Hi,
Sorry if I'm being dumb, and I have a feeling I'll be made out to be, but I don't get the joke when Rheinhart asksed Blade, "Can you blush?"
Is it just referencing the fact that Blade doesn't drink blood and therefore doesn't have enough in his body to blush?
I really don't get it!
Cheers!
Marko
It wasn't a very good line, but I think it was a reference to Blade being Black.
shareAhhh ... yeah, that could be it. Although it doesn't make much sense because wasn't one of the vampires black too? So he's essentially insulting one of his own, if that's the case ...
So far, I'm willing to agree it was a pretty bad line!
Pirate_LeChuck23: "Although it doesn't make much sense because wasn't one of the vampires black too? So he's essentially insulting one of his own, if that's the case .."
Assume the idea is to set up a race fight, with Blade as Black, cool and a winner, and his opponent as white, teutonic, as racist as possible, uncool and ultimately a loser. That way, his insulting his own as well contributes to setting up the satisfying Black-beats-white finish.
Yep, Reinhardt was referring to his skin color. See, you wouldn't probably be able to see a person blush unless he was white. That's why Blade refers to him as Adolf.
Reporting inshare
Well, Asad doesn't seem like the sort of person who lets himself be casually goaded into fights.
I think Del Toro confirmed in the commentary that Reinhardt was supposed to be a neo-Nazi type, so that makes sense.
I guess that line is because blade is half vampire/half human, hence, he does have blood, so he can blush. Blushing can be taked as sign of embarrasing. So when he asked "can you blush?" it probably was because Blade could be embarrased for working in the same band as vampires...
...but the race thing could be a good answer. I heard that reinhart was a skinhead, so...
As a black man myself, I found that line funny.
shareThat was why. Not even a question
shareIt was.
shareIn the blade 2 commentary they actually mention why was the line was implemented. Apparently Snipes was telling the director a story about how some Austrian asked Snipes that very same question "Can you blush?", they didn't go into whether or not the Austrian was being racist, but Snipes said he "got a very good tongue lashing"
when the director heard him tell the story, he wanted to implement it into the movie.
nice..i actually thought it was because blade is such a cold hearted badass that he doesn't show too much emotion...so I figured that's the meaning behind it
shareIn reference to the scene of the film where it's said, I had always interpreted the line as Rhinehart really trying to say the following:
"Hi, Blade! We're the Bloodpack, the special unit of vampires formed with the sole purpose of taking you out! But wouldn't you know it, because of one bald vampire making it bad for us vamps and our human cattle, we have to work together and stop him before him and his 'friends' turn the world into their clones! How does it make you feel to work with your enemies, especially the fact that we can turn on you at any given time and you'd never know when? Does it makes you sad or happy?"
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Dual meaning. It's sort of clever in a way, it's more of a bi-racial question normally though rather than just a black thing, so it's humorous that Blade would be asked that as a half-vampire. Presumably vampires can't. It's loaded.
shareI always assumed that it had to do with the fact that Blade is part human and therefore had blood actually flowing in his veins, making blushing possible. As opposed to vampires who can not blush.
"When the weight of the world is on your shoulders, plant your feet."
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The line "Can you blush" is purely a racist term, Reinhardt was trying to get a rise out of Blade to see if he would bite. Reinhardt may not have been racist, he just hated Blade.
In the Sixth Sense, Bruce willis is going bald
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Um, Blade is black, it was a crack against his race.
"Beauty is the means which we use to measure our own vanity."
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I hate it when people talk to me in a condescending fashion. Whether the blush line was intended to get a rise out of him or not doesn’t really matter. A racial epithet is a racial epithet, it doesn’t matter how mundane or casual it was. Why don't you try throwing that insult around a black person and see how they would react?
"Beauty is the means which we use to measure our own vanity."
@thomascory9415, there was no missing point, you're overreaching with that entire assumption. FACT: it was a racial insult, period. Everything else is just speculation. Just because Asad is his teammate means little to nothing since the film never went in depth with the Bloodpackers other than they trained for 2 years. I've been on sports teams where some of the guys were very much openly racist, but they did what they needed to do to win games... Anyways, just because Reinhardt can co-exist with Asad doesnt mean that they were friends or makes Reinhardt not a racist. This is all speculations and you're taking it as hard fact without any real convincing evidence.
sorry I tuned you outshare
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Its clearly a racial jab. You could argue it meaning something different but the rest of the movie confirms it. The whole time they take jabs at each other's physical appearance. Adolf (Reinhardt's Aryan roots) Nipplehead (Reinhardt being bald) Hillbilly (Whistler's old and dirty look) Buttercup (this has numerous meanings but notice Chupa has blonde hair)
shareReinhardt is outspokenly racist, so the line "Can you blush" is a reference to Blade's skincolour. Furthermore, The Bloodpack all consists of Pure Bloods. Pure Blood vampires don't have the bloodflow to blush, and since these Pure Bloods are puritans and see any non-Pure Bloods as filth, "Can you blush" is also a direct offence at Blade being a hybrid. So it's a harassment double whammy.
share