So this is a trailer for the upcoming film, The Impossible, telling the story about the 2004 tsunami:
There are a few title cards in the trailer that provide the necessary background for the story. The trailer helpfully tells you, “In 2004, tragedy struck southeast Asia.”
However, I don’t think those title cards are specific enough. I’d like to revise those title cards so they read, “In 2004, tragedy devastated entire nations, but we’re going to focus on one white family that was on vacation there.”
The Impossible is based on a true story of a real family that was separated during the tsunami and eventually reunited, each family member miraculously surviving. I can easily see why this story would appeal so much to filmmakers. “Family separated, in peril, in a devastated nation that is completely foreign to them” is such a great hook that it’s practically Captain Hook. Who wouldn’t be interested in the story of a family who have to survive in a country that isn’t their own?
On the other hand, this is a real-life tsunami that affected entire nations, that devastated the lives of the citizens who lived there, and the first prominent film about the tragedy is about white people who were staying at a hotel?
Landon Palmer at the Culture Warrior has more to say on this:
“There is no reason to say that this experience wasn’t any less traumatic and devastating for those visiting (regardless of their particular race) than the inhabitants (once again, regardless of their particular race) of any of the affected nations. The problem with The Impossible trailer isn’t the depiction family’s experience of the tragedy itself, but its implications about what happens when, say, the film ends. While watching the trailer for the first time, an image kept appearing in my head of an exhausted, scratched-up family sleeping comfortably on a plane returning them safely to their home of origin. Being able to survive and then leave a tragedy is altogether different than having everything that is familiar, including one’s home, fall apart before your eyes. However, years of uncertain reconstruction and rehabilitation doesn’t fit the formula of a Hollywood ending quite like a welcome return to a home far, far away from moving tectonic plates.”
Or, you can read a briefer, much more blunt article at 8Asians here, titled “The Impossible Trailer Features Pretty White People Surviving Indonesian Tsunami.”
There are some who might say that one can’t judge a film before seeing it, but that’s a whole lot of malarkey. The purpose of trailers is to market the film and let viewers decide whether or not they want to see it. If a person does not want to see The Impossible because they don’t want to see, as my friend put it, “the tsunami from the perspective of the 1%,” that is a legitimate reason to not see the film.
As for me, I will probably see The Impossible. Naomi Watts is likely going to score a Best Actress nomination for the film, and I’m an Oscar junkie who likes to see as many nominated films as possible from the Picture, Director, Acting, and Screenplay categories. The film also looks beautifully shot, and I don’t get the same sense of manipulation and tear-jerking that I see in a lot of movies about real-life tragedies. The Impossible is likely a good movie, if not a very good movie.
Still, I can’t help but feel that the real impossible task is making a movie about tragedies that affect non-white people and expecting the film to get the same attention as one that stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.
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The true story is very heartwarming, but it feels saddening that this should be the first film made on that tsunami. On that note, 2 schoolmates of mine died because of it, and even though I may not have been exceptionally close to them, it is just incredibly disappointing to think that, had this film not been centered around, well, for lack of a better word, the fair-skinned 1%, it might not have gotten the huge amount of attention it’s received.
* On a sadder note, the real family that this story was based on was Spanish.
Yes, they’re definitely not lily-white Watts and McGregor. And I can’t even blame “Hollywood” for the white-washing. The film has a Spanish director and Spanish screenwriter. WTF?
Well, I know quite a few Spanish people who are as lily-white as Watts and McGregor. One of them complained that when he’s abroad people don’t believe he’s Spanish, but he patiently explains that the fiery South European dark Cassanova type is a stereotype:)
My cynical self says that Watts and McGregor (both actors I really like) were chosen (and the true story was adapted adequately), because the pair of them will bring more money than a pair of unknown to the wider public Spanish actors, whatever their skintone may be.
I know that lily-white (or I could even say Lady T-white because I seriously look like a ghost sometimes) Spaniards exist, but the particular family whose story the movie is based on are not: http://www.trbimg.com/img-504d740c/turbine/la-et-mn-the-impossible-premiere-mixes-emotion-001/600
I like both actors, too, and the movie looks good, but the politics of the story annoys me a bit.
Fair enough. Nice group photo.
Indeed. The politics are annoying — though unsurprising. Also, there is an ethical problem of making money on the tragedy of so many people. Of course, a film about the tsunami could raise awareness and see if the affected regions still need help 8 years with dealing with the aftermath, but somehow I doubt that this will. I’m not saying that the story of this family isn’t worth telling — but I hope we’ll get to see a story of a local family who has lost everything and had to start over with nothing. That I’d like to see, even if there was no McGregor in it.
I’m sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine how it feels to know people who died in that tragedy.
‘…a home far, far away from moving tectonic plates’.
As somebody who had to learn to learn geology and tectonic plates no less than three times in secondary school (three different years, same content, no updates, just how the curriculum went), this concept somehow ticks me off than the massive whitewashing… but hey, I’m aware of my terrible priorities.
But seriously, how’s that giant collection of fault-lines lying under California doing?
The real-life family whose story the film is based on didn’t live in California. They live in Spain (though their film counterparts appear to be British). I’m not sure what the tectonic plate situation is like in England and Spain, though, as I seem to have forgotten or deliberately blocked out most of my earth science education.
(Ah, pardon; my usual assumption with Hollywood is that they’re most likely to make you from Hollywood.)
The UK is well within the Eurasian plate; Spain’s southern coast is, according to the three maps I just googled, close to if not sitting on top of the Eurasian-African plate boundary. Of course both of them sit on at least three smaller plates and the UK has a bunch of fault lines underneath it.
The real white family was Spanish, but the film (apparently) re-locates them to the UK? Wow–I guess Spain still isn’t white enough for them…
Personally, I think that a film about the tragedy from the perspective of people who lived there would be a lot more interesting, but that’s partly because I watch movies/read books that involve cultures other than my own in hopes of getting a little taste of that culture. While a hollywood film about a family native to that area certianly would not be the same as a documentary about the tragedy, I’m sure that there would be something there of value. I’m sorry to say it, but I’m not surprised that this movie was made instead of that one. I think an Indy film maker might be more likely to make a movie like this from the point of view of people native to the area…an indy film maker whose project probably would not get near as much attention or as wide a release as this one will.