Posted on 12/21/2016 1:49:54 AM PST by Altura Ct.
Wait a minute, after thirty-nine years, it turns out that Star Wars is about race?
Sort of. You may not notice at first (I didn’t, until the second half of the movie), but in Rogue One there isn’t a single non-Hispanic white male among the large cast of heroes. The rebel band seeking to steal the plans for the Death Star from the Empire is led by a white woman (Felicity Jones), a Latino man (Diego Luna) and three ethnic Asians (Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang), with advice from a black man (Forest Whitaker) and a droid (voice of Alan Tudyk). Among the rebels, non-Hispanic white dudes (for convenience, I’ll just call them white from now on) are relegated to the background, while the Empire is represented by brigades of sinister white men, led by Ben Mendelsohn and (the digital reincarnation of) Peter Cushing as Imperial officers. It’s as if the cast was meant to echo a Hillary Clinton speech in which she described her coalition as everybody but white males.
The casting was not accidental. The Empire is (now) a “white supremacist (human) organization,” Rogue One co-writer Chris Weitz Tweeted the Friday after Clinton was defeated in the election. Another writer for the film, Gary Whitta, replied with his own Tweet, “Opposed by a multi-cultural group led by brave women”—then deleted it.
That little spasm of Trump-induced liberal anger led to what might well be the weirdest and most pathetic boycott in the history of boycotts: Malik Obama, the Kenyan gadfly, Donald Trump supporter and half-brother to our president, Tweeted out, “Boycott Star Wars people! #DumpStarWars.” Star Wars will do fine without you, Malik.
True, pale-male bean-counting, along with white identity politics in general, are as boring and silly as any other kind of identity politics. Who cares if the rebels are a gorgeous mosaic? White guys have plenty of other heroes at the multiplex this year, and every year.
Still, the movie is obviously trolling to make a lame political point, dragging in a fashionable left-wing trope where it once again does not belong. Not only is it tiresome to imply that being white and male is something vaguely shameful, the white-supremacist angle makes no sense in the context of the other chapters in the Star Wars story.
If the rebels are some sort of coalition of minorities, women, and sarcastic robots, specifically opposed to white supremacy, why did they subsequently turn to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo to lead them? Weitz and Whitta (both white males) are injecting dumb liberal talking points into the franchise just as George Lucas infamously did in Revenge of the Sith in which (as Jonah Goldberg first pointed out) he jettisoned three decades of mythology in order to make a cheap fist-waving gesture in the general direction of George W. Bush. In the movie, the future Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, says, “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy,” which prompts Obi-Wan’s riposte, “Only a Sith lord deals in absolutes.” Huh? The whole basis of Star Wars is that there is a good side and a dark side to the Force and you have to pick one. If you’re not with Darth Vader (or radical Islamists) you certainly are his enemy. Darth isn’t interested in multilateral peace negotiations.
Moreover, the decision to leave white males out of the rebel crew is indefensible from a marketing perspective. Like any Star Wars movie, Rogue One hopes to sell a lot of action figures. Little kids presumably like to buy action figures they can identify with, and though I don’t have any marketing data to back it up, it seems likely that white males are the single biggest market for Star Wars swag. Why would you turn your back on your best customers? It’s yet another example of how Hollywood’s incessant need to prove it is on the progressive side of the political Force sabotages Hollywood’s own best interests. Certainly these days Hollywood is more concerned with appeasing the Chinese government than with the reaction of the conservative half of its own country. Multiculturalism has a strong justification in marketing: if you want to sell to girls, boys, and every ethnicity and race, you’ll give everybody a hero that looks like them. So why leave out white males? The only white guy in Rogue One who has much value to the rebel force is an Imperial scientist played by Mads Mikkelsen who has misgivings about his work for the bad guys. But fifty-one-year-old Danish guys best known for playing Hannibal Lecter are probably not great models for action figures.
The irony is that, a long time ago, in a film industry far, far away, Star Wars was born in left-wing politics. Lucas dreamed up American Graffiti, Apocalypse Now (a project he subsequently passed off to Francis Ford Coppola) and Star Wars as a trilogy—one film about the carefree days just before the Vietnam War, one about the war itself, and one a dystopian sci-fi look at the ramifications of the aftermath—with plucky guerillas Luke and Co. representing the Viet Cong and the technologically awesome Empire meant to stand in for the United States.
Oh, you didn’t know that? That’s because makers of Hollywood fantasy films used to have the good sense to keep their politics to themselves.
“Why not have amphibian...”
Hell yeah!
I shall be Queen of the Multiverse!!!
;D
/shocked that anyone watched any of this dreck, beyond the first sequel
“in Rogue One there isn’t a single non-Hispanic white male among the large cast of heroes.”
The push for diversity main characters is huge. It is likely that a new author can’t get anything published unless it contains a main non-white male character.
I was told by an agent that he would handle my latest novel if I made the main character gay. (The story wouldn’t have worked, but that didn’t seem to matter.)
I consider it a donation to La Raza.
“I consider it a donation to La Raza.”
You can consider it whatever you wish.
I saw a great movie with a great story. I saw no racism references in it. It was a fun, enjoyable flick. Nothing about the movie made me think, “those PC bastards did it again.”
Methinks mountains are being made out of atoms with the cries of “they did this” or “they did that”.
Agreed
“any other accent is out of place in the story that takes place in a galaxy FAR FAR AWAY”
Actually, Star Wars has a habit of using ethnic-sounding accents, but only for alien characters, not for humans.
what ? everybody dies in the end?
If “I” am now the “enemy”, when do I get pallet loads of cash from the US Government ?
I, for one, could really use the extra cash for my nuclear program.
They want the little white boys to literally identify with the Hispanic pilot, black former soldier, etc.
There are more blatant cases like New Years’ Resolutions for White Guys by MTV.
But you’re not the only one who has brought up this open hatred and denigration of whites, rising to levels akin to hatred of Jews prior to pogroms.
‘White men’: the most dehumanising insult of our times
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/white-men-dehumanising-insult-times/
The only ones politicizing this particular movie are these idiot writers/reviewers that like to look for crap like that in movies even if it doesn’t exist.
I thought the first “Star Wars” was only mildly entertaining. If I hadn’t taken my young daughter to see it, I needn’t have bothered. No less for the sequels, prequels, nor any other kind of quels.
“This war against the white male has been ongoing. Without us civilization will cease to exist and revert back to tribalism.”
There’s more truth in that than most people will acknowledge.
In Africa, white men’s accomplishments were turned over to the dominant African tribes. Within a decade, the world watched as the new owners of white civilization couldn’t keep the power plants, the banks and transportation systems going. Then the farming structure collapsed. And the whole mess is now reverting back to third world tribalism, as you correctly stated.
You didn’t see racism because you are an integrated American who does not judge based upon the color of one’s skin. You are only seeing people. It is the multiculturalists who are the racists and their weak attempt at portraying white people as the villains. is a pathetic example of Freudian projection.
The multiculturalists are the evil empire and they have been taken down by seemingly improbable “rebels” lead by Trump and the deplorables...
Wow - what a thought. Time to buy old movies and get a nice collection. Hope The Donald and his minions pushback.
“Article silly. I had no problem watching it.”
Fully agree. Didn’t go into this movie looking to be offended, and definitely wasn’t. Yes, they had minorities in some of the lead roles, but guess what, there were minorities in the audience, too. haha
Good flick. May take the kids to see it again.
Darth Vader is a black guy.... now : )
Stop making everything about race
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