Thanks for the article! I'm interested to know if the author's opinion has changed at all now that the movie's come out. As good as BC was in his portrayal, I couldn't help but notice that his Khan was written pretty flatly. Montalban's Khan wasn't the most complex villain ever but he certainly had more going on than BC's Khan. In that way, I was almost happy that if Khan was going to get re-written as a 2-dimensional terrorist, making him White felt somehow "better." Not that "better" is exactly the word. Perhaps the lesser of two insults?
I also think it's a problem in a series of movies where white, blue-eyed Kirk seems to be captain of the Enterprise for behaving badly, and most of the people under him are not white (or are half-Vulcan) but much better behaved!
I can't quite decide if this is an issue with the current filmmakers or an issue of them trying to translate a very dated trope to modern times. No one blinked an eye back in the day when Montalban was cast as an Indian character (in darkening foundation make up no less) and I'm sure no one batted an eye at the idea that heroism = white men behaving badly. But the whole idea of the very White Kirk basically disregarding rules and getting rewarded for it while those who are non-White who behave according to the rules and are ignored feels more problematic now.
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Date: 2013-05-29 11:48 am (UTC)I also think it's a problem in a series of movies where white, blue-eyed Kirk seems to be captain of the Enterprise for behaving badly, and most of the people under him are not white (or are half-Vulcan) but much better behaved!
I can't quite decide if this is an issue with the current filmmakers or an issue of them trying to translate a very dated trope to modern times. No one blinked an eye back in the day when Montalban was cast as an Indian character (in darkening foundation make up no less) and I'm sure no one batted an eye at the idea that heroism = white men behaving badly. But the whole idea of the very White Kirk basically disregarding rules and getting rewarded for it while those who are non-White who behave according to the rules and are ignored feels more problematic now.