she looked like this:
Why cast a strong, African American lead only to turn her into the white-savior? Why couldn't she keep her own head? Why does she have to be a blonde white woman (or something between a man and woman)? All the heroes they talk about in the book are all white men, too.
I am having a problem with the white-savior thing. I'm offended that they'd make Mrs. Whatsit's "true" form that of a white human. They should have casted a white woman, then. Why, in all of the things they decide to change in the process of turning this into a film, did they not change THIS? One of the things that would make SENSE to change?
Maybe I've been reading too much critical theory, but this really irks me. What does this say to African American audiences? Furthermore, what does this say to white audiences? That at the heart of every black person is the essence of whiteness?
I guess the other thing that bothers me is that Mrs. Whatsit is just in a temporary form. She can transition from form to form. So, the idea that this form is just temporary, and that she can be something better in the future...that also bothers me. And the idea that they are fighting the "darkness" enveloping their planet....what does THAT mean?
Do with this what you will. But I felt it necessary to talk about.
1 comment:
i think talking about the "darkness" might be pushing it. i mean light and dark are just opposites. Genesis says, God made light, and he saw that it was good, and he separated it from the darkness (paraphrasing of course). I mean i get the heebie-jeebies when i'm in the dark, and when i turn on the light: no more heebie-jeebies.
I agree with the idea of taking a strong african-american woman and making her a "he-she" white person is messed up.
and to put a nicer spin on her changing, maybe they just meant that we can all change and all better ourselves. :) i dunno. i know i analyze literature (heck and my whole life) on a daily basis, but sometimes i just want to give the author the benefit of the doubt. :)
Post a Comment