"From Tiger Lily to Green Inferno"

From Tiger Lily to Green Inferno: The Ethnocidal Exploits of Joe Wright, Eli Roth, and Hollywood

By Johnnie JaeInstead of waxing poetic about the ethnocidal liberties that were taken with the portrayal of the indigenous people, I wish Joe Wright had taken a cue from Spielberg’s Hook. Rather than serving up the same racist characterizations or promoting the ethnocidal “melting pot” present in Warner Bros. Pan, there was no Tigerlily and there was no tribe. There was no dehumanization of indigenous people, no opportunity for an actress to describe her movements as an indigenous warrior as ‘animalistic’. There was no opportunity to misappropriate an entire people’s identity and culture. There was no glorification or servitude to the “Great White Father” figure (Pan) or White Savior Industrial Complex, which brings us to Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno.

IMDB describes the plot of The Green Inferno in the following words:

“A group of student activists travels to the Amazon to save the rain forest and soon discover that they are not alone, and that no good deed goes unpunished.”

This is a huge improvement from the original description released last year that described the plot as “A group of student activists travel from New York City to the Amazon to save a dying tribe. Unfortunately, they crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by the very natives they protected.”

After watching this trailer, I’m sure many of you are not surprised by this characterization of indigenous people. Disgusted, but not surprised. In true Hollywood fashion, Eli Roth, like Joe Wright, glorifies the White Savior Industrial Complex and the “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” propaganda.And:Last year, when I first wrote about The Green Inferno, I wrote that:

“While it is just a movie and while it may not have been Eli Roth’s intention, this movie will negatively affect the way that people will treat the struggles of these isolated and uncontacted tribes. Dehumanizing them, making them into monsters will only help to justify the genocide of these aboriginal people because it causes people to lose their ability to empathize and to see these tribal people as fellow human beings. It instills fear and the belief that they deserve what they get for not joining ‘civilized’ society.”Comment:  I commented on these movies in postings such as Natives Protest Tiger Lily Casting and Cannibal Indians in Green Inferno.

The following image suggests how badly The Green Inferno stereotypes Indians as bizarre and inhuman.