Critics say 'Clones' has racial stereotypes

[supermanpal]

After the plain idiotic stir concerning the Jar Jar Binks character, it seems some imbecile critics have come to even more absurd conclusions regarding Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones


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Critics say 'Clones' has racial stereotypes


By Michael H. Hodges / The Detroit News



Temuera Morrison is Jango Fett in "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones."




"He looked totally Latino," says Martina Guzman about Temuera Morrison, the actor who plays Jango in "Attack of the Clones."


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George Lucas, sometimes accused of reinforcing racial stereotypes with his movies, has done it again, according to critics.
Latino critics in particular charge his latest Star Wars epic, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, toys with American paranoia about Mexican immigration with its cloned army of swarthy lookalikes who march in lockstep by the tens of thousands, and ultimately end up serving as Darth Vader's white-suited warriors.
Modeled on bounty hunter Jango Fett, the clones, we're told, are genetically modified for docility and obedience. The breeding project, conducted by long-necked aliens who look like refugees from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, takes place on the planet Kamino -- soundalike for the Spanish word "camino," which means "road" or "I walk."
Temuera Morrison, the actor who plays Jango, is a New Zealander of Maori descent. But that didn't get in the way of some members of an eight-person Detroit News panel assembled to review the film.
"He looked totally Latino," says Martina Guzman, a Detroiter who's managing a State House election campaign.
"And his kid," says Wayne State history professor Jose Cuello, referring to the young Boba Fett, "looked even more Latino."
It reminds Cuello a little bit of "those Reagan ads in the 1980 campaign, that suggested if Nicaragua went communist, you'd have wild-eyed Mexicans with guns running across the California border."
A flabbergasted Lucasfilm spokeswoman, Jeanne Cole, says "This is the first we've heard of this. Star Wars," she says, "is a fantasy movie filled with creatures and aliens from all different planets and universes and galaxies. There is no basis for this."
Lucas was in Cannes and could not be reached for comment.
The celebrated mythmaker has been through what some might call the p.c. mill before.
In 1999, a furor erupted over The Phantom Menace's Jar Jar Binks, a floppy-eared alien whom some read as a sort of Stepin Fetchit by way of the West Indies.
"Everyone I've ever spoken to says there's a Rastafarian element to his speech, his walk, and in his 'dread' ears," says copy editor Robert del Valle, who was on The News panel with Guzman and Cuello.
But such allegations were dismissed as "absurd" by Lucas in a Thursday interview published in the Washington Post. "People say, 'He sounds Caribbean.' Well, he doesn't. He's a complete invention. It's a different language. Just because he speaks with that accent doesn't mean it's a racial stereotype."
The interview did not address the clone issue.
A somewhat muted Jar Jar makes another appearance in Clones, but it is the dark-skinned Jango-copies that seem to have caught some audience members' attention this time around.
Still, not everybody's buying it.
Harry Knowles, on-line film reviewer and author of Ain't It Cool: Hollywood's Red-Headed Step-Child Speaks Out (Time Warner), says the whole Jango ethnic premise is "reading racism into something that's not there -- it's just in the minds of the viewers. It's like calling Jar Jar racist when all he is is Bullwinkle."
The Jango dispute surfaced in internet chat rooms devoted to Star Wars days before the movie's release, says panelist Gary Anderson, the artistic director at Detroit's Plowshares Theatre and longtime Star Wars student and critic.
If the planet name "Kamino" caught some Latinos' attention, three Arab-Americans on The News' panel seized on the fact that Jango's son calls him "Baba."
"I frankly think the bounty hunter is Arab," says college counselor Imad Nouri of Royal Oak.
"He's basically a terrorist," explains Nouri, "and 'baba' is Arabic for 'father.' "
Such allegations have a long history in that galaxy far, far away. A number of observers noted that the 1977 original was, at least at the human level, an all-white party -- looking, in Anderson's words, "like the Ku Klux Klan's fantasy of the future."
The only exception was Darth Vader's basso-profundo voice, supplied by African-American actor James Earl Jones.
Which leads to all sorts of ironies, intentional or not: Darth Vader has a black man's voice when he's bad, but in Clones -- before Anakin Skywalker does the Darth-thing and defects to the Dark Side -- he's a white guy, played by Hayden Christensen.
The big question lurking beneath all this ethnic deconstruction: Could any of this possibly be deliberate?
For their part, The News' panelists were divided.
"The plot is so superficial," says Cuello, "I don't think they could possibly have any deliberate intent about manipulating images."
Like almost everybody who commented on Lucas, Anderson doubts there's anything malicious going on.
"If your entire world perspective is based on 1950s TV and films, what do you expect?" he asks. "Garbage in and garbage out."
For her part, Guzman was astonished that, given the Jar Jar flap, Lucas didn't scrutinize everything a little more critically this time around. "He's been criticized before," she says. "So he had a choice."
It's not that she's opposed to Latin-looking baddies per se. She just wishes the occasional swarthy good guy would get as much on-screen time as the villain.
"Jimmy Smits had all of two lines in the whole movie," Guzman says. "And Samuel Jackson had like five. Then there's the bad guy."
For pop-culture professor Robert Thompson at Syracuse University -- who has yet to see Clones -- the issue boils down to whether Lucas really wanted to tweak Anglo fears.
He's inclined to say no, attributing Lucas' occasionally confusing choices to "a certain degree of cluelessness. Look at Jar Jar Binks. The moment that guy comes on the screen, you wonder what in the world they were thinking. This isn't 1957. Didn't anybody say, 'Have you paid attention to what this guy is doing?' "
The sad thing, he says, is that the Star Wars saga is also "about tolerance and dignity. But then you've got this 'camino' thing, which sounds a little creepy, and swarthy people who march in uncountable masses."
Thompson calls the imagery in Star Wars a "great big Rorschach test, not just for the people who watch the movies, but for Lucas himself." With the latter, that leads him to two possibilities.
"One is that this is coming out of the id of the creator without translation -- a West Coast fear of the Latino population in America." (Lucas grew in the 1950s in Modesto, Calif., the agricultural town immortalized in American Graffiti, and one visited annually by thousands of migrant workers.)
The second hypothesis, he notes, is that it's all deliberate -- a way to prompt deep emotional response in audiences by probing "a phobia that's afoot in America. And that's the scarier interpretation."
Or, as some argue, perhaps it's all stuff and nonsense.
Knowles at aintitcool.com keeps emphasizing on the fact that Temeura Morrison, the actor who plays Jango, is Maori.
When asked how audiences are supposed to know that, he says, "How can you tell? You stay for the end credits. Is his name 'Raul Julia?' No."
But even if Jango was meant to be taken as a Latino, others just don't see a problem.
"At least we're in the picture," says Hollywood producer Michael Gonzalez with a laugh.
"I mean, what did we have before -- Lt. Torres on Star Trek? It's just a movie," he says. "It's just fun. And you're going to hit a stereotype one way or another. At least we get some screen time."
In any event, Guzman doubts most Hispanics will notice, if only "because they're so used to seeing images like that of themselves -- little dialogue, always being the bad guy. It's going to take the intellectual community to call Lucas on what he's doing."
Latinos are now the nation's largest minority. But box-office analyst Adam Farasati -- who argues Hollywood rarely takes minority concerns into consideration -- doesn't see any collateral damage to the film's profits.
"The only real issue is that Attack of the Clones is one of most anticipated movies of all time," he says from RealSource's Los Angeles office.
"And beyond that, any type of media attention -- even negative -- really just creates more hype for a film that has hype coming out its ears."

You can reach Michael H. Hodges at (313) 222-6021 or mhodges@detnews.com

[langden alger]

thank god lucas cut the mace windu/jar jar minstrel show sequence...

[Failure]

Here we go again. :rolleyes:

[Rei]

Yeah Jango's latino. How could I have missed it. :rolleyes: Do these people realize how idiotic they look trying to make contraversy out of nothing just to stir up something.

[The Guard]

Remember the MAD TV George Lucas thing?

"There will be a new character in Episode II. Aunt...Jar Jar Mima."

[Zechs]

It could have been worse he couldn't have been in the movie at all.

[SonGoku V3]

At least Jango wasn't half as annoying as Jar Jar was, IMO. He's looks Latino.....so what? I still don't see where the racial stereotyping began. I would have called it racial stereotyping if we saw Mace Windu during the fight scream out, "I'm gon bust a cap in y'all clone *****!!!!" Nah, that wouldn't be racial stereotyping what I just described, that'd be completely insane for Star Wars! lol

[Ed Liu]

Howdy all,

This flap sounds a little silly. I'm actually more upset that one of the reactions over this is, "Hey, at least we're on screen." Get mad about it or blow it off, but to suggest that a negative image is better than no image at all is counterproductive.

That said, I'm gonna go on record and say that I thought the flap that Episode I got was entirely, 100% deserved. My first impression when I saw and heard Jar Jar was that he was a gross caricature of every West Indian/Carribean person I knew or have ever heard. On top of that, the Trade Federation aliens all sounded like they were talking in horrible faked Asian accents, and Watto sounds like every bad Italian stereotype there is. I've had other people point out the same things to me.

I'm not saying Lucas did any of this intentionally, and I took his apology (or at least his statement of, "That's not what I intended") at face value. Personally, I take all this as a sign that nobody says, "No" to him any more, which (IMO) is the biggest problem in Hollywood today.

-- Ed/Ace

[Matt Hazuda]

How the eck did they think Jango was a mexican? When I saw it I thought he looked hawaiian, and it was funny, becasue a radio station I listen too was talking about the movie and asked, "Who knew there were Hawaiians in space?" :p :p

[Meow]

LOL!

Some people always have to b*tch about something.

I can't even imagine how annoying it must be to have to put up with all this nonsense. If these people are so offended by everything why don't they get off their lazy butts and make their own politically correct movie?

Then there'd probably be other people critizing their movie for some inane reason. :p

[RogueMartian]

If they hadn't said it, i would never have thought of it.

People who are obsessed with race complain about everything. They complained that the cast of Harry Potter wasn't racially diverse. They complain when latinos/asians/blacks/etc aren't used and complain that they are used in stereotypical roles when they are. Its just a no win situation.

[JustJack]

Well, you can look at the Jango situation in two ways, by my perspective...

either they're right, and Lucas used a man of non-whiteness :rolleyes: , to cause everyone to think that an ethnic group is going to rise up & conquor America...... :eek: :rolleyes:

OR

The Fett characters are the most hyped up & celebrated characters in the Star Wars universe. And those wakky Storm Troopers are loved by everyone(especially the one who bonked his head on the door in the first movie). And, with all of the backfire that Star Wars isn't racially diverse enough, perhaps Lucas placed a "man of ethnicity" as Jango Fett to make people happy. Everyone's all-time favorite Star Wars character ISN'T white. Yay!

Then again, there's that slight possibility that perhaps Lucas saw Raul Julia's work, & just said to himself "Dude...that guy's gotta be Jango Fett!" and everything else just sorta fell into place for whiney critics to attack it?

[The Game]

This whole thing is so ridiculous it makes me sick.

To sit around and FIND things to argue about is so pathetic- anyone who actually thinks Lucas is deliberatley trying to be racist should be burned at the stake.

You know if Jango had just been white, you'd have these people whining like babies about how all the characters in Star Wars are white. My god, just get over it. So he happened to look Latino? Who cares?

He's basically a terrorist? What kind of statement is that? He's a bounty hunter of decent that makes him look like he might be Arabic. The people who are catching these things are the racist ones, as the rest of us don't see them or care about them.

By the way, Baba is also Chinese for father, so perhaps Lucas was really trying to make fun of asians. :rolleyes:

-The Game

[Chris Sanders MSX]

HA! First of all, Jango if anything is half black, half Latino, which should put this whole rediculous thing to rest.

[Andy Mancini]

I just think that people needed something from the pop culture to whine about. One can picket against Eminem, the WWE, "violent" video games, and Marylin Manson for only so long before it gets repeditive...

[Web Head]

Just another example of political correctness gone too far...

[The Flash]

Originally posted by Web Head
Just another example of political correctness gone too far...

Exactly!!! I'm getting really sick of crap like this... ugh....

[ccffan01]

Originally posted by Web Head
Just another example of political correctness gone too far...



That was said nicely.

[Evil Dr. Reef]

Damn! Why do all the idiots have to live by me?

[SpaceCub]

Anybody ever think that the only reason why these critics keep trying to find racism in everything because they themselves are racist?

---
"I'm a white male, age 18-59, EVERYBODY listens to my ideas, regardless of how stupid they might be"

[DR. BELCH]

--Jar-Jar looks/sounds a lot more like one of those Jakkovasaurs from South Park to me.
...*... Next folks will claim Static Shock is racist because nearly all the Bang Babies are black (ignoring that the hero is as well)...or, conversely, claim Digimon is racist because there are no colored Tamers....:rolleyes:

[Batman49]

I'm Mexican-American and when I saw Star Wars AOTC and saw a planet called Kamino, I felt a little pride that some spanish was used for a name of a planet in Star Wars. Then I saw Jango Fett and Boba Fett and thought, "Hey thats Jango and Boba Fett." Or something to that effect. Never once did I think they looked latino or cared if they did or think it was offensive. I think its because I'm rational. :D And then arguing over Jimmy Smitts not having many lines is ridiculous. His part will be bigger in episode III. This article makes me wonder about my fellow earthlings. :rolleyes:

[DougGoneMAD]

Anybody ever think that the only reason why these critics keep trying to find racism in everything because they themselves are racist?

Yes, absolutely.

"Oh my god, Jango Fett is latino! THAT'S RACIST!!!!"

Retards.

[Andy Mancini]

Didn't anybody else notice that Jango Fett has an Austrailian accent? Maybe Jango is a stereotype of Austrailain Latinos...

[GL2k2]

LOL, yeah I saw this coming a mile away. I knew Lucas was casting Jimmy Smits to please the Latino audience, and at first they were speculations that Boba Fett was to be portrayed by Jet Li in Episode III, which I don't see happening now. I did find it amusing with the word camino, my mind thought of El Camino like the car, but I had know idea what it meant and didn't care, still don't. Also for devil's advocate, Jimmy Smitts character was totally against the grand army of clones for maybe his prophetic thoughts of the chancellor's abuse of power to become emperor of the empire.

[Batman49]

Thats what he was, an Australian Latino. LOL

[randomguy]

Wow... idiocy knows no boundaries

And, anyway, what's up with that articles criticisms of the original trilogy, callling it an ideal "Ku Klux Klan" version of the future? Unless I'm mistaken here, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Callirisian was one of the most charismatic and likeable characters ever created by the license.

[JohnStewart-GL]

Originally posted by randomguy
Wow... idiocy knows no boundaries

And, anyway, what's up with that articles criticisms of the original trilogy, callling it an ideal "Ku Klux Klan" version of the future? Unless I'm mistaken here, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Callirisian was one of the most charismatic and likeable characters ever created by the license.
in a way it is an ideal klan future. And the thing about Vader is interesting i never looked at it that way.heres another thing to throw at you guys. why is it ok for them to use a black man voice but not his face?Just another thing o controversy. Personally i dont think star wars is racist.

[The Flash]

Originally posted by JohnStewart-GL
why is it ok for them to use a black man voice but not his face?

I assume you're talking about Vader. Could you give me a couple more examples? (if that is what you're gettting at? I might have musunderstood ya.) :) ...and I bet it happens the other way around too. The person that did the voice would have had to of known. So what's wrong with it? Bottom line: So what?

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


Originally posted by The Flash
I assume you're talking about Vader. Could you give me a couple more examples? (if that is what you're gettting at? I might have musunderstood ya.) :) ...and I bet it happens the other way around too.

Well, can you give an example of how it works the other way around (a black face with a white voice)?


Originally posted by Rogue Martian
They complain when latinos/asians/blacks/etc aren't used and complain that they are used in stereotypical roles when they are. Its just a no win situation.

Um, you're kind of missing the alternative where Latinos/Asians/blacks/etc are used in non-token, non-stereotypical roles (take a look at a lot of Denzel Washington's work for what I mean). You feel differently about this when the caricatures look and sound like you.

Personally, I never understood why it's OK for, say, the Wayans brothers to make entire movies around black caricatures while Lucas gets nailed for it.

-- Ed/Ace

[KingKoopa]

The Jango Fett thing is too stupid to comment on.

About the Darth Vader thing, Darth Vader was white. Just because he had a black voice doesn't mean he's black. His voice was changed with the Darth Vader suit/helmet. Simple enough. How this is an issue I have no idea.

[Nightflower]

Well, you know....since Darth Vader is Luke's father, they'd either have to cast a black actor for Luke, or a white one for Darth.

[Karkull]

All these groups should just chill out. Did Italians complain about Greedo and Jabba being Italian stereotypes? And did the Irish complain about Dexter Jetter (from Episode II) being an Irish stereotype? Not that I'm aware of.

[Zechs]

Originally posted by RogueMartian
If they hadn't said it, i would never have thought of it.

People who are obsessed with race complain about everything. They complained that the cast of Harry Potter wasn't racially diverse. They complain when latinos/asians/blacks/etc aren't used and complain that they are used in stereotypical roles when they are. Its just a no win situation.
The thing is most of the movie makers are white and a lot of actors are white so thar's why so many movies have whites in them. Also that's why they may seem like sterotypes because they can't relate to the other races and really mean no harm when they do put them in as charcters and it may look as they are sterotyping them. Until more minorties get out there and start to make movies it will remain this way and untill then these people should just shut up and get over it.

[JohnStewart-GL]

Originally posted by The Flash


I assume you're talking about Vader. Could you give me a couple more examples? (if that is what you're gettting at? I might have musunderstood ya.) :) ...and I bet it happens the other way around too. The person that did the voice would have had to of known. So what's wrong with it? Bottom line: So what?
iM NOT SAYING ITS RACIST BUT I BET THATS WHAT THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THAT THING WILL SAY.

[The Flash]

Originally posted by JohnStewart-GL

iM NOT SAYING ITS RACIST BUT I BET THATS WHAT THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THAT THING WILL SAY.

Whoa, dude. Calm down! I wasn't attacking you.

[Manhunter]

Don't you know? Darth Vader was the blackest brother in the galaxy! Nubian god!

(What's a Nubian?)

Shut the [expletive deleted] up!

[GL2k2]

LOL, you tell em Hooper X.

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

::sweatdrop:: I wrote a reeeeally long complaint to the Detroit News about the panel's findings. And because I knew I'd get flack for being a southern white girl speaking out about overreacting to characters, I put in all the stereotypes I have to put up with by being a southern white girl. Is that okay?

Oh, and I put in some stuff about how if we were supposed to go along their line of thinking, Lucas also was against the British, since in the original trilogy, they occupied about 2/3 of the major Imperial Officer positions.....

Uhmmm...debated the racism against blacks, using Lando as my example......

Lessee, what else? Oh, I mentioned the whole issue about how Jango Fett's actor is a New Zealander by birth.....

[Nick Biped]

Like most people here, I find the whole to-do about racism in Star Wars pretty ridiculous. :yawn:

If it was blatantly racist, then why would we have charismatic good guys like Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu, who're both black? And about Jango, Boba, and the Clone army being Latino (even though Jango's actually Maori, a fact some critics are conveniently ignorant of), isn't it a good thing that Star Wars has racial diversity? :rolleyes: And the critics don't seem to know, or care that the Clone army is fighting on the side of good in this movie.

Honestly, I sometimes think these critics would only be satisfied if there were no minorities in Star Wars. :(

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

Originally posted by Nick Biped

Honestly, I sometimes think these critics would only be satisfied if there were no minorities in Star Wars. :(

Pfft, if there were no minorities in Star Wars, the critics would claim racism because there were no minorities in Star Wars. You can't please people like that, they'll always find something to gripe about.

[GL2k2]

I think people read a little too much into this stuff. And it's really getting old. It is understandable to look at that kinda stuff as intentional, especially since the creator is a white guy with a lot of money. The Wizard of Oz experienced the same thing, and I'm surprised Harry Potter didn't get blasted. The real problem is those people who complain are lazy and don't want to fight to do something about it.

I am an African-Amercian kid who grew up in this country like everyone else, watching the same movies and television shows as everyone else. But what is important to understand is that these guys don't intentional create rascists films. They are white men, and they are only creating what they "know". If they are ignorant and don't know many black people, then they are penalized by having a black character in a film that will either be token or stereotypical. They are simply damned if they do and damned if they don't. What is the solution, DO IT YOUR SELF!!!

If you don't like what someone has created, do something else for yourself. Why is it people don't call Kung-Fu flicks or Japanese anime rascists. Because, there are no real other races over there for them to tap into. And if they do put them in, they are being sterotypical. It really needs to stop. You don't like someone else's opinions of the future or past or whatever then make it yourself. Of course, then you will get to be called reverse rascists like the Wiz or something, and audiences of all kind will obviously steer away from it because you have an all black cast.

But nevermind that, as long as you do something for yourself, it can't be wrong. The fact that also needs to be remembered is, there aren't many Black people in this country that don't know about the white society, it is on tv and films and everywhere. There is no place to shut it out. That is why you will be considered rascists, because you know better. You are not some white kid who grew up in a secluded neighborhood with other white kids up until you were twenty. Believe it or not this still happens. Stop the belly-aching and wake up. Do something yourself. There really is no excuse now. You got a computer, you got Microsoft word. WRITE! You got paper and pens for dime a dozen. DRAW! If you get a Mac computer you can make your own films.

I have spoken.

[Zechs]

Right on man I agree. When I see other africam americans saying these stupitd things it's like WTF? They are trying to do their best and put a little more divrsety into the films and then you start to bash them for it. It could be worse they could go back to not having minorities in films at all. And what are the hispanics whinning about I some old movies where the actor or actress was cleary hispanic and some had lead parts and that was back when blacks were only allowed to act like morons on the screen. or had bit parts This whole thing stinks if you don't like get up off your butt and do something about is and quit whinning for once in your life. Nothing is handed to us you have to work for it.

[JohnStewart-GL]

Originally posted by The Flash


Whoa, dude. Calm down! I wasn't attacking you.
sorry i accidentally hit caps lock.

[The Flash]

Originally posted by JohnStewart-GL

sorry i accidentally hit caps lock.

Lol, I thought it was weird that you would have been mad at that... :)

[D.Shaffer]

Originally posted by Manhunter
Don't you know? Darth Vader was the blackest brother in the galaxy! Nubian god!

(What's a Nubian?)

Shut the [expletive deleted] up! Darn it! Someone beat me to the punch :)
*Runs around screaming "BLACK RAGE! BLACK RAGE!"*

[RockItShipper]

Originally posted by Nick Biped
If it was blatantly racist, then why would we have charismatic good guys like Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu, who're both black?
And more established. You don't see Han Solo running his own city/business, or Qui Gon/Obi-Wan sitting on the Jedi Council....


And about Jango, Boba, and the Clone army being Latino (even though Jango's actually Maori, a fact some critics are conveniently ignorant of), isn't it a good thing that Star Wars has racial diversity?

And character diversity. Villains are pretty cool in their own right, and why should Brits have all the fun? I figured reverse diversity was the direction for the Fetts, and it sure is nice that a minority checklist wasn't used. I'd never heard of the Maori until AOTC's bounty hunters were featured in the SW Insider. And on that note, technically none of the characters are the same *race* as the actors who portray them. Bail Organa is Alderaanian, not Hispanic.

[SpaceCub]

Um, you're kind of missing the alternative where Latinos/Asians/blacks/etc are used in non-token, non-stereotypical roles (take a look at a lot of Denzel Washington's work for what I mean). You feel differently about this when the caricatures look and sound like you.

Not really. Anytime someone in film or TV look and sound like me I'm like "OMG! YINZ-guys know how to WARSH a car and go OATside!" You can make all the cracks on Hill-billies you want, doesn't bother me.


Oh, and I put in some stuff about how if we were supposed to go along their line of thinking, Lucas also was against the British, since in the original trilogy, they occupied about 2/3 of the major Imperial Officer positions.....

You know what, I never noticed that until just today. Wow, you'd figure the Brits would be up in arms.

I was thinking about something else too. Another reason why people bring up such negative issues of popular films is just to get their names out there. Think about it, nobody pays much attention to critics who call a movie good, but only when they call the movie, or something portayed in the movie, as bad. Take Siskel and Ebert.


did the Irish complain about Dexter Jetter (from Episode II) being an Irish stereotype?

You mean the big diner cook with 4 arms? He was Irish?! One more example of me missing a supposed stereotype until someone points it out.

---
"Paw, ah cut mah-sef awn de screen door a-gin"

[Karkull]

Originally posted by SpaceCub
You mean the big diner cook with 4 arms? He was Irish?! One more example of me missing a supposed stereotype until someone points it out.

He sure sounded like it to me. Not that it matters, anyway.

Okay, maybe some of them are stereotypes, but at least they're all being used equally! If Lucas was really racist he'd also be making the argument that all white British guys are evil Imperialists and that all rednecks are moisture farmers!

:p

[DR. BELCH]

RockItShipper:
I'd never heard of the Maori until AOTC's bounty hunters were featured in the SW Insider.
I'd heard of them in passing--Daria's Trent Lane has a slew of Maori tattoos on his forearms, if I recall what I've read correctly.
I'm surprised now the Brits aren't griping about C3PO's overprecise way of speaking and his stick-in-the-butt nature.... :rolleyes:

What's a Nubian? The opposite of an Oldbian.
[rimshot]
(Well, I was waiting for someone to make that lame-donkey joke....) ;)

[RockItShipper]

Originally posted by SpaceCub
You mean the big diner cook with 4 arms? He was Irish?!

I sure didn't get that. Somewhat well-travelled, somewhat of a cook and a slob (did you see him pull up his pants?) but nothing that seemed specific to me. Everything's a mix with some real people/settings/technology as a starting point.

[spyke]

This is just silly. Janga fett and his son boba (who is a clone of janga) are 2 of the most popular characters in star wars history. As a black man I am glad that lucas chose to cast non-white actors in the role of 2 of the most popular characters in star wars history. I would also like to point out that both janga and boba are not technicaly evil, but are anti-heroes. They will work for anyone (good or evil) as long as they are paid. Also, all the major bad guys in star wars are white.

[SpaceCub]

Also, all the major bad guys in star wars are white

Hmmm, so maybe Lucas is racist against whites...

---
"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a Q-tip"

[James]

Originally posted by SpaceCub


You know what, I never noticed that until just today. Wow, you'd figure the Brits would be up in arms."Paw, ah cut mah-sef awn de screen door a-gin"



LOL. We don't all speak like that - in the same way the not all Americans have nasal New York accents.. :D

Actually, I always saw Star Wars as a representation of the Colonial wars between the US and Britian. You have the Imperialistic English who were pretty much running the east coast of America and the Colonials (Han the cowboy, Luke the Farmer, Leia's family as the rich colonists, the droids as the repressed Black slaves). The colonials don't like the British Empire's heavy hand and what they consider unfair taxes (an arguable historical point) and our heroes are rebels wanting freedom from the Empire's powers (and, ahem, taxes).

Of course, no one has agreed with me on this - no one in their right mind.

And while the Brits are great Evil dudes (Peter Cushing, Michael Sheard, Dave 'The Farmer' Prowes, Jeremy Bulloch) they are also the heroes too. Antony Daniels, Ewan McGregor, Alec Guniness! So we can't complain... besides, it's fun being evil (that's a joke kids! Don't take up being evil just because I say it's cool!).

One of the more amusing voices is Dave Prowse. A country lad in the UK, the body of Darth Vader called out his lines on set to be redubbed by Earl Jones in post. When it came to Vader telling Luke he was his father he was given a special script citing Luke was Obi wan's son. Hamill was the only actor to be let in on the truth.
Suffice to say, Prowse was a little upset to see on the screening that he had been given false lines - or so the probably apocryphal story goes.

Actually, Prowse with his Dorset accent would have made a great Vader.

Oo arr, Luke, Oi am you farther... (farmer, surely...?)

[GL2k2]

Speaking of badguy Englishmen, I'm really hoping Tim Roth gets a part as a Sith Lord in Episode 3. Dear God, it was made for him. And I hope he's the one who kills Mace Windu, it'll be wicked cool to see them share the screen again.

[JohnCrichton]

God, people are just looking for a reason to get upset. Just searching for it.

I'm black, and I dig it. It's nice, but really I just wish people didn't care at all.

I mean, just be yourself. Everyone's so wrapped up in being black, white, latino and whatever, when bottom line is that we're just a bunch of people. Angry, messed up, just looking for some happiness, people.

And the thing about Star Wars I love most is that they don't care!

Jango's Latino... I don't care! Jango was smooth and cool as hell and that's all I care about. I don't care about his ethinicity... not in the realm of Star Wars. I care about him being what bad mofo bounty hunter.

Lando Calrissian.... the black guy? NO! He was a smooth gambler and best friend of Han! Former owner of the Millenium Falcon and destroyer of the Second Death Star!

Star Wars is the epitome of people just being human. They don't give a crap what nationality they are, cuz each character is built around their character, not some extention of their ethinic background.

I mean, if our own world isn't messed up enough with these foggies still around being angry at this race, or that race and distrusting eveyone who isn't the same color.... don't take your problems and project it on my Star Wars which couldn't give a frell about that kinda garbage.

Man, I tell ya..... some people's children, I swear. :rolleyes:

[SpaceCub]

Man, I tell ya..... some people's children, I swear.

Some people in general, John.


LOL. We don't all speak like that - in the same way the not all Americans have nasal New York accents..

Sorry dude, that's a Simpsons quote from Cledace the slack-jawed yokel, I was actually ripping on myself, another "mountain dwelling person of Appalachia" (read "Hill-billy"). If I was going after British, it definately would have been something from Monty Python.


Actually, I always saw Star Wars as a representation of the Colonial wars between the US and Britian. You have the Imperialistic English who were pretty much running the east coast of America and the Colonials (Han the cowboy, Luke the Farmer, Leia's family as the rich colonists, the droids as the repressed Black slaves). The colonials don't like the British Empire's heavy hand and what they consider unfair taxes (an arguable historical point) and our heroes are rebels wanting freedom from the Empire's powers (and, ahem, taxes).

Well, there weren't any cowboys that I'm aware of at the time of our colonization, but hey, good take on it anyway. Speaking of the body of Vader, did you catch the Space Ghost C2C ep with Mark Hammil and they argued who played the better Vader, Cushing (?) or Prowse?

---
"Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more"

[James]

Originally posted by SpaceCub



Sorry dude, that's a Simpsons quote from Cledace the slack-jawed yokel, I was actually ripping on myself, another "mountain dwelling person of Appalachia" (read "Hill-billy"). If I was going after British, it definately would have been something from Monty Python.


Yes Monty Python is perfect source material if you won't to rip into the English, even 30 years on...!



Well, there weren't any cowboys that I'm aware of at the time of our colonization, but hey, good take on it anyway.

Thank you. While I agree that specifically there were no cowboys (bad choice of terminology) until the late 19th Century, there were smugglers, taking items back and forth illegally for various reasons. Working for crime bosses I imagine would have been one of them...