I will rue the day that Monsoon Wedding showed up in my Netflix queue. The voices were screeching for the majority of the time, and maybe it is my ADHD, but between the Indian mixed with English and the subtitles, I couldn’t possibly sort out what was going on (aside from some juvenile potty humor).Įveryone is due a bad decision from time to time, and I have to say this is yours. The humor was incredibly juvenile - about breasts, underpants, etc. The only think worse than hearing the F word, is having to read it on screen. My problems with the film are only in the first 20 minutes, as that is all my husband and I could stand, so perhaps a miracle occurred and it got better. I am still stunned that Monsoon Wedding could have been on your A-minus list! Until last night, I have told everyone I recommend Decent Films in that you have never steered me wrong. If they do, I’ll reply that I didn’t mean liver and onions to stand for Britishness generally - just Thompson’s very British P.L. So far no British readers have objected to this analogy. Disney’s entertainments at the time.įor Travers, I wanted something that wasn’t comforting or sweet, something somehow intimidating, but in a good-for-you way, that many but by no means all people would find off-putting, that wouldn’t necessarily go with apple pie - and, of course, that was identifiably British. That was a particularly interesting food metaphor to me, because apple pie evokes not just Americanness, but comfort, familiarity and sweetness, like Mr. Travers went together “like apple pie and, oh, liver and onions.” Banks I remarked that Tom Hanks’ Walt Disney and Emma Thompson’s P.L. Now I’m reminded how in my review of Saving Mr. That’s a subtlety I don’t necessarily expect viewers to pick up on, but as I say, you’re limited in what you can do in under 60 seconds. In other words, for the purposes of this film, the Indian context provides what is expressed in the phrase “a taste of curry” - and if you wince at the phrase, well, that may be indicative of the level of the filmmakers’ interest in India! ![]() I wouldn’t quite say my usage was ironic, but I would say I used it advisedly, to suggest something about how India is used in a very American Disney film. I was aware that it’s a tired metaphor that some Indians might object to. An earlier draft of that review - drawing on elements of Indian culture and experience in the film - referred to a “land of endless traffic jams, the Taj Mahal and cricket,” but that turned out to be way too much verbiage.įor better or worse, curry connotes India-ness to Westerners. ![]() “Taste of curry” here refers not to Indian people, but to the presence of Indian settings and culture in what would otherwise be a white-bread movie about a peanuts-and-crackerjacks sport in a hot-dogs-and-apple-pie world.įood metaphors can offer a convenient cultural shorthand, a special advantage when time or space is at a premium (as it is in a 60 second review). The Indians are spiritual, grounded, family-oriented, decent people - to a patronizing, exotically-other degree. The white guy is the one in need of salvation. Million Dollar Arm is the opposite of a white-savior movie. I recommended that review to my Indian father before I saw it. Please never use any phrases involving curry to describe Indian people. On the one hand you used the horrendous phrase “taste of curry” or “touch of curry” and on the other you lamented that the movie was not enough about its Indian characters. It was difficult to tell from your video review whether Million Dollar Arm was just another white savior story. Mailbag #23 Million Dollar Arm, Monsoon Wedding, Star Trek Into Darkness, Les Misérables, Happy Feet, Lincoln, The Lone Ranger and more.
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