Customer Reviews

White: Essays on Race and Culture

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An often fascinating read in extremely intellgible English, Dyer shows how the idea of whiteness underpins more of Western visual culture than one might have thought. Ranging from fascinating discussions of how the actual chemical composition of film stock was engineered to maximize the representation of caucasian skin on celluloid to race in cheesy Italian sword-and-sandals films of the 1950s, this is a real triumph for academic writing--a work that's actually compelling for a non-specialist, but an important intervention in the field at the same time. The last chapter or two were a little less energetic than the predecessors, I thought, but overall, one of the best I've read of this kind.

Dyer is one of the most important film critics in the west. His exploration of what race and politics have to do with entertainment is absolutely crucial to understanding movies better. They are not only entertainment but a key to the way modern politics work in everyone's imagination. The only other popular culture critic as astute on this subject is the American writer Armond White and Dyer's latest work makes a welcome pair with White's The Resistance. To challenge film viewers to analyze their own relationship to the ideas and images on screen is among the most significant work a contemporary critic can undertake. Dyer's chapters on Jewel in the Crown and his analysis of western art and the influence of its ideas on popular culture will be important for as longa s there are movies.

Dyer's study is extremely fascinating, and his reading of "Night of the Living Dead" alone makes the study worth reading. He repeatedly shows how race introduces itself where we least expect it, and his attentiveness to detail in film representations is careful and illuminating.

The study does have its blind spots, particularly with regard to politics. There is a vehemently progressive bent (as scornful of liberalism as of right-wing Thatcherism) that separates the texts Dyer reads occasionally into "good texts" but---and this is far more often the case--into "bad texts" which he proceeds at times to pathologize more than analyze. His distaste for the middleclass popularity of "The Jewel in the Crown," for example, seems to prompt him to unleash real vituperation against it, and to read it very shortsightedly (he almost entirely neglects to mention, for example, that the serial is adapted from a series of novels by Paul Scott which address many of the points he believes the serial omits). This is a smart book, but it's often lacking in critical distance.

Dyer's study of whiteness is a comprehensive piece. It covers all the grounds you'd expect and a few more. His style of deceptive academia (the way he explains theory and collates data from various complex sources, making them understandable and ready to grasp is a wonderul feat of writing) that strays from the usual school of academic over-writing is a true breath of fresh air. His personal insight, and anecdotal examples, are witty and vividly illustrative of his points. After his other successes in the past ('Stars' and his brilliant BFI book on 'Se7en'), Dyer firmly sets himself out as one of the finest film academics around. 'White' is exceptional.