i appreciate that and thank you for the support. It was important to me to approach the issue of native americans (and the future cultures we'll explore) with a bit more dignity and realism. Although i know little of my ancestors, i'm only a couple generations from the Susquehannock Indians that make up my lineage and a part of me felt it a very important issue to try and get a respectful representation of the apache and other indians in our story. So, hopefully those who read the story of the native american community can see that we are striving for a less stereotyped portrayal.
so thanks, and i hope to talk to you again ... and cross my fingers that some of what we are doing makes it's way into the film.
rick
Bashing Native Americans, Blacks,
ReplyDeleteJews, etc. is not politically
correct anymore, but, apparently,
bashing space aliens (if they even
exist) is O.K. All of this started
with a novel written in 1898;
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.
The aliens, who came from Mars,
were depicted as octopus-like
space vampires who fed on human
blood and used death rays and
poison gas in their attempt to
subdue the human race--but they
ultimately failed because they
had no resistance to Earth
diseases. War of the Worlds was
the subject of two movies in this
country--the one by George Pal in
1953, and the 2005 remake by
Steven Spielberg--and at least two
in England where the story was
originally set. A radio broadcast
of War of the Worlds by Orson Wells
in 1938 set off a local panic.
There have been many clones of
War of the Worlds--e.g. Earth vs.
the Flying Saucers, Independence
Day, The Tommyknockers, The Puppet
Masters, etc. The aliens are always
depicted as technically advanced
but rather stupid, or with a
smugness and self-confidence that
borders on stupidity. And they
are always bent on world conquest,
and in many cases, extermination of
the human race--but in the end they
fall victim to their own arrogance
and stupidity. Considering the way
they have been treated, maybe Earth
DESERVES an alien invasion; maybe
they (if they exist) should zap a
few of our cities just to tech us
some manners.
Uh, thanks for that spirited defense of space aliens against prejudice.
ReplyDeleteOf course, aliens get a lot of positive press too. See 2001, Close Encounters, Star Trek, Star Wars, ET, and Contact for examples. And don't forget that Superman, the world's greatest superhero and star of many motion pictures, is an alien.