Publication The New Hollywood Racelessness

In the article, The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the Fast, Furious, (and Multicultural) Will Survive, Mary C. Beltran explores the rise of casting multicultural actors as action film protagonists and examines United States deomgraphic trends of youth oriented pop-culture in conjunction with these changes. Mary C. Beltran is an Associate Professor and Area Head for Media Studies in the Radio-Television-Film department at The University of Texas. Beltran is a specialist in critical studies-driven scholarship where film and televison studies, Latina/Latino and critical race studies and gender studies intersect.

She is also very knowledgable due to her prior careers as a journalist and social worker and her personal bicultural upbringing. She now writes and teaches on U.S. Latina/o media studies, racial diversity and U.S. media industries as well as miced race and media culture, U.S. television and film history, feminist media studes and media activism and independent media production. In her article, Beltran draws from many scholars who have written books, criticisms and academic articles about race, culture, U.

S. demographics and mass film media.

She also draws evidence from various movies and televesions shows that date as far back as the 1920’s while focusing primarily on two movies in particular that were written in the early 2000’s, Romeo Must Die and The Fast and the Furious to examine the shifting trends of U.S. demographics and ethnic identity over time while asserting that there are reinforcing notions of ‘white centerism’ which she argues is the standardized norm for urban action movie narratives.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Film Analysis

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

She references both films as notable examples of recent Hollywood films known for their multi-ethnic cast in urban environments in the United States. Both films portray multicultural protagonists who are played by multi-ethnic actors who thrive in their respective films due to their ability to survive in environments defined by cultural borders. Comparing the similar elements of Cohen’s film and Bartkowiak’s film, Beltran is able to make direct contrasts between the two films that both present visions of a modern millenial city environment and it’s multi-ethnic inhabitants.

According to Beltran, Romeo Must Die represents struggle between race in America, primarily African Americans and Chinese crimes syndicates in the San Francisco Bay Area which is considered to be a millenial urban settings. She draws out that there are cultural divisions and the idea of getting along is just a dream because treading over other race’s territory can cause seriously deadly consequences. In Romeo Must Die, two multi-ethnic stars, Jet Li and Aaliiyah play protagonists who rise up to end a bloody battle between two factions. In contrast, The Fast and the Furious which takes place in South Central Los Angeles depicts a more ‘racially harmonious’ narrative. The Fast and the Furious is a story of a young white protagonist who explores the racially diverse subculture of illegal street racing as an undercover cop. Like Romeo Must Die, the Fast and the Furious depicts the inner city as a place where ethnic boundaries are made but instead, the opposing races compete in friendly competition.

In her article Beltran’s explores American Hollywood films primarily focused on cultural aspects of identity in the United States that tackle specific topics of ethnicity in the inner city, narratives, characters and actors that reflect current contemporary race relations. The article also examines multi-ethnic cityscapes represented in hollywood films as far back as films in the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and beyond to show how these films have changed over time to a more ‘raceless’ aesthetic. The article argues that due to more demographic developments, action narratives are being more and more multi-cultural in focus and aesthetic and are ditching the traditional ‘white-centric’ notions in hollywood films and adopting a more fluid idntity of mixed race to appeal to a younger audience that are defined as more ‘egalitarian’. However, Beltran argues that there are contraditions that occur when such narratives which are so rooted in traditional Hollywood style try to apeal to both white and non-white audiences.

In regards to race, representaion and race relation in multiculural action films, notions and ideoloigies of white superiority and non-white inferiority continue to have a potent influence even while casting, design, production and much more promote films of multi-cultural aesthetic. A possible solution that the article mentions is making films with more of an emphasis to cast more racially ambiguous actors which may potentially erase ethnic differences and oppose hollywood film industry’s history of racial discimination. Also though, the article points out that when multi-racial actors replace mono-cultural actors of color for the sake of making films more easily consumable by audiences, darker ethnic bodies get erased in the process. Additionally when multiethnic actors play roles of characters where their cultural identities are sumberged, it tends to raise tensions that must be resolved in the narrative which presents the term, ‘trouble in the text’ in hollywood films throughout cinema history.

Lastly, rise in popularity of multiethnic mixed race actors can be seen as a praise of increasing cultural diversity in the U.S. The reception of audience towards narratives about hereoes passing as one race or the other still needs futher research. Biracial actors are still likely to be interpreted as white or stirictly something else without clarification of their dual ethnicity or complex cultural background. There is still much to be learned about multiethnic identity and more scholarly research needs to be conducted on audience’s reception of action heroes being mixed race within the narritive of a story and regardless of all this speculation, one thing remains true. Regardless of audience interpretion of multiethinicity, bi-racial indentities are becoming less and less sumberged in Hollywood narratives, which has become an evergrowing powerful trend for contemporary film.

More and more films are changing in style and aesthetic due to global influences. This phenomenon is a trend that has resulted in production of hybrid genre movies. The Fast and the Furious incorporates mixed legacies of racecar style film, low rider culture with other genres like urban gang style movies and cop films. Romeo Must Die mixes Hong Kong action film style with urban gang film genre style with hip-hop cultural aesthetics, and music. This trend toward hybrid genre films has been supported by global oriented influences particularly as films of hollywood actors of color become more mainstream. Other influence like the success of hip-hop’s popularity all around the world with youth of all ethnic groups has led action films to incorportate hip-hop to their soundtracks, casting production and costume design. Ganster rap and gangster culture is now associated with hypermasculinity and now serves as fuel energy to American action films to hype them up.

Casting of biracial and multi-racial actors and protagonist are leading the way for hollywood action figures. More and more African American, Asians and other non-white men and women are starting to appear more and more as the leading protagonists in hollywood action movies. Big budget films cast actors like Vin Diesel, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Keanu Reeves. Multiculutral actors are being veiwed more and more by film industry executives as the next box office heroes that will draw veiwers in because they reflect the ethnic diversity of their veiwers and represent and personify what these young veiwers want as a film hero. They want heroes who are multicultural and powerful. These new heroes are more distinct in manner than their predecessors because while brawn and courage continue to be valuable qualities, these heroes are distinguishable by what the author calls, ‘cultural competance,’ which can yeild a lot of power and credentials in a multiethnic millenial environment. These heroes are distinguishable by their natural ability to navigate well in a multi-ethnic world, assume command, respect and can also still kick butt when it’s necessary.

Vin Diesel in particular is Italian and African American but you may not know that when you look at him. Vin Diesel can be reffered to as ethically ambiguous which means that his race can be open for interpetation or unclear. Diesel’s ambiguous looks and acknowledgment of being mixed race without straight up saying it in films can make people wonder about the heroe’s ethnic identity in the movies he’s in. This actually benefits the character he plays as in The Fast and the Furious film because it makes him even more well known as a strong, interesting and mysterious due to his mobility, and mastery of navigation in the diverse subculture of the film or what the author calls, ‘new ways of knowing’ on the part of Diesel’s character. Diesel’s Latina girlfriend in the the film shows that Diesel’s character can easily navigate through and cross cultural boundaries and dominate more than just the diverse street car scene. Cohen, the director of TFATF was aware that Diesel’s biraciality would help to make his performance unque. Cohen even made a comment about Diesel as a, ‘new kind of leading man.’