Persistence of Racism in Hollywood Biracial Buddy Films
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PERSISTENCE OF RACISM IN HOLLYWOOD BIRACIAL BUDDY FILMS by Yana Trofimova A Third Year Research Project in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies at The School of Advanced Studies University of Tyumen June 2020 МИНИСТЕРСТВО НАУКИ И ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное учреждение высшего образования «ТЮМЕНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ» ШКОЛА ПЕРСПЕКТИВНЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ (SAS) ТЮМГУ Директор Школы к.ф.н., Ph.D. А.В. Щербенок КУРСОВАЯ РАБОТА ПРИСУТСТВИЕ РАСИЗМА В ГОЛЛИВУДСКИХ МЕЖРАСОВЫХ БАДДИ- ФИЛЬМАХ 42.03.05 Медиакоммуникации Выполнила работу Студентка 3-ого курса Трофимова Яна Владимировна Очной формы обучения Руководитель Мэлби Дэвид Ph.D Тюмень 2020 3 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY By submitting this research project, I hereby certify that: I am its sole author and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my research project, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices of my major; and that no third- party proofreading, editing, or translating services have been used in its completion. Yana Trofimova WORD COUNT: 4135 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………… ………………………..5 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….6 LITERATURE REVIEW………………...………………...........................................7 METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………………………8 THE FORMATIVE PHASE………………………………………………………….9 THE “STAPPING-STONE” PHASE………………………………………………..12 THE MATURE PHASE……………………………………………………………..15 THE SENSETIVE PHASE………………………………………………………….17 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………...18 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………...19 FILMOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………21 5 ABSTRACT Since the advent of the Hollywood studio system, mainstream American films have exhibited degrading stereotypes of African Americans, according to the reinforcement of white majority culture and its values. Responding to the Civil Rights movement, however, the appearance of two biracial buddy films in the 1960s established a new narrative paradigm cultivating a myth of interracial harmony between black and white communities. This paper focuses on three biracial buddy-film paradigms, each distinct in its approach to characterization, plot, and theme. Considered together, these narrative paradigms portray a would-be development of interracial friendship across several generations of American life. My research traces this cultural trajectory of mythmaking from the Sixties to the present. Accordingly, I consider nine Hollywood interracial buddy films within their respective cultural moments. Essentially, the main difference I detect between these paradigms is in the nature of the portrayed relationships between the central African-American and white characters, becoming increasingly more sensitive and intimate. Despite this evolving illusion of interracial harmony onscreen, evidence of white racism nevertheless persists in these Hollywood films, regardless of when they were produced. 6 INTRODUCTION The history of Hollywood buddy films traces back to the 1930s with Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello comedy duos. The first biracial buddy films, however, appeared only in the 1960s, as a response to the Civil Rights Movement. The transformation of the social and political environment compelled Hollywood to introduce a new biracial buddy narrative corresponding to a raised awareness of racial progressiveness. Up to this point, the problem of racial conflict was deeply integrated within the mass culture since the release of 1903 twelve-minute film Uncle Tom's Cabin or D.W Griffith’s 1915 epic The Birth of a Nation. Any appearance of African- Americans on the screen was contextualized by their strict subordination to the white majority, with degrading roles, narratives, and themes. This “formative” kind of buddy films, in turn, is defined by mutual respect and even a degree of friendship occurring between black and white characters. Depicting these characters as equals, these first films about biracial bonding generated varied opinions on whether they are a reflection of reality or a new escapist fantasy. Nevertheless, even if the portrayal of African- Americans evolved over the years, racism remains detectable in all three phases of biracial buddy films. The aim of my research is to explore this trajectory of illusory racial integration in American life, from the sixties to the present. Paying particular attention to the cultural context of each era in which these films appear, I define three biracial buddy-film paradigms: “formative”, “mature”, and “sensitive”. As I focus on this sixty-year span of American cinema, I address two essential research questions. First, I explore how the illusions of racial equality are constructed in biracial buddy films. And second, I consider how, at the same time, the mores of racial intolerance are perpetuated, despite these films’ best intentions. In other words, my study seeks to reveal how the Hollywood industry’s narrative approaches to characterization and theme maintain the myth of racial equality and, in turn, reinforce the existing racial order. 7 LITERATURE REVIEW For many film historians, exploring how Hollywood promotes racist images of African Americans on the screen is not new. Even in the present, the absolute majority of scholars still argue that American popular culture is characterized by persistent forms of racism. In the context of my research, the most relevant papers are Ed Guerrero’s The Black Image in Protective Custody: Hollywood's Biracial Buddy Films and B. Lee Artz’s Hegemony in Black and White: Interracial Buddy Films and the New Racism. In this case, Guerrero discusses the predominant narrative strategy that displaces characters of color from their community and relocates them in a dominant white cultural context.1 Being the first scholar to discuss the biracial buddy paradigm, he argues that film industry consciously implements these techniques to satisfy both material and ideological needs.2 Artz also believes that instead of reflecting the existing racial order, biracial buddy films try to please all audiences by suggesting racism can be overcome.3 The main idea remains the same: Hollywood studious tell these stories for profit. Other historical studies, such as David Bordwell’s Film Art: An Introduction, Patricia Collins’s Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, and Michael Klarman’s Brown, Racial Change, and the Civil Rights Movement, provide important insights into the complex dynamics occurring between the industry, society, and the black community itself. The most recent work focusing on recent Hollywood films in this context is Nancy Wang Yuen’s Reel Inequality: 1 Ed Guerrero, “The Black Image in Protective Custody: Hollywood's Biracial Buddy Films,” in Black American Cinema, ed. Manthia Diawara (New York, London: Routledge, 1993), 237-240. 2 Guerrero, “Black Image,” 240. 3 B. Lee Artz, “Hegemony in Black and White: Interracial Buddy Films and the New Racism,” in Cultural diversity and the US media, ed. Yahya R. Kamalipour and Theresa Carilli (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998), 68. 8 Hollywood Actors and Racism. Specifically, Yuen explores how racial stereotypes influence the actors of color, suggesting that Hollywood still supports the structural inequality within the industry and leaves most black actors behind.4 Nevertheless, there are almost no academic studies describing contemporary interracial buddy films, and so my essay seeks to fill this gap. METHODOLOGY The larger approach here is to inform my narrative analysis through cultural context. Accordingly, I consider nine Hollywood biracial buddy films within their respective periods of release and how each film reflects American race relations in that cultural period. I organize my discussion into “three” narrative paradigms, with one transitional stage in between the first and second. Each of these paradigms can be defined by its characterization, plot, and theme. The first, “formative” narrative paradigm applies essentially to the 1960s, and includes the two first biracial buddy films: The Defiant Ones (directed by Stanley Kramer, 1958) and In the Heat of the Night (directed by Norman Jewison, 1967). The transitional or “stepping-stone” period includes such films as: Silver Streak (directed by Arthur Hiller, 1976) and Stir Crazy (directed by Sidney Poitier, 1980). Released in the late seventies, these films don’t adhere to the preestablished buddy formula, but, rather, reflect the industry's focus on another film genre. The second or “mature” narrative paradigm applies, in particular, to three action-comedy films: 48 Hours (directed by Walter Hill, 1982), Trading Places (directed by John Landis, 1983), and Lethal Weapon (directed by Richard Donner, 1987). The third or “sensitive” narrative paradigm includes more cross-genre movies, released from 2000 to the present, but augments intimacy between the two protagonists in such example as: The Bucket List (directed by Rob Reiner, 2007) and Men in Black 3 (directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, 2012). 4 Nancy Wang Yuen, Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2016), 16. 9 The criteria I use to analyze these films come from Artz’s study on the topic. According to Artz, there are four general characteristics attracting black audiences: recognizable black culture, weak white characters, strong