August 22, 2009
New New Moon trailer
Comment: This trailer features Taylor Lautner as a phony Indian with long hair. Apparently he cuts his hair early on so he can transform into a wolf. Good move...he looks less silly that way.
His ripped body also looks good. I gather Lautner is 5'9" or 5'10", but he looms over the diminutive Kristen Stewart. This approach is probably better than the books' conceit of making Jacob Black 6'7". The idea that the Indians should be man-monsters in human as well as wolf form seems ridiculous to me.
The trailer also features the first action shot of the Wolf Pack. Naturally they're not wearing shirts. I hope they're not half-naked for the entire movie.
For more on the subject, see New Moon Trailer and Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.
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9 comments:
Why is he phoney if he's part Ottawa and Potawatomi like he claims?
He looks like a Northern Ontario Native I knew.
Again, what are you seeing Rob?
You can't tell me he looks German, Dutch or French.
I always thought he was Hispanic. Then again I thought my Northern Ontario Native co-worker might be Hispanic. He disagreed that he could pass for one. There is a wide range of looks in Natives.
To get a part like that, you can't have a laid back quality like Graham Greene and you can't be afraid to project the mystic.
Look at the Native art on this link:
http://www.aaanativearts.com/article138.html
Looks a lot like Lautner to me.
Lautner discovered his "Native heritage" only after he was cast as Jacob Black. He hasn't documented this heritage and it's suspiciously convenient.
If being a small part Native were enough, I wouldn't be criticizing the choice of Johnny Depp to play Tonto. I wouldn't be criticizing all the non-Native actors with a tiny fraction of Native blood who have taken Native roles.
I haven't criticized the casting of Lautner primarily because of his looks. I've criticized it because he isn't Native and he's taken a prominent role from someone who is.
FYI, I've already addressed these points at length. For details, see More on Lautner the
"Native" and "Actual Indian" Defined.
You must be new to my website and blog, Anonymous. I've criticized the stereotypical notion that all Indians look and act alike for the past two decades. For a typical discussion of this issue, see Rob Doesn't Understand "Mutts"?
Which picture are you referring to...the "Wedding Day/Man"? One, it doesn't look that much like Lautner to me. Two, it's probably a non-Indian's romanticized idea of what an Indian looks like. Three, I'm not even sure AAA Native Arts is Native-owned. The attention-seeking name and lack of ownership information is telling.
The "Wedding Day/Woman" looks even less Native than her male counterpart. The white leather dress looks suspiciously like a white person's idea of a Native garment. The paintings and the "American Indian Wedding Prayer" are suspiciously generic--not tied to any particular tribe or culture.
All in all, color me unimpressed with this "evidence" that Lautner looks Native. If anything, it proves that he resembles a white person's stereotypical notion of what a "cute" Native guy should look like. Which is part of my criticism.
Correspondent Melvin Martin (Lakota Sioux) posted the following comment on Facebook:
BREAKING NEWS (to me at least)!
I just saw the latest trailer for "Twilight," and there is a major shift in the storyline from vampires to (Indian) werewolves, BUT...both the lead Indian character and the wolf he becomes look totally FAKE.
There's also 1/1000 of a toe dipped into the murky waters of heretofore forbidden trans-racial love that's played up hot and heavy, eerily reminiscent of Robby Benson and his white girl in "Walk Proud" (the phony '79 Chicano gangsta flick).
MY ANALYSIS: "Twilight" still blows!
Italians don't complain when Cher plays an Italian. Not when it makes Italians look sexy, super smart and civilized. Ha ha!
Are the Queliutes complaining? I doubt it. Probably nice guys.
West coast tribes are the ones which I always favored.
I only watched the because a third cousin is in it. On the vampire side.
It doesn't blow. It sucks. Ha ha!
The Quileutes welcome Twilight fans. Here is the opinion of Anna Rose Counsell from the Quileute council.
"This is our opportunity to educate people on Quileute history," Counsell said.
www.indianz.com
This Washington State tribe, like the Canadian West Coast tribes I read about, believe or have a legend that they came to earth in animal forms that they discarded. In their case, they were wolves.
Cute, by definition, means you have nice baby face proportions. Suitable for girl audiences.
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