‘Bright’ Seems To Take On Racism In A New Way
While many of the world’s best review writers are slamming David Ayer‘s latest Netflix movie ‘Bright,’ it seems to lean toward changing minds on racism.
‘The Daily Beast’ even goes as far as to say ‘Netflix’s ‘Bright’ Is a $90 Million Steaming Pile of Orc Sh*t,’ while ‘Entertainment Weekly’ calls it ‘Netflix’s new Bright-inspired yule log is a literal garbage fire.’
So what goes so wrong with ‘Bright’ and why are people so upset about it?
This is going on my fridge. Highest compliment is a strong reaction either way. This is a f*cking epic review. It’s a big fun movie. You can sure string words together Mr. Erlich. I’d love to read any script you’ve written.
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) December 21, 2017
‘The Daily Beast’s’ Writer Karen Han suggests that not enough magical creatures are shown (which fairies, centaurs, dragons, elves, and orcs are present within the first half of the film), that the plot has too many holes, and it doesn’t quite make sense, but after reviewing the film, it seems in this writer’s opinion that she may not be into sci-fi, mystical thrillers.
What’s being described loosely as a bad video game plot grasping at straws, Han takes shots at writer Max Landis, saying:
“I almost couldn’t help but wonder if working fantasy species into this story wasn’t just an excuse to not have to deal with any ‘real’ politics and try to come off as progressive or edgy as a result, or a sort of cover-up to disguise the fact that this is a movie about racial discrimination and struggle written by a privileged white man (the son of John Landis) lacking any grasp of race relations.”
What seems to be more of the case, is the writers are putting orcs in the position of the black community, maintaining the stereotypes of how many would have reacted back in the day with receiving their first black partner. When the orcs encounter Officer Nick Jacoby (Joel Edgerton), they call him a traitor, while many orcs are portrayed as sub-minorities like grungy punks, or Los Angeles thugs. Without missing the line of cartels, the Spanish speaking population gets the rap of being thugs as well, attempting to chase down Jacoby and his partner Daryl Ward (Will Smith) to gain an Elven wand, which was being held by an elf named Tikka, who has some super strange parallels to ‘The Fifth Element’s’ Leeloo.
Meanwhile, Elves are attempting to track down the wand themselves, and seem to be the white commodity, and are also portrayed as the 1%. It’s interesting to watch as you’re viewing the film because even though there were a few cops that were white, they were also evil too.
Judging by how the whole thing plays out, many individuals watching the film are either not going to grasp the symbolism, or are probably not on the side of supporting those thoughts. In this reporter’s opinion, one who partakes in both mystical film and writing’s, let alone supporting that every race and human should be equal, ‘Bright’ falls into the category of the good guys. And though maybe it’s not penetrating a direct parallel, it does enough to get the point across and do justice for the first step toward breaking ground in this genre.
I honestly find it kind of genius to bring something from the magical realms to help discuss racism, because a good blend of the population that partakes in watching and ingesting mystical media are white individuals. So hey, maybe people are just mad that they got tricked into changing their feelings on racism.
Time will tell, but don’t let the “critics” fool you – watch it for yourself.
SEE: Production Stills From ‘Bright’
Amy Cooper is one with the force and the force is with her.
