Hungarian Father's Nightmare
I loved the segment with Gene Kelly & Janet Leigh. The father hated Greeks. His daughter ends up marrying one and it looks like all the other five daughters were going to end up marrying Greek guys!
sharebilsnod says > I loved the segment with Gene Kelly & Janet Leigh.I enjoyed the entire movie but I think the Hungarian vs Greek segment and the boy who needed glasses segment (with Nancy Reagan) are my favorites. I thought both were about being closed-minded. It's funny and ironic how things turned out in both.
The father hated Greeks.The father doesn't really hate Greeks. He was just determined to carry forward what had been passed down to him. He felt it his duty to pass it forward to his daughters; to 'protect' them, of course.
That's how a lot of people learn to hate. Tough the reasons are long forgotten, they still carry grudges their ancestors once had. Had Rosa known Icarus was Greek, she might never have had anything to do with him. Fortunately, their love blossomed before she knew. At that point it was hard to deny it.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate] share
> > The father hated Greeks.
> The father doesn't really hate Greeks. He was just determined to carry forward what had been passed down to him.
How many times does he have to say he hated Greeks for you to believe he really hated Greeks? Whether it was "passed down to him" or whether it originated from his own experiences, I think it's inarguable that he DOES INDEED hate Greeks.
Now, in this movie, his "hate" is obviously not vicious and ugly, the way most race or ethnic hatred would be in real life. In this movie, it's almost akin to a sports team rivalry. "My daughter? Marrying a Boston Red Sox fan?? NEVER." And you'll notice that Szabo's prejudice involves an imaginary national rivalry (as far as I know, there is no such thing as Greek-Hungarian enmity-- now if you were talking Greek-Turkish...)
But, by the conceit of the movie, yes, he is supposed to "hate" Greeks.
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skat1140, I understand what you're saying. Of course, we have to take people at their word. If they say they hate someone or a group of people, we should believe them.
I haven't seen this movie in a while but, according to what I remember, he said a lot of things to his daughters in an attempt for them to be the best they could be. The point I was making is this: he had been raised with a certain view of Greeks and simply accepted it. He avoided contact with them and was merely passing along what he had learned to his daughters. It's like people pass along old wives tails. The father also, if I recall, chided his daughters for eating candy and for other behaviors he thought would be harmful for them. He was teaching them to hate, it's true but he was doing it out of a misguided love for them.
As I said in my original post, even though all the daughters made fun of their father's attitudes towards Greeks, and other things, had she known ahead of time that the guy was Greek things might have been different. She may have put up a wall or refused to associate with him; at the very least, she would have proceeded with caution.
That may not have been due to her own views but because she knew how her father felt. Out of respect for him, to avoid problems or a schism in the family, and/or because some of his ideas had seeped in over the years she might have reacted in a way she didn't expect. That's usually how those passed down hates get locked in.
What broke the cycle is the fact she liked him first. People who have hate passed down to them usually never get the chance to meet and associate with the people they're told negative things about; the only thing they know is what they're told. That's why we say hatred and prejudice stems from ignorance. It's also why it's probably harder to overcome hatred against those who are noticeably different. We spot those differences immediately and from a distance so we react to or avoid them accordingly; never getting the chance to get to know them first.
In this day and age we are quick to condemn anyone we consider prejudiced. We seem to forget that the things we do; the way we are, were once crucial to our very survival. The reason we're still around as a race of people is because we learned to fear the things that might threaten us and we passed those lessons along. The in-group was safer so our prehistoric ancestors taught their kids to fear and avoid the out-group. Unfortunately, a lot of those traits have stuck. We naturally tend to shun what is unfamiliar, unknown, and different and that's a good thing because even today there are many occasions in which that is the right or safe thing to do.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]