Before the end, they were celebrating in the bus and the driver drove really wildly. They kept showing the wheels and how they didn't rotate quite right, and the cliff, and the black driver laughing like mad. And that made it look really scary. I think it was quite racist to use the black guy at the wheel to increase the tension and the feeling that something is going to happen.
shareHmm... Whilst I agree with the posts that find it silly to suggest that racism is an active reason in having a black driver in this film, there is, however, the 'nudge-nudge-wink-wink' context of a black bus driver from the UK (all those "ding ding move down the bus" lines from 60s and 70s sitcoms)... And this is from someone that LOVES The Italian Job.
share So showing a black man driving a bus is racist, you say?
You seriously need help.
With respect to the OP, I do not think it was intentionally racist per se, but more a product of its time perhaps. However, you do have to ask why the only black person in the entire film also happens to tbe the eventual cause of their downfall. Is that co-incidence or design?
shareNo, you don't have to ask yourself that. Every actor is chomping at the bit for a bad guy role. The guy who plays the driver got a plum.
shareWhy were there any Africans in the film anyway?! It's set in Europe, not Africa. European liberals can't do a thing without pairing themselves with blacks, in part because they feel sorry for them and their lack of a great civilization. Which is why Europeans and European civilization are always the backdrop to the black African race.
shareNot sure if the OP is just being sarcastic or is genuinely THAT PC-brainwashed, but as I watched the ending, my first thought was, "One black guy in the whole crew and he botched the whole thing. I wonder how many 'dis is racist' posts will be on imdb." Thanks for not disappointing.
Of course, there should have either been more blacks, all wonderfully competent, or if there was only going to be one black then they should have made him a magic negro and let him be the know-all and be-all of the film. How dare they show a black person making a mistake. We all know that only white people make mistakes because they are a plurality and we can get away with talking ill of them.
Imagine if they had cast Charlie as a black man? I can see the PC idiots and race baiters having a field day with that one. A career criminal, who spent time in jail and the first thing he wants to do when he gets out is commit another major crime.......after having sex with multiple women, after cheating on his girlfriend, after getting beat up, after......most racist movie in history would have been the subject line of the posts.
"if it was any good they'd have made an American version by now." Hank Hill
No, they should have found a Chinese actor to play Charlie. That would have taken the edge off the fact that the nasty white Englishmen were stealing Communist Chinese gold from the Italians.
shareYou said it. I can't even believe this is a thread. At all.
shareAHAHAH!!!! Made me laugh out loud.
shareI can't see this as racist, that the driver was black. They chose him for the job because he was big and strong, not because he was black. If the movie had somehow suggested he *drove badly* because he was black, rather than because he foolishly got caught up in the party mood, then that would have been different, and yeah, racist.
In any case, that road was bloody scary. Even in the opening sequence with the Lamborghini, I was getting pretty nervous -- which I presume was the intention, as foreshadowing for the end.
It was an oversight that they didn't think about some mechanism for securing the gold in the bus once they'd jettisoned the cars. Or for giving handholds or the like for the rest of the team. They obviously knew the road had tight curves with not much safety, since that's how they planned to get rid of the cars, so even if the bus had been going slowly it would have been tough for the blokes to keep their balance or stop the gold from sliding around. (And yeah, I know, if they'd done that, then there wouldn't have been an ending for the movie. )
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
Pull your panties up Shirley.
shareIt wasn't racist. The driver could have been anyone. If it was racist there would have been a much more negative depiction of the black character. It was just bad luck.
share