Rush Hour Two: Through an American Perspective

Stam and Spence’s theory states that certain cliché dimensions of minorities in film support filmic colonialism when addressing racism. Social portrayal, plot, and characters all suggest that “Crash” express a more modern yet similar take on stereotypical roles that depict that nature of “urban” African Americans in real life. Instead of the common roles listed in Donald Bogle’s title

Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if

While the 1970’s and 80’s marked a decline in movies featuring black actors and a lack of black directors, the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s invited a new generation of filmmakers and rappers, engaging with the “New Jack” image, transforming the Ghettos of yesteryears into the hood of today. A major director that emerged during this time was Spike Lee. According to Paula Massood’s book titled, Black City Cinema, African American Urban Experiences in Film, “…Lee not only transformed African American city spaces and black filmmaking practices, he also changed American filmmaking as a whole.” Lee is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the time, likely of all time. He thrusted black Brooklyn into light, shifting away from the popularity of Harlem. By putting complex characters into an urban space that is not only defined by poverty, drugs, and crime, it suggests the community is more than the black city it once was, it is instead a complex cityscape. Despite them being addressed to an African American audience, Lee’s film attract a mixed audience. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing painted a different image of the African American community, “The construction of the African American city as community differs from more mainstream examples of the represents black city spaces from the rime period, such as Colors…, which presented its African American and Mexican American communities through the eyes of white LAPD officers.”

THESIS - When evaluating Arnold “Junior” Spirit from Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Jin Wang from Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, similarities radiate in both characters as their disparity in race deem the two of them as outcasts in the entirety of society. In addition to their lack of social interactions, their uniformity in their impulsive decisions cost them each a dear friend. Although Junior and Jin are quite similar, they share differences in the way Junior tries bettering himself by fitting into both his Indian and Reardan culture whereas Jin changes himself in every possible way to become Americanized.

These days it seems like you can’t escape the all-seeing eye of PC culture. Every poorly worded joke or inconsiderate prank about race can lead to a person’s whole life being destroyed by woke twitter. Yet, a small made for TV movie known as Windy City Heat has managed to walk on by, unscathed by the wrath of PC culture. By stereotyping almost every minority group, Windy City Heat is arguably one of the most offensive films ever made, yet I found it amusing, hilarious, and a little enlightening. Ultimately, I believe that Windy City Heat uses extremes of stereotypes to vitiate the negative aspects of these stereotypes, and in doing so, acts as a morally acceptable pranks that aims to teach members of the film and the audience to be more welcoming.

Discrimination, racism, classism, prejudice and more plague today’s society. These horrible issues do not affect one race, sexes, class, ethnicity, or age group; these issues affect all races, both genders, all ethnicities, and all age groups. For this film analysis, I have chosen to discuss the racism portrayed throughout a three-time Oscar award winning movie called Crash.

Over the years, films have been using stereotypes to portray humor through its characters and environment (3). Stereotypes are associated with almost everything and everyone no matter how people classify themselves. For further clarification, stereotypes are associated with people, groups, races, ethnicities, objects and locations. The Longest Yard (2005) by Peter Segal, perpetuates the use of stereotypes to portray its characters and environment through racial, gender, and prison stereotypes. These specific stereotypes are shown throughout the movie and are examples of stereotypes that have been passed down for generations. Films use stereotypes so that they are able to appeal to a larger target audience (3). The purpose of this paper is to analyze common stereotypes of racial, gender, prison, and athlete stereotypes in the film The Longest Yard.

As an Asian-American woman, I want to see better representation for the Asian community; if media is supposed to reflect the real world, then there is no excuse for leaving Asians out in American films. I want to dissect why Asians are still marginalized and stereotyped today when there is a demand for more diversity in media. In addition, I want to cover the history behind the stereotyping and whitewashing of Asians in Hollywood and how that still has a negative impact today. In fact, recent movies have white-washed Asian roles in favor of white actors. In May 2015, Sony released “Aloha,” where Emma Stone portrayed Allison Ng, a part Chinese-Hawaiian fighter pilot. This blatant erasure is also evident in Dreamworks’ casting of Scarlett Johansson

James Carter is an African American man in Rush Hour 2; however, I have changed his race to Chinese. The driving ideology of this movie is to alleviate racial tensions through stereotypes. Instead of avoiding all potential racial stereotypes, this movie uses and makes light of as many of them as possible. One easy way to see this is how Carter and Lee never get offended by each other's racial jokes. Now that James Carter is now the same race as Inspector Lee there could be no racial tension between the two partners. Because of the jokes they make towards each other about there race it overall strengthens their friendship. Now that Carter is also Chinese would this result in the same bond? There would be no more of the racial jokes about African

The misrepresentation of minorities for the sake of the mainstream film industry has existed since the foundation of the Hollywood industry. While the industry favors the white male as the ideal for audiences to cheer towards victory, those who once played both racist and stereotypical characters are now taking the opportunity to speak out against the mainstream ideal. Out of the several minority groups working to change the definition of mainstream media to favor minorities, “… the recent expansion of Asian-American roles on television has paradoxically ushered in a new generation of actors with just enough star power and job security to speak more freely about Hollywood’s larger failures”(Hess). Unfortunately, the mainstream film industry seems to continually work against the sense of positioning minorities into leading roles, or much of any role in the big blockbusters Hollywood, and other mainstream productions, bank upon each year. The Asian male has long been the victim of racism, misrepresentation, and emasculation by the mainstream, and it continues to exist. Although, films are coming out, mostly from independent filmmakers, that counteract the racist Hollywood foundation, even if it’s in a very small degree. One film to have been held up as an opposition to this victimization of the mainstream film industry, Better Luck Tomorrow, directed by Justin Lin. By using an all Asian cast of young men to tell a coming of age story, Better Luck Tomorrow is praised for

It is not unseasonable to believe that because stereotypes are appearing so commonly in comedy, they will reinforce those stereotypes rather than help society rid itself from them. Extinguishing stereotypes is impossible. Researchers have determined that the creation of stereotypes is a natural function of the brain (Paul, par. 2). In attempt to make light of a problematic issues, comedians use stereotypes to denounce stereotypes. The first thing that we should understand is that comedy is comedy. This does not mean that it should not be taken seriously as frequently advised. Comedy should be embraced and takes seriously but not in the

While the movie progresses, the minority group shown in the movie intensifies and takes on a larger role in the movie. The two stereotypical views portrayed in this movie are the common ones, such as Asians are weak and smart and or the view that Asians drive around in lowered cars and cast themselves as thugs. One scene

The 2008 movie “Gran Torino” starring Clint Eastwood is filled with an abundance of cultural diversity, which is met with much resistance, stereotype, and prejudice by the movies’ main character, Walt Kowalski. Walt’s world is changing; his wife dies, his Detroit neighborhood is decaying, his relationship with his sons is distant, and his Korean War memories continue to destroy his ability to fully enjoy life. Through an unlikely bond with the Hmong children next door, Walt finally receives redemption by coming face-to-face with the same destructive prejudices consuming neighborhood teenage gang members that have consumed him. By analyzing this complex and

According to Micheal Omi, “Film and television have been notorious in disseminating images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what these groups look like, how they behave, and, in essence, ‘who they are’” (541). Micheal Omi is the author of “In Living Color: Race and American Culture”, who depicts that many people are assuming the exclusion is over in United States, however, she argues that racism is continuing to modern society through the mass media that creates of the popular culture, and it brings many social problems on stereotyping ethnic characters. Jessica Haredorn, author of “Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck”, also describes that how the Asian women are stereotyping in Hollywood, “If we are ‘good,’ we are childlike, submissive, silent, and eager for sex… or else we are tragic victim types… And if we are not silent, suffering doormats, we are demonized dragon ladies — cunning, deceitful, sexual provocateurs” (344). As they discuss about, Hollywood writers and directors have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters because the mess media can give negative effects in the modern society, such as increasing conflict between different the racial groups, developing of the stereotyping ethnic characters, and immunizing from the ethnic stereotype.

Rush Hour has been developed in three parts with the initial version featuring in 1998. Starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, the film is produced by Roger Bimbaum and five other skilled personnel and directed by Brett Ratner. Even though the plot is decentralized into fighting major crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping, robbery and gang affiliation, the national theme