I enjoyed most of this film. And took it out on DVD because of what others had said about it. I know it was released in 1949. But I was surprised to hear the word n•••••r used three times, in the end of the film, in a deliberately derogatory manner. That's the only thing that spoilt it for me.
shareWhether you are calling me a donkey or a posterior (Americans have never learned to spell arse) it is still three words.
Yes I have read most of Twain’s works and did so in the full understanding that both in the setting and the concomitant period of writing certain words did not and do not carry the same connotation as they do now, sometimes they are innocently used sometimes they have even worse meaning in context than they do now, however it is not possible, and it is immoral and dangerous to try, to change history to fit with modern political correctness.
History and historical fiction is there to be learned from, pretending they never had validity is revisionist nonsense.
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One of my young white American friends was keen to make the point that "we liberated our slaves a hundred years ago." But still cheerfully referred to them as n****rs Why all the shouting? Why all the noise? Personally, I am more annoyed by Nigerians and their 419 scams.
You hear the same thing in Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and plenty of other period pieces. It's the way they spoke, period.
Do you think we should go back and sanitize all speech and writing to conform with more modern practices?
Should we not depict slavery at all, for instance, so as not to offend the mindless race pimps like Jesse Jackson?
The movie is hardly racist, based on one use of the word *beep* at the end of the film, in a nursery rhyme. Race-conscious would be perhaps a better word. Every author in the 1800s and early 1900s was race-conscious, and some used stereotypes that, to modern eyes, are offensive.
(Although I find the modern style of dress, with underwear-clad butts hanging out over pants belted on the thighs, to be offensive. And of course, so ridiculous looking, to watch the guys waddle along, one hand always holding up their pants so they don't fall completely off. They've got to be so uncomfortable..but it's the style so they've got to wear them.)
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I think whether it was racist and wrong to use the n-word in KHaC depends on whether black people wouldve been offended at that time of its use. Since I have no idea whether they wouldve been or not I couldn't possibly say whether or not it was acceptable for the film to use it. I think if it had depicted a racist act by todays standards but acceptable back then such as oh I don't know refusing to sell a flat to a black person because they are black that would still have been morally wrong even back then. Imorality trancends time and culture, if it hurts another human being it is immoral and therefore unacceptable no matter what the customs of the time may be. But words are different, they take on different meanings over time.
Since this word is offensive today yes I agree it should come with a warning label. But the idea that it should, and novels like Huck Finn, be censored is terrible. If KHaC was released today and used that word I would very much hate that they chose to use it but I would fight like hell for their right to.
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Why is there always some clown who brings up the racist card? Get over it. Surely you would appreciate that this is just a film and it was made in 1949.
shareLike the n word is not used in modern films.
shareI agree its blatent racism but 1949 was a along time ago. Also remember Mazzini refers to both his white mistress and his white wife as "ni**ers" and which little one he was going to end up having to kill.
shareCalling the group of his murdered kin "níggers" recalls a similar usage in the well-known Agatha Christie novel. I find this unexpected context more interesting (and strange) than the mere fact that the word appears in the screenplay.
Anyone happen to know how/when/why this started -- labeling a murder victim (or victims) a "nígger"?
I don't think the actual word n****r was especially relevant, Mazzini was probably just using it as a metaphor to tie in with the rhyme. If the film was made today he would've probably called them 'tigers'.
share:D :D :D I am just now whatching this film, heard the thee instances of the word, and came here precisely to look if some timwit has posted something criticising this film of racism for just that little bit and as I see, at least one has.
shareThis matter has been debated for a long while now and I know that the following has been touched on but I thought I should emphasise that the passage of time has made a difference to the point at issue.
I was eight when the film was released (though I didn't see it until many years later) and I can assure everybody that at that time the word *beep* did not have the ugly and pejorative meaning that it, unfortunately, later acquired. It was simply a slang term for a black person, in much the same way as 'Yank' or 'Limey' were used. Before the War my family, as non-racist as can be imagined, owned a black dog to which they gave the name. Cherry Blossom Boot Polish produced a polish which they called *beep* Brown'. Both these would be rightly frowned on if not downright illegal now but the point surely is that it is wrong to judge past actions and perspectives by modern standards and with the benefit of more enlightened attitudes. KHAC was in no way a racist film. If anything it could be criticised for making light of murder. I think that that would be going too far but perhaps in 65 years' time......? .
Two points for the original poster to ponder: 1) in 1949 Britain, most of the population rarely, if ever, saw any black faces, so the N word was just a word - it carried no deep social messages. Britain was, in those days, still very much an old fashioned, inward looking society when it came to 'exotic' foreigners. The word - being a variant of Negro (meaning 'Black') - was often used to name pet animals without any negative connotations. It was probably more used by the upper than the lower classes; but it was a word without the baggage attached to it in the USA.
2) The nursery rhyme neatly & elegantly reflects the childhood beginnings of Sybella & Louis' relationship; it literally conveys his promise to kill Edith ("Out goes he."); it is couched in the kind of deceptively innocent language which children still use when playing games which actually revolve around death & violence...back when I was a boy, kids still played Cowboys & Indians & I guess my older self would be quite appalled by the imagined shootings, stabbings & tomohawk blows which my friends & I dished out so frequently.