Bloodless Star Wars

Factual Questions
41

Jar Jar Binks on screen image was greatly influenced by the way Ahmad Best performed. Best, who is black, was hired to be on screen then erased when the computer generated Jar Jar was inserted. His manerisms, which were not always scripted, came form his years of working in **Stomp ** were recreated in CG. The voice is also Best’s. The language was designed by studying how people who know just barely enough English to get by tend to speak.

How the Trade Federation spoke was based on a detailed study on how people who learned English as a second language and have mostly mastered it tend to speak. The association of their voices with Asian voices is retrofitting at best.

Watto was designed to be a low end used car dealer type character and he was designed to be somewhat sterotypical, however his voice, per se, isn’t sterotypical of any one people.

This whole argument seems vastly overblown to me. But it isn’t new. Francis Ford Coppola (who’s daughter Sophia is in The Phantom Menace now that I think of it) was hounded by accusations that he was anti-Italian for the Godfather movies despite the fact that he, Mario Puzo and just about everyone else associated with the movie was Italian. Ahmad Best, who is black, added a great deal to the character of Jar Jar Binks. That doesn’t make it racist.

Jim Petty
A Snappy message should appear here

42

I began reading this thread yesterday. This morning, there was an article in the paper about people claiming Jar Jar was a racist stereotype. The trade federation people were mentioned, too. I don’t really need to repeat much from the article, as it had pretty much the same stuff we’ve gone over here. However, the article mentioned something to the effect that people had seen Arab and Italian stereotpes. The article didn’t go into detail on this. Anyone know what that’s referring to?
As a side note, the article mentions a site called JarJarMustDie.com
I’ll check that out in a few minutes.

Neil

“. . .they could as easily have been carrying euphoniums and wearing war paint for all the notice their quarry would have taken of them.”
-Douglas Adams, “Life, the Universe, and Everything”

43

What about Yoda? What flavor of perfect English is he speaking?!?!

Listening not, I think you are.

TT

“Equal Opportunity means everybody has the same chance at being incompetent.”
–Dr. Lawrence J. Peter

44

What about racial stereotypes in Star Trek? The black subserviant Uhura, the Japanese computer user Sulu? Hell, I’m offended that the American boy in Titanic had to gamble his way onto the boat, and that he was an underachieving drifter. For crying out loud people, if you want to find something to be offended about in any movie, t.v. show, (really anything in popular culture) you probably can.

45

I’m offended that I have not been singled out to be offended!

(Oh, and Neil – the Arab or Italian offense is supposedly Watto, Anakin’s owner [though I’ve also heard that he is supposed to be Jewish – I wish people would make up their minds!].)

“Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand.”
– Neil Peart, RUSH, “Witch Hunt”

46

After seeing the movie 3 times, and a 4th time tonight, I feel qualified to comment:
As for Qui-Gon not fading away, your death has to be accepted for that to happen. I’m sure he would have rather not died so he could see Anakin through. The older Anakin didn’t fade away for the same reason. However, he and Qui-Gon still become “one with the Force” but it’s delayed.
Now the stereotypes… Jamaican Jar-Jar? I still don’t see it. And the voice doesn’t match the ways I’ve heard real and stereotyped Jamaicans talk. And the ears/dreadlocks thing is silly… are we going to say every floppy eared character ever is a jamaican stereotype now? BTW, the Jamaicans I’ve talked to speak better english than most americans.
On to Watto… well, he definitely fits the stereotype of a sleaze-ball. I’ve seen people say he’s Italian, Jewish and Arabic. This alone should show that Watto isn’t a racial stereotype at all. The only reason people see these races is because, in more offensive films, sleaze-balls tended to be Italian, Jewish or Arabic. Watto exhibits nothing particular to any of these races, however.
The Trade Federation Viceroys… I admit, I thought this somewhat offensive at first. But really… their grammar is perfect, and so’s their pronounciation (They don’t say “Queen Amidara” or anything blatantly moronic like that) It just has a Chinese twang to it. Of course, anytime you twist around English a little, people will try to associate it with some region or country, no matter what.

47

I saw that article to. It represented how the news media operates. Twenty some paragraphs of people saying Jar Jar is a racist stereotype followed by one paragraph of a Lucas representative denying it without going into any details of the denial–all of which I have outlined above. My information, in case you’re interested, comes from the book The Making of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

I noticed that the people in the article say that Jar Jar should be eliminated from the next movies and that Samual Jackson and other blacks should be given a bigger role. This is interestin in that Lucas has stated that Jar Jar, and the Gungains in general, play no role in the next movie and will be visible in, at best, a cameo. And the Jackson will have a bigger part. Now these critics in the paper will be taking credit for something that was going to happen anyways. If I were Lucas, I’d throw Jar Jar in the movie just to annoy them.

Jim Petty
A Snappy message should appear here

48

I don’t know if there are rules against copying text from one MB to another, but this appeared on in a Mr. Cranky forum and I thought it was hilarious (and so appropriate to this discussion) that I had to share. May the copyright gods have mercy on my soul.

From www.mrcranky.com :

Lucas Announces new Episode 2 characters!

Posted by: bw@hatemail.com (blitzwing)

BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW

In a stunning move, Star Wars mastermind George Lucas has released a revealing sneak peek at several new characters created in anticipation of Episode 2: The Next One.

Following the tradition of Jar Jar Binks, a character with a distinct Caribbean heritage, Lucas says his ILM creative team has drawn each of the new characters from other “hilarious world cultures.” He explained, “Considering the success of cheesy racial stereotypes in my past films, it was only natural to expand the Star Wars universe to offend as many racial and ethnic groups as possible.”

The first new character, Whitey Bigfro, is envisioned by Lucas as an outcast member of the Waspasoids, a wealthy species of albino cave-dwellers. Early in episode 2, Bigfro develops a bizarre obsession for Jar Jar Binks, and quickly begins to copy Gungan slang, fashion and music. 90210’s Brian Austin Green has already been cast in the role.

Lucas plans to use a combination of live-action and CGI to create the next character, Vinnie the Hutt, Capo de Capo of all Hutts in the entire galaxy. ILM sources reveal that Jabba’s gargantuan Godfather made his first millions by muscling his way into the sex-droid racket and then consolidated his power by seizing control of the lucrative Wookie casino cartel. The sources go on to describe Vinnie as “a 20 ton behemoth who maintains his enormous girth through a steady diet of Ewok ravioli.” Lucas has considered offering the role to Oscar-winning actor Marlon Brando, but the director worries that “even current computer graphics technology may not be able to make [Brando] look thin enough [to play a Hutt].”

Another new character is the “hygenically challenged spice dealer” Paco Bell, who hails from what Lucas described as “the seedy East side of Coruscant.” He added “The rebellion initially recruits Paco to smuggle illegal ‘aliens’ over Republic borders. However the situation becomes much more complicated when one of his passengers wins billions in the Imperial lottery.” When asked about possible casting options, Lucas responded “Imagine Erik Estrada in a Han Solo outfit.”

The next character is Polska Kelbazza - clumsily inept Imperial Admiral. Lucas had little to say about this chracter other than “he’s most notable for ordering a screen door be installed on every Imperial Star Destroyer.” Lucas hints that Kelbazza may also be responsible for designing the ventillation shaft that enabled Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star with a single shot. Lucas says he’s leaning toward casting Rodney Dangerfield as the Admiral, but only if the famous comedian can “develop the British accent required of all Imperial officers.”

The final new TNO personality is Dirk Starflamer, the first openly gay non-droid, non-Jar Jar character in the Star Wars universe. Lucas had originally planned to include this flamboyant Jedi, who weilds a purple triangular-shaped light saber, in the original film. But due to the oppresive attitude at the time towards homosexuality in children’s movies, he was forced to abandon the character. Early unsubstantiated reports indicate that in TNO’s climactic final scene, Starflamer shockingly reveals that he is Anakin’s long-lost father. 20th-Century Fox had singled the role down to two possible actors: Tom Hanks, in a reprisal of his Academy Award winning role in ‘Philadephia’, and Kevin Spacey, a well-known closeted Hollywood homosexual. But both actors were rejected by Lucas for being “nowhere near queer enough.”

When asked why Lucas would release such surprisingly candid information about a film series that has in the past been shrouded in secrecy, insiders speculated that toy manufacturers may have ordered the move. “The merchandisers desperately want to start the building the hype early for [the blockbuster sequel]” revealed a source who wishes to remain anonymous.

“That’s utterly ridiculous, I have total creative control. I would never sell out my fans. The marketing guys have no influence whatsoever,” insisted Lucas, as he hurried to board his private jet on route to a “totally unrelated” meeting with Pepsico executives.

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

49

>>So, to many people, they feel that Lucas has combined a certain part of a stereotype (how people talk in the case of the psuedoasians) with the otherwise alien features of how they look and/or act. I definitely saw this with the psuedoasians (can’t remember their race, so I’ll have to stick to this name). I also saw similarities with Jar Jar’s speech to some black speech stereotypes. If not for this similarity, I don’t think the “pimp walk” stereotype would have really entered into most people’s minds.<<

Is Jar Jar’s speech somewhat similar to black stereotyped speech? Possibly.

Does that mean that Jar Jar is a parody of blacks or of black stereotypes? No.

Frankly, I’m amazed that no one has yet spotted the (to me) obvious connection here. Ask yourself a simple question: Why is “stereotypical” black speech what it is?

Answer: Because a group of comedians who wanted to portray the classic buffoon characters in the early parts of this century chose to make those characters black.

What is Jar Jar? A classic buffoon character.

Simple, no?

Someone entirely different wrote:
>>(Oh, and Neil – the Arab or Italian offense is supposedly Watto, Anakin’s owner [though I’ve also heard that heis supposed to be Jewish – I wish people would make up their minds!].)<<

Ever read The Murders in the Rue Morgue?

-Bob

50

Actually, if I may put in my take on Jar Jar Binks’ way of talking, I hadn’t made the Jamaican/Caribbean/black connection at all when I saw the movie. I thought it just sounded like baby talk. In fact, I was embarrassed because it sounds like the way I talk to my pets, “Yousa good kitty. Mesa wuv kitty. Yousa good Jimmy-puddy. Mesa wuv Jimmy-puddy.” Am I part Gungan?

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

52

Reported for thread closure. This thread hasn’t been replied to since 1999 and there aren’t any names attached to the posts. I doubt any purpose will be served by bumping it.