Save the Last Dance- Blog #5

In the film, Save the Last Dance, main character Sara played by Julia Stiles, experiences a tragic loss when her mother is in a serious car accident that takes her life. Sara’s mother had been on her way to watch her daughter’s ballet tryouts for getting into Juliard. After the accident, Sara gives up her ballet dreams and moves across town to live with her estranged father who lives in a predominantly black neighborhood. On her first day of class at her new school, Sara realizes she is one of few white people in attendance. She is befriended by a black girl named Chenille who takes her under her wing. In an effort to make Sara fit into the culture of this low class neighborhood, Chenille takes her to a popular dance club that everyone goes too. Here Sara is exposed to hip hop dance for the first time. When Sara meets Chenille’s brother Derek, the two begin dancing together with Derek helping to teach Sara how to hip hop dance. Their relationship slowly evolves from friendly to romantic. One evening at the dance club, Derek’s ex-girlfriend shows up and the two dance together and this bothers Sara. The next day at school, Derek’s ex-girlfriend picks a fight with Sara and though Sara is confused, chenille explains it’s only because she is a white girl taking one of the most eligible bachelors at the school. Derek inspires Sara to start dancing again, and after Derek is forced to decide between a childhood best friend and his college career the movie ends with the two together.

If I were to re-write the film with a non-white main character, the film would lose its meaning. The whole reason that the movie is compelling is because the characters are of different racial groups. If the main character was black, then there would not be a fight between Sara and the ex-girlfriend, because the ex would not feel threatened by another black girl. If the character were Latina however, although she may be more easily accepted, there would most likely be conflict of some sort between her and the black students at the school because she is a different race. I would probably use a Latina character and I would rewrite the film, so that she struggled to fit in, but ultimately was able to prove her rhythm. In my rendition of Save the Last Dance, I would have the Latina main character be an incredible dancer, but to a Latin beat, not hip hop or ballet and have her be the one who got into a car accident and break her leg. Part of her struggle would include her attempting to dance but failing due to her injury. Derek would come help her get into shape and work through the pain later proving her skills. I would generate interest by using two minorities as main characters, and great music and a little drama to get people into the theater to watch.

In telling my African American friend about this movie, they think it would be interesting to watch a film with two minorities but aren’t sure if it will be dramatic enough for Hollywood. My white friend loves Latin music, so she thinks it would be a fun and interesting movie.

Front Stage and Backstage

Backstage and front stage racism is all around us, but unless we know what to look for it is easy for it to go unnoticed. I have been in numerous situations where backstage racism was evident but at the time paid no attention to it and sometime was even guilty of laughing or entertaining the comments.

One of my boyfriend’s roommates is Ethiopian but was born and raised in America and acts like any other American college student. Although he is black and lives with two white roommates, he commonly used the word “nigga” when talking to them. Because he opened the door for the word to be used, the white roommates would use the word casually as well. No one said anything when it was just the three of them using it or when I was around. However, if the Ethiopian roommate had any friends over who were of African American descent, he was quick to chastise his roommates for saying “nigga.” I think this is an example of front stage racism, but at the same time, because the use of the word was not intended to hurt anyone’s feelings or as a derogatory term, I feel it is in a way backstage.

In another incident, a group of people were sitting in the living room watching a movie and had just finished eating pizza. The Ethiopian roommate came home from the library and went straight to the pizza box, after making a comment about how good it looked one of the roommates called out “Get your cotton pickin’ fingers out of my pizza!” This is an example of backstage racism but slightly more toward the front. The phrase was in reference to African American’s being slaves, but because only the Ethiopian, the roommate who made the comment and I heard, it is not quite front stage racism, but because it was said at home with friends it is considered backstage. At the time these incidents seemed minor and funny, but now I am sure the comments were hurtful and had a negative effect on the individual. If someone were to make jokes about my ethnicity as being Hispanic, I would be upset as well.

Blog 3

Summarize the primary narrative in the film. Next, tell me how you would rewrite the film in a way that unsettles, challenges or reframes the dominant narrative.

The narrative of the film is to overcome stereotypes by breaking down communication barriers as demonstrated through the Lieutenant Dunbar in his attempt to communicate through the dancing methods of the Native Americans. The movie uses the friendship between a white American soldier and a Native American Indian and one of their women. Through these relationships, the film is able to show the interaction between two differing cultures. In Dancing With the Wolves, the Native Americans are portrayed as brave and courageous warriors and their women are framed as exotic princesses who are try to be strong and fearless like their men, but in reality they are just like any other woman. This movie, unlike many Native American/Euro-American settler movies, breaks down the impact that the Euro-Americans had on the new land and on the Indians by using one person to represent them. Since Lt. Dunbar is alone at the American soldier’s camp, he is perceived as less threatening by the Native Americans which allows them to give him a second chance after he rescues the mourning, suicidal woman. In another effort to change white stereotypes, Lt. Dunbar also tries to communicate with the natives in a way that there are comfortable with contrary to present time where Americans expect that everyone will speak English to them regardless of which country they are in. The Indians in the film also choose not to hurt or threaten Lt. Dunbar, but to show him they are not afraid.

If I were to rewrite the film, I might try to show from both the Native American’s perspective as well as from the Euro-Americans perspective. Being able to give a “behind the scenes” look if you will, of how the Natives are reacting to Lt. Dunbar being on their land and talking to their women it could depict them in a more positive light. It may help the audience to see why the natives feared Lt. Dunbar, or how they described their encounter with a man who didn’t speak their language but did not runoff when the Native Warriors tried to display their fearlessness. I think it would be interesting and compelling if the movie were narrated by both Lt. Dunbar and Kicking Bird. The film could show one of them and their opinions on an encounter or situation between the two then switch to the other and get their opinion so both sides are being spoken for.

CES 204- Blog Assignment #1:

*Summarize the film 9066 to 9/11 America’s concentration camps then… and now. Critique the documentary; what can the film do to appeal to more than the average American Viewer.

The film 9066 to 9/11 America’s concentration camps, gives a brief and biased outline of how the United States used race a deciding factor when interviewing potential threats to the country as well as in determining who would be deported or contained within concentrations camps. After the attacks at Pearl Harbor, the US was mad at the Japanese, but because they were unable to directly attack the Japanese government who was responsible for the destruction, the US government responded by gathering as many Japanese American’s as they could and imprisoned them in concentration camps. Similarly, although no concentration camps were established, after the 9/11 attacks, the US government began questioning Muslim Americans and shortly thereafter they were deported. The film talks to people who experienced this repression and listens as they recount their experiences and the travesty’s of that era.

The documentary was interesting as it exposes the repressive goals and actions toward Muslims and Japanese. One interviewee said that even if they did comply with the US government’s requests and laws they were still treated poorly and put in concentration camps. This is a blatant example of racial discrimination brought on because a small percentage of people from their racial group chose to bomb Pearl Harbor. The film could have been longer and given the US government’s side as to why they chose to treat the Muslims and Japanese in the negative way that they did. It would have been a more educational documentary and would have been more credible of if the film makers had interviewed a variety of speakers and had set the documentary up as them telling a story. I didn’t like how the video jumped around, it needed to flow better and have more images and interviews. By doing that, it would make the story more compelling to US citizens because they would be able to see what was going on rather than being told by people that do not hold a very high position in government, or by people who haven’t proved their credibility. Another element to include would be statistics so that viewers have a number that they can mentally relate to; this would enhance the documentary and participants credibility as well. American’s understand numbers, as a way to quantifiably sort out information being presented to them.