I recently viewed the newest Twilight film with my wife. I know you see the Abduction poster and I will get to that. I have seen all five films, and before you question my manhood I saw each of them with a woman, and as mediocre to bad as those films are I must give them credit on one thing. That one thing being casting of ethically proper performers. They actually cast Native Americans in the roles of the Native Americans from the books; yes I read them. They also seemed to have cast Brazilians in the roles of the Brazilian vampires in the final film. To cap it all off when they cast other minorities in the film in roles that where Caucasian in the book it didn't feel forced. I will admit to being surprised that Laurent was played by an African American, Edi Gathegi, after the book talked about he and his fellows being extremely pale, but by his final appearance in the series he had made the character his own. Also Justin Chon, an Asian American, played Bella's friend Eric. I don't recall the books saying what is race was but he fit seamlessly into the population of the film with out feeling like they were trying to be properly diverse.
The reason I bring this up is Hollywood has a historical track record of casting whites in minority roles. John Wayne as Genghis Khan anyone?
Or the decades of black face.
This is not a thing of the past either. I'm looking at you Johnny Depp.
What the crap are you thinking, Mr. Depp? And Disney I know this man has made you a crap ton of money on different projects, but really this is your image of Tonto? You are so politically correct as to not marry Mickey and Minnie for 80 years, and counting, to not offend anyone and you recently got rid of the just married buttons you had been giving out for years so not alienate certain demographics and now you do this? How is that less offensive then a button that celebrates marriage? Is it because Native Americans are a quite population or you think that the American populace in general is so in love with Mr. Depp that we won't care or notice? You may be right about the latter suggestion, but that does not make what you are doing right.
Now back to Abduction. The reason why I chose the film was to see a film with a Native American lead. I admittedly don't know of any beside Taylor Lautner so Abduction it was.
I was watching the film with issues of race as my focus. Instantly in the first scene you see Taylor's character Nathan and his two best friends; one white and one black. This reeked of politically correctness, which was only furthered when the trio arrived at the party and the only minorities that I saw were Taylor and Denzel Whitaker, who plays best friend Gilly.
Shortly after the party you meet Nathans parents, both white. (SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT) I knew going into the film that he found out they were not his birth parents and wondered throughout the entire film if/when he met his real parents what there ethnicity would be. You don't really get a clear view of either, but from what I could tell they were Caucasian. So in essence Taylor Lautner played a white kid. I don't know weather to applaud or hiss at this. His birth parents have very little dialogue and even less screen time why could at least one of them have been Native American or another ethnicity? But instead I am expected to accept that a teenager in the Pittsburgh area is able to keep a great tan. For the ladies that does include Mr. Lautner taking his shirt off. At least the film takes place in the summer. On the other hand I like that his race was never brought up and he completely believed that his "adoptive" parents were his genetic parents. Seeing they don't last long into the movie one of them could have been a minority as well. I do have to give Jason Isaacs credit for his portrayal of the adoptive father. His English accent had completely disappeared and if I hadn't used IMDB I would never have notice that he was Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
One other race issue that really bothered me in this film is that Gilly, the African America young man, ran an under the table business making fake I.D's. He does get more screen time and it turns out to be a very important role for the film; but why does the black kid have to be doing illegal things? I will give the film credit for not making him a gun toting, pot smoking, baggy pants wearing thug, but still. Couldn't it have been a joint enterprise with the other white friend Jake?
Back on the Hollywood soapbox for a moment. Don't tell me there are not minorities trying out for roles. Freaking Twilight cast an entire Native American tribe for crying out loud. If movies of that level can properly represent races why the hell can't high end films. I get that you can't very well cast Denzel Washington as Abe Lincoln or Will Smith as Senator Milk. I get that changing historical dramas is not something you do, but why couldn't Forrest Gump be African American? Why not have Mila Kunis have the lead in Black Swan? I get that maybe these are extreme examples with Tom Hanks and Natalie Portman earning Oscars in those roles. Think about this for a minute though only four times has an African American man won best actor they have only been nominated eighteen times, while there has only been one best actress win and only nine nominations. That is 80 plus years of Oscars and you can count on one hand how many times someone of African decent won the big prizes. In total across all categories African Americans account for only 32 Oscar wins. That is disgusting.
Some may say there are not as many great minority actors and actresses out there. That may be true but what I see is a lack of opportunity. We have films releasing every year of entirely black casts. Give those people chances in better films. Do I think Martin Lawrence has the skills to win an Oscar? No, but with that said early in Jamie Foxx or Will Smith's careers I would have said the same thing. Now Foxx has an Oscar and Smith has been nominated twice.
Bravo to the brave studios, producers, and directors who do give them chances. Bravo to those who give white characters from source material to African American actors. Michael Clark Duncan in Dare Devil, Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing, Billy Dee Williams in Batman, or Idris Elba in Thor. Being a comic book fan their are tons of minority superheroes and villains ripe for their depiction on the big screen. Give me Steel, give me Black Panther, give me more Blade!
Dear Hollywood Studio Execs,
I, Michael Ward, a Caucasian, hear by promise that if you make quality films with minority leads I will buy tickets and/or Blu Rays. A great film is not only about who is in them, but the story being told and how it is being told. If you tell a good story I don't care who the lead is I will watch it.
Sincerely,
Michael Ward
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