Representation in Art/Entertainment/Media • Page 22

The Lost World has some terrific scenes (the trailer over the cliff, the attack in the tall grass), and the third film is still better than Jurassic World.

 

African American Film Critics Association Deems 2016 the ‘Best Ever Year for Blacks in Cinema’

 

lol you guys are so funny. I know some of you are inspiring film critics and block busters are ripe to be put under the microscope and torn apart, but it's no where near that bad of a movie. There are truely straight up bad movies in every category: The 5th Wave, Independence Day 2, The Happening, Terminator Genisys, Pixels, ect. JW is not close to the level of those. For a plot where they needed to create a new scenario while still making it "Dinosaurs escape from a park" they did pretty well while including fun, comedy, action and a raptor and Rex tag team battle. What a win!

 

Imagine if Davjs were half as passionate about Hollywood inclusivity as he is about Jurassic World and DC films.

 

At a certain point you have to accept that people have different views on films.

 

Well yeah, I don't think anyone is arguing that. It's cool that you don't like it, and as much as you can post saying you hate it, I can saying I like it.

My point was that the level of over reacting like it's on the level of truly awful films was funny to me.

 

haha I'm not even that passionate about JW, I thought it was it pretty good but certainly not anything to hate or rope into terrible films.

The hollywood inclusivity is tricky because I don't involve myself in racism or anything like that, I just enjoy life. When I watch T2 I don't think of it as a white film. When I watch Creed or Dope I don't think of it as a black film. They are just movies that are meant for enjoyment. Maybe it makes me look like a shitty person for not caring, but in truth I don't surround myself or express/think about bigotry at any level and my life is better for it.

 

It was one of the worst films I have seen in the last few years. It is not an overreaction.

 

Well you probably watched really good movies, I envy you. I watched all the above that I listed which I would consider worse than JW. Also I hated interstellar and thought it was worse, but I know I'm in the minority with that.

 

This is a thread dedicated to discussing those issues. And, acknowledge it or not, every film reinforces, subverts, challenges, embraces, etc. aspects of race, gender, sex, class, etc. If you don't want to acknowledge it at all, this thread probably isn't for you. It's going to be a place where a blatantly and gleefully sexist film like Jurassic World will get critiqued for its representation of gender. If you don't want to engage with that at all, I'm not sure what you're hoping to gain by posting in here.

 

You don't have to look past the way the female assistant is treated to see the issues with Jurassic World. She is torn apart and humiliated while the "villains" in the film either escape or die off-screen.

 

True, fair enough. I usually don't engage in these topics because I know I don't have anything to add. As a movie lover, I do like to keep up with movie news and these days a lot of movie stories are these issues. When something like Gods and Kings or Gods of Egypt happens, I have nothing more to add other than it's wrong and I speak with my wallet by not seeing them.

When you say JW is blatantly sexist, why is that? I didn't get that vibe at all. The assistant who was on her phone with her boyfriend instead of doing her job didn't come off as sexist to me, even though her death was super over the top. I think that was just the character they wrote and made her unlikeable so you wouldn't feel so bad when it happened. If it were a man would anyone have an issue with it? I see the point above about her getting that brutal death when the villains got away, but didn't the military villain get eaten by a raptor? The Dr got away, sure but I think it has to do with setting up a sequel and him being the only connecting tissue between all the films. I don't see him dying ever.

 

Jurassic world was predictable and, the worst thing a movie crawling with dinosaurs can be, pretty boring.

 

even if they flipped all the gender roles JW would still come off as sexist, Christine Prat would of had a Coca Cola bikini shot and a bunch of dumb women rangers would of died doing dumb shit.

 

No complaints here Bryce didn't have any shots like that right? I thought the only dumb thing she did was the high heel thing.

 

I'm basically repeating a lot of what @Nathan said here but I thought I'd post anyway.

Not being able to "see how something is sexist/racist/homophobic/transphobic/etc." is, almost always, a marker of privilege. "Not concerning yourself with it" is even more so, and also ultimately damaging to others. These things remaining unchallenged has wide-ranging effects on marginalized groups beyond just the surface level fact that not seeing people like us represented properly makes us feel "othered" and can often fail to engage us. Like it or not, entertainment and media have great impacts on our society and poor representation can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, among many other things. The point of this thread is to point out things like this and have conversations about it. It's fine if you want to be part of these conversations, but not if it's at the dismissal of those this thread was made for. It derails the thread and completely misses the entire point of threads like these. Imo, when folks who aren't part of these marginalized groups participate in threads like this they should primarily use them as an opportunity to learn and listen. It's endlessly frustrating to have people come in these threads and refuse to even try to challenge their own privileges and prejudices. So, if you're greeted with less-than friendly responses, understand that it is because you're effectively being disrespectful yourself.

Theres a lot more to be said on the subject but I don't really have the time or energy to expand upon it more than that.

 

Yes, but it was quick and you did not see it. The film doesn't even know who the actual villain is: Masrani, the guy who owns the park and made it all happen. For some reason they give him a heroes' death.

In films like this the deaths of characters are usually tied to how we are supposed to feel about those characters. In the original Jurassic Park, there are four deaths. The lawyer is shown to be a coward, so he dies literally with his pants down. Newman caused the carnage, so he is tortured and killed brutally. Meanwhile, the two "good guys" that die are treated completely different. Samuel L. Jackson is left with just an arm, and the hunter dies in battle buying time for the female archaeologist. In a normal film, the death of the female assistant is the kind of thing reserved for the scientist, or Masrani, or the army guy they pretend is bad but isn't actually a bad guy.

 

That is so true! When you think about it, the park owner did allow it all to happen. His death was really comical and I laughed, but I agree with you that I think they were trying to go the Hero's Death route.

 

i think comparing the deaths in the 2 comes across as misleading as they both had a very different tone and used deaths differently.

Subverting the helicopter death was one of the few laughs and good decisions of the movie.
His role was done and in a better movie killing a main character off with out telegraphing could of created a more real sense of danger; of course it doesn't work Again i think they were trying to do a similar thing with the assistant but hedged their bets in making her an innocent but not particularity likable victim as to shock but they shaved the edges off and it just comes across as jarring

 

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but this is pretty disturbing:

‘Last Tango in Paris’ Rape Scene Was Not Consensual, Director Bernardo Bertolucci Admits

 

guess this goes here

 

Kathleen Kennedy is asked further about her comments about female directors, and it's not much better than what she said initially.

Kathleen Kennedy Clarifies Her Comments on a Female Director

 

In addition to taking place in Mexico, the Pixar movie Coco will have a Latinx cast

Pixar’s 'Coco' reveals cast, plot details

 

sweet! glad that's coming out next year, i had forgotten that was on Pixar's upcoming slate