MovieChat Forums > Nightcrawler (2014) Discussion > Gender + ethnicity in Nightcrawler

Gender + ethnicity in Nightcrawler


The director/writer considered race and gender issues in the US when writing: the news was always after the contrast, e.g., white females who were burglarized by blacks from outside the suburbs.

Thus his choice to cast a black female as the only character that is truly on to the scope of Lou's ("white male") moral perversity/criminality strikes me as significant, especially given her impotence to prove his crimes. Or that Lou's exploited assistant, Rick, is latino-looking, in a state that exploits hispanics to the end in agriculture. It's almost over the top in its metaphorical meaning.

Add to that the subtext of Lou being sexually coercive/rapey/open to domestic violence, and he's an amalgam of all the abuses of power that a person can legally get away with in modern society.

It's pretty clear that the movie is a (phenomenal) allegory for unconstrained capitalism. Fantastic satire and critique of society.

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... Or maybe your imagination is just a bit too vivid?

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Take a risk, Take a chance, Make a change. Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

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I truly despise people like the OP who have to make EVERY *beep* MINUTE OF THEIR DAY about racism. Go outside and talk a walk sometime dude, you need to clear you head.

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I'm not saying it's the main point of the movie - there are plenty of threads on here that talk about more obvious aspects - just that it might be a commentary on how white, charming dudes can get away with quite a bit. Maybe I'm overanalyzing other characters, but directors make choices, and sometimes there's a reason behind them.

Also, what's with the belligerent comment? It's a movie interpretation thread: you go take a walk until you no longer feel the need to overuse caps lock and beeps.

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One of the characters in this movie specifically says that crimes involving rich white people are more profitable for the station than crimes involving poor minorities. With a statement like that, you cant deny that there is some element of racism as a theme in thie movie.

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Eh, easy to say when you're not a PoC who isn't experiencing racism in their life.

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since ALL people are PoC (well except albinos i guess, but thats a rare medical condition) and all people, regardless of thier skin colour, has experienced racism, this is aboslutely nonsensical statenet.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

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Thing is, the kind of racism that you encounter might be a world different compared to what someone else is forced to live through 24/7. Just saying. The difference could be described as having a strict father compared to having a father that beats the ever-living s**t out of you every single day. And both can be called a tough upbringing. Ya, right :)

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Sure. But that is not dependent on race. Its possible for a white person to experience worse racism than a black person, depending on the situation.

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Resistance is impolite, Friendship is mandatory.

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Uhh... no. Racism is defined as words or actions by the majority race against an oppressed minority. If you're the oppressed minority, you can't be racist. You can be prejudiced, but not racist; those two things are very different.

It would be better if everyone understood the difference between racism and prejudice.

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Absolute nonsense. Racism is defined as treating somone differently based on his skin colour, ethnicity, ect. This is the official definition used by United Nations worldwide. What you are using is a lunatic made up definition touted by morons that never experienced racism in their life.

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Resistance is impolite, Friendship is mandatory.

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It's scary to me how many gullible fools have drank the progressive koolaid.

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If you honestly think the movie didn't have a clear message about social injustice/racism and sexism/rape culture, then you didn't pay attention.

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Nice interpretation

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TxMike, read the full post. The OP doesn't talk about just race. The OP discusses gender and capitalism as well. I think it's a brilliant analysis. Nice try on reading comprehension though; maybe you'll do better next time.

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Put a sock in it.

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Interesting comment, but Rick was clearly South Asian, not Hispanic.

Get on the scale son! Get off the scale.

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Yeah. I didn't like as a Hispanic how he has no problem picking on latinos as generic minority criminals. Clearly, he's too *beep* terrified to portray blacks that way. So we make an easy target. *beep* this Dartmouth *beep* who wrote/directed this? Also, this movie seems to take place in an alternate universe where people are unable to recognize a very obvious sociopath who pretty much tells people TO THEIR FACE that he's using them for personal gain (!). Weird, but interesting movie. Casually racist, instead of just touching on the issue of racism (how it wishes to be perceived).

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ummm ? he isnt espanic he is asian and he picks on everyone so only person being casual racist is you lol.

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This is pretty true for the most part.


Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

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