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LOTR is racist too. Everybody except the orcs is white, and all the imagery is Eurocentric, specifically medieval Norse.
Peter Jackson is a horrible racist filmmaker and almost as bad a leader as Donovan McNabb is.
Is KING KONG racist? asks Jim Pinkerton in his Thursday NEWSDAY column.
"Lots of people say it is. And, if it is, why does the film keep getting remade? What does it say about us if the new KONG is a huge hit?"
Pinkerton writes: Any movie that features white people sailing off to the Third World to capture a giant ape and carry it back to the West for exploitation is going to be seen as a metaphor for colonialism and racism. That was true for the original in 1933 and for the two remakes: the campy one in 1976, and the latest, directed by Peter Jackson. (In addition, a KONG wannabe, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, has been made twice.)
Movie reviewer David Edelstein, writing in SLATE, notes the "implicit racism of KING KONG - the implication that Kong stands for the black man brought in chains from a dark island (full of murderous primitive pagans) and with a penchant for skinny white blondes." Indeed, a GOOGLE search using the words "King Kong racism" yielded 490,000 hits.
Comparing the new film with the original, the WASHINGTON POST's Stephen Hunter observed, "It remains a parable of exploitation, cultural self-importance, the arrogance of the West, all issues that were obvious in the original but unexamined; they remain unexamined here, if more vivid."
And by more vivid, Hunter might be referring to the natives of mythical Skull Island, where Kong is discovered. Director Jackson took people of Melanesian stock - the dark-skinned peoples who are indigenous to much of the South Pacific, including Jackson's own country of New Zealand - and made them up to look and act like monsters, more zombie-ish than human. Indeed, one is moved to compare these human devils to the ogre-ish Orcs from Jackson's mega-Oscar LORD OF THE RINGS films. The bad guys are dark, hideous and undifferentiatedly evil.
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I found this interesting - I never ever thought of King Kong as racist - but then, I haven't watched the movie either.
What do you think?
LOTR is racist too. Everybody except the orcs is white, and all the imagery is Eurocentric, specifically medieval Norse.
Peter Jackson is a horrible racist filmmaker and almost as bad a leader as Donovan McNabb is.
I think anyone who makes any kind of connection at all between apes and black people is incredibly racist, even to suggest that other people might...it obviously crossed the writer's mind.
That connection never even crossed mine.
You're white, so you're not qualified to talk about racism, you minion of the oppressor class, you.I think anyone who makes any kind of connection at all between apes and black people is incredibly racist and should be shot on the spot.
That connection never even crossed my mind.
I can see the view point.
I heard a noted critic gave it a thumbs up....
Last edited by ChumpDumper; 12-15-2005 at 05:12 PM.
Peter Jackson's next project will be Birth of a Nation.
Most Zoos across the Country are contemplating closing the gorilla and monkey exhibits because of the obvious racial overtones.
especially when you consider that the original was produced in 1933, not exactly a time of racial harmony in the US.
"Kong is racist, colonialist, imperialist, white/Euro-centric" is a legitimate, defensible appraisal, but probably academic since tons of black people will see it purely on the entertainment level.
Life must suck for the terminally paranoid.
And why the can't King Kong save a beautiful black woman?
I'm sure Halle Berry would have done the role justice.
And though it may sound paronaid and foolish.
You have to be blind not to see the racist tones, even if they were unintentional.
Yeah, right.
Perhaps not now, but clearly in the original version. I'm surprised they didn't have Kong firing up a blunt.
I see where he's coming from alot of slaves were shot down by planes.
Indeed, a GOOGLE search using the words "King Kong racism" yielded 490,000 hits.
489,000 of those hits were prob porn anyway
I don't approach everything I see looking for the negative in it....that doesn't make me blind. It's a big ing monkey...why am I supposed to assume it's racist? Unless, of course, somewhere in the back of my mind I associate monkeys with black people. Should I be making this association...so that I can turn around and call it's creator a racist, even though I really don't know about him?
The only thing that crosses my mind when I see a monkey is that time at the zoo when my daughter was about 3 and it was mating season, apparently, and I had to explain to her what that certain part of it's anatomy was that it was playing with. Apparently ya'll think of black people and how someone else must be a racist. How ironic.
Last edited by SpursWoman; 12-16-2005 at 09:53 AM.
What an absolute moron! How the do they make that connection? thats reaching if I ever saw it.
it doesn't make sense to me .. I mean what the did those huge apes evolve into.. lol
Yea, that does sound paranoid.
The planes represent law enforcement. You gonna tell me that black guys don't get shot down by law enforcement agencies?
I can see it. But that is just me.
This whole idea is ridiculous! It's a movie about a fictional ape and it is a re-make. Think it's racist? Don't wanna see it? Simple......don't go!!!!! Everything is not black & white. There are shades of color in between. Damn, the world is paranoid!
This whole idea is ridiculous! It's a movie about a fictional ape and it is a re-make. Think it's racist? Don't wanna see it? Simple......don't go!!!!! Everything is not black & white. There are shades of color in between. Damn, the world is paranoid!
I'm probably going to watch it myself, but that doesn't mean that I won't at least consider with an open mind the editorial writer's arguments. I think he brings up some good points about the story especially if you consider when in history the original was created.
Where do you find a one of a kind creature like King Kong? Of course you are going to have to go to a remote place. Anyone who can honestly say that the story behind King Kong is racist is reaching for something. Something that extends from deep inside them, something not all that different from racism itself.
The first Jurrasic park movie went to a remote island. All the characters that lived were white. The only black man was killed and was obviously an "uncle tom" because he worked for "the man". The dino's didn't even get killed in the end, the white people were just allowed to escape the dinosaur "ghetto" and get back to "white america". The whities just let the "black dinosaurs" live in their ghetto until they wanted something from the "black dinosaurs". What was that you ask? An "athletic black dinosaur" to show off at a "sporting stadium". Just like black athletes of today, the "poor black dinosaur" was captured by whitey and was forced into being a specticle or show for the white people to sit in amazement of the "black dino's" great size and strength. The white "Engen" wanted to exploit the "black dino" for money. When the crackers finally got the "black dino" to white america they learned they couldn't control such a fierce creature and tried frantically to put him down. White people all over white america were petrified that they would run into the "black dino" on the streets and he would kill them. White people couldn't get a nights sleep until the "black dino" was finaly caged up and sent far away where he couldn't hurt any white people anymore.
So there you have it! Jurrasic Park is obviously RACIST!!!!
Last edited by Useruser666; 12-16-2005 at 11:05 AM.
I concur.
wasn't Newman killed also?
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