Greg Bear's Blood Music, filmed
"If only" Hollywood would do this...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
The story could easily avoid racism by just showing things realistically: humans, black or white, are a dangerous predatory species that wreaks havoc on the ecosystem around them. Far from Avatar-style natives who live in harmony with the environment, portray the indigenous Africans as a force that threatens that harmony, just as colonizing whites do. Avatar-style portrayals are bullshit anyway. Humans are always destructive, it's just a matter of degree. The racism is in pretending there's a difference in destructiveness because of skin color, when it's really a question of resources and numbers.
Even white men tend to be portrayed badly in a lot of Tarzan novels. Only Tarzan and in later novels his co-protagonists, are shown to be noble or heroic.
In skimming the first novel online, I note that Burroughs had a certain amount of sympathy for the African tribesmen showing them to be the victims of French colonial oppression. Of course it does come off as a little patronizing.
In skimming the first novel online, I note that Burroughs had a certain amount of sympathy for the African tribesmen showing them to be the victims of French colonial oppression. Of course it does come off as a little patronizing.
Well I guess Ronan's Conan won't be the Conan I was hoping for. 
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KViqoBHy0KI&feature=player_embedded[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KViqoBHy0KI&feature=player_embedded[/yt]
I haven't been expecting it to be anything close to what I was hoping for after I read the plot synopsis and found out Marcus Nispel (of Pathfinder "fame") was directing. I don't have a problem with Momoa as Conan, though; he's closer to the character than Arnold was, physically. I liked the delivery of the (albeit short) line in that teaser; sounds like a line from "Queen of the Black Coast."Well I guess Ronan's Conan won't be the Conan I was hoping for.
How did I forget this? A film version of The Man In The High Castle.
It's been done - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110024/ - but was rather rubbish, being a German attempt to do Python-style Holy Grail or Time Bandits type comic fantasy...
Nowhere Man
Commodore
How bout a reboot of Masters of the Universe.
The racism the original Tarzan of the Apes has routinely been criticized for is, firstly, for being the kind of ultimate version of the Mighty Whitey trope - while plenty of other humans are shown living in Africa (black humans that is), none achieve the mastery of nature, the status of natural leader among wild things, etc, that Tarzan does - and his ability to do these things is clearly stated to be not only because he is white, but because he is of noble European blood. He instinctively understands that cannibalism is bad, while native Africans are shown to be sadistic and cannibalistic. His mastery of nature is shown to be his natural right and a good thing - certainly not destructive.
Which is why I say you couldn't do a faithful adaptation of the novel because it hinges on several very 19th century ideas about the natural superiority of both intellect and physical prowess of white people of noble blood. You start getting into all humans being destructive - you've moved far afield of what Burroughs was saying.
Well, I think that Tarzan's "mastery" comes from his upbring by the Great Apes. Most other whites, both noble and ignoble usually wind up dead or in need of rescue by Tarzan. Burroughs believed that the "natural man" was the best sort of man. So Tarzan is the apex because he was raised in a total natural state. Below him are folks who live in a near natural environment: Native Americans, Africans and others living at the primative tribal level. ( The Waziri tribe who adopt Tarzan as a member would be an example of this) At the bottom are people corrupted by civilization (Europeans and Americans mostly.) Burroughs villians are often Whites. ( Including the bugaboos of the early 20th Century the Russians and the Germans.) And once the badguys were Hollywood types making a Tarzan movie. The actor playing Tarzan was of course the polar opposite of Tarzan.
Yes, Burroughs ( and his creation Tarzan) was a product of the 19th Century and while a word for word, scene for scene adaptation would not work for 21st Century audiences a faithfull adaptation is still possible.
Yes, Burroughs ( and his creation Tarzan) was a product of the 19th Century and while a word for word, scene for scene adaptation would not work for 21st Century audiences a faithfull adaptation is still possible.