Wednesday, February 03, 2021

A Passage to India: Movie Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2010/08/passage-to-india.html

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6 comments:

Whisky Prajer said...

Guinness as Godbole definitely falls into the "brown-face" category. More than a little ironic, really, as the movie (and it's now been 30 years since I saw it) seemed more fixated with the grotesqueries of colonialism than with the "mystery vs. muddle" difficulty.

February 4, 2021 at 6:21 AM
Joel Swagman said...

Yeah, you're right. I was wrong to hedge on that, it's a definite, isn't it?
I think though 30 years ago people weren't nearly as sensitive about these things as they are now. As I'm sure Justin Trudeau can attest.

February 4, 2021 at 11:27 AM
Whisky Prajer said...

Oh, my goodness! Yes, times do change. Mea culpa: I wore yellow-face in our high school production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado in '83. But I still can't believe our PM thought blackface was appropriate in 2001. Theatre types are a different breed, alright...

But here's a bit of personally remembered trivia that puts Sir Alec's brownface performance in historical perspective: Joel Grey (Cabaret) earned his second Academy Award nomination for performing in yellowface for the egregious no-thriller Remo Williams -- in 1985, one year after A Passage To India.

February 4, 2021 at 5:57 PM
Joel Swagman said...

Actually while we're making confessions, I had my face tanned for our high school production of West Side Story when I played one of the Sharks. But the way I like to look at it was this was something that was done to me by the make-up department, not something I actively decided to do. http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2008/01/high-school-play-west-side-story.html

February 4, 2021 at 9:46 PM
Whisky Prajer said...

Fortunately the viewer has to strain to make out any attempts at brownface in those photos of yours. The only photos I have of my high school musical are black-and-white, and I don't think most viewers could make heads or tails out of what our makeup "artists" were trying to achieve. The costuming, on the other hand...

In '83 I gave the matter zero thought. Around the same time I attended a Halloween party where one of my friends showed up in blackface. Again, never thought for a second that this was behaviour beyond the pale (so to speak). K-Mart sold kits for the purpose -- it was just a thing.

More recently, we attended a local performance of Hairspray -- about six or seven years ago. There was a lengthy caveat in the playbill written by the creators of the musical explaining their blackface loophole -- no face-paint, but wigs and other accoutrements were acceptable, where performers of colour simply could not be recruited for the roles. I gather that wiggle room has since been revoked. So no more public performances of Hairspray for people in the sticks, or Korea.

I'm not going to shed tears over that particular loss -- Hairspray was a beloved musical for both my kids growing up, and I will be happy to never hear that soundtrack ever again. But ironies abound, certainly. Just saying as much admits to white fragility/privilege, but there you go and here we are. Interesting times.

February 5, 2021 at 8:21 AM
Joel Swagman said...

>>>>-Mart sold kits for the purpose -- it was just a thing.
No kidding. Well that puts in perspectives some of these scandals of politicians who darkened their face in the 1980s, doesn't it? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/02/ralph-northam-virginia-governor-blackface-michael-jackson/2756133002/

My first encounter with all this was in the 1980s as well. Someone in my sister's elementary school class was doing an oral report on Harriet Tubman, and was planning on darkening her face for the report. (The assignment was that you had to do the report as if you were the historical person.) The teacher forbid it. I was, I think, about 8 or 9 at the time, and I didn't understand why it would be forbidden. Of course I didn't know about the history of minstrel shows at the time. And perhaps there's an argument to be made that, if you are unaware of the history, the reason for the prohibition is not obvious.

That Hairspray thing sounds tricky, huh? As you point out, it's going to be a dilemma in Asia where there just aren't a lot of local black actors.
...on the other hand, I remember my years watching Japanese TV. Japanese actors would occasionally assume blackface when they needed to do a black character for a TV show. (Usually in a silly comedy). I never saw a portrayal that wasn't offensive. Maybe prohibiting the practice in Asia wouldn't be such a bad idea.

February 5, 2021 at 10:58 PM

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