Customer Reviews

Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a neat and smart piece of work on American film. The authors have done their homework, their discussions of seminal Sixties and Seventies films is outstanding. Once you've read about what they have to say about the "Lethal Weapon" series, you'll never look at it the same. Which is a good thing for modern film is a carrier of all kinds of ideas, some of them are obvious, some are subliminal and it helps to know how to recognize both. Obviously the authors have spent a lot of time thinking about certain kinds of films and their intellectual impact. Their style is accessible, and though the terms they tend to use come from the very specialized worlds of contemporary academia, one grows to understand not only why they are used, but what they really mean. I recommend this book for specialists who need to reify their own critical radar as well as for movie buffs anxious to broaden their understanding of the subtexts behind the films they have grown to love.

Vera and Gordon illustrate in detail how Hollywood remains a vehicle for Euro-centrism and White supremacist ideals from 1905 to the present. Blacks and other people of color continue to be presented in villainous roles as gangsters, pimps, addicts and prostitutes. Ironically even when they get to play professional roles as lawyers, doctors; there is always some dysfunctional meme e.g. drug addiction, abuse, infidelity, gambling e.t.c.

Because these movies are viewed worldwide, it's easy to see why other non-white cultures have managed to internalize hatred towards black people even while 90% of them have never had any interactions.

Juxtapose this with white main actors whose roles symbolize morality, intelligence, family values etc.

It's a must read for all people of the world.

Hernan Very and Andrew Gordon spend the entire book whining and making the same kind of marxist crackpot arguments that one can find in the lunatic fringe of the left such as Vijay Prashad and the more famous Farrakhan. They complain about any movie that portrays the United States as not being inherently racist, so what kind of movie do they want? The answer is clear, they want a movie, that is completely racist against whites, and they haven't gotten one (obviously they've not seen enough Spike Lee movies) and now they feel a need to throw a hissyfit on paper, and disguise it as academic literature. If you've any respect for yourself or your intelligence, whether your white or not, avoid this piece of extreme left propaganda.