When in the
wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, someone thought it
would be a great idea to ask the revolutionary Malcolm X what he thought; the
answer was sharp and hit America across the face. X likened the president’s
assassination to chickens coming home to roost; an analogy of America’s past
(and then present) crimes happening to one of its beloved. For the record,
Malcolm X wasn’t gleeful that Kennedy was shot, but as a member of an oppressed
minority was pointing out the irony of the actions been carried out daily on
his people, now affecting one of the majority.
Now I realize this might be the
wrong analogy in which to describe what is happening in Hollywood with the
cancellation and un-cancelling of the movie, The Interview due to threats from a group, ironically called, The
Guardians of Peace, but it seems like we need a Malcolm to show us that this is
a culmination of events and should not be all that surprising.
I haven’t seen The Interview and nor was it on my to-watch list. Frankly I found
the premise disturbing from when I first heard of it: a movie about
assassinating an actual living president and not a fictional one that Hollywood
often comes up with that alludes to an actual head-of-state we know. No, this
is about an actual sitting president, one that comes from a nation that doesn’t
get along with the nation making said movie. It’s easy to see how this can lead
to some enticement. Yes, Kim Jong Un isn’t the first and probably won’t be the
last sitting president to be killed on TV or the big screen, but the audacity
with which it becomes the premise of a whole movie seems to be the final straw
that broke the camel’s back.
For years Hollywood has gotten away
with a lot, most notably the stereotyping of groups of people. Think the often
used Russian villain, the Arab belly dancer, the Arab terrorist, the Asian who
if he’s not a karate master is used as comic fodder (think Mickey Rooney (yes,
Caucasian Mickey Rooney) playing an Asian neighbor in Breakfast At Tiffany), the White savior and so many other
stereotypes, some of which still live today, that have become Hollywood staples
over the year.
Part of the reasons I believe these stereotypes have existed
for so long in Hollywood is because a.) we enjoy the movies, so we overlook
things and b.) we all know most stereotypes are used to perpetuate a negativity
and don’t really define a people. If they did, then the millions of Arabs and
Muslims round the world should’ve been the ones hacking into studio e-mails and
threatening to blow up theatres for showing movies that portray them
negatively, yet that hasn’t happened. So either the Arabs and Muslims aren’t all
terrorists or they’re still trying to figure out how to hack e-mails. I’m
pretty sure of the millions, there are people who know how to do the latter,
but just haven’t. Or they’ve realized that some crazy American Caucasian people
with no seeming Muslim or Arab connection that shoot up screenings of The Dark Knight Rises are enough
problems for America.
To be clear, Hollywood ISN’T the only movie industry to
portray groups of people negatively, all movie industries (knowingly or not) do
it to some degree (I might get a headache if I start with Nigerian movies). But
as the premiere and most watched movie industry in the world, this puts
Hollywood under more scrutiny. Not to mention how blatant some of these stereotypes
are being portrayed on a daily basis. It’s also funny (if you can use that
word) that it is the North Koreans who are attempting to bring down years of
unfair portrayals, even if you don’t approve of their methods and you
shouldn’t. Considering that the most sophistication we’ve seen of North Koreans
over the years through the media is their ability to shoot off nuclear test
missiles, this recent action by the Guardians of Peace, puts them in a much
totally different light.
Some of Hollywood’s stars have reacted to the cancellation of
The Interview with disgust. While I
don’t agree with the complete censorship of the movie, I agree with Sony’s
actions. What would you rather have; no movie or the possibility of people
actually being killed? I’m also amazed at how some of these stars don’t see the
irony in all this. It’s like post 9/11 when the American public started asking,
“Why do they hate us?” It’s confusing, because first of all, who’s “they”? And
second, if you have to ask that question then you’re fully unaware of the hurt
on the other side.
Hollywood is clearly unaware of the
hurt on the other side and in this case that of North Korea. This isn’t an
anti-American piece for the record, if it was I would’ve started it hailing the
Guardians of Peace. It’s just that after years of Hollywood getting away with
so much, the North Koreans in an ironic twist ended up being the ones saying
“enough” for everyone else, even though everyone else didn’t ask for it (well,
we’ve been asking for quite some time in a more civilized manner) and certainly
not like this. It’s the irony of the world we live in really and no I don’t
expect this one incident to stop more unfortunate plotlines and portrayals from
coming out.
And things get worse, when things
get political. Already the White House has linked North Korea to the hacks,
this despite the latter saying they have no hand in it (whether or not you believe it is true). This is no different to
that one time a whole religion, race and region got linked to the 9/11 attack.
At best, the White House should take North Korea’s word and avoid an incident
where we prematurely attack another nation (if it’s been done over a fictitious
claim of weapons of mass destruction, why not a fictitious plot in a movie? Now
that’s a plot for a movie!). The only thing the White House should be taking
seriously is if indeed the once again ironically named Guardians of Peace have
the ability to actually attack movie theatres and kill innocent lives.
Everything else should be Hollywood’s business to sort out, otherwise the White
House will become like those nations they condemn for getting involved in their
nation’s media enterprises. Yeah, I said it.
In a twist, some good things have
some out of the hacks, especially if you’re a movie buff, plots and possible
movie ideas have been released as well as the fact that Hollywood is very much
Hollywood still and things like race and gender are still an issue that the
people working there have to try and get by from female actors getting paid
less than their male counterparts to the jokes that once again have stereotyped
the viewing interest of a race to certain types of movie. It’s always nice to
see your long running thoughts on Hollywood be proved right.
Do I think The Interview should’ve been cancelled? Yes, but not indefinitely
and Sony did right by releasing it online instead. While I would at some point
want to see the movie, I totally understand Sony’s initial stance and while I
don’t believe in full censorship, I think sometimes we need to understand that
there are some cultural and in the case of this movie, political differences
that we have to take into consideration from time to time. Cultural (and
sometimes, political) sensitivity has become a big deal for Hollywood, which is
why they respect Chinese rules in their attempt to penetrate that market. But
here’s where the hypocrisy lies, Hollywood ISN’T trying to break into North
Korea financially or rather can't, so cultural sensitivity has been thrown out the door in
favour of “freedom of speech”. It’s pure hypocrisy. I understand it’s not the
job of movie industries like Hollywood to be accurate; it is after all a
business built on fantasies. That said, most fantasies aren’t meant to hurt
people.
Since its release online, The Interview has broken records
reaching 15 million downloads. No doubt some Americans downloaded it as a form
of patriotism and allegiance to their “freedom of speech” and I applaud such commitment
to their country, but again it begs the question is Hollywood and by large, the
American public missing the point? I couldn’t imagine this film being approved
of it was about assassinating an Israeli head of state! Never mind if it had
little or nothing to do with anti-Semitism. I couldn’t imagine the United
States allowing it have that much exposure.
