I'm sorry, I know it's an "epic" (by epic I guess that means looooong drawn out walking scenes that take half an hour), but how has no one talked about the brown-facing of actors!? It's goofy as ****! I can't even take the film seriously because I see Obi Wan in brown and I lose all interest in the movie. Like a bad school play or something.
8.4/10!?
The movie was made in the 1960s. Anyone with a brain would understand it was a different time and not a big deal.
shareIt’s not even brown face, all they did was dye his beard to make him look Arab. Alec Guinness already looked Semitic anyway, and he played a Jew in Oliver Twist before. Other than the blue eyes, he resembled the real Prince Faisal too.
shareI believe in many of the westerns made in the 40s, 50s and 60s very rarely did an actual native American play any of the Indians. I think Mexican and similar actors were often used because of their similar skin tone and heavier features.
shareThat's a myth. Watch any John Ford film. All the native actors are played by authentic members of the Navajo tribe. There were many native actors working in westerns in the 50s. Google it.
shareNot "all" the native characters. In many cases there were actual Native Americans playing background or secondary characters, but the one in charge with a bigger speaking role would be played by a Hispanic or a white guy in makeup. This was how it was done in John Ford's own film "The Searchers." The Comanche chief, Scar, was played by Henry Brandon, a German-American. His blue eyes are really noticeable in many shots... though it is rumored that the character may have been inspired by Quanah Parker, a Comanche war leader of mixed race who was known for his blue eyes. And in Ford's "Cheyenne Autumn," chief Little Wolf was played by Ricardo Montalban, who was from Mexico but had no indigenous ancestry since his parents were European Spaniards.
shareSo what? Don't like it? Don't watch it. Problem solved.
shareAre you serious? Alec Guinness didn't look any more brown here than he normally did.
Do you also refuse to watch Dr. Zhivago because an Egyptian actor played a Russian?
If an Egyptian and a Mexican play Arabs, isn't that going from "brown" to "brown"?
Of course that still leaves Alec Guiness on the hook...
I never really noticed any difference in Alec Guinness's skin tone between this and his other movies. Maybe slightly more tanned, but no more than a lighter-skinned person would get with normal sun exposure.
shareGuinness actually looked passable in this film, but then he was playing a politician who didn't have the sun-seared complexion of the other characters.
Now the film where he looked glaringly brownfaced as "A Passage to India", also directed by David Lean.
https://ivid.akamaized.net/media/foto/2012/11/22/passaggio_in_india_136027.jpg
I mean, look at that awful makeup! Heavy eyebrow pencil over blue eyes? Bitch, please!
Good points.
shareWhat about Filipino Lou Diamond Philips portraying Mexicans and Native Americans?
share