Let's discuss about racial stereotype in American movies. I'm refering to the newer movies (mid-90s and newer). Examples are like how they always make westerners saving asians. An example of this is The Last Samurai how an American saves the japanese. Another thing is how they pick the actors and actress to play the parts. When the character is a villian they pick a minority to play the part. When the character is a hero they pick a white actor or actress. An example of this is with the movie 300 and the upcoming movie Prince of Persia. In 300 the Persians consitsted of being men of color because they were viewed as the bad guys. But in Prince of Persia, the main character is being played by a white actor (Jake Gyllenhaal).

What do you guys think of American movies with this theme?

I think there are tons of movies with whites as the antagonists, so who cares if the brown guy gets to play one too. And quite frankly, playing a villian is a much more demanding role and requires more talent/ effort to make it come out right.

I would not mind playing a bad-@$$ villian.

Really, could you imagine someone like Tom Hanks playing a villian? It would look ridiculous. He's a great actor, but he doesn't have the versitility for it. But just an example, Jet Li, so long as he doesn't open his mouth in English, is a great physical actor and bridges protagonist/ antagonist very well.

But like ttocs, alot of actors say they have more fun playing the bad guy, they can really get into it and be much more creative. Look at the Spiderman movies. The antagonists have much more personality than Peter Parker.

The latest Hollywood movie i saw What Happens in Vegas with Cameroon Diaz and Ashtun Kutsch really pissed me off when they portrayed the asian co-worker as a dumb but ambitious brown-noser to get Diaz's job as the top stockbroker of the firm. The boss of hte firm was portrayed to snub the hardworking asian in preference to the wacky, zany, sexier anglo Diaz.

Meh.... there's somehting really wrong with Diaz that she co-produced a $hitty film like this. I always liked her movies but this one was a brainless piece of shmuck. She looked awful throughout the movie too.

What about all the numerous times in which the white guy is portrayed as a fu-king idiot?

white boy portrayed as a fu-ken idiot.. ? probably never made it thru the Hollywood productions..

i saw Sideways though... which portrayed a sexy asian girl (Sandra Oh) beating her white bf (a fu-ken idiot) up to a pulp... haha but that was an indie

double post edit

Dunno, it's usually English people cast as the villian in American films! lol


In Charlies Angels didn't they portray the asian actress (can't remember her name) as the smart one of the three?

You fu-king kidding?!?!
Don't believe what those whining idiots tell you! White boys are portrayed as fu-kin' tools as well!!!

We have American media here in Australia, though we hate Americans, we like how they know how to entertain
Actually, should watch the movie Dodgeball, Ben Stiller was fu-kin' hilarious!!!

And not just that, there's heaps of movies, heaps of songs, lol especially white boys whining. But "Pretty fly for a white guy"

There are some double-standards in Hollywood. Like you pointed out, the Persian villains in 300 are black and brown, while the Persian hero in Prince of Persia is being played by a white actor? (The Indian heroine in Prince of Persia is also being played by a white actress by the way.) It's also common for white people to be cast in Asian roles (like in 21, DBZ and many others), but when was the last time an ethnic minority was cast in a white role?

The reason for these double-standards should be obvious: the majority of Hollywood's audience are white. Why risk alienating the white majority of the audience (which is where most of the box office gross comes from) just to appease the ethnic minorities? When it comes to big-budget Hollywood movies, the box office gross is more important than authenticity, is it not?

Yep, but it goes further than that.

The lead in most american films set in Scotland, Ireland or England is American, even if most of the "sub" actors are locals.

So its not just about skin colour or ethnicity, its about being American, cos thats where the studios know the biggest audience for their films is.

Jeez one of the leads in a Robin Hood film set in England was (to my understanding) a black American!

Can you imagine an american being robin hood during that period? And (no offence to black people) there were no black people in England at that period!

Agreed, it's a number's game. But why is that exactly bad? It's a movie, it's entertainment, it's not history. If you want history you can see whites being Persian-wannabes, asians ransacking Europe with no worthy competition, and blacks establishing empires from Egypt to Carthage.

As for stereotypes, it's very clear that those who whine about it are those who fit the stereotype. Have you ever met a 6'2 man called short? Have you ever seen a soldier built and adorned with medals called geek? Have you ever seen a confident man called shy? Unless any of these cases are true, American minorities have no right to accuse the media.

Yes it is media, and movies are made to appease the majority because guess what? It's a film INDUSTRY, deep inside white fellas also seem to have a fixation of being cuckolded by a Black man Point is - unless you are arguing about AUTHENCITY of historical movies, then your complaints are pointless.

Subotai, most of your post I kind of agree with except :


Is that what the quarter of you that is white wants?

fu-k off!
White-Americans get it right

No Slav can ever think like this Anglo losers

I am not Anglo, I am Celtic so I could not comment (I have little love of English Anglo Saxons lol, even if I have lovely family who happen to be English)

Though there are plenty of Celts around the world, so you cannot judge all white people to be Anglo Saxon.

I know my friend and I apologise for my comment - I came out saying it wrong. When I say anything negative about white people it's always about Anglos, not the Slavs, not the Celts, not the Norse (TRUE norse, not Germanics).

I am sure we will be disagreeing again soon. lol

Celtish Irish are always portrayed in Hollywood films as gangsters or IRA or some kinda police chief from the East Coast. Why is that??

I have heard that the Irish are the blackmen of Europe, why is that also??

True dat. Also every time I watch a Jackie Chan movie there's an evil white guy playing the bad role? Does that mean that Chinese portrayal of non-Chinese bad?

I will agree that there are biases and there are histories of such, but I think this issue is not seen in a larger perspective.

Irish portrayed as gangsters? Not really, only in Boondocks Saints and the American adaptation of that one Chinese film...You mean Italian? There's actually a fascination with Irish here in America; it was not the case in olden days. But for the last decades or so, every white person are Irish, Scottish or Cherokee.

It's funny how in some movies that are supposed to be set in medieval Europe, some of the heroes speak with American accents? Also, why do most of the white villains in Hollywood action movies always have European accents?

That black guy in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was supposed to be playing a Moor who Robin Hood meets during the Crusades in the Middle East... although it would have been more realistic to have a Middle-Eastern actor playing that role instead... and why exactly did Robin Hood have an American accent in that movie?

I guess the purpose of it all is simply to entertain the American audience, or in most occasions, the Anglo-American audience... and there's nothing wrong with it, although it's understandable why many non-American or non-Anglo audiences wouldn't be pleased by it.

The American movie industry has never been about authenticity or accuracy!
It is about images, capitalism and economics (ROI-return on investment).

Pretty much. These movies are more to entertain, not inform. You want accuracy, go watch the Discovery Channel.

exactly very few movies are set to be 'accurate'. ever wonder why Chinese today can't fly and jump like those kung fu chinese movies set to depict ancient china where almost all people know how to fight? Bollywood movies where outrageous dance off happens across continents?

@flipcombatmedic

LMAO!!!

Hahaha so fu-king true

Do you mean the Godfather isn't a real tru life story?

obviously not true, cuz they forgot the part about ruthless asian triads...

Someone told me that my ex-boss was a snake head.
I didn't know what that meant ... until now.
The boss cared about his workers.
*mumbles underneath my breathe*

Then it's an accurate portrayal.

So u work for 'em fobs? good for ya!!! u're okay!

No, out of work.
I'm looking for my spiritual self now. Ha, ha, lol

u forgot to add *wank* *wank* ....

Wow, this on slaught of attacks ... thought you were better than that?
Guess not.
*shakes head and walks away*

okay bubbye!

i am off to catch a flight to africa ...

LOL WTF!

Sandra Oh was portrayed as sexy?? WOW She's one of the ugliest chicks out there

becua the english oppressed us and turned the irish into servants of the house, (slaves paid in food and board) and then set up houses all over europe. so irish are known as servant people.
in am,erica we ar again srvants and morons and drunks.

nowadays because of famous irish scientists and artists we are knbown as the "island of sainst and scholars" (serach it) and the only negative stereotypes are violence and drunkeness. which has at leats some babis in the truth.

(most irhs guy fight their friends while drunk its just not a big deal


yah , plastic paddies are all over USA but they still regrad us as backward drunk and violent, just cute.


by the way isnt it strange that people allow the irish to be drunk and its cute and cultural?

LOL I live just outside of Chicago so we not only think it's cute and cultural but we embrace it here.

you guys in chicago are nearly as bad....

I read this article in the washington post where they interview a veteran chinese actor. You guys know the guy who played the old bad guy in big trouble in little china. He started acting in the 1950s. He says that there hasn't been any change in Asian acting. The asians still play the stereotypes and are type cast, not given the opportunity to take the lead or grow as actors.

Surely something must have changed after Bruce Lee came along?

No, Hollywood is still looking for the big dollars.
And, it doesn't mean Asian actors.
Even though Jet Li had a few roles,
it is still stereo typed asian.

The Godfather was based on a novel by Mario Puzo. How can it be a true life story?

Black rules in Hollywood

i would make a great villian.

asians are the one minority who havent had their fair share of hollywood heroes. black guys get more than thier fair share nowadays and of course whites, but i agree that more MALE-asian heroes are needed in films. (and not kung-fu style nonsense either)

Lsst time I checked 'Green" rules in Hoillywood!

The Goldern Rule
Whover bring in da' gold, makes, at least some of da' rules!

what do you think of Spike Lee's criticism on Clint Eastwood's racial portrayal in his war movie??

Clint Eastwood to Spike Lee : Shut Your Face. Spike replies : We are not on a plantation

Clint Eastwood has advised rival film director Spike Lee to "shut his face" after the African-American complained about the racial make-up of Eastwood's films. In an interview with the Guardian published today, Eastwood rejected Lee's complaint that he had failed to include a single African-American soldier in his films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both about the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.

In typically outspoken language, Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn't raise the flag. The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

"The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go: 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate." Referring to Lee, he added: "A guy like him should shut his face."



-or-

Read Spike Lee's Clint Eastwood criticism from Cannes just last month:


"He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films," Lee said Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was a judge in an online short-film competition.
"Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version," Lee said.

UPDATE:
"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," Spike Lee told ABCNEWS.com about Clint Eastwood. "He's a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn't personally attack him. And a comment like 'a guy like that should shut his face' -- come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there."

"If he wishes, I could assemble African-American men who fought at Iwo Jima and I'd like him to tell these guys that what they did was insignificant and they did not exist," he said. "I'm not making this up. I know history. I'm a student of history. And I know the history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African-American men and women who contributed to World War II."

"Not everything was John Wayne, baby..."

"I never said he should show one of the other guys holding up the flag as black. I said that African-Americans played a significant part in Iwo Jima," he said. "For him to insinuate that I'm rewriting history and have one of the four guys with the flag be black ... no one said that. It's just that there's not one black in either film. And because I know my history, that's why I made that observation."

*Sarcasm on*
So, they should put in Asian Americans in the movie too.
Many Japanese fought in the war. Also, those that were captured, ... were treated worse.
*Sarcasm off*

Really? ... Are we just looking for something to fight about or are we looking for justice? Truth?

eh they both have a point. clint eastwood doesn't want to make a PC version of everything where there's black people everywhere even though realistically they are a bit rare, kind of like black doctors in medical TV shows.

and spike lee just wants some recognition for the black soldiers that died in war.

And who speaks for the Asian Americans who volunteered for the armed services
And, made huge contributions in the efforts of the war? Don't we want some recognition for
those who served?

But, I believe if you are making the movie as real as possible then, ... so what's up?