Helpless

[Verdilian]

Rosa Parks pre planned and carefully executed her act of social disobedeance. Look into the history of the freedom riders, those guys and gals took alot of knocks. The struggle for equal rights was not just one of words and ideas. Alotta great people got seriously hurt or killed. Thank goodness were a more enlightened society and dont have anything like that today, except of course our what our politians call illegal aliens, whom in any previous generation would have been naturalized.

Naturalized usually meaning far worse than deportation or the proper way...

But yeah, we as a society have become more enlightened. Sure, there are idiots but overall, we have improved from a few decades ago.

 

[Bobby Archer]

I was more refering to criticising it as a Hollywood trope rather than criticism in general, the point I was trying to make that since the trope existed prior to being a movie that it isn't really a trope that Hollywood made, rather one the author made. Perhaps its that trope that made Hollywood attracted enough to it to want it be made, but the point is that the trope existed BEFORE the studio got a hold of it. You can criticise the trope all you want, in fact I would criticise the movie because of the trope too (assuming of course that I would see it), I just wouldn't criticise it by saying that its proof of Hollywood creating a White Saviour when the White Saviour existed prior to the movie version, just as I would criticise Twilight for a bad female character, I just wouldn't criticise it by saying that its proof of Hollywood creating bad female characters when the bad female character existed prior to the movie version.

Yes, the trope was not created by the movie, or by Hollywood. It goes back hundreds of years at least. Yes, it's possible to find plenty of examples of this in literature. None of this makes it okay for Hollywood studios to repeatedly spend tens of millions of dollars perpetuating these ideas. Sure, Hollywood doesn't always create these characters, but they still promote them by putting them on giant screens all over the country.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

When I saw the poster I thought The Help might be kind of racist. Not I see that's not, it's actually completely racist. Awesome.

 

[orangeapples]

Hollywood does the same thing to Asians in films too. There can't be an Asian without it ending up as some sort of stereotype (brainy, lazy or hot asian chick).

Even when the character would FIT a stereotype, they end up using a white actor. I can't think of the name of the movie (I think it was 21), but the main character was a super brainy white kid and the asians of the group was like a quirky comic relief sidekick and a hot asian chick, even though the story it was based on were about a group of Asian-American kids.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Hmm...nah. I'd take Emma Stone over Jessica Chastain as both hotter and the better actress. Sure, the premise of the movie is borderline offensive along the race line, but you know...I'm not the target demographic here anyway. It wasn't white girls rebelling against their families that kicked things off. That kicked off a whole other kind of movement, one that involves more piercings and tattoos than their parents were comfortable with, and damn if I don't love the result of that movement. But maids in Mississippi had quite a large pool of support to do what they did, and they used all of that support as well as they could.

 

[heyheysg]

Only thing I got out of this was that both Gwen Stacy's are in this movie

 

[warfjm]

Why exactly, when something actually happened, is it considered racists? If the book was written by a black woman, Moviebob would have nothing to complain about. But the fact remains, the book was written by a white woman. Does that fact take away from the story? No, it doesn't. Back when the book was published, even if a black person wrote the book, it would have NEVER been published on the sole fact that the author was black.

And history doesn't remember the "white heroes" during the civil rights movement. It remembers the people who actually took real stands against racism (Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers). Yeah, there were white people in the mix of the civil rights marches, but nobody remembers them.

And I'm not saying to lift white people up because their plight won't be remembered. I'm just saying that if the movie is about a book that was written by a white woman, that doesn't mean the "white hero" movie is racist. It's just how it was.

Also, trying to compare one movie (The Blind Side) to another (The Help) is unfair to the context of the movie that is being reviewed. Yes, I understand that taking past experiences from other movies to review another movie is what reviewers do but sometimes it can be taken too far.

"The Help" is an excellent movie with wonderful subplots tying into the bigger story with Oscar winning performances. My only complaint is that the movie does go a little long in tying up its' loose ends. Again, moviebob would have no argument if the story was written by a black woman. Being irked that it was written by a white woman is just as racist as being irked that there are black people in the movie.

 

[feeqmatic]

I started another thread semi related to this movie about the phenomena of white guilt and how it manifests in popular culture and social structure, i would love for some of you to take a look at it.


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.308157-White-guilt-the-White-Mans-burden

 

[AnthonyMS]

1. Moviebob, you do realize the irony/hippocrasy (hippocrasy if not irony) of your entire article? You disapprove of the movie because Skeeter's (Emma Stone's character) effort to influence these black maids to tell their stories for her book, The Help, is purely driven by her efforts to prove she's not as racist as EVERYONE else in Jackson, Mississippi. All the while, your condemnation of the movie is probably subltely driven by your attempt to prove your not a racist.

2. My sister had me take her to see it 'cause she read the book. (I work at a movie theater, so I get free tickets.) The movie showed Medger Evers' speech, briefly, than had the two black people forced off the bus and running home when he was assassinated. Then, later they watched Martin Luther King Jrs. funeral on the TV. My point is: the movie DOESN'T IN ANY WAY say that Skeeter caused the Civil Rights movement. She wants her book to inspire reform in JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI by having people read what black maids have to endure there.

3. My viewing had 4 white people (my sister and I and a couple of elderly women) and the rest were black filling about 60% to 75% of the theater on a Tuesday night. My theater's opening week numbers were VERY successful almost that of a "Tyler Perry" movie. (Tyler Perry movies are ALWAYS HUGE successes for my theater.) So, if black people aren't all that offended by the movie and want to come see it than it might not be as racist as you think it is.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

So Moviebob is a racist because he's tired of the Magical Negro trope? -everyone- is tired of the Magical Negro.

 

[Mister Linton]

White people should only ever be portrayed as evil bigoted racists because that's all we are. We should be ashamed of ourselves... herp derp. Bleeding heart much?

 

[TitanAura]

I've seen my fair share of ACTUAL racism living in the Detroit area, and of every flavor too, especially against those of Arabic descent because Arabic = Muslim = Terrorist).

Sometimes I think the only "race" that exists in hollywood's eyes are black people.

 

[Gigano]

The film is not, despite what its bookend scenes wish to imply, about Aibilene and the other maids' act of defiance. It's about Skeeter proving to her marriage/traditional family-fixated mother and her tediously old-fashioned friends that her career oriented, independent lifestyle is worthwhile; that the way she goes about it helps nudge a community further toward standing up for itself is merely a side effect.

Well, if this movie is more about an independently minded woman and her conflicts with a community with exceedingly backwards norms, then so what? Is that not a story worth telling?

The simple fact that a movie is set in the civil rights era, and (...inevitably) touch upon the racial issues that setting had, hardly mean that the focus must be strictly on how black people - und tzey alone[footnote]...because clearly having the backing of most of the younger educational elite of a society count for nothing if they aren't of the same race as you.[/footnote] - overcame it. Is the subjugation of women trying to break free of societal norms holding them back - here told of on the micro-scale of a small community - not a tale which deserve equal focus?[footnote]And it's not like picking the struggle of one disadvantaged group as being more important and worthwhile than the other is the height of arrogance or anything.[/footnote]

The problem here would seem to have more to do with a slight case of "false advertising" - that the main focus isn't the one of several liberation movements of the period you'd initially think it was mostly about - than it does the actual content of the movie. I'm fairly surprised anyone can manage to be offended by a story about a young women rebelling against "traditional values", at least anyone who don't subscribe to those themselves.

In short, is a movie about the political and educational liberation of a woman struggling with the narrowminded norms of small town USA 50 years ago that bad, because it's set in the civil rights era and she isn't black, and the black struggle isn't the main focus?

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

What if they built the premise of this movie without the girl, or least make her the afterthought? The local maids got together after work one day, all mad and discouraged, and had the brilliant idea to make a book and got a white friend (say the daughter of one of their employers, who went to college and actually learned things) to act as the author so it would get printed?

That sounds a lot more likely, sensible and watchable to me. I also got the eerie feeling that whoever wrote this movie had just read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Scout ,Skeeter...hmm.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of white people didn't agree with segregation but I don't think they should be central to this kind of story line. I hate this view of industries that since the majority of the audience is male (I'm looking at you gaming) or white then it won't sell well.
How will we even break those demographics if we don't try and think and create outside the box.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I've seen my fair share of ACTUAL racism living in the Detroit area, and of every flavor too, especially against those of Arabic descent because Arabic = Muslim = Terrorist).

Sometimes I think the only "race" that exists in hollywood's eyes are black people.

Let's be fair, sometimes Hollywood stereotypes Arabs as fickle billionaires and erotic belly-dancers.

Hollywood has a lot of trouble with these issues, either the movie has to be about race (or sexuality, or class, etc.) or it tends to fumble around with the topic awkwardly. The funny thing is the most effective thing movies and TV could probably do is use different peoples in entirely mundane rolls. We don't need more movies trying to actively combat the stereotypes, we need to see that these people are simply normal.

But I suspect it will be a long time before that becomes commonplace.

 

[Mortons4ck]

I saw it as more of a commentary on the utter cluelessness of Second-Wave feminism, which necessitated the rise of the Third-Wave.

 

[Vortigar]

I've seen my fair share of ACTUAL racism living in the Detroit area, and of every flavor too, especially against those of Arabic descent because Arabic = Muslim = Terrorist).

Sometimes I think the only "race" that exists in hollywood's eyes are black people.

That's because racism against black people is the safest. Racism against Arabs is a very volatile issue right now. Especially because you inevitably are going to run into issues of religion.

Native Americans are also a pretty safe topic but that doesn't have as much current 'weight' as the black issue as you have to go back over 100 years. I'd love to see something on current day racist issues outside of the black movement. Say the constant expelling of the Roma (gypsies) out of every European country (including Romania itself where they actually got their name!). How about the current Morrocan and Turkish (did you know there are more Turkish than Germans living in Berlin these days?) people in Europe? Also haven't seen a good examination of current day native American tales (a movie pops up now and then about it but usually skirt around the issue for the most part).

Another major problem with all those is that there's no historical precedent of some great movement or heroic tales to draw from. So someone would need to write such a thing from scratch. And walking into the racism powder keg without being able to point to some real world event is tricky business to say the least.