Hello everyone, I'm in Alaska with glasses and a microphone, tablet.
Two days ago, Disney announced a remake of the live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and has decided to use a Hispanic actor to play Snow White.
As soon as the news came out, it caused a huge controversy.
Influenced by the original work of "Grimm's Fairy Tales", the snow white in the audience's mind has always been a black-haired and white-skinned image.
In previous versions of live-action movies, Snow White was also selected according to traditional criteria.
But the actors selected this time are far from people's expectations, even if the business ability is first-class, many viewers do not buy the "carbon black princess" account.
In the face of various controversial remarks, the actor himself personally responded: "I am Snow White, I will not bleach the skin for this role."
The domineering response not only failed to calm the controversy, but also triggered a new round of debate and quarrel among netizens, and the "Carbon Black Princess" finally had no choice but to delete this tweet.
In fact, this is not the first time Disney has been questioned about the inappropriate casting.
As early as two years ago, Disney used a black actress to play Princess Ariel in "The Little Mermaid".
Although Ariel, unlike Snow White, directly wrote the race into the name, and the original book did not clearly indicate whether the mermaid's skin was black or white, after Disney announced the choice of black actors to star, it still caused an uproar.
Although whether it is Bai Xue or Ariel, there are supportive voices in the discussion, they believe that this is 2021, and it is long overdue to reform and charm these old IP.
However, opposition seems to prevail.
Some netizens believe that in the era of the writing of "Andersen's Fairy Tales", Denmark did not have black people to set foot, and the little mermaid envisioned by Hans Christian Andersen could never be black-skinned.
Coupled with the reuters photo of "The Little Mermaid" a few days ago, Ariel was wearing a sack and a dirty braid, compared with the image of red hair and white skin in the animated movie, the contrast was too great, making the audience shout "disillusionment", as if the soul wore the "Crazy Primitive Man" set.
Although These operations of Disney are magical, they are not difficult to understand.
Since the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney has soared to the top of Hollywood. As the first major manufacturer, Disney not only looks at other studios in terms of strength, but also takes the lead in the pursuit of "political correctness".
Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Little Mermaid, Disney had already tried a lot.
For example, Frozen portrays the prince as a villain, and the princess and princess can live happily;
"Sleeping Curse" redefines what "true love" means, as long as they are sincere, the witch can also kiss and wake up the sleeping princess;
The live-action version of "Beauty and the Beast" amplifies belle's independent female characteristics to an unprecedented height, and the film also appears Disney's first ever gay character;
The live-action version of "Aladdin" directly made Princess Jasmine king, completely subverting the ancient tradition of male totalitarian rule in the East.
Of course, the above works are mainly to take care of the feelings of feminist groups, adapting the classics within the acceptable range of contemporary audiences, and pursuing political correctness at the same time, the ornamentality of the works is at least above the standard.
In order to highlight its efforts in racial equality, many Disney works in recent years have made articles on the race of the protagonists.
The story of "The Legend of the Dragon Hunt" is set in Southeast Asia.
But like "Snow White" and "The Little Mermaid", putting aside the original setting and people's inherent cognition, forcing minorities to play roles that should have been played by white people is really a bit overcorrected, hard to politically correct people, and the result is that the steps are too big and the egg is pulled.
Especially after the "Little Mermaid" Reuters came out, the audience and netizens put a question mark on whether the "Carbon Black Princesses" could really control the role.
In fact, Disney's choice to let Indian-British actors play Princess Jasmine also caused a lot of controversy, but compared to the casting of Ariel and Bai Xue, the actor himself is an Asian and not so abrupt.
If you really want to take care of minorities, the right way to open it should be to create a story that focuses on them, and make a few more films that are rooted in black culture like "Black Panther" and "Escape from Breaking Bad", and it is estimated that most audiences will raise their hands and feet in favor.
（Wakanda Forever）
Directly letting minorities play Bai Xue and Ariel is undoubtedly the most clumsy and lazy way.
As we all know, the United States is a multi-racial, multicultural immigrant country, and racial discrimination has long been regarded as one of the most serious social ills in the country.
As one of the carriers of social culture, film has been inseparable from the issue of race almost since its birth.
Jean-Luc Godard, the leader of the French new wave of cinema, once said, "Cinema begins with Griffiths"
In 1919, Griffiths (second from left) founded United Pictures alongside Charlie Chaplin (third from left), Mary Beckford (first from left) and Douglas van Punk (first from right).
Indeed, David Griffiths is known as the "father of American cinema" and contributed greatly to the early development of cinema. He was the first director to use close-ups, pioneering the famous "last minute rescue" montage footage.
However, it is such an extremely important figure in the history of cinema, and his masterpiece "The Birth of a Nation" is extremely politically incorrect.
The film is themed after denigrating black liberation and praising the Ku Klux Klan, and the blacks in it are all played by white people, who paint their faces black and play the black thugs who go around committing crimes and robbing people's women.
Although the film eventually achieved great commercial success, its value orientation has been criticized, and the "blackface" method is a clear expression of the criticism of minorities.
The so-called "black face", that is, white people blacken their faces to play the role of black people, is an art form that specifically describes black people negatively.
Before the advent of the film, "blackface" had existed in the United States and Europe for a long time. In particular, the blackface burlesque dramas popular in the United States in the 1830s were mainly dwarfing and mocking black people.
In these burlesque dramas, white people pretend to be black, deliberately exaggerate various black characteristics, and constantly convey to the audience the stereotype of black people who are uncultured, vulgar, and violent.
The most pernicious point of these burlesques, which at first glance seem interesting, is that the dwarfing of blacks as political correctness masks the cruelty of slavery.
The original "Oh, Susanna" of the recent brainwashing theme song of Michelle Ice City was first created for the Blackface Burlesque Troupe.
(Surprised, not surprised, this fat snowman it appeared again!) ）
There is also the well-known "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which is also a classic black-faced burlesque play, and for a long time, the black people in this play were played by white people.
In fact, compared to other burlesques that clearly dwarf blacks, "Oh, Susanna" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" are mainly about celebrating the good qualities of people and anti-slavery.
For example, in "Oh, Susanna", the protagonist pursues love for thousands of miles, affectionate and romantic, full of attachment to the homeland.
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was also created to oppose slavery, and there are many brave and strong black characters.
However, racial divisions are deeply entrenched in the United States, and one or two works of art cannot completely eradicate people's prejudices, especially in the process of circulation, which are sometimes grossly misinterpreted.
(Stills from the 1965 version of Uncle Tom's Cabin)
Some of the scripts influenced by "Uncle Tom's Cabin" have even developed more stereotypes of black people, and the kind black nanny can be said to be the most enduring character image in it.
For example, black actress Heidi McDaniels, for her role as a humorous and loyal wet nurse in Gone with the Wind, became the first black actor in Oscar history to win.
Regrettably, after winning the award, Heidi played almost a similar role as a black nanny in her subsequent acting career.
With the rise of the post-war affirmative action movement, there were gradually films on the big screen that explored race relations from an equal perspective.
Sidney Portier, the first black best actor in Oscar history, whose work is epoch-making for both film history and American society.
"Wild Lilies," which pushed him to the Oscar for Best Actor, tells the story of an ordinary black youth who is eager to help a fleeing nun, and the success of the film also makes Portier the first African-American actor in Hollywood to consciously challenge racial stereotypes.
The later "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" contributed the first black-and-white kiss shot in film history.
The film is about a black professor and a white girl who fall in love at first sight and the two decide to flash their marriage, however, after learning the news of their relationship, both parents oppose the marriage.
In the United States at that time (1967), there were still sixteen states that prohibited interracial marriage, and legal and social traditional values did not approve of such marriage.
In the end, the unwavering love of the young professor and the young girl touched everyone around him and received the blessings of his relatives.
In that era, this taboo-breaking love movie can be said to be a rock breaker, so much so that during the preparation of the film, the director has been playing Tai Chi to the producer Columbia Pictures, saying that he is just making a "love movie".
In fact, the company did suspend filming under various pretexts after reading the script, for obvious reasons.
In the end, the director and one of the film's main actors, Catherine Hepburn, who had already achieved fame at the time, used the film remuneration to vouch for the company, and the film was successfully filmed and finally came out.
What Columbia did not expect was that the film achieved unprecedented success, becoming one of the best-paying works in the company's history.
In addition to the huge benefits for Colombia, the ideological value of the film is also indelible, and Spielberg even praised the film as "the most conscious work in Hollywood history."
In Hollywood, which pays attention to stability and commercial value, it is impossible to blindly tolerate such subversive works as "Guess Who's Going to Dinner", and the "white plus black" model, which was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, seems to have taken into account political correctness and economic efficiency.
For example, "Driving for Miss Daisy", "Shawshank Redemption", "Men in Black" series, etc., are all films with white + black dual protagonist mode.
In these films, the black protagonists are intelligent and brave, especially "Driving for Miss Daisy", which directly shows a white wife who gradually eliminates prejudice against black people in the process of getting along with black drivers.
In recent years, whether for the sake of "political correctness" or for the sake of art, more and more works have dared to face the issue of race.
Twelve Years of Slavery turns over the darkest page in American history and presents it to the audience;
The 2016 edition of The Birth of a Nation revisits the history of slave rebellions for freedom and rights a century later;
(Stills from the 2016 edition of "The Birth of a Nation")
"Black Panther" became Marvel's first superhero movie starring a black man...
Whatever the purpose, these efforts are worthy of respect.
Returning to the original discussion of Disney casting, Compared with the "screen equality" that began in the era of Sidney Portier, Disney's operation is not only clumsy, but also seems to be driving a backwards course of history.
Forcing minorities to play Bai Xue and Ariel is only fifty steps and a hundred steps of laughter from the "black face" of a hundred years ago.
In the eyes of many viewers, the real political correctness is probably to let Chinese play Mulan, let the Middle Easterner play Jasmine, and Ariel and Bai Xue, who should be played by white people, be returned to the hands of white actors, rather than carefully trying to stuff a black-skinned beauty into the movie.
After watching the Reuters photo, "The Little Mermaid" I dare not count on, point likes, and pray together that "Snow White" will not roll over.
So much to talk about today,
We'll see you tomorrow.
Bye bye bye.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Edit: Aso