One of the first things that got my attention was the name of Melissa McCarthy's character: LEE ISRAEL.
ISRAEL.
Isn't that...a JEWISH name?
I came to the movie with no knowledge about it, except it was "based on a true story."
In fact, it was based on a memoir by LEE ISRAEL.
So how come a JEWISH woman wasn't suggested for the lead?
I know Melissa McCarthy was not the first choice for the part. I think they wanted to get Seymour Philip Hoffman in drag. And they almost did.
Melissa McCarthy. That's one hell of an IRISH punim.
I was quite distracted for a few minutes. Any time a character in the movie mentioned Lee ISRAEL, I had a twinge.
Why are they calling this IRISH woman ISRAEL?
Could they have gotten a woman who was at least half-Jewish?
How about Scarlett Johansson? Wipe off her make-up, give her dark hair, and this could've been a breakthrough SERIOUS MOVIE for her.
Her mother's Jewish.
You remember the movie Scarlett signed for, and then withdrew from?
“Rub & Tug” was the name. Scarlett was going to play a "transgender," but had to go run and hide because of the "backlash." How DARE an ACTRESS play a role??
Why is it that there was no BACKLASH on Melissa McCarthy playing a Jew?
You might recall that the great Johnny Depp barely squeaked through as Tonto in a bad Lone Ranger film, because he claimed he was 1/8th Indian. Or something.
Oh, that Johnny Depp. He's not really a pirate. He doesn't actually have scissorhands. He was LUCKY to build his career before the PC Brigade took over. Hell, he probably was never a barber and never killed anyone.
At the moment, angry revisionists are seething over any and all un-PC film roles, even in the distant past.
You're not likely to see Charlie Chan movies on cable TV anymore. Warner Oland (who played an Orthodox Jew in "The Jazz Singer") dared to play Chan. So did Sidney Toler. "Yellowface" is now a term, copped from "Blackface," to denote shameful racial stereotypes of Asians.
Christ knows...or rather, Buddha, that the idea of an Oriental detective who is smart, and says wise things, could NOT be played by a white guy in the 30's and 40's, at a time when there were no Oriental box office stars (except Anna May Wong, I guess).
PS, "Oriental" is no longer PC, either. Same as you must say "Latino" and not "Hispanic." Because, despite an actual magazine called "HISPANIC," some Mexicans decided that Spain had no right to own Mexico, so "Hispanic" is an insult. Something like that.
Fortunately, none of DIVERSITY, nothing involving PREJUDICE, has anything to do with Jews.
Blacks, we are reminded, were slaved in a portion of the U.S. South for a few generations in the 19th Century. This trumps CENTURIES of Jews being slaves to the Pharoah, and 8 million being tossed into the ovens in 1940's Germany. Quiet down, Jews. Besides, the Holocaust never happened.
NEW RULE: Blacks should play blacks, Asians should play Asians, Gays should play Gays, etc.
EXCEPTIONS? Whites and Jews.
Broadway saw the Spanish/Italian Alfred Molina star in a revival of "Fiddler on the Roof." And yet, the new movie version of "West Side Story" promised, PROMISED to find ONLY Puerto Rican actors and actresses.
In other words, the Jews are not a minority, not persecuted, and shouldn't be able to work in the theater even in a play about Jews. Slight reverse racism, anyone?
There have been ALL-BLACK revivals of Broadway shows, including "Guys and Dolls." "Hamilton?" Oh, they have yet to do replace any of the original cast with whites. The Founding Fathers were white, but white actors don't need to earn a living doing what they love to do. Whites are privileged and they can do something else.
The current cast of "Hamilton" features:
Double-standard? Hypocrisy? Do we have equality when ANYONE is discriminated against?
Discrimination against whites and Jews is just as odious as discrimination against anyone else. Isn't it?
Broadway embraced a production of "Joan of Arc" in which the white French woman was played by...of course...
Imagine the FURY and INDIGNATION if Harriet Tubman was played by a white actress.
Why, how DARE a white woman think she can portray Harriet Tubman. It has to be a BLACK ACTRESS. Somebody who LOOKS like Harriet Tubman.
But a black woman can impersonate a white French lady. Oh, right, no reverse racism about it. No hypocrisy about choosing people on the basis of their talent alone.
There's also an odd form of age discrimination going on. No, not about allowing an actual OLD person to play an OLD person. It involves taking a hammer to statues (Stephen Foster, ewwww) and putting famous films in cold storage because they reflect a different time.
At one time, Peter Lorre was applauded for playing Mr. Moto WITHOUT resorting to Asian drag-eyes. He just wore spectacles. Now? No Moto. SOME people are in a tizzy and aren't pointing out that the Mr. Moto films (which disappeared after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor) are of their time. And then if anyone dared to make a new Mr. Moto film, it would no doubt star someone at least HALF-Japanese. (Your time, Sean Lennon!)
NO, I'm NOT the asshole spoiling a fight because Melissa McCarthy played Lee Israel. She gave an Academy Award-nominated performance, and Lee Israel's ethnicity was not really part of the story. Not as much as her lesbianism. Is Melissa McCarthy a lesbian? Is it ok if a non-lesbian plays a lesbian, when Scarlett Johansson was bounced from a transgender picture?
Who makes up these rules? Who is the lobbyist who applies insane and ridiculous pressure when they should shut up? I mean, besides Kirsten Gillibrand, who had Al Franken resign from the Senate.
Yes, I was distracted by McCARTHY playing ISRAEL, but after a few minutes, I got over it. Because she was a good actress. Warner Oland was a good actor. Sidney Toler was a good actor. Peter Lorre was a good actor. Johnny Depp is probably still capable of being a good actor.
Are we really turning into PC monsters who refuse to let actors or writers work on projects ONLY related to their own race and gender?
Oh, that Jewish Stan Lee. How DARE he create Spiderman. He only had two legs. He wasn't in any way a spider, and nobody in his family were spiders.
Saddest thing of all? They don't outlaw COSPLAY and COMIC-CON conventions. Some teenage garage mechanic dressing up as THE JOKER? His mother showing up as THE PENGUIN? And they're paying to get a selfie taken with a woman who only PLAYED a Catwoman and actually had human parents? Oh, for shame...There IS something creepy about that...
No comments:
Post a Comment