Grumbling

[prog]

Is it weird that the Indiana Jones movies never struck me as particularly racist, but the Lego Indiana Jones video game sometimes makes me squirm a little?

Part of me suspects that neither is worse than the other in this respect, but the Lego game stands out more for being (a) brand-new and thus contextualized in 21st century cultural awareness, and (b) acted out by animated children's toys.

Also, except for watching Raiders a coupla years ago at a friend's house (which may have been the first time I ever saw it start-to-finish), I don't think I've watched the movies as an adult. My sense of heywaitasec was calibrated much looser when I was younger.

Comments

[radtea.livejournal.com]

I don't see how the movies could be remotely true to the time or the genre they are emulating and NOT be racist. But I see it as "fun racism"--racism that invites us to laugh at the genre stereotypes, to see them as the ridiculous pastiches they are.

[jadelennox]

Indiana Jones is hella racist, but we love it despite itself. Watch Temple of Doom with racism lenses on some time. Or the most recent one: animalistic grunting non-verbal victimized superstitious tribals with no characterization or point.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Part of it, I think, is that for so long Lego's toys had this sort of super-benign internationalist vibe to them; their lemon-yellow people were supposed to be of no particular race (though there were lapses, like the literally red Indians that existed briefly), the early space sets didn't have designated bad guys, the implied violence in things like the castle and pirate sets was kind of soft-pedaled, etc.

I still find it a little strange to see Lego sets with licensed media themes and Lego sets that are styled to be over-the-top badass, though they've done a fair amount of both since the early 1990s.

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[(Anonymous)]

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