Stings a Little, Don’t It?

We were talking to a Hollywood executive a yesterday, and the conversation got to a particular director whose movie the executive thought excellent — but the releasing studio had slashed the budget, given it no promotion or distribution. “It could have been a classic” the executive said, “but XX company just buried it.”

What was fun? This movie is the ONLY one I’ve ever found where all the white characters die, and a black character survives. I rarely mention its name out of a sense of fun — I’m betting people cannot find it.

Now, a sample of one is nothing statistical, but allow me to offer some plausible thoughts on this. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve listed over two HUNDRED movies where all the black characters, or all the black male characters, die. (Say, DAMNATION ALLEY). And said that there are no movies where the opposite is true. A “character” here is defined as anyone with a line of dialogue.

What amuses me is that people will say “Well, what about DJANGO UNCHAINED? All the white characters die in that…”

Are you kidding? There is a whole town of white people who survive. What is happening is that those people are so used to whites being centered and primary, that if you kill the lead characters, it is interpreted as a total extermination. THAT is privilege.

So my theory is that that death thing, the “extermination” thing, is indeed an expression of deep tribal values: it is fine to kill all of “them” but a depiction of all of “us” dying is…wrong. I’d…