Star Wars: Rascist or just plain fun?

[Mr. Orange]

This has probably already been done on this board but just in case...

As I'm sure a lot of you have heard that there are racial undertones in the Star Wars Galaxy. Jar Jar Binks is probably the most famous example but are there others?

Well I've heard that Queen Amandala is known as "pure" Could this have something to do with her face being white?

Let's not forget the Blue Alien from episode 1. The one that owns anakin. He is a sharp dealer and all he understands is money. And he seems to speak in a jewish accent.

Coincidence? I am not sure yet myself but what do you guys think?

[BakeTheMooCow]

I don't have anything to say except...

HOOPER - Fuck Lando Calrissian! Uncle Tom nigger! Always some white boy gotta invoke `the holy trilogy'! Bust this - those movies are about how the white man keeps the brother man down - even in a galaxy far, far away. Check this shit. You got cracker farm-boy Luke Skywalker, Nazi poster boy - blond hair, blue eyes. And then you've got Darth Vader: the blackest brother in the galaxy. Nubian God.

BANKY - What's a Nubian?

HOOPER - Shut the fuck up! Now Vader, he's a spiritual brother, with the force and all that shit. Then this cracker Skywalker gets his hands on a light-saber, and the boy decides he's gonna run the fucking universe - gets a whole Klan of whites together, and they're gonna bust up Vader's `hood the Death Star. Now what the fuck do you call that?

BANKY - Intergalactic Civil War?

HOOPER - Gentrification. They're gonna drive our the black element, to make the galaxy quote, unquote `safe' for white folks.

HOLDEN - But Vader turns, out to be Luke's father. And in Jedi, they become friends.

HOOPER - Don't make me bust a cap in your ass, yo! Jedi's the most insulting installment, because Vader's beautiful, black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal a feeble, crusty white man! They're trying to tell us that deep inside, we all want to be white!

BANKY - Well isn't that true?

[Cyclonus]

Jeez, it's amazing how far people will go to find something wrong with everything. That scene in Chasing Amy illustrates how ridiculous the whole thing can get. These so-called "activists" often aren't really interested in fairness or anything, they just want to make some noise because they have nothing worthwhile to do except whine.

[herculeez]

Racist or plain fun?
It's plain fun BECAUSE it's racist!
Actually, the movie's are no fun at all...
It's coz it's not racist enough!!!!

[movielover-9]

whoa whoa what the hell are you trying to say? You support racism?

[CrowTRobot]

Let's not forget the legion of alien species working together in the alliance. Admiral Akbar wasn't white - he's a Calamarian! And Calrissian redeemed himself in Jedi for the shitty position he was put in and the bad decision he made in Empire. ANd who knows what race Yoda is (i'm sure someone does), but he's GREEN and he represents the epitome of "good" a la the light side of the force.

The incredibly witty scenes in Smith's Chasing Amy (or clerks for that matter) are just that, witty. He loves the trilogy as much as us fanboys, else he wouldnt know so much about it to write it so well.

I think vadar being black, and there being a "dark side" are more metaphors that have grown out of our language that, yes, uses "black" and "dark" as modifiers indicating "bad" and yes this may have grown opartly out of racism, but it's just part of language, and I think white v black in SW was just Lucas' simplistic metaphor for good vs evil.

[Cyclonus]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by movielover-9:
whoa whoa what the hell are you trying to say? You support racism?</font>

I think Herc was being sarcastic!

[[SD] Bob Plisskin]

I think you could probably prove anything you want with enough facts...

ok maybe that didn'y come out right, what I mean is if you look for a specific undertone in a movie you'll find it. I could just as easily say that Star Wars is a pro communist film, think about it, 'The Rebels' are hardworkers with no clear command structure and don't own shops or anything, then they overthrow the guy who is building a massive skyscraper type thing (the modern symbol of a wealthy business) I can't remeber how they destroyed it but didn't one of the spaceships fly into it? Oh that must mean that Lucus is the mastermind behind the Taliban then.

&lt;OB&gt;

[Jedi]

Oh my goodness!
I can't believe you're actually trying to catch some "racist" stuff in a kid's movie.
C'mon. JarJar was the only plain thing "f*** u Lucas for that".. Aside from this, it's PURE FUN.

[belphegor]

...bump

[This message has been edited by belphegor (edited 07-26-2002).]

[Mr. Orange]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jedi:
Oh my goodness!
I can't believe you're actually trying to catch some "racist" stuff in a kid's movie.
C'mon. JarJar was the only plain thing "f*** u Lucas for that".. Aside from this, it's PURE FUN.</font>

I am not deliberalately (sp?) going out of my way for this stuff. I read an article in a magazine about it and it listed a bunch of "rascist" things about star wars. I don't know what to believe about it yet, but I am pretty sure that it is a load of crap. Besides it makes for a good debate!

[Ender]

You can interrpret almost any movie as "offensive" if you try hard enough. There are always a million and a half ways to look at something that the filmaker probably didn't intend (although Watto did give me pause, I must admit). Most protesters and activists are merely attempting to draw publicity to themselves, nothing more. Overall, I'd say it's bullshit.

[CrowTRobot]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Ender:
You can interrpret almost any movie as "offensive" if you try hard enough. There are always a million and a half ways to look at something that the filmaker probably didn't intend (although Watto did give me pause, I must admit). Most protesters and activists are merely attempting to draw publicity to themselves, nothing more. Overall, I'd say it's bullshit.</font>

Well, that's the danger of complacancey.

I'd agree that you can't just blindly spew out illogical conclusions about a film that are unintended, but there ARE several legitimate areas of research that are actually key material in film schools: feminist theory and queer theory.

In brief, these theories analyze films for the way in which they portray different demographics to see to what extent age-old stereotypes or gender roles are being dealt with.

FOr most feminist theorists, Hitchcock is a goldmine of misogyny. I think he was an open chauvanist, but even I dont think he made misogyny part of his movies intentionally - but the crazy thing is, it IS part of his movie to the very core. It's what they're all ABOUT! Tortured female characters that try to handle lifestyles that go against the misogynistic view of femininity - pregnant, submissive, docile...hitch's female leads are always pyschicly damaged, outlaws, manipulators, they don't particularly like men, they aren't "women" in his eyes, and he punishes them for it...brutally!

He was a formal genious, but EVEN his formal genious was tied to his misogyny! The opening shot of Marnie is of the heroine's ass...then we get a shot of her hair (blonde), then of just her legs as she shaves...it's not until 5 minutes in that we even see her face! Here we have a female character reduced to her parts. SOme of his older films are even more blatant.

I prattle too long, but i hope you get the picture.

Now, while I dont like to give lucas enough credit for purposefully working in these white v black motifs into his story to suggest that african americans are inherently bad, criminal, or other such bad stuff; but it IS odd when you look at it. I still finally think that lucas was using white v black as just good v evil, with no connotation to america's racial background, but as one prominent film theoriest said "every image is political" - every woman character is a woman, every afriacn american character is an african american, even if its all taking place in a galaxy far, far away. and what is that, anyway? far far away...who is he kidding? I always had a problem with that. I mean, when i see the film i believe that it's not earth nor is it supposed to be, but there ARE humans speaking ENGLISH (among other languages) DUH..i mean lucas can't create a vacuum between his film's images and the culture they are shown to anymore than he apparently can't create a vacuum in his space-battle sequences (there isn't sound in space, dummy).

[This message has been edited by CrowTRobot (edited 07-26-2002).]

[The Heart Collector]

What makes you think they're speaking english? has anyone ONCE said in STAR WARS to an alien "speak english"?!?


I mean, if you want Lucas to invent a fake alien language just to make a SPACE OPERA more authentic...

[CrowTRobot]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by The Heart Collector:
What makes you think they're speaking english? has anyone ONCE said in STAR WARS to an alien "speak english"?!?


I mean, if you want Lucas to invent a fake alien language just to make a SPACE OPERA more authentic...</font>

You missed my point (probably my fault)... I said I DID believe that Star Wars has its own independant galaxy. Yes, creating a new language would make the film almost impossible to access and confuse everything..

My point is, though, that an image of a human female IS a human female, and she will appear as a human female to human audiences. And yes, they are speaking english in the movie because that's what I hear coming out of their mouths (unless its an alien language). Therefore, its not crazy to imagine that some people might see certain trends in the film politically because every image is political (as some theorists would have us believe).

So lets say that they don't call it "english" in the SW universe, it still sounds EXACTLY like english (american english for the good guys, british english for the bad) and the emotions portrayed are definitely HUMAN emotions.

None of this is BAD, or anything, nor does it take away from my enjoyment...its just a paradox, really, that ifyou really were to show galactic sagas that occurr in different galaxies, we'd have no way of knowing their culture, language, emotions, appearance...hence we have to make it look like ours, so we can relate. this is just the way it is, and I dont have a problem with it...only since it IS this way, the baggage of our culture and society ALSO get translated onto the screen, as ours serves as a template for the SW universe.

Said baggage including America's/western culture's troubled past re: race relations and cultures that are often skewed against certain races so much that it becomes part of the unconscious social fabric.

[This message has been edited by CrowTRobot (edited 07-26-2002).]

[kenner436]

I thought the movie sucked.

[James Logan]

STAR WARS, racist?
Yeah right. You, dude, are looking for things that do NOT exist...those are entertainment movies, CHILDREN movies! Geez.

[Da ShadiestBro]

How could the Star Wars series be racist when Sam Jackson plays a kick ass jedi?

[fryman_3000]

Black has always had connotations of evil - it's nothing racist. Maybe it's something to do with night. In darkness you're more vulnerable and more 'un-safe'. Now why go and ask questions like this when it's blatantly not there?

....And anyway, Lando got to fly the Millenium Falcon http://www.joblo.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Hypothermia]

Neither. The movies are boring, but they're not racist either.

[kubotakhan01]

I think that people look a little too deeply into things. I don't even see where the term "racist" would get brought up in a star wars film. "Racist" is a very strong word, and should be used only when the fact that someone IS racist is obvious.

[blankpage]

I don't think Star Wars is rasict.You people are looking at this movie to closley.Like holy hell enjoy what is put up for and two hours.If you they wanted to be rasict they would just say the N word throughout the whole movie!

--blankpage
http://www.joblo.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[cyberianhussi]

Star Wars racist? bwahahaha! That's a good one Mr. Orange. Btw, I'm a big Tim Roth fan and loved Reservoir Dogs. The blue alien that owned Anakin Skywalker is "Watto". I think you can see whatever you want to in a film.


In case any Star Wars fans out there are interested, my brother is Robert Barnes, who is one of the famed coceptual sculptors/artists, and creature creators for the Star Wars films. He worked on Episode I, II, and is presently working on Episode III. He also does a good portion of the illustrations for the Star Wars merchandise licensing/trademark/copyright stuff.

Now "Babe", that's a racist movie! hahahaha.

Adrianna