naija & film

(I wrote this on hi5 last year and just updated it and thought I'd add it to my blog. Enjoy... or not)

I heard the outcry from people when TEARS OF THE SUN starring Bruce "Die Hard" Willis and Monica "Hottest Chick Alive" Bellucci was released: "BOYCOTT THIS MOVIE! BOYCOTT THIS MOVIE!" This was because they said it showed a very WRONG depiction of the country with its civil war, mass slaughter theme.

I must confess that I gave the film a miss for a long time because of these sentiments but finally watched it a while back. One thing I have to point out to everybody is that: IT IS ONLY A MOVIE! Meant for entertainment first and hopefully, education. Simply put, it is a fictional story based in/on Nigeria. I agree films have the power to drive misconception but there is not much anyone can do about it. When every Italian is a mobster or Arab is a terrorist in other movies, why do we keep mum? Do you think ALL South Americans are crazy about SCARFACE? So we need to stop complaining about everything or at least have constructive criticism.

My criticism would be the depiction of all Africans being the same. We have White Americans, White Englishmen, White Frenchmen and even Blacks in all these categories that are very different. Heck, we even have White Africans who speak Afrikaans! So, film directors and producers should not really believe that a Zambian can play a convincing Nigerian and vice versa. It was hard to point out a proper Nigerian accent in TEARS OF THE SUN and the same goes for SAHARA, where they pronounced Lagos as LA-GOES instead of LAY-GUSS! Other than that, dislike for the films should be on whether they were interesting or boring, well acted, directed etc.

In another Bruce Willis vehicle (his major coming out part actually), DIE HARD, apparently, the German spoken by Alan Rickman and his terrorist group is actually gibberish and bears no significant meaning. Surely, this is cause for an uproar, first, depicting them as terrorists and then not having the common decency to get the language right. Tossers.

However, it is touted as one of the greatest action pictures of our time. No boycott petitions, no whining, nada. And I’m sure “Ze Germans” enjoyed the movie as well and took it for what it was – entertainment.

I can see where sensitivity will seep in on the issue because being a Nigerian; I also had moments of slight irritation with the many unfamiliar scenes portrayed in the flick. However, I had to remind myself that it was only a movie and get past all that. I mean, if ABOVE THE RIM could make an error in detail so simple – where #52 rebounds the ball on one end of the court, throws a bullet pass down court, catches it and dunks it – then I guess it would be quite hard being accurate on a whole country. More research should have been done, I agree, but many a movie has fallen short in accuracy but we shouldn’t get so worked up by the issue.

And for all we know, while we are all living comfortably in our “urban” dwellings, with access to e-mail facilities and the like to send out boycott petitions, do we know for sure that the rural dwelling, less fortunate people are not suffering similar fates?

I hope I am making sense? And while I am on the subject, JESUS CHRIST being depicted by a White man should stop being such an issue. If you want Denzel to play CHRIST and feel it will take you to Heaven, be my guest!

Have a swell day!