Let's talk about "White savior narrative in film"

Since Green Book won Best Picture, I have been hearing a lot of criticism towards the movie having a "white saviour narrative" instead of staying truthful to the factual character and event.

For those like me, who is not really familiar with the concept of "white saviour narrative", read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_...rative_in_film

A few "white saviour narrative" film examples:
- Green Book
- Avatar
- The Last Samurai
- Dances with Wolves
- The Blind Side
- Ghost in the Shell
etc etc...

As an Asian, I love Green Book and I think it deserves to win BP. However I can also understand the criticism towards the movie and I do think those criticism is not being nip picking but valid.

What's your thought on "white saviour narrative in film"? And what is your thought on "systemic racism"? Do you think such narrative needs to be gradually stopped so that Hollywood can become more diverse?

__________________
You talkin' to me?

I don't think Ghost in the Shell qualifies as a white saviour movie so much as just whitewashing.

Anyway, I've definitely got my problems with this type of narrative and what it represents. In regards to whether or not it needs to be stopped, I think you can make the case that it's already so overdone that there's no need to keep it going anyway.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Hollywood at its core is a megaphone for ideas....sometimes the megaphone gets political and some other times it is not evident. Personal views in movies necessarily is not a bad thing.
But there is a tendency among hollywood that they are superior to normal people. Because their whole job is to estimate audience reaction and manipulating it in order to get a positive reaction. That is especially the reason why hollywood gets political all the time. Because they think hollywood and politics are in the same business of influencing public.

Concept of white savior is partly delusional. Make no mistake that white savior concept is not just about the people being saved but also about the person who is doing the saving. Sean penn worked at haiti personally. He makes a movie about helping third world countries called the last face and that movie is panned because of its insensitivity to the people being saved as the whole movie is about the saviors charlize theron and javier bardem. Do you really think Sean penn has a completely different point of view than what was depicted in his own movie ? of course not. Sean penn working in haiti has more to do with him than the people he is helping. A lot of actors are delusional.

Look no further than blood diamond. Yes, the black character in the movie is helpless. But the movie felt the need to make us feel empathy for the white character in the movie by making him risk his life to save the black character. There by giving him a way out for all the diamond smuggling he has done in the past. Audience leave the movie thinking of the white character as a hero. But he is a smuggler. He is part of the problem. It is the way the movies give these white characters a way out of their past actions is whats problematic. Even avatar is not as bad as blood diamond because there is a scene in avatar where our lead is questioned as to where his loyalties lie by the antagonist. As an audience we do know that he betrayed his own kind.

The sad reality is that a lot of international movie going audience worship american cinema and white savior concept is part of their american dream. They want to live american dream and it gets twisted into their love for white savior.

I personally don't think there is a white savior in green book. The movie is very fair and balanced. Movies like Blood diamond , last samurai are far worse when it comes to white savior than a movie like green book

Eh, Green Book is a movie about a black man deliberately hiring a white man to protect him from other white men. If that doesn't make it a white saviour movie, it still comes pretty close.

There is practicality/logic and then there is white savior. Both are not the same. What good would it do for him to hire a black man to help him guide through racist south ?

Isn't Avatar a "Blue Saviour" movie?

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

“Blue Face Saviour”, really.

I haven't seen the movie, but what you said sounds logical....I would guess the so called 'white narrative' in Green Book actually shows that people of all colors can care & help each other out. I'd call that a positive.

It’s a message that’s undercut, however, for how negligent the production was towards Don Shirley’s side of the story.

The backlash comes from a generational difference. It's doubtful you would see a movie like Green Book made by anyone born after 1970. These kinds of movies have similar tropes, like how they treat facile observations as revelatory breakthroughs and in general feel very self congratulatory. Anyway some of the moaning is a waste because like you say Green Book has a positive message coming from a probably well meaning place. But then just because it's "positive" doesn't mean it's not hacky or lame



If you read more about this, it seems more complicated. His own words on recorded interviews contradict some of the statements made by his family. But then the writer of the movie has made comments that come off overprotective of his own father/family so who knows

I think calling it hacky or lame is a lot more reasonable than pretending it's harmful or bad.

every country lionises it's own people . america still is a white majority country . why should it not make it's own people appear as heroes .

your overthinking is one day going to crash your civilization . why dont you keep it simple and allow people to think good about themselves . let movies lionising black people be made in black majority countries like nigeria , uganda , angola , zaire , congo , mozambique etc .

The Last Samurai isn't all that accurate an example. The story's about Traditional Japanese culture colliding with Western advances in war, and it is the Japanese the movie honors and romanticizes. Seems hokey at face value that Tom Cruise is in it, yet his character Nathan Algren abandons his old military life, and also gets his butt kicked. Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), the Samurai leader, is the more glorified in the movie. (Isn't even Watanabe who smokes Cruise in this scene)

The Last Samurai is still a very good movie though in my opinion. I read it was inspired by true events, but the real white character of Algren, was French in the true story, and not American, if I have that correct.

As for white savior movies, I was told that District 9 and Avatar are white savior movies, as well. But I thought that since the white characters are saving an alien race, it doesn't count as a white savior, cause he is saving a different alien species, rather than a different race So I'd say they are human savior movies, rather than white savior. Or am I wrong?

He might be saving an Alien race in Avatar but the comparisons between them and native americans are pretty obvious.

I think District 9 criticism would be harsher personally as whilst yes its nominally the same story most of focus is put on the lead white characters oppressive racist nature and his conversion from it.

I mean to be fair character in Oshii's film already had a very western look playing up fashion mannequin comparisons and the live action film does actually make this a plot point with the character having been "whitewashed" against her will.

Isn't the white savior ideal more dramatic and powerful in the sense, that since the white race has colonized so many areas of the world, that it makes it more accessible to have a white hero turning against their own people? That way you have a dramatic betrayal, instead of a total 100% of us vs. them philosophy.

I mean if in To Kill A Mockingbird for example of Atticus Finch was a black attorney, I think the story would have actually been worse, cause then no white person sees what is right then, and it's too black and white then, pardon the unintentional pun.

Does that make sense?

And the theme of stories like Avatar and The Last Samurai is how not everyone in the race of villains is going to see things there way. So I think it's a powerful theme, but for some reason, the movies are giving a bad rep cause of this 'white savior' stigma.

All superhero movies where the superhero is white and saves the earth (predominantly not white) are white savior movies.