Matt Damon as William Garin in The Great Wall. Jason Boland/Universal Pictures.
Chinese director Zhang Yimou, of Hero and House of Flying Daggers fame, made his English-language debut with The Great Wall, which opened Friday. But in a story set in ancient China, Matt Damon’s character sticks out like a sore thumb. The presence of his pale mug in movie posters and trailers drew backlash even before the film’s release. “We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world,” Fresh Off the Boat actress Constance Wu wrote in a Twitter tirade. “We don’t need salvation.” Damon and Yimou both publicly defended the film, with Damon calling it “historical fantasy.”
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The Great Wall exemplifies a related Hollywood trend where white characters play a dominant role in a foreign situation, while nonwhite locals are reduced to sidekicks or people “to be killed or rescued—or to have sex with,” as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen put it recently. Vogue recently added to the outrage over cultural tone-deafness by presenting Karlie Kloss, an American model of German and Danish descent, as a geisha—for the magazine’s diversity issue, no less. Vogue later removed the photographs from its website and Kloss apologized for her participation, but it was yet another episode in America’s long history of whitewashing Asians. We’ll leave you with this brief history of the same. Dig around and you’re sure to find plenty more.
Mother Jones provides a very brief history of Hollywood’s more infamous whitewashing efforts when it comes Asian-based movies, starting with Charlie Chan in 1926, and ending with The Great Wall in 2017. Click over to see them all.
Matt Damon plays a European mercenary who saves China from monsters in The Great Wall. Actress Constance Wu takes issue: “We like our color and our culture and our strengths and our own stories,” she writes. “Hollywood is supposed to be about making great stories. So make them.”
Well, in response to The Great Wall’s upcoming release, people got the #ThankYouMattDamon hashtag trending, and it’s a hilariously sarcastic way for people to “thank” Damon for his all that’s he’s done to help stop people from thinking only white men can save the day. *eye-roll*
Why does somebody who has given us such gorgeous and beautiful movies without the obligatory male white hero do such a thing?
The excuse a lot of film producers give for this is that casting a big name Hollywood actor makes their film more marketable to an American audience. Which would be an odd excuse in this case, because people like Jet Li and Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu still exist.
Cartomancer, that excuse is so old it qualifies as a hoary chestnut, and even fucking Hollywood knows it’s bullshit, and most of the movies they whitewash so egregiously aren’t worth seeing anyway.
In this case you have Zhang Yimou doing this, which is beyond boggling. House of Flying Daggers was a staggeringly beautiful film, with an appropriate cast. It made a fucktonne of money, too. That makes this instance of whitewashing truly inexcusable.
I’ve watched and loved many of Zhang Yimou’s films. What a disappointment.
I saw a preview for this movie and the gratituous white person splattered over the awesome story from Asia was very annoying. I probably would not have noticed it without the education I’ve gotten from the FTB community over the years.
Zhang also made The Flowers of War, starring Christian Bale. When asked about casting a Westerner in that film, he said
Well, maybe once more…
Rob:
Yeah, I guess so. This is cited as his ‘English language debut’, so I suppose this would be catering to stupid Americans, who think the only possible hero is a white dude, and if the movie doesn’t have lots of lovely gunfire and explosions every 3 seconds, then white dude is a must have.
Caine, #7
“Dude, have you heard about The Last Samurai sequel that’s coming out?!”
Probably putting in a white lead was a condition of getting funding from one of the producers.
I’m not really a cinephile, so I wouldn’t know if such a thing has already been made, but has anyone ever tried to make a film with this sort of premise that subverts the tradition? Where it starts out with the American coming over and sticking his nose in, but eventually everyone else gets bored of his antics and sorts their problems out themselves, thereby consigning him to a supporting role at best?
cartomancer, #10
Not exactly like what you’re referring to, but there’s a Jordanian film called Theeb, which is set in the Middle East during WWI. It starts out with a white British character appearing and seeming to be taking over the plot. At first I thought we were heading straight for Dances with Wolves territory, but it totally doesn’t.
Cartomancer:
In the year 2017, we should be able to have movies which don’t feature a white dude from anywhere being the saviour, or white dude from anywhere being in the film at all.
drascus:
I don’t buy that. There are plenty of bankable Asian actors who are familiar faces in Hollywood flicks.
@Caine
I mean that one of the producers was probably racist and wouldn’t dump money into the movie without a lead actor that, “Just looks right for it”.
I think this is an example of how good of a job white Americans have done at making themselves being the focus of all attention. Even some people of color are apparently infected by this idea.
I never liked Dancing With Wolves, or Last Samurai, but only because I for some reason strongly dislike Kevin Costner. Until recent years I too was blisfully unaware of most of the problems of having a white guy as main protagonist in a movie about people of different nationalities.
Charly:
Quoted for truth.
@15 Charly:
FWIW, ‘The Last Samurai’ was Tom Cruise.
Strongly disliking Kevin Costner is just having a taste for good acting.
@abbecydabra
Thanks for the info. For some reason those two blended in my mind into one *scratching head*.
@Charly
Disliking Tom Cruise is even easier.
When I saw the preview for this movie, my jaw dropped. It was just so blatant and unapologetic.
This is probably why people should watch the film and not just comment on the trailer.
The movie was written to be about westerners coming to China (Damon is not replacing a role intended for a Chinese actor) in which they learn that Chinese cultural values are superior to Western ones. The film isn’t even subtle about it.
It is no surprise because this has the blessing (and part of the financial backing) by the Chinese govt. They are hoping to fund more joint ventures with Hollywood to promote their film industry (actors and directors) to the lucrative western market.
Obviously Hollywood will be watching this one closely. China is the second biggest market and many of the biggest action movies in the last decade have been aimed to appeal to both. This includes additional scenes shot for the chinese release or changes to plot points* that won’t run afoul of censors. This film is China trying to dip its toe into that pool.
*For example: excessive disrespect of authority is something that the Chinese censors don’t like too much.
Here is a good review which concisely describes what this is film is about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDmKP9FV6lA
electrojosh:
No, I don’t think so. I am not obligated to watch a film to remark on yet another instance of whitewashing, which is so damn pervasive, it’s hard to properly express the depth and extent.
You explanation doesn’t square with Zhang Yimou’s excuses for the whitewash, either. In this case, I’ll go with what the film maker said.
Caine:
You don’t have to watch it (it isn’t that great) but, again, this is not a “white savior” story nor is it whitewashing. That is simply the facts on the ground.
The entire plot is about how westerners need to unlearn their selfish western ways and how awesome and more civilized the Chinese are. Damon is more a western surrogate character watching the rise of the actual hero of the story. I do suggest watching the video link I posted above (it contains spoilers but, since you don’t plan on watching it, I wouldn’t worry about that).
The big irony: the chinese make a film to appeal to western audiences and they get accused of whitewashing by Americans.
Being from neither country I find it funny that Americans can’t conceive of blockbuster films being made by non-American countries or that they would be a target market of them. Even funnier is how blatant this movie is about the greatness of China vs the West -- yet that point doesn’t get discussed. Why? Because all the people complaining were operating under the assumption that this was another example of Hollywood’s bad habits* before they even watched the thing. Instead this film is a bit of an eyerolling affair but for different reasons.
*Whitewashing is a problem -- I am not going to deny (or defend) that for a second.
Even when Hollywood did do a film with an all Asian cast in an Asian setting they couldn’t help but tinker with stuff. The makers of Memoires of a Geisha didn’t use authentic appearing 1920s geisha makeup and hairdos because they were worried such things would turn off American viewers. Of course the source material was problematic anyways, a first person account of pre WW2 geisha written by an American man.
electrojosh, you can keep repeating yourself all night, it’s not going to make you right. I get your opinion, you don’t need to state it a thousand more times. I’m not out to change your mind, either. You can keep your opinion, hold it close, cuddle it, whatever.
I’m not an Asian person, however, I do, and have listened to what a whole lot of Asian people have had to say about this movie, and I’m inclined to agree with them, and what Zhang Yimou said. You might also note that not all the people critical of the whitewash are Americans. FFS. Now that I’ve said this twice, I’ll assume you can manage to take on board the fact that I disagree with you.
As the blog owner, I’ll thank you to stop repeating yourself.
Timgueguen:
I’m afraid to ask why.
Caine: All good. I will drop it.
As to the Memoires of Geisha (movie side -- haven’t read the book or know much about it): the lack of authenticity in hair and makeup was probably the least of its cultural blunders.
The film may or may not be whitewashed; the operating assumption that it was is a lot weaker given Yimou’s involvement and the interview mentioning the other four protagonists. The trailer pretty clearly is though, seeing as how the whole idea of five protagonists is nowhere in the trailer and it instead focuses exclusively on the white guy. It focuses on him, lists his name and no other actors’, (and it’s not like there aren’t other stars in it), and generally does a pretty good job making him look like the protagonist and not a protagonist.
Seems like pretty textbook Hollywood whitewashing to me, and while the movie is being made by a Chinese studio there’ve been no indications that the trailer was.
re: Memoirs of a Geisha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineko_Iwasaki#Memoirs_of_a_Geisha
I found this on the youtoobs
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gP8F3XH7xw
it’s a trailer for the movie in question
it’s 9 minutes long and entirely in Chinese
I am going to see this movie.
electrojosh @21: “The entire plot is about how westerners need to unlearn their selfish western ways and how awesome and more civilized the Chinese are. Damon is more a western surrogate character watching the rise of the actual hero of the story.”
That is how I saw the plot presented (on IMDB?). And that may make for an OK movie, but the marketing does not seem to reflect that plot because the promotional material I’ve seen prior to this posting by Caine has Matt Damon front and center of…well, of really no one else, as if his character is going to be the only character that matters. Even in this trailer that Caine has posted, it says the movie stars Matt Damon…and no one else.
So even if the movie is not so bad (and I don’t know if it is or not as I have not seen it), the marketing is. That’s not an assumption of Hollywood’s bad behavior; it is a blatant example of it.
@Leo Buzalsky
It’s a decidedly average film. The main points of interest are that, despite how it was marketed, it eschews the “lone hero/great leader” type you get in Hollywood films. I would be curious to hear what people who watched the movie because the marketing appealed to them thought of it. For the record; I saw the movie despite the trailer. I am a big fan of Yimou’s work and had wanted to know what kind of beast a Chinese/Hollywood colab would produce.
What I am most interested in now is whether this film makes enough money (outside of China where it is already a hit) to justify more Chinese investment into an industry dominated by Hollywood. This was generic action/fantasy film (albeit with a very different perspective on “heroism” to western stories) so will they make more this genre or branch out? This is China dipping its toe into a lucrative pool but I am sure their motivation goes far beyond the ROI.
Oh look, the longer Chinese trailer has dramatically less focus on the white guy, and actually gives the idea of there being five core protagonists. What. A. Shocker.