In case you missed it last Sunday
night, Steve McQueen’s movie adaptation of Solomon Northup’s memoir 12 Years a Slave won the Academy Award
for Best Picture. In the past few years, several films concerning the struggle
of African-Americans have been released. These recent movies such as 42, The
Butler, Django Unchained, and now
this film have received much critical acclaim. While there have been successful
movies about these issues in the past (1977’s Roots for example), the sudden increase of this type of film in
Hollywood marks a change in the culture. The idea we have been discussing lately about the role of culture in racial discourse has been prominent in the media lately.
A large number of people were highly
supportive of the film’s success and especially of its message. The producer of
the film Brad Pitt stated his goal for the movie: “At the end of the day we
just hope that this film remains a gentle reminder that we're all equal. We
want dignity and opportunity for ourselves and our family, and that another's
freedom is every bit as important as our own. That's it. That's
everything." Critics of the film did not see this as the film’s objective.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh argued that the only reason that the
film was awarded Best Picture was because it had the word “slave” in it. He is
one of the many people that are condemning the film and its “no apologies”
portrayal of slavery. These people that dislike the message of the movie
believe that it is propaganda and that its main focus is to foster a sense of
“white guilt.” They claim that it is the effort of the liberal Hollywood media
to force white people to feel bad about these things that have occurred in the
past.
While
reading about the controversies surrounding the reception of the film, I found
that I disagreed greatly with the opinions of these critics. I do not believe that
the recent release of movies depicting African-American struggles is meant to
promote guilt among white Americans. The films are not condemning modern day
Americans. What they are doing is simply portraying historical events. From a
film about Jackie Robinson breaking the racial barriers in baseball to a movie
about the horrors of 19th Century slavery, the recent upsurge of
this type of film is presenting history in a new medium. They are reviving a
period of American history that is frequently forgotten in the entertainment
industry. For example, there have been many movies made about the injustice
that occurred in the Holocaust but not many about the terrible acts that
occurred on American soil. It is easier to watch historical films about past
brutality when the antagonists are people that do not have a connection to the
audience. However I believe that the acceptance of this dark part of American
history is long overdue. It has been approximately 150 years since the
Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years since Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream”
speech. The only way to get past this part of history is to accept it and move
forward. For this reason, I believe these historical movies have been long
overdue.
I completely agree. I feel like this is an important subject that we often cover in class. Events that happened in the past should not be overlooked. They happened. Not matter how good or how bad, the past in not something we can simply turn away from just because it makes us uncomfortable. It is wrong to sugarcoat or skim over different parts of history in the classroom, and in the same way it is wrong to create an apologetic movie about slavery. These movies are a representation of our history. I don’t think they were created with the intention to provoke feelings of guilt in present day white people. Instead, I think their purpose is to tell a story that celebrates the people who felt the full burden of slavery and were still able to survive and even overcome their hardships.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the critics claiming that the movie's main goal reminds me of other movies that try to satiate white guilt by portraying stories of black triumph at the hands of a white "hero" figure. For instance, The Blind Side was not a story about how Big Mike overcame his harsh upbringing as a young black boy in the ghetto. It was about how Leigh Anne Tuohy was the white hero. The same goes for stories like The Help that commend white men and women for crossing racial lines as the plot line. When so many movies aim to satiate white guilt, as you referred to it, there should be others like 12 Years a Slave that do not frame all white people as heroes.
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