Karen ([identity profile] odditycollector.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] odditycollector 2007-07-08 08:41 pm (UTC)

I think there is, because our primary clue for them is visual (Well, though I'm pretty bad at picking up on "Hispanic," given a picture and even a name to go with). We know what stereotypes they're probably going to fall into because we know what race they are, rather than the other way around.

That said, everyone in this movie gets one character "trait". And the Army guys are
Hispanic Soldier Guy : *is Hispanic*
Black Soldier Guy : *is tough* (Is his portrayal stereotypically Black in some way? If so, I did not see it.)
White Soldier Guy : *has a family* (And is the one the audience is set up to identify with.)

And... yeah.

So it's not like the human part of the equation is not problematic, but... it's easier to think about?

I know that some people had problems with ALL the black characters being *racial* caricatures in the movie, but I didn't pick up on that. They just seemed to get a one line character description each. (OTOH, I'm not sure my assumptions about racial stereotypes are *exactly* the same as an American's, for all I'm sure they're pretty close. Alt., just because *I*m not seeing them, doesn't mean they're not there.)

Other than Generic Hispanic Guy, the one human race-related thing I actually noticed during the movie was that there's one Asian guy with a speaking part in the computer room, and the camera does its damndest not to focus on him, and his speaking part is "Maybe it's the Chinese?" (Because I usually notice that, because an all white computer team looks weird to me.)

Post a comment in response:

(will be screened)
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting