The main content of this article has been stuck in my mind for several weeks. Just like the title of this article is where my opinion goes. As someone who loves to watch movies, i think i need to highlight a problem that is exist in movies nowadays.
Before you read further, i need to let you know that if you are a butthurt Social Justice Warrior who easily triggered, you better not to read anymore. And anyway i’m not a sexist, racist, or whatever -ist that your pseudo theory come up with.
I started to realize that this problem has somewhat growing bigger since i read some comments about Netflix’ latest Death Note movie adaptation. In short, Netflix make an American live action adaptation from popular anime and manga with the same title. The main character, Kira is played by an American actor Nat Wolf. A lot of comment said that the movie is whitewashing the original story, but hey the L character is played by Lakeith Stanfield why no one call it blackwashing?
LP Entertainment, Vertigo Entertainment, and Lin Pictures have legally won the bid to make a live action adaptation of Death Note, and they have their own creative process. If you like to watch the live action movie with Japanese casts, there are already four movies so far with Death Note (2006), Death Note 2 : The Last Name (2006), L : Change The World (2008), Death Note : Light Up The New World (2016), and potentially more to come.
The issue exploded following the controversy of #OscarSoWhite in 2014 because the lack of color difference in the Oscar’s nominees. Not only color or race, but political correctness also comes with several other issues such as gender, and sexuality.
I do believe that political correctness started out with good intentions whatever they were, well even though i do not know what’s good about it. But things got weird… Lot of movies nowadays, for the sake of diversity, they just cast diverse people but with not enough creative process. People come to cinema to watch a good entertainment product not to see people from different background.
Delusional Reboot
Main Casts of Ghostbusters. pic : Den of Geek
Those who support political correctness has come up with this delusional idea, rebooting the original. It is not just about remake an old movie into a new one, but also change all the casts into different gender (well, mostly man to woman), and races if possible (well, in most of cases it is possible).
A lot of characters that were represented by males are now being planned to change to female just to attract and pacify female audiences. First of all is the reboot of Ghostbusters (2016) which is miserably failed in the cinema and become a flop despite the star studded casts. The movie idea to change the heroines to female was pathetic and that makes the movie sub-par and boring.
There is a plan to make Ocean’s Ocho or Ocean’s Eight, a spinoff of Ocean’s Eleven with female characters. Beside that, there was also a talk to make Jane Bond, a female version of James Bond. For me, those ideas are no-brainer, there is nothing good in making the ‘what if’ story or universe because there is already the original story. Well, i have to say that the class of those reboots is just like imitation goods from China.. below sub-par. This kind of movie is not a good way to prove that woman also kickass.
Just imagine if Powerpuff Girls is changed to Powerpuff Boys, or Snow White become a male prince who eats poisonous apple and need a kiss from a princess in white horse and the title is changed from Snow White to Flame Red or something like that. Sounds stupid, right?
Yes, i do believe that female characters also kickass and can save the day. Look at Wonder Woman, Lara Croft, and Katniss Everdeen, they are kickass. Also Hermione Granger and Black Widow, although they are sidekick characters, they are kickass and cool. Those character have their own original story, they have a solid background.
The idea of making a female reboot from originally male characters are stupid. Why? Because they are just a bunch of copycat. First thing about being kickass is about originality. Personally i do not like stereotypical but in making anything, creative process is really important.
The Holy Censor
Censorship. pic : WebJunction
Another problem in political correctness is censorship. It tries to make movies nowadays cleaner so more people with more age difference can watch. Kind of movies that used to come with R-Rated rating, now kids also can watch them and those kids usually end up annoy a whole studio.
Nowadays we have less R-Rated movies than PG-13 movies, so different from the 80s, 90s, until early 2000 when there were so many R-Rated movies.
Now, R-Rated movies are seen as a gamble because kids are not able to buy tickets to watch the movies. But, R-Rated movies in the past also made tons of money like Terminator (1984), Lethal Weapon (1987), The Passion of The Christ (2004), The Matrix (1999), Pretty Woman (1990), The Exorcist (1973), The Godfather (1972), etc.
Well, sometimes the difference between PG-13 and R-Rated is also thin, it’s all about perception. The further from reality a film is, the more it is get away with censorship. Look at The Avengers, there are so many violence and arm fights in the movie but the movie got PG-13 rating because most of the characters are robot anyway, they are not real.
According to a study released by American Academy Pediatrics in 2013, it shows that gun violence in PG-13 rated films has tripled since 1985.
In my opinion, rating systems exist to tell consumers what kind of content is included in the film and leave the decision to watch the film or not to the consumers themselves. Some kind of stories are better to be in R-Rated rather than forced to be PG-13 with the concept that every people are the same and should be equal either adult or child. That’s a no!
Imagine if 5 years old toddlers go to Victoria’s Secret to buy stuffs and said that they are human too and forced the brand to make things for them. Or an adult goes to Baby Gap to buy shirt for him/herself and said, “babies are human and i am human too, so the clothes should fit in me.” That’s nonsense.
Bret Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho, blasted about political correctness in his podcast. He said that the idea as a delusion that society has been coddling which encourages people to think that life should be a smooth utopian built only for them and their fragile sensibility. Yeah, and i do totally agree with him. Yes, and the concept of micro-aggression that comes from SJW’s pseudo-sciences is only applied to those who have micro-sensibility, micro-sensitivity, and micro-intelligence.
Here are some sources that help this article :
Breitbart, PantherNow, Comic Book Global, Box Office Mojo
Putu Radar Bahurekso
t : @puturadar | ig : putu.radar