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Post-modern internet media critic. (thelemmy.club)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 33 points 4 months ago (12 children)

There's always been race swapping in films. Just look at John Wayne portraying Genghis Khan.

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  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    It's totally fine when white people do it. /s

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  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Am I allowed to be annoyed at race swapping if I'm consistent? If you're going to make a movie about characters with a canon appearance, the actor should conform to that appearance.

    If you're making Romeo and Juliet, the actors should at least look Italian. Now, if you're doing a full reimagining, that's a different thing. If you're making West Side Story, half your cast should look Puerto Rican. But if you're just doing a straight telling of a story, especially a historical one, casting choices shouldn't distract from the story.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Romeo and Juliet is a great example of why I think it's fucking asinine to even care.

    Specifically, if the actors need to look Italian, you will need to argue that an accurate telling of that story has never been accomplished.

    Was it an accurate telling when Shakespeare himself was involved in the production? When the actors were exclusively pasty English men? Or was it only accurate after Shakespeare himself was dead and a translated production was performed in Italy by Italian men and women? Do the actors need to actually be 16 and 13? Or can maybe young looking adults be used? Should we go back to the original Italian spelling of their names or is anglicisation in this case ok?

    Why does your suspension of disbelief only stop when the skin color changes? What even does an Italian look like? Rome was a commercial hub for centuries that saw settlers from all over the known world. Are they not Italian?

    What's even better is there's a great opportunity to use subtext to tell a much deeper story with Romeo and Juliet specifically by making one of the families black, because the specific beef between the Montague's and Capulet's isn't really discussed.

    Sure, there are times when it's important to get those details right. Specifically, when ethnicity is a central component to the story being told. Those stories aren't very common, and almost certainly will be the ones you think of as exceptions to everything else I just said. Otherwise, bro, it's a movie, everything about it is a lie.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    What's even better is there's a great opportunity to use subtext to tell a much deeper story with Romeo and Juliet specifically by making one of the families black, because the specific beef between the Montague's and Capulet's isn't really discussed.

    Yeah... you mean like West Side Story? That's a reimagining, I specifically said that was fine.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    No. Not like that.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I like how they only addressed what they perceived as your weakest point, very compelling.

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  • [–] -3 points 4 months ago

    It was the only point that seemed worth engaging with, since it raised the one good exception, and I'd already addressed it.

    Was it an accurate telling when Shakespeare himself was involved in the production? When the actors were exclusively pasty English men?

    16th century English theater and modern film are wildly different things. When you have basically unlimited access to actors of every physical description, there's no excuse not to be accurate.

    Do the actors need to actually be 16 and 13? Or can maybe young looking adults be used?

    I specifically noted looking the part.

    Should we go back to the original Italian spelling of their names or is anglicisation in this case ok?

    What? It was written by an English playwright, and what difference is there anyway? It's Italian, not Chinese. It's the same alphabet.

    Why does your suspension of disbelief only stop when the skin color changes?

    I never said that it did. I'd be equally annoyed by other obvious anachronisms and inaccuracies

    What even does an Italian look like? Rome was a commercial hub for centuries that saw settlers from all over the known world. Are they not Italian?

    Like people with deep northern Mediterranean ancestry. Sure, there were plenty of immigrants of varied ethnicities, but they probably didn't have names like Montague and Capulet.

    Otherwise, bro, it's a movie, everything about it is a lie.

    But when it's a movie with a specific setting and characters, deviations from the characteristics of that setting are immersion breaking. When I'm watching a movie, I don't want to be reminded that it's just a movie. I want to buy into it. I can't do that when Genghis Khan is being played by John Wayne.

    Again, if you want to reimagine a basic story in a new setting, sure that's fine. Change the characters to your heart's content, so long as they're consistent with the new setting.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Yeah, but then you've got the weirdos who don't feel that way unless it's a white character being cast differently and the other weirdos who think it's only acceptable when it's a white character being cast differently.

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