Disney’s $300m-plus reboot of Snow White has generated a slew of headlines for all the wrong reasons. First, given the original relied on the outdated social mores of the 1930s, it rapidly became engulfed in a row over sexism, a debate over whether or not to keep the original seven dwarves and was plunged into the center of America’s bitter culture wars over race. Its lead star, Rachel Zegler, said she “hated” the original 1937 film and branded its story “weird” with a stalker-like Prince Charming character who steals a kiss from a girl in a coma who could not give consent. Then a row broke out over whether Disney should have seven dwarves as characters. Then America’s right wing piled on because of Zegler’s Latina background; the original Snow White was conceived as having very pale skin.
It is, in fact, the very reason for her name.
All in all, it showed how the temptation of instant brand recognition could be trumped by the problem that many 1930s movies contain racial and other stereotypes that are simply better left alone.
But Hollywood is in a 'remake' fix, because there seems to be a lack of talent to do anything else. And so it will always run up against today's snowflake audiences. And as if that wasn't enough of a kiss of death, there's the casting....
But last week, just to add to the movie’s woes, Snow White also found itself embroiled in a fight between its two biggest stars over Middle Eastern politics. Zegler is an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, is a high-profile Israeli actor. Not surprisingly the two have very different takes on the bloody conflict in Gaza.
"Let's throw this snake and mongoose together, what could possibly go wrong?"
Alia Malak, of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, wrote in an email to the Guardian that people should boycott Snow White because of Gadot.
Save your ink, Alia, I don't think anyone's rushing to see it anyway!
We're living through an era where simple, innocent entertainment is disapproved of by a very vocal minority of people who have a distorted understanding of life. And the rest of us, the normal majority, are being forced to accommodate their perversions.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's the betting that the loudest empty vessels wouldn't even go to watch this film.
I won't take that bet!
DeleteThere's a rumour going around that some learned academic also wrote to The Guardian, giving a different slant on the Gaza/Israel conflict, and suggested that people boycott the film because it's rubbish. For some reason, the letter was not published. Very strange lack of response, for such an impartial newspaper.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
😏
DeleteThis is what happens when joyless souls let politics enter their lives in the absence of (say) religion, or common sense. Everything and I really mean everything is viewed through the the prism of political activism. It sucks the life out of everything it sees, like some omnipotent mythical monster stalking us.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I think as this joyless, soulless generation grow up, we'll see more of this entering the lives of the Western World. Scrabbling over who has the biggest oppression Olympics score.
There will be no fun, there will be no joy, no wonder, just greyness and misery.
Brave new world!
DeleteA plea for anyone out there with a fly-paper memory for verse: Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon’s ‘Kings and Queens’ - a rhyming history of England - contained a section on ‘Oliver Cromwell’. Its description of the Puritans’ crackdown on anything resembling entertainment is, I think, becoming increasingly apt for our times but all I can remember of it unaided is:
ReplyDelete“Now are jesters all suppressed,
Cap and bells must take a rest;
No more maypoles on the green
Or grinning matches now are seen…”
And the heartfelt final line:
“Lord protect us from Protectors!”
Had school history lessons continued to teach children about the English Protectorate and how such an oppressive regime came about, would we as a nation (present company excepted, of course) still be in danger of sleepwalking into the same situation once more?
Those who do not read history, etc, etc.
Delete