Illegal Poseidon
Poseidon is one the most racist films in a while! Seriously! You are an accomplished black captain of a luxurious liner? Sorry: you are dead, and the audience still blames you.
You are the helpful immigrant that works in the kitchens, and maps the way to escaping from a burning wreckage? Sorry – you are toast, and watch for the elevator!
Hey, you are the helpful Latina woman that helps, lifts dead bodies and light fixtures, and carries a Swiss Army Crucifix; they all owe you, yet you are dead!
Or perhaps it has to do with pairing with Richard Dreyfuss. Seriously, that guy is like the plague!
This is indeed a morbid pastime, to watch for some subtext amidst the inane drivel that comes from Hollywood, but when these come so thick in their obvious characterization, I can do but laugh at their total plain and naive pandering to politically-aligned focus groups.
In the first Poseidon, the moral is clear: the slightly slutty woman dies, period. In this one, it starts by taking out the seven deadly sins; pride, avarice etc. But then it veers towards skin color and ethnic representation! Surely, Mr. Watson, amidst all the immigration debate in this country, the fact that Helena is illegally on the ship can't escape social commentators trying to draw a parallel from the movie to the perceptions of the focus groups to which it panders. Art, and its succedaneum, pop movies, reflect what society is thinking, and in this way it voices some opinions, and records them for later PhD students trying to get insight into this culture. We all share in this movie script, and it carries meaning to all of us.
Obviously, Hollywood is penalizing immigrants lately, what with Jack Black latest; what are we to expect from this country now that it has found its latest victim, its newest scapegoat?
Technorati: films, immigration