Give all your characters dignity and respect. What advice. If only all actors would follow such a mantra...
The critical consensus about a film at the time of its release is often wrong. For example, Cloud Atlas was panned by the critics. Future generations of film scholars and fans will--fingers crossed--correctly understand it to be a great movie that was a victim of poor marketing and an audience which was not prepared for such an ambitious and genius film.
I just saw The Lone Ranger. It too was savaged by most critics. I was prepared to be disappointed and distracted by Johnny Depp's depiction of the iconic Saturday morning serial character "Tonto". The charges of "red face", i.e. that a white actor should not be depicting a First Nations brother, hung heavy over my viewing of the film.
Yes, the fact that Hollywood was unwilling to cast a First Nations actor as Tonto is very problematic and reflective of broader issues about race and representation in the mass media. And no, I am not going to litigate if Depp's role was "offensive" or "insulting" as I am not one of the brothers or sisters who can claim membership among First Nations peoples. I will leave those matters to others.
The Lone Ranger is an ambitious film that almost threatens to collapse under its own weight. Gore Verbinski does award winning work holding together a script that is a revisionist Western, a self-conscious deconstruction of The Lone Ranger mythos (and that of the classic Western film motif more generally), an homage to movies by Sergio Leonne as well as Once Upon a Time in the West, and a lavish, indulgent, thrill ride action movie.
If you are a student of the American West, or have even a passing interest in the "new" social history scholarship, The Lone Ranger is a gem.
By definition, popular culture is disposable. On occasion, a movie can work within genre conventions while also educating, provoking, and introducing new ideas to the public. The Lone Ranger is not transcendent art. But, it is far from the disposable bit of film-making which does no political work in the service of asking questions about historical memory and power.
Johnny Depp narrates the film from a sideshow carnival. Tonto talks to a young white child (and the audience) who is dressed as The Lone Ranger in 1933 (some six or so decades after the events depicted in the film). Tonto begins the movie as a "living" embodiment of the Old West; the movie ends with Depp dressed as "the civilized" Indian.
Films are barometers of the public mood and reflect the politics of the moment in which they were made. History should teach lessons about the present by examining the past. The Lone Ranger reflects both of those dynamics. It is so ambitious that I am unsure what the specific details of that project are in The Lone Ranger, even as I am absolutely sure those broader themes are hanging over the film.
Following the Boston Marathon Bombing, and how two white Chechens were ostensibly stripped of their Whiteness by a media and a White Public that could not reconcile terrorism with white group membership, I proposed a series of posts on the concept of racial formation, and how race is a social construct, one that is made, not "natural", yet remains socially potent and real.
I did not expect to start with The Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp. However, I believe that one should follow random moments and spontaneous opportunities.
Questions of race, performance, and representation are central to how identity is manufactured and reinforced as a type of common sense in society. Depp's performance of Tonto does not exist in a historical vacuum. It is located in a socio-historical context of genocide, white supremacy, racism, and the continued disenfranchisement of First Nations peoples in the present. The latter are all but invisible in day-to-day mass media, and are little discussed in America's supposed, as well as much ballyhooed (stillborn) national conversation on race.
The United States has two original sins. The first was genocide and theft of land from First Nations peoples. The second was chattel slavery. The country will one day be made to answer for both crimes.
In thinking about Johnny Depp's role as Tonto, I wanted to locate it in a broader story of race and the performing arts. Ricardo Montalban's most famous role is (most likely) Khan from the Star Trek TV and film series.
Ricardo Montalban was an accomplished Mexican actor. However, in confronting a Hollywood and an America of the 1950s and 1960s where Whiteness was unapologetically normalized and dominant, he would find work as a professional type of Other who could be slotted into any role where "one of them" was needed.
Do listen to Montalban's full interview and meditate on the challenges he faced as a working actor of color. Is it possible to depict an actor who is not of your "racial" or ethic background and do it respectfully and well? How does one do this with dignity and respect, while not surrendering to type and stereotypes?
12 comments:
I haven't seen the movie, but want to. Johnny Depp does have First Nations ancestors, although perhaps not enough?:...http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-johnny-depps-tonto. The "1 drop" theory always get stood on it's head when it comes to First Nations.people since the "plan" is to rescue "mixed bloods" from their First Nations blood. The philosophies of racism are mysterious, ridiculous and sorry travesties...
I find myself a little mystified with Montalban as a person of color....do all ethnicities in the American psyche sort of meld into a lumpenproletariat of coloredness?
Come to think of it, the only contemporary American Indian actor I can think of offhand is Rudy Youngblood, who starred in Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. He's a Comanche, so I've heard.
I dunno. The fact that one is not a member of any First Nations community does not necessarily permit one who chooses to comment on the racial implications from thinking about a First Nations perspective to some of the problems. No?
I mean, if it did, being a white man, I would be better served by not commenting or posting here on WARN, -- which would be a defensible argument, of course. I've been reading everything I can on various FN perspectives on the film -- the Native Appropriations blog is as good as it gets on these issues, and the problems as I understand them go way beyond failing to cast a FN actor . . .
No?
hello of a puzzle. my suggestion is that sure we can comment, participate, and observe. we should also learn alot. to be "offended" on behalf of others has always troubled me regarding questions of privilege and advantage.
Understood, and I entirely agree. Especially as a white guy -- I mean, what can I do? The last thing FN communities need is yet another white person professing to "save" them, which is mortally offensive on like 10 different levels.
So maybe the best I can do is just shut the heck up and listen, to learn, to try and understand more and better.
But how does one help? And then I worry that even the question itself is an extremely stupid one.
I think it is important to remember that Depp is an actor; anything he is doing on screen is a portrayal of something he is not. Sure, there are roles he is more comfortable in, like Kemp in The Rum Diary, but most roles he plays are something he is not in real life, like an 18th century pirate, or the proprietor of a zany chocolate factory. The question is, as it always should be, did he do the part justice and tap into the real essence of the character. I cannot judge this as I am not an expert on Native Americans of that era, or of what the film was attempting to portray, but one cannot simply write him off because he is in "red face." Yes there are inherent problems with it, and honestly I was shocked and appalled when I first saw that they had cast him, but there are deeper issues here.
So, I guess, in answer to your question, I would say yes, but that I have no idea how one does it properly.
I know, right? I had the same head scratch experience when I read Enrique Iglesias referred to as non-white.
STFU and listen is indeed a good start. That and trying one's hardest not to be an asshole.
http://www.imdb.com/list/2eje60Y5XLk/ Here ya go. Some of these folks you may have seen repeatedly.
Tonto is "A fool" in Spanish. Regardless if the actor or script made this character or movie humane that says it all. They know what they doing. The natives of ameriKKKLan don't have to play sidekick, 2nd fiddle to one. It was the FN people's who showed 'them' how to navigate these lands, farm & fish. In short, they profited off of stolen land the same way they profited from this film: using non-whites to do it (whether in physical form, reference or likeness). Over-standing is a beautiful thing. Can't wait for another round of De Vega vs. X-squared on this one + others...
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