Tarzan
Growing up as a child in America I was always easily amused by cartoons that played on the television during the early 2000’s and late 1999’s. By far one of my most watched movies was Tarzan, which sometimes played during the weekends on the Disney channel, it’s very much entertaining to watch this old version of Tarzan directed by W.S. Van Dyke. In the film Tarzan “the Ape Man”, Jane Parker derives to Africa to visit her father, who was in a pursuit for ivory, Tarzan captures Jane and once the preliminary terror has worn off, Jane apprehends that she adores Tarzan and that jungle life suits her. This take on the modern day Tarzan opened my eyes to a much more realistic perspective of race perception with the sociological abnormality of behavior mixed in one. It’s highly unrealistic, however to see a white man grow up in jungle exhibiting masculinity characteristic intertwined with Ape behavior, but this is very much the central plot focus of the short film. A character must first and foremost be able to identify themselves with their surroundings, but most importantly within themselves as well, this film displays a broad mixture of cultural American imperialism and like every other film previously viewed throughout the course, shows the predominant race as being the white individuals while Blacks are being frowned upon and in the film’s case, taken another look at. The opening of the film also leaves one to assume that African Americans were principally treated as
Jane also loses her footing, but she is pulled back by a rope. After coming to a resting point, the expedition party is bewildered by an ape call they hear in the distance that is distinctly human-like. They soon meet the source of the sound when Tarzan uses his jungle call to save them from an attack by threatening hippopotami. Tarzan, who understands no language, then carries the screaming Jane to his treetop home, where she gradually loses her fear of him and the apes who live in the trees. Later, while Tarzan has left Jane to search for food, Harry and James rescue her, but not before Harry shoots an ape that he believes is a threat to Jane. Tarzan witnesses the killing and follows the expedition to take revenge on them. After drowning one of James's African guides, Tarzan recaptures Jane and then, with the help of an elephant, engages an attacking lion in a fight. The elephant carries the defeated and unconscious Tarzan to safety and then calls Tarzan's apes to summon
“Native Son” composed by Richard Wright was revolved into an American drama picture in 1986 by director Jerrold Freeman. This piece caused a lot of controversy on whether the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is guilty or innocent in the unfortunate events that have occurred. The purpose of this argumentative essay is to examine Richard Wright’s film adaptation of Native Son and prove his innocence based on how society deceived and deprived African Americans, his living and social environment, and his fears.
Although Apess holds somewhat of a grudge against the white man, his autobiography serves as an honest look into the life of a typical Native American in the
The 1987 film documentary Ethnic Notions directed by Marlon Riggs, identifies the evolution of African American cultural depictions through ethnic stereotypes and caricatures in American culture. I feel Ethnic Notions exposes the roots of false generalization from the beginning and presents a series of classifications for racial depictions that still are noticeable in today's society. These racial depictions identified with in this film begin in the mid 1800's and continue thought to the 1960's. I now after viewing Ethnic notions agree that there are generalizations and depictions that are exaggerated in American popular culture and entertainment.
As far back as 1946, racial stereotyping of African Americans has been evident in Disney films. For instance, in the American classic Dumbo, the crows depict the typical southern African American with a slow pattern of speech. In Jungle Book (1967) the monkeys with African American voices are jiving in a crazy manner because they will never be real men and will always be animals. One of the most tragic examples of this racism can be seen in the movie Tarzan. In the original making of the movie, the white man comes to the rescue and tames all of the animals and natives. However, in the new Disney version of Tarzan (1999), the blacks that obviously inhabit Africa were completely eliminated and replaced by gorillas with African American voices. African American children whom view these films have no choice but to resort to relating to these often unintelligent, inferior animals because that is where they hear themselves. In Mickey Mouse Monopoly, children were asked if they could think of any black characters in Disney films, sadly they came up short of a single one. It
Pocahontas is a Walt Disney Pictures animation released in 1995 following the Disney Princess franchise. The movie is about Pocahontas, a native American lady whose home is invaded by Englishmen who wishes to exploit the land’s resources and to “civilize” the people living there. However, one of the Englishmen, John Smith, fell in love with Pocahontas. This essay studies the stereotypes of native American and them being essentialized in the media as being savages, sexism and also over romanticization, as represented in the movie.
These stereotypes depicted “drug dealers, prostitutes, single mothers, and complacent drag queens” (Harris, 51). In the 1980s, African American filmmakers began to make a name for themselves. These films are “social commentaries, indictments of racism and depictions of ‘everyday’ American lives” (Harris, 51). Compared to the traditional representations of blacks and blackness, New Black cinema takes on this cultural intervention and the recoding of blackness. Harris describes this as “revising the visual codes surrounding black skin on the screen and in the public
In order to fully ascertain the gravity of negative archetypes, it is important to explore a common one. Donald Bogle is a film historian and lecturer at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Bogle has authored a book entitled Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks, in which he outlines a few of cinemas most infamous black architypes. The one most salient this this essay is that of brutal black buck. Bogle divides the brutal black buck into two subcategories: “black bucks” and “black brutes.”
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll
In America, we are known as the melting pot, the country of diversity, where citizens can be who they want to be. We can be who we want to be, and look at ourselves however we want to; but how are others looking at us? In many cases, an individual does not even have a chance to make an impression on somebody, because they have already been judged simply by their physical aspects. The controversy of one's color has been around since the beginning of time. In the history of the United States, the racism against African American's has put them through much oppression, and many walls have been built up over the years between African Americans and other ethnic groups. As a result of the barrier between these ethnic groups, the movie Jungle
Race and social status in culture is not only shown in history, it is also depicted in several films such as the original 1968 Planet of the apes, and 1961 West side story. Both films are unique in their own ways but go hand in hand presenting specific perspectives on race and social status from the beginning of history through today.
Throughout world history, it is evident that Native Americans have struggled in society ever since the landing of Christopher Columbus in North America. Ever since the film industry began in the 1890s, Native Americans have been depicted in many negative ways by film makers. One particular way film makers degrade Native Americans by making their white characters convert into Indians or “go Native” and eventually they always become better than the original Indians in the film. This notion has been repeated in many films, three significant films were it is evident is in The Searchers, Little Big Man, and Dances with Wolves.
[1] Before I start this essay, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery in all its forms to be an oppressive and terrible institution, and I firmly believe that for centuries (including this one) bigotry is one of the most terrible stains on our civilization. The views I intend to express in the following essay are in no way meant to condone the practices of slavery or racism; they are meant only to evaluate and interpret the construction of slavery in film.
In this essay I will be looking at the representation of interracial relationships and how these relationships have been portrayed in cinema from 1903 up until present. I will be discussing the how miscegenation has been represented to audiences over the years as a problem, and something that is unnatural. This essay will be anasyling scenes from movies such as Birth of a Nation, and What
In Tarzan in the Classroom: How “Educational” Films Mythologize Africa and Miseducate Americans (1993) Walker and Raismamanana draw data from the Carnegie Corporation in 1967 that states Africa as being the most neglected area of the world in school curriculum. Another twenty years later the authors note that the Rockefeller foundation came to the same conclusion. These authors also claim that African Americans social and economic underachievement can be directly linked to “the absence of a positive self-image” (Walker and Raismamanana, 1993, 3). Both articles discuss how films that are intended to educate people about Africa end up misleading and enforcing inaccurate, antiquated stereotypes that belittle and undermine Africa, its people and