heavy influence of Apartheid and comparison of aliens to black people.
update: good read from a review i found
Yes, it is racist. Yes, I am black. I think what you are trying to say is that in the attempt to deal with racism, in this particular case South African apartheid, the writers/director failed. Yes, the movie depicts all of humanity as anti-alien, but it does indeed put the greatest failure on the shoulders of the blacks (South African and Nigerian) depicted in this film while completely ignoring the actual effects apartheid has had on the society that already existed before the aliens arrival.
There is no alien uprising in this film. There is simply a white South African man being an action hero. If you did, in fact, substitute another race in place of the aliens the movie would be saying the only way for a subjugated race to become free again is to have the white man save him. If you look at the cat food addiction as drug addiction, his infection (becoming alien) with HIV/AIDS in Africa and contracting it by sex with an alien (rumored sex with a monkey), the image of African women as witch doctors and prostitutes, white women as helpless angels or mediators, black African men as subservient, ultra-violent, drug dealers/war profiteers, white men as corporate bad guy or tragic action hero, clearly the Africans come out looking the worst.
An interesting incident in my theatre, in what is to be considered an extremely "liberal" city, there was deafening applause and screaming when the Nigerian gangster got his head blown off by the white action hero, but when the lead white military bad guy was pulled apart by the aliens there was no reaction at all. Was he not as bad as the Nigerians? I would think so, as he was trying to capture the "hero" through almost the entire movie and before trying to capture him he was humiliating him.
Ultimately, the "hero" character is so anti-alien, you can't root for him.
Another problematic part of the movie is the idea that there were 1 million aliens, but only two were trying to get the ship restarted, the rest were too busy being addicted to cat food, so the only person to help them was the white hero who was trying to save his own livelihood, repeatedly thwarted the aliens attempts to save himself and his people, but would still help our hero. The alien was essentially the Friday of this Robin Crusoe tale.
I can think of at least ten ways in which this film could have attached itself to the problems of apartheid and racism and would have been better, but as it is, it lends itself more to harm than good.
Just so you know, this is my short list of why this movie is racist.
But now, we live in a post-racial society, so if you see these things (these flaws) and point them out and the majority doesn't agree with you (either because they don't want to see it or they just want peace of mind to enjoy it), you're a liar or it's all in your head. Sometimes they'll even tell you that you just want to see racism where there is none or you didn't understand it.
I'm telling you it's there. You did see it. Don't be afraid to say it and point it out. It's like that movie Crash all over again. It is not what it attempts to be.
Don't just think of this in terms of black and white. Think of it in terms of the intellect versus the emotional response. Think of all racism that way. It (much like this movie) is extremely reactionary, but the intelligence in both cases is lacking.
Reason and racism are diametrically opposed.
People looking for a good time, who don't want to think, will love this movie and will do so with a clear conscience because they've been told it actually deals with apartheid, a serious subject matter, but they (in most cases) won't want to have an actual discussion about whether it or not it succeeded because ultimately they just want to enjoy watching some dude they can relate to blow some **** up.
update: good read from a review i found
Yes, it is racist. Yes, I am black. I think what you are trying to say is that in the attempt to deal with racism, in this particular case South African apartheid, the writers/director failed. Yes, the movie depicts all of humanity as anti-alien, but it does indeed put the greatest failure on the shoulders of the blacks (South African and Nigerian) depicted in this film while completely ignoring the actual effects apartheid has had on the society that already existed before the aliens arrival.
There is no alien uprising in this film. There is simply a white South African man being an action hero. If you did, in fact, substitute another race in place of the aliens the movie would be saying the only way for a subjugated race to become free again is to have the white man save him. If you look at the cat food addiction as drug addiction, his infection (becoming alien) with HIV/AIDS in Africa and contracting it by sex with an alien (rumored sex with a monkey), the image of African women as witch doctors and prostitutes, white women as helpless angels or mediators, black African men as subservient, ultra-violent, drug dealers/war profiteers, white men as corporate bad guy or tragic action hero, clearly the Africans come out looking the worst.
An interesting incident in my theatre, in what is to be considered an extremely "liberal" city, there was deafening applause and screaming when the Nigerian gangster got his head blown off by the white action hero, but when the lead white military bad guy was pulled apart by the aliens there was no reaction at all. Was he not as bad as the Nigerians? I would think so, as he was trying to capture the "hero" through almost the entire movie and before trying to capture him he was humiliating him.
Ultimately, the "hero" character is so anti-alien, you can't root for him.
Another problematic part of the movie is the idea that there were 1 million aliens, but only two were trying to get the ship restarted, the rest were too busy being addicted to cat food, so the only person to help them was the white hero who was trying to save his own livelihood, repeatedly thwarted the aliens attempts to save himself and his people, but would still help our hero. The alien was essentially the Friday of this Robin Crusoe tale.
I can think of at least ten ways in which this film could have attached itself to the problems of apartheid and racism and would have been better, but as it is, it lends itself more to harm than good.
Just so you know, this is my short list of why this movie is racist.
But now, we live in a post-racial society, so if you see these things (these flaws) and point them out and the majority doesn't agree with you (either because they don't want to see it or they just want peace of mind to enjoy it), you're a liar or it's all in your head. Sometimes they'll even tell you that you just want to see racism where there is none or you didn't understand it.
I'm telling you it's there. You did see it. Don't be afraid to say it and point it out. It's like that movie Crash all over again. It is not what it attempts to be.
Don't just think of this in terms of black and white. Think of it in terms of the intellect versus the emotional response. Think of all racism that way. It (much like this movie) is extremely reactionary, but the intelligence in both cases is lacking.
Reason and racism are diametrically opposed.
People looking for a good time, who don't want to think, will love this movie and will do so with a clear conscience because they've been told it actually deals with apartheid, a serious subject matter, but they (in most cases) won't want to have an actual discussion about whether it or not it succeeded because ultimately they just want to enjoy watching some dude they can relate to blow some **** up.
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