Bright and Notes on Social Allegory
Jan. 6th, 2018 07:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastThe movie Bright is on Netflix. That means that, by the time you're watching it, you haven't paid for it. Therefore, you haven't wasted any money on it. And, hey, it entertained me, mildly, for the time it was running in which I wasn't going to do anything else but waste time anyway, so no more wasted time than there was going to be. So, on that level, I'm not going to tell you to avoid watching.
I will tell you not to expect much. Included in that is... You shouldn't expect Bright to live up to its own ambitions. It just isn't thoughtful enough on the topic. It can entertain enough to eat up some time, but not much else.
The ambition is to say something important and profound on the topic of bigotry. The tools are good ones, fantasy elements in an alternate-history modern day world to make an allegory for a generally hated race. The problems... are big ones.
1. The message is racism=bad. This isn't an untrue message as far as it goes. Jacoby, the first Orc police officer (at least in the city), is a diversity hire and hated by the majority of the other officers.
The allegory is obvious and would be better in place in the 1970s. In fact, I'd say that this is a good, thoughtful movie in the 1970s. It might even be revolutionary... in the 1950s. The problem with the level of this message is that it's the 2010s. We've long since had this message.
It's time to get deeper and more detailed. It's time to get into the shades where not every element of racism is packaged in someone with explicitly stated hatred.
So, that's the first piece of advice. Say what's being disputed. Make the case for that which needs a case made.
2. The Orcs are stronger and have a canine-level sense of smell.
This is a point that I didn't come to, myself. I heard it while listening to "Word Funk" (you can find it on YouTube under the channel "Renegade Cut") on the movie. You can't effectively make an analogy to any real-world minoritized group or to general minoritized groups wherein the fictional analogue has super-powers.
Alien Nation made this mistake, but did better with it.
Here's the thing, whatever minoritized group and whatever the stereotypes and prejudices and mythology built around, said group doesn't have magic or super powers. Oh, people will believe it or something close to it. But, it won't be true.
To be clear, you can have people falsely believe things like "Orcs are naturally stronger", but having that be true changes a lot of dynamics.
In the America of the real world, people often overestimate the physical strength and the aggression of black people. This is a part of how people get shot while offering no threat. If either point were really the case, that would shift the dynamic and, especially, shift the burden of changing.
3. The bigotry against orcs is based in something real.
The alternate history in Bright is something akin to an amalgam of real-world history and some "Lord of the Rings" variant. Apparently, two thousand years prior, the orcs had sided with the Dark Lord... all of them.
This directly impacts on the modern day status of ocrs as an ethnicity and culture. What's more, the orcs, themselves (or at least Officer Jacoby, and we get no contradiction), agree with the interpretation of history. Two thousand years ago, orcs made the wrong choice to side with ultimate evil.
In the real world, these bigotries aren't based in the real. There isn't a secret society of Jewish people controlling all media and finance. Black people aren't any more likely to commit crimes and are, statistically, less likely to commit drug crimes than white people. These bigotries come about by different routes and stick around largely by social inertia.
To say that an entire race chose evil is... well, it's one of the more damaging tropes in the fantasy genre. I've addressed a bit of that in my "Black Hat Brigade" series. But, to make a good analogue, much like the super-powers the minoritized group can't have, they can't have legitimacy to the bigotry.
Now, I'm not saying that Orcs, as a culture, couldn't have, for the most part, sided with the Dark Lord, but...
4. Nobody's evil for evil's sake.
Towards the end of the story, there's a... I have guess a cult to the Dark Lord, one made of, by all appearances, an elvish mafia? Their goal is to bring back the Dark Lord and their motivation seems to be just... a love of evil.
We could, with sufficient motivation, concoct some motivation that we would see as something that could work.
We don't get much characterization, save that they're dressed and made up very well. The elves, in this society, are the typical "haves" in a society of "haves and have nots". The cult is no exception. It can't be any effort at a return to prominance.
It could be a small group of elves having a reaction to perceived, but not real loss in the form of social advances for other races. The closest we come is a line, early in the movie, about what, in the world of Bright, is a mindless pest. "Faerie lives don't matter, today."
In short, they're just the bad guys.
This is a special problem in a fiction that wants to be about the deconstruction of racism and how racism is bad. The notion of evil for evil's sake isn't the heart of bigotry, but it's certainly one of the key supports. Any deconstruction of bigotry has to deconstruct this notion.
The basic idea, this allegory by way of Urban Fantasy analogy, isn't bad. But, it certainly needs to be more careful and more aware.
I will tell you not to expect much. Included in that is... You shouldn't expect Bright to live up to its own ambitions. It just isn't thoughtful enough on the topic. It can entertain enough to eat up some time, but not much else.
The ambition is to say something important and profound on the topic of bigotry. The tools are good ones, fantasy elements in an alternate-history modern day world to make an allegory for a generally hated race. The problems... are big ones.
1. The message is racism=bad. This isn't an untrue message as far as it goes. Jacoby, the first Orc police officer (at least in the city), is a diversity hire and hated by the majority of the other officers.
The allegory is obvious and would be better in place in the 1970s. In fact, I'd say that this is a good, thoughtful movie in the 1970s. It might even be revolutionary... in the 1950s. The problem with the level of this message is that it's the 2010s. We've long since had this message.
It's time to get deeper and more detailed. It's time to get into the shades where not every element of racism is packaged in someone with explicitly stated hatred.
So, that's the first piece of advice. Say what's being disputed. Make the case for that which needs a case made.
2. The Orcs are stronger and have a canine-level sense of smell.
This is a point that I didn't come to, myself. I heard it while listening to "Word Funk" (you can find it on YouTube under the channel "Renegade Cut") on the movie. You can't effectively make an analogy to any real-world minoritized group or to general minoritized groups wherein the fictional analogue has super-powers.
Alien Nation made this mistake, but did better with it.
Here's the thing, whatever minoritized group and whatever the stereotypes and prejudices and mythology built around, said group doesn't have magic or super powers. Oh, people will believe it or something close to it. But, it won't be true.
To be clear, you can have people falsely believe things like "Orcs are naturally stronger", but having that be true changes a lot of dynamics.
In the America of the real world, people often overestimate the physical strength and the aggression of black people. This is a part of how people get shot while offering no threat. If either point were really the case, that would shift the dynamic and, especially, shift the burden of changing.
3. The bigotry against orcs is based in something real.
The alternate history in Bright is something akin to an amalgam of real-world history and some "Lord of the Rings" variant. Apparently, two thousand years prior, the orcs had sided with the Dark Lord... all of them.
This directly impacts on the modern day status of ocrs as an ethnicity and culture. What's more, the orcs, themselves (or at least Officer Jacoby, and we get no contradiction), agree with the interpretation of history. Two thousand years ago, orcs made the wrong choice to side with ultimate evil.
In the real world, these bigotries aren't based in the real. There isn't a secret society of Jewish people controlling all media and finance. Black people aren't any more likely to commit crimes and are, statistically, less likely to commit drug crimes than white people. These bigotries come about by different routes and stick around largely by social inertia.
To say that an entire race chose evil is... well, it's one of the more damaging tropes in the fantasy genre. I've addressed a bit of that in my "Black Hat Brigade" series. But, to make a good analogue, much like the super-powers the minoritized group can't have, they can't have legitimacy to the bigotry.
Now, I'm not saying that Orcs, as a culture, couldn't have, for the most part, sided with the Dark Lord, but...
4. Nobody's evil for evil's sake.
Towards the end of the story, there's a... I have guess a cult to the Dark Lord, one made of, by all appearances, an elvish mafia? Their goal is to bring back the Dark Lord and their motivation seems to be just... a love of evil.
We could, with sufficient motivation, concoct some motivation that we would see as something that could work.
We don't get much characterization, save that they're dressed and made up very well. The elves, in this society, are the typical "haves" in a society of "haves and have nots". The cult is no exception. It can't be any effort at a return to prominance.
It could be a small group of elves having a reaction to perceived, but not real loss in the form of social advances for other races. The closest we come is a line, early in the movie, about what, in the world of Bright, is a mindless pest. "Faerie lives don't matter, today."
In short, they're just the bad guys.
This is a special problem in a fiction that wants to be about the deconstruction of racism and how racism is bad. The notion of evil for evil's sake isn't the heart of bigotry, but it's certainly one of the key supports. Any deconstruction of bigotry has to deconstruct this notion.
The basic idea, this allegory by way of Urban Fantasy analogy, isn't bad. But, it certainly needs to be more careful and more aware.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 03:02 am (UTC)That one hits one of my pet peeves about bad villains. Remember your Tolkien, people! "Even Sauron was not evil in the beginning."
Even Sauron had his motives for being (a) Fallen, and (b) not repenting when he had the chance. He had his motives for why and what and how he did things. You might have to dig deep into HoME or Tolkien's Letters or the Silmarillion to find them out, but Tolkien had them in mind.
So if the archetypical Dark Lord had motives and reasons that were not "evil for the lulz", so should your Big Bad or your villains, unless "Characters of cardboard, in a full TWO dimensions" is your thing.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 03:10 am (UTC)But, one thing that would have to be done is a way to view the Dark Lord and servants as though they're the good guys.
Said POV doesn't have to be true. In fact, it may be corrupted by, say, the reaction to a reduction in privilege as though it's a grave injury or persecution. But, it would have to be a view you could reasonably see someone having (and reasonably view yourself as, if false/corrupted, falling into).
no subject
Date: 2018-01-07 02:06 pm (UTC)A lot of evil in the real world is driven by fear, real or imagined. Some of the Nazi leaders genuinely believed all the old blood libels and conspiracy theories about Jews, and thought they were in a desperate struggle to save the German people from their threat. Still evil.
Going back to Tolkien, and those who followed the Shadow, because I'm most familiar with his writing and the archetypes he built on that have prevaded the fantasy genre--and note that Tolkien built on, but did not create "The Dark Lord" as a thing. Morgoth and Sauron are Satan and one of his Demon Princes with the serial numbers scrubbed off.
Some of Morgoth's followers seem to have had really shallow motives: the fiery Maiar who become known as Balrogs followed Morgoth because they admired his power (and possibly his rebellious, discordant nature). Balrogs: Maiar Edgelords.
Sauron fell because he wanted to impose order on everything and make the world perfect according to his vision, and he admired Morgoth's power and really direct way of doing things. Sauron: epic fantasy version of Dr. Raymond Cocteau
Many of the Shadow's minions didn't have much of a choice--orcs were bred to be violent slave-soldiers and they were enthralled by Sauron in the 3rd Age; when free, such as the Misty Mountain tribes while Sauron slept, they were still violent, xenophobic raiders at the fringes of civilization. Reason for siding with Team Evil: slaves/bred to be slaves
Humans, such as the Easterlings and people of Far Harad were indoctrinated into Morgoth-worship for countless generations and then recruited/ordered to serve in their God-King Sauron's armies. Reason for siding with Team Evil: strong religious belief
The humans of Umbar had their own claim to the throne of Gondor and its fiefs, so allying with Sauron was political. Perhaps they had a choice, but why should they choose to side with their ancient rival and enemy Gondor? Reason for siding with Team Evil: dynastic politics
The Nazgûl were human leaders from kingdoms already allied with Sauron (see above reasons) who were offered even more power by Sauron, who probably didn't warn them of the 'gotcha' in the Rings of Power Reason for siding with Team Evil: above + deceived.
Seed of Bismuth
Date: 2018-01-14 05:36 pm (UTC)But then netflix gave me the trailer every. time. I. logged. in. so I got the worst foot forward a lot "Faerie lives don't matter, today."
So my question is are your sure Fairys aren't sentient or are you just giving the movie the benefit of the doubt?
Also Dark Lord 2000 years ago? Are they saying Jesus was evil?
Re: Seed of Bismuth
Date: 2018-01-14 05:44 pm (UTC)The Fairy in that very early scene is a pest that gets into a bird feeder. In the opening montage, there's signs for Fairy removal services. You could take the same language and substitute "rat" or "squirrel" or some other pest and it would work as well.
And, I have no idea how the history of this world works to make LA essentially the same only with elves as typically wealthy and orcs as typically poor and whatnot.