http://spectrummagazine.org/review/2009/12/07/hollywoods-white-savior- complex
You can find more here.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1525/si.2010.33.3.475
Conrack, Amistad, Freedom Writers, Half Nelson, Glory, Music of the Heart, Dangerous Minds, etc.
What would you add?
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Happy to do it. Sad commentary about Hollywood, to be sure, but equally sad to consider how many people don't know the history of cinema's manipulation of popular prejudices. They seem to think that as long as a film is based on a true story, that it must be free of selection bias, distortions and outright bigotry.
This cliche-ridden movie is chock full of vulgar racist condescension and the inability of some people to recognize it just beggars belief.
But here's an experiment for the doubters: switch the races of the characters and see how you feel about it then. Wouldn't you be howling over the fact that Michael was portrayed as far dumber and inarticulate than he really was?
the fact that Michael was portrayed as far dumber and inarticulate than he really was?
@malkatrazz
Check out Michael Oher's own biography--I BEAT THE ODDS--and some great sites to go to for some great discussions on race in film are racialicious.com, mirrorfilm.org, Big Media Vandalism, AngryAsianMan.com and maybe Giant Robot.com also.
Thanks for those links. As a white filmgoer, I am always looking for ways to educate myself and break out of my "comfort zone."
shareFinally, IMDb is recognizing this as a legit keyword category.
shareAvatar
shareFor a good antidote to all the b.s., watch Django Unchained.
shareThis notion that the Tuohy's only helped Michael because they have a "white savior complex" is just absurd. Indeed, one of the reasons why the Tuohy's did what they did is so that they could feel better about themselves. Perhaps they even felt guilty. But that's one of the reasons why everybody volunteers, serves, or donates their time and money to charity. I believe that the Tuohy's also helped Michael because they truly wanted him to be successful and happy. He was a member of their family. They had both selfish and unselfish reasons to help him. I liked the movie but I realize it was also an inaccurate representation of what actually happened in those people's lives. Keep in mind that this isn't a documentary. Hollywood always takes liberties with movies by labeling them as "based on a true story" or "inspired by a true story". That doesn't mean that they are supposed to be completely true. The important thing is to not take anything made by Hollywood too seriously.
shareI hate to ruin a party with facts and stuff, but Michael Oher was black in real life, and the Tuohy's are white. This film doesn't say a thing about blacks being helpless without whites. You people are just inventing this stuff on your own. We are so obsessed and pre-occupied with race more than we ever have been I am afraid. We can't have a movie anymore where a kid gets saved from a family and he's black so we have to make an issue about it?
What about a movie like "A Time to Kill". This is a movie about black vs. white. In that movie, the white guys who committed the rape were bad. Whatever colour of skin you are you should be able to see that they were bad and Samuel L. Jackson's character did something we could all relate to.
So why can't we do the same thing here? Why can't we say that the Tuohy's were nice people who did the right thing and gave a kid a chance? Why does some paranoia with race have to be attached to it?
Way to miss the point. This movie isn't a documentary, it's a docudrama, and the anger it has evoked is not directed at the Tuohys. Which is not to gainsay the fact that even a documentary can spin and distort "the truth".
Contrary to what you've said, the important thing is to take Hollywood movies very seriously. Watching movies and TV is how most people - whether they admit it or not - get the bulk of their information and pick up innumerable prejudices of one kind or another. Superficially they are aware that they are watching fiction. But deep down, human beings are hardwired to believe their eyes and to be influenced by repetition. White condescension to people of color is a repetitive theme.
Even at a conscious level, most people don't ask why a script was written, why the subject it deals with is in fashion, and why people want to see it at one point in time but not at another.
I think the OP's question deserves an answer. Suppose Hollywood came out with a dozen or more dramas depicting a bourgeois black family rescuing a little child from a white trash background. Assuming all else was equal in terms of quality, do you honestly believe most white audiences would be just as emotionally receptive, just as eager to see a high-status black family rescuing a low-status, dumb-as-a-rock white child as they are to see the reverse?
And, thank YOU for keeping the racial problem going.
The problem has nothing to do with the color of anyone's skin. The problem is, mainstream American media, and the fact that most sheeple are too numb inside their heads to find information and inspiration from somewhere other than Hollywood.
There is nothing racist about this movie at all. It is as close to a true story as a "based on a true story" film has been in quite some time.
Signed, Me.
To be fair, this is the era of ignorance.
I realize we generally dismiss someone who starts off with a title like that as a troll, but I'm willing to give jamal89 the benefit of the doubt.
My guess is that this individual didn't actually see the film, and is basing this on some ranting article such as those in the hyperlinks.
What was that Arnold Glasow quote about opinions again?
We're talking about a person who was offended by the Blind Side, yet sees nothing wrong with the depiction of black people in Django Unchained. Probably thinks the Stepford Wives is sexist, too.
White leftists live and breathe for the opportunity to pat themselves on the back.
shareYeah this is one of the bad ones. There are other "white savior" movies that are less blatant. This movie they completely dumbed down the main character not just in life, but in athletics. Oher was a star athlete before he met the Touhys, yet they made him out to be a moron who had to be given a metaphor in order to even try to block. Not do it well, but just do it at all! It was a rather shameful scene, and Oher was mad about it with good reason.
This reminds me of the Nicolas Cage movie about the Navajo Codetalkers. There is a good movie to be made about them, but instead they focused on Cage the whole time. There is a good movie to be made about Oher's life, but instead this was the Leeann Tougy movie.
Oher was a very poor student with a GPA of 0.7 before meeting the Touhy's.
Sorry the black kid needed the Tuohy's to help him become a passing student.
Otherwise he wouldn't have qualified to play Div. 1 football and never would have been drafted into the NFL.
Cydo Rider:
The point is, it wasn't just the Twohys who helped him get into Old Miss, but the other families he stayed with, who were black and one of whom helped him get into the school.
Yeah, I didn't like how they made the brother out to be just dumb, and without even going into his background to show why he had trouble with his studies----in real life, Oher wound up moving with his family constantly all the time---never really getting the education he was supposed to get.
shareI wish white people-including Hollywood filmmakers, would just throw their hands up and say, 'I won't join the KKK or anything but I'm done having anything to do with indignant racial minorities and won't bother teaching or coaching them or writing about them and leave them to their own devices.'
Maybe then this disgusting 'white savior' accusation will finally end once other racial minorities realize how foolishly shortsighted they are being.
When the stars are the only things we share
Will you be there?
-Benjamin Francis Leftwich
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