Wednesday, October 07, 2009



"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is racist?

These comments by a lady of apparent Indian origin appeared in "The Times" of London:
"Decades after its release, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is still adored, being celebrated in fashion magazine spreads, inspiring songs (Deep Blue Something had a No 1 hit with Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1995), and receiving mentions on telly and being revived this month as a play in the West End. I don’t think I’ve ever known a woman who hasn’t at some stage named it as one of her favourite films.

Having watched the film three times now, I still can’t buy the idea that her Holly is a native Texan, and I was not in the least bit surprised to read that Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe in the role, and that Hepburn herself didn’t rate the performance, remarking after its release that “I should have been a little more outrageous”.

Then again Hepburn’s efforts were positively Oscar-worthy compared with George Peppard’s feeble turn opposite her in the role of a struggling author. He doesn’t so much act as just stand around shuffling, and it says everything about his talents that after Breakfast at Tiffany’s Peppard’s most famous role was playing Hannibal in The A-Team. Frankly, Mr T would have done a better job in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Then again, in turn, his performance doesn’t seem quite so bad when compared with Mickey Rooney in the role of Mr Yunioshi, Holly’s bucktoothed, yellowface Japanese neighbour. Though the problem here is less with the acting than with the stereotypical nature of the role. “O me so sorry! Me love you long time!” It makes The Black and White Minstrel Show look like a government ethnic minority recruitment campaign. Apparently, director Blake Edwards subsequently expressed regret, saying “looking back, I wish I had never done it”, but this doesn’t change the fact that one of the most acclaimed films of our times, which gets shown more than some new releases, and has become a byword for romance viewing, is racist.

Source

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Stan B said...

We err greatly when we attempt to hold those who came before us to the same standards we as a society set for ourselves, for we set ourselves up to be judged later in the same manner over what now seem to be harmless trifles.

At the time of the film, the social norms did not preclude using stereotypes as models for artistic endeavor. That we sit in judgment 45 years later and say "They ought not to have done that" is the height of hubris.

Dean said...

Stan: how correct you are! Good post.

Anonymous said...

"Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama's many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America — Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, etc. — at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?".... Thomas Sowell