December and January are the best parts of the year for film buffs. Producers save their Oscar-bait movies and larger-than-life blockbusters for the very end of the year. If you’re not excited like I am, just look at the “coming soon” posters outside any theatre.
But you know what really kills my movie-going high? The systematic and deliberate elimination of important character traits, like sexual orientation or race.
Hollywood has a long history of whitewashing and whittling down every “undesirable” trait until real-life people turn into celluloid-ready figures. Some notoriously miscast roles include Western star John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in “The Conqueror” and Elizabeth Taylor’s glamorous take on the titular Egyptian queen in “Cleopatra”. But sadly, this trend is still a major issue in the film industry. Even worse, the process of whitewashing shows no signs of slowing down in Hollywood.
Look again at that “coming soon” section — you’ll see Ridley Scott’s biblical epic, “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and the biopic of Alan Turing, often considered the father of theoretical computer science who served as a leading cryptanalyst during World War II, “The Imitation Game.”
The former film’s trailer kept wowing me again and again in movie theatres. After each time, I’d whisper to the person I was with, “Wow, that makes me want to go to church again!” The action-packed scenes, the great speeches by Christian Bale and the immediately iconographic image of The Plague of Locusts distracted me from the film’s core issue — the problematic depiction of its main characters.
If I’ve read the Bible correctly, the story of Moses and Ramesses the Great takes place in Egypt. And if I recall real life accurately, people from Egypt are not white. And yet, these characters are played by white actors, Bale and Joel Edgerton, respectively.
There’s nothing wrong with the talent or skill level of these actors. Both Bale and Edgerton have received awards for their other works, but “the greatest story ever told” would be better off if the filmmakers actually stuck to that story.
Edgerton, who hails from Australia, is naturally blonde-haired, blue-eyed and fair. In “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, however, he has a shaved head, is conspicuously covered in bronzer, and wears eyeliner — just in case you forgot that this film takes place in Egypt due to all those white people.
In the upcoming film, “The Imitation Game,” Benedict Cumberbatch tries to get that sweet, sweet Academy Award for his portrayal of Alan Turing. However, the problem here lies with the film’s screenplay, not the actor.
Turing, a pioneer of computer science, was also a gay man. Because of the barbaric laws outlawing homosexual acts in Britain, Turing was prosecuted for his sexuality in 1952 and was forced to choose between chemical castration and jail time. He chose the former, but committed suicide just two years later.
Winston Churchill once said Turing made the single greatest contribution to the Allied victory in the war. Doesn’t this warrant a respectful and truthful portrayal? But “The Imitation Game,” like its name would suggest, does not replicate the man’s real life, it merely imitates it.
The film primarily concerns Turing’s very brief relationship with his one-time fiancee Joan Clarke, which ended for obvious reasons. “The Imitation Game” is based off of Andrew Hodges’ 1983 biography of Turing, and the biographer himself even has issues with the film’s portrayal of the codebreaker’s relationship with Clarke.
Hodges told UK newspaper, The Sunday Times, he was “alarmed by the inaccuracies” of the film, saying that the relationship between Clarke and Turing was “invented” and the film failed to show Turing’s “extraordinary skills as a scientist and computer designer.”
It’s the apparent lack of respect for real-life people that makes both of these films ultimately disappointing. If you’re cashing in on someone’s extraordinary life story, shouldn’t you adhere to the truth of their lives and identities?
SidneyRose Reynen is a 19-year-old film and media arts sophomore from New Orleans. You can reach her on Twitter @sidneyrose_TDR.