I enjoyed Thursday's discussion a lot because I'm a big fan of the Matrix movies. The reason I like them (the original Matrix more than the sequels) is not for the action in them but more the philosophical undertones to the story. Before this week however, I never really paid much attention to the use of race in the films and whether it was planned the way Nakamura talks about. I noticed the contrast between the dark and dingy real world compared to the clean and "ideal" world of The Matrix, but to throw in race into that and how white people are seen as "the man" that the predominantly minority community of Zion has to rise up against seemed like a bit of a stretch to me.
I'll run with it though, and the argument that I chose to use of Nakamura's is one she made on the bottom of page 100. She describes the use of agents in The Matrix to represent the power of "white male privilege" and that they "embody the uniformity of white male culture." This contrasts the large minority population of Zion, and Nakamura sums it up by saying the agents represent a machine culture that is "viral, oppressive, and assimilative"; while "Blackness retains its identity in the face of technological change, white power, and privilege, and racism" (100).
When I was reading this chapter I couldn't help but think of the use of storm troopers in Star Wars and how they are all white and faceless, in a way representing "the man" similar to the role of agents. Like with Agent Smith, all storm troopers in the films look alike and seem to be in endless supply. In contrast the Rebel Alliance doesn't wear full body suits, and every person has their own identity like the people of Zion do. As Nakamura put it "Afro-futurist mojo and black identity are generally depicted as singular, 'natural,' and, as Ebert puts it, unassimilable and 'authentic'" (100). And like the quote I used earlier, the Rebels retain their identity much like "blackness" does as Nakamura says.
Just like in The Matrix, The Empire is a machine similar to the matrix itself while the Rebel Alliance is the Zion resistance. The Rebels have minorities serving with them while at all times the storm troopers are anonymous.
I really don't know whether the movie makers really planned all of this out when making their films to inject these racial undertones or if it's something that people just picked up on. It still leads to some interesting thought provoking conversations. Looking forward to see the other films people make connections with for this assignment.
Works Cited
Nakamura, Lisa. Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
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I don't know why, but I am typically unsure about critical analysis of films as well. I suppose it is because mass market films aren't considered as valuable as books even though they're both stories that potentially have the same level of depth.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I didn't look at Star Wars for this post, but outside of the Jar Jar Binks is a racist caricature thing in the first fake Star Wars movie I hadn't really considered the deeper social issues reflected in the original trilogy.
I think the comparison of stormtroopers and agents is a good one. Not only are stormtroopers faceless, nameless, and dressed in white, but the stormtroopers also started out as clones and that prevented any other groups or races from gaining access to their "club." Additionally, if we consider the wide variety of races in the SW universe, the stormtrooper's armor/uniform itself rules out many races through its design alone.
I have evaluated your posts and comments (where applicable) for assignments #5 & #6. Before Tuesday 2/23 I will have written summary comments about the assignments and posted them on the course blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement when you say that profiling the movie as racial may be a stretch. The interesting factoid in all of this is the ability to make something out of nothing.
ReplyDeleteI never would have assimilated the characters positions within the movie to that of racial degredation. While it's true that movie makers typically try to get a point or motivation across in a movie, I wonder whether Nakamura asked the director and cast if the motivation was relevant to her notions. Food for thought.
I appreciated the context that you brought into your argument with the use of Star Wars. Interestingly though, VADER is "Black". He is a symbol of power over the "White" storm troopers. Even though the characters of the Dark Lord and Vader are of white skin tone, our perception of them is that of darkness or blackness. Even with this perception we see them as having some sort of power over the white storm troopers, which in my mind somewhat invalidates Nakamura's notion. It's all in what you make of it....something out of nothing.