I recently saw a trailer for the movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which is loosely based on the video game series Prince of Persia. The video game follows the adventures of a Persian prince and the powers he has. The main character, the prince, is of middle eastern decent, but in the movie he is played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Now Gyllenhaal is a white actor portraying a middle eastern man. This is a continuous trend throughout the history of Hollywood. In 2008, the movie 21 which follows MIT scholars who begin counting cards also follows this trend. The movie is based off of a book which features primarily Asian main characters, but the movie portrays the main characters as white. Now the makers of this movie did put several Asian characters on the team but they were reduced to what Nick Rogers of The Enterprise calls, "a kleptomaniac and a slot playing loser." This is completely different from the book. The teams Asian characters had a much huger role in real life. Two other movies that come to mind in this scenario are based off of two animes. The movie versions of the Dragonball and Avatar the Last Airbender are greatly white washed. Both animes contain characters that are portrayed as Asian or of Asian background, but the movies are the complete opposites. One website says, “[Avatar is] wholly and inarguably built around Asian (and Inuit) culture. Everything from to the costume designs, to the written language, to the landscapes, to martial arts, to philosophy, to spirituality, to eating utensils!—it’s all an evocative, but thinly veiled, re-imagining of ancient Asia. (In one episode, a region is shown where everyone is garbed in Korean hanboks—traditional Korean clothing—the design of which wasn’t even altered at all.) It would take a willful disregard of the show’s intentions and origins to think this wouldn’t extend to the race of the characters as well. You certainly don’t see any blonde people running around in Avatar. (I’m not saying that would have necessarily been a bad thing, I’m just stating the facts of the show and the world in which it is set.)” Another spot in the article has a direct quote from the main character of Avater where the actor said he needed to get "a tan" to play the character.So this begs the question why does Hollywood feel the need to whitewash its characters? What do you think?
I've seen this movie trailer many times and have been excited to see the movie. As much as i've seen this trailer you'd think i'd catch the fact that the characters are supposed to be of middle eastern decent because it's about the prince of persia. Go figure and of all the actors for this film they pick Jake Gyllenhall the whitest of white people. It's horrible and completely discrimating against other races. Hollywood always chooses white actors to play parts and mixed actors to play african american parts occasionally. I don't know why they do it and i think it's completely not fair. But it's most likely because white men are seen as the dominant race and they can do EVERYTHING better.
ReplyDeleteI agree that hollywood has brainwashed the society into thinking that white men are more dominate than all other men. But the media is a fantasy so the movie will never be completely realistic. It is racist but until be stand up for what they want things will never be realistic. Another reason why the media uses white actors is because its a better market. Even though their are allot of African Americans who watch television and go out to the movies not too many are thrilled about this particular movie. I just think that the movie is marketed for the right consumers.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had seen this before I wrote my final paper. As I watched the commercials aired in 2 different channels I observed this as well. I would argue that 8 out of 10 commercials show white people. What does that mean??? people of other ethnicities dont used beauty products?, clean their houses etc?. For the movie its even worse, they are changing a whole culture, a whole ethnicity. I still dont understand why Hollywood thinks that by putting some dark color make up on somebody they will inmediately blend right into another ethnicity. Absolutely Ridiculous!.
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