Irichcrusader t1_j6mbc5l wrote on January 31, 2023 at 9:54 AM

Reply to comment by Earthling7228320321 in Why Film Festivals Are Steering Clear of Controversial Movies by BobRobot77

>I mean the first thing they cite here is a movie about a transphobic gay guy. Big fat shock that nobody wanted to watch it.

Haven't seen the movie myself, but based on what the article said about it, this character starts out initially as transphobic. By the sounds of it, the movie is an attempt to explore this idea of transphobia in the gay community, it's not necessarily endorsing it but asking the audience to reflect on it and, perhaps, come to terms with a difficult subject that not many people like to talk about. That's what any great work of art should aim to do, challenge the viewer by giving them a new perspective on something or bringing an important topic to their attention.

Let's take American History X as an example. It's a movie about a literal neo-nazi, showing his journey into hate and how any human heart can be corrupted by excessive anger and the need for easy answers. It then show's his journey out of that and his attempt to make things right. It's perhaps one of the most provocative and hard-hitting movies ever made, as it makes a viewer question whether there is anything in their own heart that is holding them back or making their life harder than it needs to be. Now, if someone doesn't want to watch this movie simply because of a gut-reaction to it's subject line, then that is their choice, but I also think they're being really foolish. They're judging the film without knowing anything about it, thinking it's endorsing neo-nazi beliefs when in actuality its demolishing them.

If we only ever made "safe" movies where no one's world views are ever questioned and no difficult or complex topics are ever tackled, then this would a very sterile world.

Earthling7228320321 t1_j6mh1ze wrote on January 31, 2023 at 11:13 AM

Yeah that sounds great and all but in the real world bigots don't just magically change into better people. I mean if that's the movie people wanna watch that's fine. But clearly its not many people.

Irichcrusader t1_j6nortu wrote on January 31, 2023 at 4:57 PM

American History X isn't aimed at the worst sorts of bigots, from what I've heard a lot of them completely miss the point of it. Instead, it's aimed at non-extremist people who might find themselves slipping into hatred of some kind, be it against a minority for racist reasons, or a whole nation or culture due to nationalist reasons. Hate is something that only gets worse the more you feed it and that's what you see with Derick's character. He doesn't change until he finally comes to the realization that his hate has consumed him and destroyed his life and that of his family for no gain whatsoever. That's the central message of the movie, and you don't need to be a KKK member to get some value out of that message.

Similarly, I don't expect that the documentary Jihad Rehab will ever magically make a terrorist see the error of his ways, or that the movie Walking Up Dead will make a committed transphobe gay person see how wrong they've been. That's ok. But perhaps both films can ignite discussion among those who never knew of these issues or make them reflect on some of their own failings. Of course, no one has to watch these if they don't want to, but I find it a bit absurd if someone says they won't see it because they don't agree with the views of the protagonist.