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What do you think of the sudden trend of revisionist period pieces casting people of color as historically white people?

posted 4 years ago by MovieBuff224 (5053)
105 replies | jump to latest

I assume Hamilton kicked this off. Feels forced and heavy handed to me, I’m all for diversifying casts but why forecefully inject minorities in historically white roles simply to be “inclusive?” It just seems silly and over the top to me, and is distracting.

I should mention I HATE musicals but found Hamilton tolerable. I still think the deliberately diverse casting is misguided and unnecessary. Make more films about all of the rich history of those other cultures, rather than putting them in the roles of colonial slave owners to make an edgy statement.

It also seems like EVERY single streaming series/show has a flamboyant gay male character who checks every box on the list of cliche stereotypes; gay best friend, gives relationship advice to female lead, strong feminine accent and “sassy” diva behavior. This has to be offensive to the LGBT community.

Likewise it seems like advertisements are really laying it on thick in their attempts to appear supportive of certain communities. Empty gestures and insincere virtue signaling are patronizing and to me worse than not doing anything.

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 4 years ago

well , on this occasion I will concur with you and the ultra right , "white is right" contingent.

There's no point in making , say , Winston Churchill, black . Mainly because:
A) it gives the racists ammunition to futher shit on the cause of equality and progressiveness.
B) its just not right, lets be clear on that, but mostly because A)

It sets the whole issue of equality back massivley , the same as a few criminals have put the idea of BLM into the toilet.
Just becasue there were some riots and criminal actions ,
Black lives no longer matter , they have achieved the exact opposite of the intention.

[–] rocklyn80 (665) 4 years ago

You can scream "white privilege" all you want regarding this trend of warped twist on reality, But when they cast a black woman to portray a young Bob Dylan in a supposed documentary then there is no way you can defend it

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Well, if it’s ok for Cate Blanchett... 🤷‍♂️

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

What about Netflix’s Cursed and Amazon’s Carnival Row?
Are people up in arms about these two?

Both are fantasy but based roughly in time periods or at least cultures that we recognised - Dark Ages and Victorian - but have multi-racial casting which is historically or culturally inaccurate or misrepresentative.

I know other fantasy things have been mentioned here such as The Witcher and Merlin.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

It seems that every period drama or show is "diverse" right now, and that includes fantasy which is clearly based in historic periods (His Dark Materials is another example). Of course "diversity" implies whites being evil, because... well, because it's 2021.

What I find absurd in this agenda is... it's is promoted by an industry built by whites! I mean: Japanese are portrayed as evil in Chinese movies. That's an agenda, but there has been always tension between Japanese and Chinese, so there's some logic in that agenda. But the woke agenda is basically... western suicide. It's like "Oh, we advanced too much, that's unfair, let's kill ourselves!".

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

It’s all very bizarre isn’t it?!

I think it’s one of these things that will continue to rage on and get people’s blood up on either ‘side’ of the ‘argument’.
I think there’s a lot of issues around it, with a lot of sensitivities that are actively played on, or at least riled up, when there really shouldn’t be.....but, humans it seems need to live in a world of controversy, hatred and pain it seems!

Personally, I just watch, listen, read etc things to be entertained; if it fulfils this criteria then it’s all good in my humble opinion. The casting choices and representation of different races etc and historical or cultural appropriation is important to me, but on the levels of accuracy, relevance and acting ability in that piece.

[–] chilidoggg (14597) 4 years ago

Morgan Freeman portrayed Friar Tuck in the Kevin Costner "Robin Hood" which was 1990? I never saw it, I think he was supposed to be a Moor. Is Friar Tuck an historical figure?

I have a daughter who's always listening to show tunes. I haven't heard one thing from Hamilton I liked.

I really liked "The Book of Mormon," and I was shocked because I hate those guys (Parker/Stone) and it was actually fairly uplifting.

[–] MovieBuff224 (5053) 4 years ago

No he didn’t, the character he played was a Moor from the Egyptian prison he was in.

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

It was in Jerusalem, the Holy Land, not Egypt.

[–] MovieBuff224 (5053) 4 years ago

Ah yes

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

‘Robin Hood’ is a traditional tale, argued as based in myth and legend, loosely on some factual elements.

Friar Tuck is an English folktale character who is historically accurate as an overweight, middle-aged, white male.
In that Robin Hood film you mention, he was duly played by an overweight, roughly middle-aged white male who had an appropriate accent (Michael McShane).

As MovieBuff224 says, Morgan Freeman duly played ‘The Moor’ character, named Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir, a black Muslim who becomes Robin’s bodyguard for want of a better term.

In the history of the folktale ‘The Moor’ or specifically Azeem is never even a member of Hood’s ‘Merry Men’, nor an actual character at all in any of the original manuscripts....he is a completely new, contemporary character inserted into the modern telling of the story.
Maybe that could be classed as shoehorning a non-white character into a film?

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 4 years ago

Friar Tuck was played by a black guy in the last BBC adaption, whilst Little John was played by Jamie Foxx in 2018, I haven’t seen either performance, but the Morgan Freeman character was inspired by Nasir, a Saracen outlaw from ITV’s Robin of Sherwood.

Both Nasir and Azeem (Morgan Freeman) were new characters but introduced with a level of believability, and enhanced both the show and film in my opinion, unlike the current trend of replacing white people from history and folklore with people of colour just to virtue signal.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 4 years ago

I can let the 2018 Robin Hood adaptation slide because in that movie they shot arrows as if they were M16s and rode horses as if they were motorcycles. So a black (or even a Martian) Little John was fair game. It's a silly movie, not even trying to be historically accurate at all.

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

I’ve seen it twice now - it entertains me enough, if I unplug my brain so I don’t know anything and try my best to not question it too much!

It’s such a mess of ideas and visuals.

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 4 years ago

It looked like it was aimed at 12 year olds, I'd rather see a live action Rocket Robin Hood movie than that! Or just for once a decent Robin Hood movie.