Multicultural Films: A Reference Guide JANICE R. WELSCH J. Q. ADAMS GREENWOOD PRESS MULTICULTURAL FILMS y A Reference Guide JANICE R. WELSCH AND J. Q. ADAMS GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Welsch, Janice R. Multicultural films : a reference guide / Janice R. Welsch and J. Q. Adams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–31975–8 (alk. paper) 1. Minorities in motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures—United States—Catalogs. I. Adams, J. Q. II. Title. PN1995.9.M56W45 2005 016.79143'6556—dc22 2004022529 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2005 by Janice R. Welsch and J. Q. Adams All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004022529 ISBN: 0–313–31975–8 First published in 2005 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 In memory of John Ogbu Contents Preface xiii African American Films 1 Overview 1 The Films 2 Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery 2 Amistad 3 Antwone Fisher 4 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The 5 Baby Boy 6 Bamboozled 7 Bird 8 Birth of a Nation, The 9 Color Purple, The 10 Daughters of the Dust 11 Eve’s Bayou 12 Eyes on the Prize 13 Hoop Dreams 14 John Q 15 Malcolm X 16 Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle 17 Raisin in the Sun, A 18 Roots 19 Slam 20 viii y Contents Soldier’s Story, A 21 Soul Food 22 Sounder 23 Stormy Weather 24 Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song 25 To Sleep with Anger 26 When We Were Kings 27 Arab American and Middle Eastern American Films 29 Overview 29 The Films 31 Collecting Stories from Exile: Chicago Palestinians Remember 1948 31 Covered Girls 31 House of Sand and Fog 32 In My Own Skin: The Complexity of Living as an Arab in America 34 Siege, The 35 Tales of Arab Detroit 36 With Us or Against Us: Afghan Americans Since 9/11 37 Asian American Films 39 Overview 39 The Films 41 Catfish in Black Bean Sauce 41 Chan Is Missing 42 Chutney Popcorn 43 Combination Platter 44 Eat a Bowl of Tea 45 Great Wall, A 46 Green Dragon, The 48 Heaven & Earth 49 Joy Luck Club, The 50 Living on Tokyo Time 51 Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision 52 Picture Bride 53 Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women’s Perspectives 55 Snow Falling on Cedars 55 Two Lies 57 Wedding Banquet, The 58 Who Killed Vincent Chin? 59 Contents y ix European American Films 61 Overview 61 The Films 62 Almost Famous 62 Avalon 63 Beautiful Mind, A 64 Believer, The 65 Bronx Tale, A 66 Clueless 67 Fail Safe 68 Gangs of New York 69 Gentleman’s Agreement 71 Gone with the Wind 72 Green Card 73 Insider, The 74 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 75 O Brother, Where Art Thou? 77 Seabiscuit 78 Sergeant York 79 Songcatcher 81 Thelma & Louise 82 Witness 83 Latino/a American Films 85 Overview 85 The Films 86 Almost a Woman 86 Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, The 88 Blood in Blood Out/Bound by Honor 89 Born in East L.A. 90 Bread and Roses 91 City, The/La Ciudad 92 El Norte 93 Fires Within 94 Girlfight 95 La Bamba 96 Mask of Zorro, The 97 Milagro Beanfield War, The 98 Mi Vida Loca/My Crazy Life 99 My American Girls: A Dominican Story 100 x y Contents My Family/Mi Familia 102 Perez Family, The 103 Raising Victor Vargas 104 Real Women Have Curves 105 Rum and Coke 106 Salt of the Earth 107 Selena 108 Spy Kids 109 Stand and Deliver 110 Tortilla Soup 111 West Side Story 112 Zoot Suit 113 Native American Films 115 Overview 115 The Films 117 Business of Fancy Dancing, The 117 Doe Boy, The 118 Dreamkeeper 120 Education of Little Tree, The 121 Fast Runner, The/Atanarjuat 122 Grand Avenue 123 In the Light of Reverence 124 In the Spirit of Crazy Horse 125 In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports 127 Incident at Oglala 128 Indian in the Cupboard, The 129 Lakota Woman 130 Lighting the Seventh Fire 131 Naturally Native 132 On and Off the Res with Charlie Hill 134 Pocahontas 135 Return of Navajo Boy, The 136 Rocks with Wings 138 Skins 139 Skinwalkers 140 Smoke Signals 141 True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers 142 Vanishing American, The 144 Warrior in Two Worlds: The Life of Ely Parker, A 145 Contents y xi Intercultural Films 147 Overview 147 The Films 148 Because of You 148 Blade Runner 149 Blue Collar 150 Bowling for Columbine 152 Brother from Another Planet, The 153 China Girl 154 Conrack 155 Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero 156 Far from Heaven 157 Finding Forrester 159 Follow Me Home 160 Giant 161 Hey Arnold! The Movie 162 Higher Learning 163 Holes 164 Human Stain, The 165 Imitation of Life 167 In America 168 In the Heat of the Night 170 Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, The 171 Ken Burns’s Documentaries: The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz 172 Lone Star 174 Lovely and Amazing 175 Matewan 177 Matrix Trilogy, The 178 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 179 Mississippi Masala 180 Moscow on the Hudson 182 New Americans, The 183 Norma Rae 185 Philadelphia 186 Romeo Must Die 187 Silverado 188 Solaris 189 Soylent Green 190 To Kill a Mockingbird 191 xii y Contents Twelve Angry Men 192 Unbowed 193 Unforgiven 195 Way Home, The 196 White Man’s Burden 197 Woodstock 198 X-Men/X2 199 Films by Theme 201 Film Distributors 213 Selected Bibliography 215 Index 221 Preface Multicultural Films: A Reference Guide could easily be subtitled “What Movies Tell Us about Race/Ethnicity in the United States.” It offers educators, librarians, students, and other film viewers brief synopses and critiques of a variety of motion pictures that take up, in one way or another, issues of race/ethnicity. Though this may appear to be an un- complicated, straightforward statement, it demands clarification because “multicultural,” “race,” and “ethnicity” can be difficult concepts to define, and in selecting a variety of films, criteria are needed to provide some semblance of coherence within that variety. Definitions attempt to establish lines, or borders, around ideas, relationships, and en- tities and to offer a common ground for communication and interaction. While working on this book, however, we have been repeatedly reminded of how difficult defining ideas or establishing parameters around concepts can be. We, like multicultural educa- tors generally, consider gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, and age as well as race/ethnicity when exploring cultural diversity. However, in this book, we have delib- erately chosen to work within a narrower scope while recognizing the significance of these other cultural factors and knowing that they cannot and should not be completely separated from issues of race/ethnicity. They will surface in some of our critiques though our principal interest remains race/ethnicity. We use this compound term, race/ethnicity, to draw attention to the ways in which “race” has been used within the United States and to refute its accuracy as a sound sci- entific concept, while admitting its continued relevance as a sociological construct. That is, because scientists have no clear criteria for defining race or distinguishing one race from another, because “most of the world’s people are of ‘mixed stock’ ” (Allen 94), and because “[m]ost human characteristics ascribed to race are...[actually] ethnic, not racial,” the term has no genetic or biological viability (Allen quoting Allport 94; See also Allen and Adams 46 and Cavalli-Sforza et al.). Yet, the term continues to be used to ascribe identity to various groups on the basis of physical differences or similarities, such as skin color, eye shape, or hair texture, and to determine access to political, eco- nomic, and social resources for these groups (Weber 80–82). As a socially constructed term, its meaning has changed as society has changed, a phenomenon evident, for ex- ample, in the different racial identities given to Italians and Greeks in the United States xiv y Preface in the early twentieth century and today, and in the different racial categories used in the U.S. Census from decade to decade (Barrett and Roediger 29–34; Omi, Omi and Winant). People all over the world belong to one race, the human race, but their ancestral ori- gins give them diverse ethnic identities: Ethiopian, Mexican, Irish, Japanese, Lebanese, or Vietnamese, for instance. Within the United States, when referring to a citizen of this country, we regularly make ethnic distinctions among European Americans, identifying them more specifically as German, French, Polish, or Italian American; but we usually refer to people who came from Africa, whatever their actual country of origin, as African American. We tend to do the same when referring to Native Americans from different tribal nations, Hispanics or Latinos/as, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans. To bring some symmetry to these categories, we have adopted the following desig- nations for the first six sections of this book, even though we realize that each is prob- lematic in one way or another: African, Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian, European, Latino/a, and Native American.