Critic Accuses Prince of Persia of "Whitewashing"

[Thing Fish]

People need to get a life, and by people I mean the author of this article. I don't care as long as the movie is entertaining and is somewhat connected to the games.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

To be fair, Prince of Persian doesn't even look very persian.

 

[madcap2112]

It's a movie based on a game, everybody calm down. This isn't some racial conspiracy, it's just the studios attempting to sell their product as best they can, and Jake Gyllanhal is a well-known actor.

 

[Aloran]

The Prince is white in the games.

And I think that Mr. Gyllenhaal actually looks like the prince does. Or a highly accurate portrayal at least.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

1) Gyllenhaal looks a lot like the Prince- especially with his facial features.
2) A large portion of modern-day Iranians (Iran used to be Persia) consider themselves white.

 

[Caliostro]

[img_inline align=center src=http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/games-wallpapers-pictures/prince-of-persia-wallpaper.jpg width=400]

[img_inline align=center src=http://stezziedee.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/wallpaper_prince_of_persia_warrior_within_10_1600.jpg width=400]


Because this guy looks SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PERSIAN! He's a walking stereotype!


/sarcasm

Everything is racism these days.

 

[wargrafix]

The prince one could be attributed to screw ups throughout the series. The Avatar screw up is just plain racism.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

No one ever complains about Blackwashing.. Like when Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury?

That character was based on the <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Ultimate>Marvel Ultimate Fury, who was based on (guess!) Samuel L. Jackson. It's a different character from the classic Marvel 616 Fury.

OT: I dunno. On the one hand, a good story doesn't stop being good if the main character's skin color is different. On the other hand, examples like The Last Airbender are pretty damn blatant.

http://cdn.mqstatic.com/files/alwayswatching/images/1101.jpg

 

[Denamic]

Gasp!
The protagonist is white!
That's racism!

There's no irony in this.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

While there's no doubt some merit to the complaint, I think it's also fair to suggest that Gyllenhaal was given the role in large part because he's a known commodity who can carry a summer blockbuster.

What? Jake isn't known at all, he's only been a supporting actor in a few movies. He's never carried a lead role in a significant movie, let alone a summer blockbuster.

Tell that to the ladies. I will amuse myself while they rip you apart with their razor sharp fangs.

At least the lead for Avatar is an Asian kid, right?

 

[chenry]

It's not so much whitewashing as it is Americanization. Even movies where the main character is supposed to be white, they change their nationality to American. Just watch U-571, the movie about a bunch of British American soldiers stealing the Enigma machine from the Germans.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

No one ever complains about Blackwashing.. Like when Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury?

That character was based on the <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Ultimate>Marvel Ultimate Fury, who was based on (guess!) Samuel L. Jackson. It's a different character from the classic Marvel 616 Fury.

OT: I dunno. On the one hand, a good story doesn't stop being good if the main character's skin color is different. On the other hand, examples like The Last Airbender are pretty damn blatant.

http://cdn.mqstatic.com/files/alwayswatching/images/1101.jpg

Oh come on, be fair.

How many Inuit child actors can there be to play those two?

 

[Generic_Dave]

Good to see that people never read these threads.

Me and another person have already explained the very relevant historical reason for an ancient Persian prince being played by a white actor.

Personally I was joking.

But you can't state for sure what people of a period looked like, especially when fiction is the basis, just look at the debates that raged before the idea of the "black Pharaohs" was take to be legitimate nor hold movies to what a person from a particular era looked like. Without even bringing race into it, I always look at films based in the French Revolution or Middle-Ages England and think... "Where are all the face-cancers? Why is everyone so tall? How come all this starving commoners aren't emaciated?


Its all a bit stupid.

On a side note to the more important issue of race equality...is it any good? Or is it too much of me to ask this of a critic...?

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

#1: Why is this only a factor when it's a white guy taking the role(s)? Let's be honest over the years we've seen situations where we've replaced Marvel Comic's "Kingpin of Crime" and DC Comic's "Harvey Dent" with black guys, and very few people made serious complaints other comic purists who wanted the characters to be more like the comic originals. The most recent example of this that I can think of off the top of my head was again from a comic movie series, where people have been casting Samual L. Jackson as "Nick Fury" in most of the current marvel movies.

It's funny that you should mention those examples. First of all, the Nick Fury thing is a non-issue, as I explained in my earlier post.

Your other two examples are what's interesting. In Prince of Persia, the Persian hero is made Caucasian. In your examples, the white villains are made black.

Not saying it's deliberate racism (I don't know anything about a black Harvey Dent, but I do know that the black Kingpin had nothing to do with skin color), just that they're a bit... uncomfortable examples in the context of allegedly racist race-swapping shenanigans.

 

[rokkolpo]

Isn't the Prince white in the games?

indeed. tanned though.

 

[chenry]

While there's no doubt some merit to the complaint, I think it's also fair to suggest that Gyllenhaal was given the role in large part because he's a known commodity who can carry a summer blockbuster.

What? Jake isn't known at all, he's only been a supporting actor in a few movies. He's never carried a lead role in a significant movie, let alone a summer blockbuster.

Donnie Darko, The Lovely Girl, The Good Girl, Bubble Boy, Jarhead, Brokeback Montain, etc etc etc.

Just because you haven't watched a movie with him in it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

The most recent example of this that I can think of off the top of my head was again from a comic movie series, where people have been casting Samual L. Jackson as "Nick Fury" in most of the current marvel movies.

Fury in the movies is the Ultimate version of Fury. The Ult. Fury looks exactly like Jackson.

 

[Xanadu84]

I'm not going to immediately dismiss the claims. Calling racism does not need to mean that your accusing someone of hating a race. It can also simply mean that you think that it would be better to have actors play characters that represent the race of the character, particularly when the cultural heritage is important to the story. In The Last Airbender, for example, there's a very strong Asian influence. Casting Asian actors would not be hard, especially since the Actors arn't terribly recognizable to begin with. Criticizing those choices is valid, but saying that there is a component of hatred would be going too far. Though I can understand concern at the casting at first, Prince of Persia is fundementally different. First off, big name, recognizable actors bring in money, and I can't think of a Persian actor who fits the bill. Secondly, and more importantly, Jake resembles the Prince pretty well. And in this case, being true to the game is more important then being true to Persian culture.

 

[dex-dex]

Isn't the Prince white in the games?

i thought so too but i guess not


on topic: it seems a bit silly to go after a movie because the main character is suppose to be a certain race. What bothers me is why alot of certain voices are usually american
i know Yahtzee as pointed it out but it makes sense