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"Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

hollywoodgadfly.substack.com

31–40 of 43 posts

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#32
If you're tired of modern American film tropes, there's a world of cinema to explore and enjoy from other cultures.

Give Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Korean, British, Japanese, Hongkonger, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, etc films are try. If you're like me, you'll be delighted with the change of pace and focus on more human-centered stories and grounded portrayals of characters and relationships.

American cinema feels so uncanny and sterile by comparison.

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#33

I had to stop watching one of the Transformers movies when in the opening conflict they had to go beat up on some Muslims. And those French gangster movies where the Turkish guy is the cool villain eroding lawful civic French values. I find it refreshing when a plot is balanced with a white guy antagonist undermining the lawful order. Whatever you think feel or believe, evil lurks within every kind of person. Our ent…

I was stuck on a plane years ago and it was the only reason I watched a transformers movie. The back half of the movie had the American villain CEO travel to China, where the pure and correct Chinese CEO discovered the evil corruption of the American CEO, and reluctantly saved the American CEO as he immediately switched from "movie villain" to "cowardly child." I never did look up if I'd watch an international versio…

Hollywood movies pandering to China often results in movies that are parodies of themselves

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#34
post #26

I have to disagree. Multiracial casts are a relatively new convention, so I think it's premature to draw conclusions on casing patterns generally. But casting a heterosexual white man is representative of the real world. Who has all the power in the real world? What race is your congress person, your states federal judges, the supreme court... all but one president in American history...

Classical apex fallacy. Just because 0.0001% of white men have a lot of power doesn’t mean there is any benefit for other white men.

It's not a fallacy if the parent is not making some point about "benefit for other white men", which you seemed to have injected from somewhere. They simply said that the most powerful individuals having the most disproportionate power being white men is not inconsistent with matters in the real world, however few there are.

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#35

I have very little sympathy for “You couldn’t write X today” arguments. Here, X is The Wire. There is a spiritual successor to The Wire: 2022’s miniseries We Own This City. Same complicated representation of Baltimore. Same complicated representation of American policing. Good critical reception, but less widely-known than a legendary show that ran for six years and sixty episodes. The substantive difference between…

> 2020’s-era HBO doesn’t make long-running serials

1. Succession

2. Curb you Enthusiasm

3. Westworld

4. Euporia

5. The White Lotus

6. The Last of Us

7. House of the Dragon

8. Industry

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#36
post #35

I have very little sympathy for “You couldn’t write X today” arguments. Here, X is The Wire. There is a spiritual successor to The Wire: 2022’s miniseries We Own This City. Same complicated representation of Baltimore. Same complicated representation of American policing. Good critical reception, but less widely-known than a legendary show that ran for six years and sixty episodes. The substantive difference between…

> 2020’s-era HBO doesn’t make long-running serials 1. Succession 2. Curb you Enthusiasm 3. Westworld 4. Euporia 5. The White Lotus 6. The Last of Us 7. House of the Dragon 8. Industry

[deleted]

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#37
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classical apex fallacy. Just because 0.0001% of white men have a lot of power doesn’t mean there is any benefit for other white men.

It's not a fallacy if the parent is not making some point about "benefit for other white men", which you seemed to have injected from somewhere. They simply said that the most powerful individuals having the most disproportionate power being white men is not inconsistent with matters in the real world, however few there are.

> "But casting heterosexual white man is representative of the real world. has all the power in the real world?"

The original comment obviously did in fact try to make a point about heterosexual white men in general. No mention was made of how few there might be, you're in fact the one interjecting new content from somewhere.

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#38
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a fallacy if the parent is not making some point about "benefit for other white men", which you seemed to have injected from somewhere. They simply said that the most powerful individuals having the most disproportionate power being white men is not inconsistent with matters in the real world, however few there are.

> "But casting heterosexual white man is representative of the real world. has all the power in the real world?" The original comment obviously did in fact try to make a point about heterosexual white men in general. No mention was made of how few there might be, you're in fact the one interjecting new content from somewhere.

That a few men have most of the power is the obvious fact that you seem to be ignoring. The parent asks:

"Who has all the power in the real world?"

If the answer in reality is a few white men have most of the power, how can you insist that they are claiming all white men have the power?

Whether they believe it not, there is no specific point about "heterosexual white men in general". These are your words and do not appear anywhere in their comment.

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#39

I had to stop watching one of the Transformers movies when in the opening conflict they had to go beat up on some Muslims. And those French gangster movies where the Turkish guy is the cool villain eroding lawful civic French values. I find it refreshing when a plot is balanced with a white guy antagonist undermining the lawful order. Whatever you think feel or believe, evil lurks within every kind of person. Our ent…

I was stuck on a plane years ago and it was the only reason I watched a transformers movie. The back half of the movie had the American villain CEO travel to China, where the pure and correct Chinese CEO discovered the evil corruption of the American CEO, and reluctantly saved the American CEO as he immediately switched from "movie villain" to "cowardly child." I never did look up if I'd watch an international versio…

I seen the reverse too, where the American hero teaches "the natives" how to act. Does that mean Hollywood was pandering to the American audience?

Re: "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

#40

I have to disagree. Multiracial casts are a relatively new convention, so I think it's premature to draw conclusions on casing patterns generally. But casting a heterosexual white man is representative of the real world. Who has all the power in the real world? What race is your congress person, your states federal judges, the supreme court... all but one president in American history...

Yeah, the article is silly since he's only complaining about not seeing non-white antagonists anymore, but doesn't care about the lack of non-white protagonists.
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