Week 9

               Recreating the past on celluloid is probably one of the most challenging aspects of filmmaking. Like academics, filmmakers must consult the fragmented documentary record in order to make history come alive. However, the cinema’s broad public appeal increases the potential for a director to ignite a firestorm of controversy surrounding their chosen topic. With the majority of these films, public outrage usually centers on the director’s choice to infuse the material with blood, sex and violence at the expense of historical accuracy. One only has to examine Oliver Stone’s filmography to understand why filmmakers continually rely on this formula, and why the large segments of the public usually leave these movies pissed off. For instance, my father once became disgusted after watching JFK, noting that the only thing Oliver Stone got right was that Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy in the head.

               Yet even the most historically conscious directors, such as Bruce Beresford, incur the public’s wrath. Beresford’s Black Robe, the story of a 17^th century Jesuit Priest in colonial Quebec, engendered the same controversy as any of Stone’s films. Ward Churchill—yes, the same Ward Churchill who made the disgusting comments about the victims of 9/11—claims Black Robe sanitizes the past by portraying colonists as noble, spiritual men with good intentions, rather than the brutal conquers portrayed in recent films. To make matters worse, Churchill believes Beresford consciously portrays the Indians in the film as brutal savages who prefer farting and fornicating “doggie style” to the spiritual pursuits advocated by father Laforge, the title character; it is up to the colonists to Christianize the “savages” and introduce them to the proper European sexual positions.

               Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Churchill’s emotions overtook him while he wrote his critique of the film. In fact, Black Robe makes no attempt to sanitize the past. According to Kristof Haavik, Beresford uses the film to examine what happens when a man’s arrogance distorts his noblest intentions. Throughout the film, Father Laforge fails to find any value in the native’s culture, which ultimately helps bring the destruction of Indian civilization as the imposition of the Christian religion destroys the Huron’s society. As for the sex scenes Mr. Churchill complained so much about, I subjected my virgin eyes to re-watching these scenes several times in order analyze Mr. Churchill’s critique. After several hours, I was able to determine that none of these scenes portrayed the characters as hedonistic savages. Instead, the characters exchange in sexual activity to express their love to a committed partner much like Europeans.

               Film is an inherently subjective medium; film goers see what they want to see. Mr. Churchill got out of Black Robe what he wanted: a film that reinforces his worst fears about an Eurocentric nation that glorifies the near extinction of native peoples. Perhaps filmmakers in the future would be better served by articulating their intentions to the public. Beresford and the film crew appeared to focus more on promoting the film’s aesthetics than publicizing its message. While this may not prevent individuals like Mr. Churchill from seeing what they want to see, a proper defense could possibly prevent misunderstanding among the broader public.