Films and Racism
I have always liked movies and films. As a child, I remember setting myself in front of the television every Friday evening- to watch the weekly Hollywood film that would be aired on the Malaysian tv channel.
With the uprising of streaming platforms, my exposure to films grew far greater. It can be said that I have grown up watching films. Though, I never was too serious about films in my childhood- my obsession with cinematography and filmmaking grew only recently, about a couple of months after I got serious with photography.
Now, do not misunderstand me, please- the topic I am writing about is indeed sensitive. However, I believe that in this free world, I have the right to my opinion- and this article simply expresses that belief. I do not intend to express views on segregation or such, I believe those matters are far too risky to indulge in. I am more interested to talk about how the sensitivity of people in these matters might just ruin the film rating system.
Let us go back a couple of months back, to set the scene right. It was mid-November and Marvel had just released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I watched it, together with a friend. And I didn’t quite like it. I won’t go too far beyond to explain why, that’s not the point of this article. But I can say the main reasons are the plot, the quality of the shots and- the absence of Chadwick Boseman.
I’m not saying the whole movie is trash, no. The opening sequences leading up to T’Challa’s funeral were really good. Some people will disagree with me of course, but that’s assuming that anyone ever reads this article.
Either way, we’ll get back to the point- I had been looking around the internet for the next couple of months about what others think of the movie. Sometimes, I’d see short comments about it on social media, or I would find full proper reviews.
In all those little opinions, one thing would always play an important role- the fact that this movie is cast with people of colour. Often times I would see that people were restricting themselves from giving an honest answer or getting restricted by other users as if saying anything against people of colour is suddenly a big crime- even when the context is different. One user commented on Instagram under a post that this particular film was a bad experience for him- and another person comes and tells him off for being racist saying things such as “oh it’s bad because there are no white people in it?” and “Just because the main characters are people of colour, doesn’t mean it’s a trash movie”.
Actors merely play a part- they do their best to portray what the director has in mind. I cannot simply say the actors in that film are bad no- all the actors gave superb performances. It’s just that, if the directors aren’t creative or good enough- there’s simply no other choice than to declare it was unsatisfactory for certain people.
For instance, take the Suicide Squad- a film played by a great cast, including legends such as Margot Robbie and Will Smith- but no one ever liked it much. It’s all solely because of the writing.
Henceforth, it is irrelevant to say that- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is an awesome and amazing movie, just because people of colour star in it. A movie’s rating and review should be based on purely its story, its cinematography, the plot, et cetera. The last thing a movie should be rated based upon is the ethnicity and skin colour of the cast. I mean sure, other people might find it a great film, others might think not- but none of those deductions should be made based on the skin tone of the actors.
I feel like people’s oversensitivity to such issues is slowly corrupting the world of film rating, it’s letting irrelevant factors influence the overall rating of a film- thus ruining its reputation. No matter what the race of the actors is, even if the cast is mainly of just one race- such factors should never interfere with how the film is rated.
I deeply apologize if I offended any of you. But in my experience, people who think race matters in films also uphold the idea of free speech. So, I don’t see why you would have an issue with my honest opinion.
UNTIL NEXT TIME.
P.S: This will be my last blog post to be published on my own website along with on Medium- further posts from now will be solely on Medium, the link to my profile is in the Links section of my website. Thank you.
