Posted by
AJH on Sunday, June 01, 2008 12:00:00 AM
This is a response to "Fu Manchu on Naboo" by John Leo of U.S. News and World Report. I wrote it for one of my college classes.
The Genius of George Lucas: Filmmaker, Innovator . . . Racist?
When George Lucas announced that he would be working on a new round of Star Wars movies, adults and children alike were soon caught up in a frenzy of anticipation. Little did people realize how difficult recreating the magic of the original trilogy would be. Unfortunately, although Episode One: The Phantom Menace was a box office success, disappointment was widespread.
This was based, fairly or not, on the incredible storytelling of the first three, which combined the elements of filmmaking so often used in the earlier days of Hollywood into near-perfect modern day classics. Many fans of the first series thought his touch had been corrupted by greed and an odd need for obsessive control, which he had avoided previously. However, among the criticism was something new and controversial: blatant, overt racism.
One of the leading proponents of this view, John Leo of U.S. News and World Report, wrote a scathing piece replete with allegations and examples. Usually Leo is a voice of reason. Yet, in this instance, his vision was obscured by his own prejudices. His essay was plagued with misconceptions. Leo identified Jar Jar Binks as a prime example.
Leo wrote that Binks's “voice . . . is a sort of slurred, pidgin Caribbean English, much of it impossible to understand.” So what? He claimed that it was a “caricature” reminiscent of darker times in American history. Just because he can't speak clearly, this makes the character a stereotype? Leo desperately needed a reality check. No one seemed willing to respond at the time.
“Whether endearing or pathetic, this trouble with language is supposed to demonstrate the intellectual inferiority of blacks,” he claimed. If this is true then some of the blame must be placed on Ahmed Best, a talented black actor who gave voice to Jar Jar. Fractured English is not just the purview of blacks. Both Americans and foreigners of all sorts, whether Chinese or Polish, have trouble with the language.
Certainly Jar Jar is perhaps one the shallowest characters ever created, but this has more to do with the director's diminishing skills as a storyteller rather than any prejudice. Binks was created to provide comic relief and as a way to entice the young. He is Lucas's poorly conceived replacement for the mighty Chewbecca, one of the best alien characters ever imagined, besides Yoda of course. On the other end of the spectrum, Jar Jar is merely an oversimplified character.
The racial undertones just aren't there. If anything Lucas should be faulted for pandering to raw commercialism than any racist preconceptions. It's quite obvious that Binks is there to make money, primarily off of kids.
Leo provided two other examples he thought were prejudicial: the evil Neimoidians of the Trade Federation and Watto, the flying junk dealer and slave owner. According to him, the Neimoidians were “stock Asian villains out of black-and-white B movies of the 1930s and 1940s, complete with Hollywood oriental accents, sinister speech patterns, and a space-age version of stock Fu Manchu clothing.” Watto, on the other hand, was “a conventional, crooked Middle Eastern merchant” representing “a generic antisemitic image.” Leo conveniently ignored the fact that one of Lucas's best friends was a Jew, Stephen Spielberg.
Can't cartoonish, one-dimensional villains just be the bad guys without all of this psychobabble? His hasty generalizations aren't accurate and merely feed into the divisions which have plagued American society for years. Leo, who is so often spot on in his writing and analysis, is way off here, for reasons not easily understood. Here, sadly, Leo represents the worst of the politically correct world, ironically, the one he usually challenges so effectively.
Politically, Lucas is quite open about his liberalism, what he would probably describe as “progressive” leanings. These circles aren't well-known as hotbeds for bigots and Klan meetings. In fact, the director has been quite the opposite, casting several “people of color” in his Star Wars series, starting with Billy Dee Williams as Lando, a great role for any actor, and ending with Samuel L. Jackson as influential Jedi leader Mace Windu and Jimmy Smits as Princess Leia's stepfather. Why would so many actors, whether of African or Hispanic descent, want to work with Lucas if this really was the case?
Read what the “racist” Lucas said while in Japan promoting the latest Indiana Jones film: “We have a hero in the making back in the United States today because we have a new candidate for president of the United States, Barack Obama. For all of us that have dreams and hope, [he] is a hero.” Among Obama's supporters it's doubtful there are many racists.
The Phantom Menace and its director have their flaws, but neither is racist. Leo and those who buy into this fallacy are misguided. Thankfully most people don't seem to agree with the idea. While freedom of speech and the press allows for these type of mistakes, those making such claims should not be so reckless.