Everything in Star Wars is “alien” but with enough “earthbound” factors mixed in to make it something we are more familiar.
There are good guys and bad guys with accents. The bad guys are always British, the good guys are usually American, but few people bring that up. Presumably because they have matching skin colour, that doesn’t count.
Anyway, the Trade Federation accents were come up by getting Asians (I believe they were Korean or Thai) to read the dialogue phonetically, then they got the regular actors to imitate the sounds but enunciate it a bit clearer. This was an attempt to alienise it, but not too much.
In retrospect, I’m sure George Lucas regrets some of the decisions he made regarding accents.
I personally feel the Trade Federation guys should’ve been subtitled and speak complete alien gibberish instead. It would’ve added to their credibility, and reduced the racism cries a bit.
I’ve never heard this anywhere else. Do you have a cite for it?
The dialogue doesn’t really sound Korean at all to me, nor Japanese or Chinese, Arabic or Russian. I’ve known people who speak or speak these myself, and I still see no similarity. What I noticed about the Trade Fed most was their cadence, not the specific accenting of words; they tended to speak like this:
“I-want her-head on my-desk.”
If Watto is suppsoed to resemble a Jew, then I actualy think its rather funny. Seeing some old German sterotyped political cartoons and so forth, I’d have to say that Waqtto would be a giant mockery of the stereotype: he’s got this funny fat body and a huge nose. Ack, it doesn’t come across well in print, but if you see some old cartoons aout it, you might understand.
Yes and no. I saw/read–I can’t recall–an interview where Lucas said that he wanted a Pidgin English dialect for the character so that we wouldn’t be able to understand him at first, but would grow to understand him over the course of the movie. He obviously succeeded.
Considering that Jar Jar’s people were noble, brave, and advanced, I don’t see where there is any racism involved. I always wonder if it is a case of people having stereotypes about blacks, they see that Jar Jar is superficially black in his dialect, and so they impose all the negatives on Jar Jar & his people without viewing them for what they are. I mean, c’mon–Jar Jar was a small time thief who redeemed himself to become a great citizen.
And for Watto: What would you expect a gigantic talking housefly living on a lawless, slave-trading planet to sound & act like?
The Trade Federation guys did sound asian to me. That, combined with the way they acted (very polite, very submissive) led me to conclude that they were based on the stereotypical Japanese businessman.
Jar-Jar’s Jamaican accent was pretty obvious. Plus, he’s slow-witted and clumsy. I can see why so many blacks were offended.
Watto didn’t have any accent that I could identify.
At that time, I had argued against the idea that Watto was “Jewish,” but I had not yet seen Episode II. When I saw it, I was struck by the flat-brimmed hat and the way that he kept his elbows close to his torso (in his very brief scene) as he had not done in Episode I, and I could see where some folks got the “Jew” impression (but only for Episode II). I still hold that any character that can be “demonstrated” to have been a slur on so many different groups is more likely not a slur on any of them.
I think that the way in which the Neimodians go very lightly over the consonants is reminiscent of the way that speakers of East Asian languages are perceived by typical consonant-pounding European and American speakers of English. I noted in GuanoLad’s link, however, that the voices were not chosen for their ability to portray Foo Manchu or any other stereotypical “Chinese” characters. They chose Thai accents because they sounded exotic. (The only stereotypes most Americans have about the Thai are of bald-headed emperors singing to English nannies–hardly a horrible stereotype of malice and evil.)
While Jar-Jar certainly sounded a bit Caribbean, it should also be noted that Lucas let the voice actor work out his own speech patterns. Again, not a case of Lucas imposing a pre-ordained stereotype on the characters.
He’s just a racial caricature. He’s an alien.
Frankly I don’t understand the idea that since Lucas is finally broadening his racial horizons (two black guys in the trilogy, one dies damn near immediately) he’s a total racist. It’s certainly better than the matrix sequels where everyone’s black or french.
It should be noted that because Star Wars was originally inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s works, George originally wanted all the characters to be Asian. That was how he pictured them, but somewhere along the line he changed his mind. That influence is, however, still carried through in the representation of Jedi culture, especially the modes of dress and of course the whole Samurai Sword / Light Sabre thing.
I had heard the “Jewish stereotype” thing when Phantom Menace came out. Didn’t care, but I found it funny. So how do we see him in the second one? He’s got a beard, a hat that looked stolen from an Orthodox man and something that looked like pais on the side of his head. I almost died laughing. The only thing in the entire movie that amused me.
Yeah, I was in that trainwreck. I think the eventual consensus was that Lucas was borrowing from older movies, and (probably unintentionaly) carried over some racist baggage in diluted form. I still think the Neimoidians sound like Charlie Chan.
On the other hand, the dark-skinned actual human being that has appeared in both prequels is a supremely competent Jedi, the peer of the almighty Yoda. Jar Jar was annoying, but why is he the one held up to show Lucas’ view on blacks instead of Samuel L. as the #1.5 Jedi Master?
Every time I hear the “Lucas is racist” tune, I hear Hooper X from “Chasing Amy.”
