MovieChat Forums > Grand Canyon (1992) Discussion > This movie is all about WHITE GUILT stea...

This movie is all about WHITE GUILT steaming from the greedy 1980's


White guilt is the individual or collective guilt felt by some white people for harm resulting from racist treatment of ethnic minorities by whites both historically and currently.

That Decade, from 1980 to 1989, marked a significant divide in Income disparity between Whites and Blacks, or in other words, Whites came out on top at the end of the '80's and Blacks made no real significant gains in Wealth or Income

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It's about us white guys wanting a cool black friend. Not a ghetto dude or anything like that. But a guy who seems like he's got street cred, says cool things, attracts the ladies, and won't steal your wallet at the end of the night out.

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Any guy should be so lucky to have a friend like Simon (Danny Glover). He's thoughtful, kind, has peace in his heart (but maybe not always in his mind as he's always thinking, thinking deep things about the whys and whetefores of life, compounded with angst and empathy, and thus he's an all time good/helpful soul. But he's practical too and goes quietly amongst the noise and haste of messy LA lives and becomes a touchstone for Mack, his newly found "friend". Who's this perfect except a guardian angel?

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It wasn't about white guilt at all. Simon (Glover) saved Mack (Kline) from a potentially life-threatening situation in the hood. So Mack later treats Simon out to breakfast where he explains that a white woman in a Pittsburgh Pirates hat saved him from getting runover by a bus and he felt he failed to thank her appropriately; so this time -- after Simon saves him -- he wasn't going to let the occasion slip by without at least thanking his savior and perhaps making a connection. Simon could've been black, white, brown, yellow or red, it didn't matter. I suppose it helped that Mack and Simon clicked on a personal level.

So what's the movie about? Well, it effectively tackles more than the average flick and that's one of the reasons it's so great:

Miraculous life-saving encounters; white/black relations; the rich/working class/poor divide; homelessness. Why do kids join gangs/become hoodlums? The challenges of a nigh romance-less marriage; the drive to improve one's living standards. Does violence in film escalate violence or is it simply a reflection of society? Does a filmmaker have a moral responsibility to society? Life-changing experiences that aren't so life-changing after all. What do you do after miraculously finding/saving an infant? Divine intervention; matchmaking, blind dates and finding Mr. or Ms. "right." How many split seconds do you have to make a left turn in downtown traffic? The ripple-effect each person's actions have on others, revealing humanity's significance, which is contrasted by the idea that humanity is inconsequential compared to the Earth & Universe's timeless marvels, like the Grand Canyon itself.

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wow. you really sound like you think you know what you're talking about. I'm white and hardly benefitted from it in the 80's. How well-read are you? Or are you just reading the Cliffs Notes version of Yuppiedom?

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