One of the most common lessons that any writer can learn is
that they should write what they know. Their voice will come through better in
whatever they write when they bring their own experiences into the story. It
makes things more personal and adds a touch of realism to whatever they are
writing about. It could be something that happened in their life, or a tale
that they’ve been told by a friend. A character could be based on someone they
know. Or the things that they know could be the foundations of how the story is
written.
Every writer will be influenced by what has come before
them. No writer goes into a writing project without the knowledge of some other
writing. People who write scripts have seen movies and television shows. Those
shows and movies will inevitably find their way into the scripts that the
person works on. When these elements find their way into many movies, they
become apparent to everyone. They become the tropes that people recognize.
A few weeks ago, there was a Sunday “Bad” Movies post that
covered four different tropes. The cheating spouse trope played a large role in
Las Vegas Bloodbath, which then inspired the post. Other tropes that
were covered included random musical moments in 80s movies, the orange and blue
colour scheme, and the use of toxic waste to mutate people. That was only
scratching the surface of tropes.
This week’s movie brought up another major movie trope. The
trope deals with race. It should be noted here that I’m a straight, white male.
Things that I write in this post are coming from that perspective. I’m not
going to claim to completely understand people from other races, genders, or
sexual preferences. Those have not been my experience in life. But I also think
I can discuss this trope and some of the problems within it.
Brother White was a 2012 release from Pure Flix.
James White (David A.R. White) was an associate pastor in a megachurch run by
Pastor Johnny Kingman (Ray Wise). His family was sent to Atlanta so that James
could be the pastor in a church that was about to be foreclosed by the bank.
While helping the community, James White would learn the importance of family
and connecting with the people around him.
The trope should be apparent from that description. Brother
White was a movie that fit into the “white saviour” story trope. This trope
has a white person or group of white people placed into a non-white community
or culture in order to help the other people out. The white people become the
main characters, with a few exceptions. It is their story as they help the
people who aren’t the powerful white people out of any problems.
The church in Brother White wasn’t getting enough
donations to pay for the property the building was on. Jacob Martin (Rif
Hutton) had informed Hill (Reginald VelJohnson) that the bank was going to
foreclose on the property if the money didn’t come in on the Monday following
James White’s arrival. James White became the last hope for the church. His
desire to pastor a church, any church, pushed him to do whatever he could to
keep the church open. James worked with Hill, Veena (Jackée), and Delsey
(NRaca) to put together a concert. They hoped that the concert would raise the
money needed to save the church.
The community that frequented the church was a poor
community that mostly consisted of black people. James White and his family
were the white people placed in the community in order to help it overcome any
troubles. This could further be seen through the character of Ezee-8 (Grifon
Aldren), a known gang leader in the neighbourhood. James met him at a
restaurant and soon invited him home for dinner. He thought that connecting
with Ezee would help with the concert. Ezee was hired as the head of security and
his work with the church turned him back to the faith he abandoned years prior.
James White hadn’t just saved the community. He saved Ezee, who was now going
by the name Kenny.
The problem with the white savior type of storyline is that
it purports that the problems wouldn’t have been solved without the
intervention of a white man. The poor black community would not have been saved
without the church. The church would not have been saved without James White.
Ezee would not have been saved from a life of crime without James White. The
community would not have been bettered without the small deeds of James, such
as stopping a drunken child abuser or helping another child with a broken
bicycle. Delsey wouldn’t have come out of her shell without James’s wife Lily
(Andrea Logan White) giving her a makeover and James telling her to speak
louder. The White family coming into the Atlanta community improved everything
about it.
Brother White wasn’t the first movie to use the white
savior trope, and it would not be the last. Many movies have inserted this idea
of a white person going to a community or culture where they would typically be
an outsider and improving things. The white savior is considered a trope for a
reason. It has happened in enough movies to be a noticeable story trait.
Avatar was one of the highest grossing films of all
time. It came out in 2009 and instantly lit up the box office. It showed that
even after a decade of not releasing any theatrical movies, James Cameron could
dominate Hollywood. He could create a world on the screen that people wanted to
immerse themselves in. It was so popular that it spawned its own area within
Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World. But that didn’t stop it from having a
white savior storyline at the centre of it.
In Avatar, the Resources Development Administration
had travelled to Pandora to mine for Unobtanium. The atmosphere was poisonous
to humans, but the Na’vi race that lived there was perfectly fine. Jake Sully
took control of an avatar, a human-Na’vi hybrid, to explore the planet. He became
part of the Na’vi community and led a resistance against the Resources
Development Administration when the human company threatened the environment of
Pandora.
The white saviour of Avatar was Jake Sully. He was
the human character, specifically a Caucasian human character, that joined up
with the indigenous species of Pandora to fight back against the other humans.
The Na’vi would not have been successful without his help. He had inside
information on what the Resources Development Administration was planning. He
brought the Na’vi together with the creatures of Pandora to fight back.
One thing that these two movies had in common as a part of
the white saviour trope was that the protagonist chose to stay within that
culture or community beyond the events of the film. He was going to stay on and
help the other, less fortunate people stay out of their trouble. James White
was offered a pastor position back in his home of Los Angeles but decided to
stay in Atlanta because he had helped the people there and wanted to help them
more. Jake Sully transferred his conscience into his avatar so that he could
live the rest of his life as a Na’vi. The work of the white saviours was not done,
and they would continue their work after the film finished.
This trope is a smaller part of a bigger problem within
film, particularly American film. Studios tend to believe that a movie will
sell better with a white star in one of the leading roles. This is why so few
movies are released where minorities fill up the majority of the cast. For
every Crazy Rich Asians that gets made with an all East Asian cast,
there is a movie like Ghost in the Shell where Scarlett Johansson fills
in for a role that was originally an East Asian character. For every film like Black
Panther that celebrates black culture, there’s an Aloha where Emma
Stone plays a character who is a quarter Chinese and a quarter Hawaiian. Things
have been getting better in film but they’re still not where they should be in
terms of equality between races.
The white saviour has become a trope through the many times
it has been utilized, particularly in Hollywood films. Brother White and
Avatar haven’t been the only times when it was used. Hardball had
Keanu Reeves coaching a baseball team of black children who lived in a poor,
crime-ridden part of town. The Blind Side saw Sandra Bullock taking in
Michael Oher, a foster kid with a bad life, and helping him excel at football.
On that football side of things, the final two seasons of Friday Night
Lights had the white Coach Taylor building a football team on the “bad”
side of town and helping to clean up a crime-riddled community through the
family of a football team. For an example that doesn’t involve sports, 12
Years a Slave had the white Brad Pitt being the person who helped Chiwetel
Ejiofor’s Solomon Northup get out of slavery. Historically accurate, but still
a white saviour moment.
There are certain tropes throughout film that will never go
away. There are others that should be put to rest. The white saviour trope is
one that should no longer be used. There is more diversity in Hollywood than
ever before. That’s not saying that studio films are anywhere near as diverse
as they should be, but it’s a step in the right direction. The person that
swoops in to help a community or a foreign culture need not be foreign anymore.
The white saviour trope would simply become a fish out of water scenario where
race doesn’t play a factor. It would be another step in the right direction.
When people say that a person should write what they know,
they tend to mean real life experiences. But sometimes the movie knowledge that
a person has will seep into their story. They’ll pay tribute to the movies they
grew up on by recreating moments in their own stories. Or they use the tropes
that they’ve seen being used time and time again. Movies beget movies beget
movies. Hopefully the bad tropes will influence future filmmakers on what not
to do so this form of storytelling can grow.
Now let’s get a few notes out of the way:
- Las Vegas Bloodbath (week 374) was mentioned in this post.
- Brother White starred David A.R. White who was in God’s Not Dead (week 230), God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230), and God’s NotDead: A Light in Darkness (week 319).
- Terry F. Smith appeared in Brother White. He was previously in The Human Centipede III (week 180), Sandy Wexler (week 231), Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark (week 300), and Attila (week 321). Welcome to the 5-timers’ club.
- Brother White featured Ray Wise, who has been featured two other times in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Big Ass Spider! (week 61) and God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230).
- Tiny Ron returned from Road House (week 200) to be in Brother White.
- Russell Wolfe was in both God’s Not Dead (week 230) and Brother White.
- God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230) actor Brad Heller returned this week for Brother White.
- Finally, Brother White featured an actor named Bobby Bromley from Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (week 302).
- Have you seen Brother White? What did you think of it? What do you think of the white saviour trope? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.
- Twitter and the comments are good places to seek me out if you want to let me know what movies I should check out for future Sunday “Bad” Movies posts. Any suggestions are welcome. They help bring a little more variety to the blog.
- If you go to Instagram, you can check out the Sunday “Bad”Movies account where I’m frequently posting things related to the blog and the movies within.
- Let’s talk about next week. This post was for week 379, which means that next week will be a franchise week. There are a bunch of double or triple features that could be done for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. I went above and beyond, though. On the schedule for next week are five Scorpion King movies. I’ll be checking out that whole franchise and getting back to you with some thoughts next Sunday. See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment