@acontributor said:

Maybe you missed the point. The point of the movie is to show the innocence of the African tribe who had not been spoiled by commercialization and the Western world. The coke bottle is a symbol of the evil of the western world.

I actually did get all of that, AC.

I know that some white people are racist. But when I saw it as a kid I wasn't laughing at them.

Fair enough, AC. But sometimes, like with old "MODEM MAN" on the other thread whom I now have on ignore, it's best to infer the intent of what they are saying. People do lie through their teeth.

@mechajutaro said:

@acontributor said:

Maybe you missed the point. The point of the movie is to show the innocence of the African tribe who had not been spoiled by commercialization and the Western world. The coke bottle is a symbol of the evil of the western world.

I know that some white people are racist. But when I saw it as a kid I wasn't laughing at them. I saw them as innocent and I think that's how the viewer is supposed to see them.

Arguably also, the depiction of the hunter gatherers are rooted in racist European fantasies of so-called "primitive peoples". They're depicted as innocents, who are somehow more pure than the rest of us. Whatever good intentions underlie these idealizations of hunter gatherer peoples(almost always non-white), it's remarkably racist to deny their humanity in such a fashion. It's tough to believe that real life Masai, Tuareg, and Amazonian folks wouldn't find movies like this condescending

^ This.

@acontributor said:

@mechajutaro said:

@acontributor said:

Maybe you missed the point. The point of the movie is to show the innocence of the African tribe who had not been spoiled by commercialization and the Western world. The coke bottle is a symbol of the evil of the western world.

I know that some white people are racist. But when I saw it as a kid I wasn't laughing at them. I saw them as innocent and I think that's how the viewer is supposed to see them.

Arguably also, the depiction of the hunter gatherers are rooted in racist European fantasies of so-called "primitive peoples". They're depicted as innocents, who are somehow more pure than the rest of us. Whatever good intentions underlie these idealizations of hunter gatherer peoples(almost always non-white), it's remarkably racist to deny their humanity in such a fashion. It's tough to believe that real life Masai, Tuareg, and Amazonian folks wouldn't find movies like this condescending

I don't know about racist Europeans but the movie certainly wasn't condescending.

I sure don’t see it that way… IMO the film certainly is condescending with the goofball actions of the Africans - or just Xi - and I seem to recall this narrator’s voiceover commenting on them as if they were Natgeo animals too

It's not condescending or racist merely to recognize that some people are more primitive than you are.

The condescension often comes in the judgement - often arbitrary - of other folks’ so-called primitivism.

Racist would be treating them as if they are not human. Seeing primitive people as innocent certainly isn't denying them of their humanity.

Your judgment on what’s racist is pretty unreliable to say the least, AC.

@acontributor said:

Do you also think that Disney's Song of the South was racist?

I'm just wondering because there seems to be an idea among some people that poor people who are shown to be happy with their lives is a racist depiction which I don't necessarily agree with. To me it is a positive portrayal not because being poor is virtuous but because they're happy. Showing black people with western careers being happy is just as virtuous.

So I don't see anything racist about happy black people living simple lives in the South African plains. If they were white people I'd feel the same way.

I believe I haven't seen Song of the South, so I cannot comment on it as well as I would like to....

I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I do remember finding it funny in a patronising way. All us kids thought it was hilarious to make fun of the mouth clicky sounds the tribesmen made. The distinct feeling I got was that Xi was little more than a confused wild animal in the big city. In other words, I gained no appreciation for Xi's culture; he was just a macguffin that could've just as easily been played by a talking horse.

Contrast this sharply against--let's take another racially charged movie--Blazing Saddles. In Blazing Saddles, Sheriff Bart was shown to be much smarter than the moronic racist townsfolk, and Gene Wilder backed him up as the voice of reason/morality/cool. So even though the film drops the N bomb a bunch of times and plays on the worst racist gags, when I saw Blazing Saddles (around the same age as when I saw TGMBC) I got a much different feeling. I didn't pity or feel condescension toward Bart, I admired him. I thought he was awesome.

I don't think anyone comes out of TGMBC admiring Xi and thinking he's awesome. Xi is basically soulless object who represents a culture, like a spear or an arrowhead, without giving him credit for being a human we should respect.

@acontributor said:

@rooprect said:

I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I do remember finding it funny in a patronising way. All us kids thought it was hilarious to make fun of the mouth clicky sounds the tribesmen made. The distinct feeling I got was that Xi was little more than a confused wild animal in the big city. In other words, I gained no appreciation for Xi's culture; he was just a macguffin that could've just as easily been played by a talking horse.

Contrast this sharply against--let's take another racially charged movie--Blazing Saddles. In Blazing Saddles, Sheriff Bart was shown to be much smarter than the moronic racist townsfolk, and Gene Wilder backed him up as the voice of reason/morality/cool. So even though the film drops the N bomb a bunch of times and plays on the worst racist gags, when I saw Blazing Saddles (around the same age as when I saw TGMBC) I got a much different feeling. I didn't pity or feel condescension toward Bart, I admired him. I thought he was awesome.

I don't think anyone comes out of TGMBC admiring Xi and thinking he's awesome. Xi is basically soulless object who represents a culture, like a spear or an arrowhead, without giving him credit for being a human we should respect.

You must be crazy. This is a movie about culture shock. It has nothing to do with the main character being mocked or not deserving our respect.

How is this different from Crocodile Dundee? Except he's a white guy and dresses in more western clothing, it's basically the same movie.

Huh? I don't get it. What does Croc have in common with the African guy, in terms of story? To touch on what someone else here said, Dundee is a pretty cool guy; Xi is mostly an object of hahas. I don't think of him as cool at all.

@mechajutaro said:

@CelluloidFan said:

@acontributor said:

@rooprect said:

I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I do remember finding it funny in a patronising way. All us kids thought it was hilarious to make fun of the mouth clicky sounds the tribesmen made. The distinct feeling I got was that Xi was little more than a confused wild animal in the big city. In other words, I gained no appreciation for Xi's culture; he was just a macguffin that could've just as easily been played by a talking horse.

Contrast this sharply against--let's take another racially charged movie--Blazing Saddles. In Blazing Saddles, Sheriff Bart was shown to be much smarter than the moronic racist townsfolk, and Gene Wilder backed him up as the voice of reason/morality/cool. So even though the film drops the N bomb a bunch of times and plays on the worst racist gags, when I saw Blazing Saddles (around the same age as when I saw TGMBC) I got a much different feeling. I didn't pity or feel condescension toward Bart, I admired him. I thought he was awesome.

I don't think anyone comes out of TGMBC admiring Xi and thinking he's awesome. Xi is basically soulless object who represents a culture, like a spear or an arrowhead, without giving him credit for being a human we should respect.

You must be crazy. This is a movie about culture shock. It has nothing to do with the main character being mocked or not deserving our respect.

How is this different from Crocodile Dundee? Except he's a white guy and dresses in more western clothing, it's basically the same movie.

Huh? I don't get it. What does Croc have in common with the African guy, in terms of story? To touch on what someone else here said, Dundee is a pretty cool guy; Xi is mostly an object of hahas. I don't think of him as cool at all.

Xi didn't have much in common with Dundee

Right, because Crocodile Dundee is a fish out of water story (I love those), and The Gods Must Be Crazy is a comedy featuring the McGuffin of the Coke bottle dropped into the African country.