Reflection and Analysis

Black Panther vs. A Wrinkle in Time (2018) 3/23/18

Over the last week or two, I've been comparing the movie Black Panther with A Wrinkle in Time (2018), carefully thinking about why one movie works, but the other does not.

I think one of the things which hit me came down to the fact we're working with fiction, and fiction doesn't equate reality, yet many people are calling for fiction to equate reality, and this needs to stop.

No, that's not quite right.

Said, Ava DuVernay, "I wanted a cast that reflects the real world. We're not doing anything that shouldn't have already been done. The question is, why hasn't this been done before? There's nothing outstanding and outlandish about this cast. It's outstanding and outlandish that there's been casts without true reflections and inclusiveness of our daily lives. It's about the way that you see it. So, I get that question a lot and my question back is, why haven't we been asking that question for the last 75 years or so? That's my answer to that."

My answer to the question, thinking back on the Black Panther movie is, diverse casting does not reflect the real world. The reason I've been thinking about this specifically comes down to the fact Ava DuVernay was supposed to direct the Black Panther movie, and I started thinking about what would have occurred if she took this attitude of "cast that reflects the real world" into the Black Panther movie. Well, we would honestly have had a disaster on our hands.

The movie would not work with racially diverse casting, because that's not a reflection of the real world despite what Ava Duernay says. Yes, the world is racially diverse, but individual places are not. A Wrinkle in Time (2018) plays a stark contrast against movies such as The Last Airbender, where the reason for diversifying the cast came down to the fact the real world isn't comprised entirely of Asians, and the director at least put thought into his choices.

In fact, few narratives like The Last Airbender exist where one can use a diverse cast such as Ava DuVernay attempted using. Worse, whereas the creators of The Last Airbender were supportive of the casting choices until fans started throwing tantrums, the original creator of A Wrinkle in Time had no hand in approving or disproving the casting choices. I find this personally ironic, due to The Last Airbender being the movie where the term racebending came about – the movie which saw one of the most racially diverse casts I've ever seen.

In truth, Ava DuVernay's attempt at diverse casting just doesn't work. Sure, these days we do see quite a few ethnically mixed families, so that part does reflect modern America, and if one took the movie as a modernization of the material, that aspect honestly works. Except, does modernizing the work end up working unless one is putting in a ton of effort to adjust the original message to a modern audience?

Considering said message ends up lost in translation, no, it doesn't, but for a message as complex as democracy versus communism, equal versus like, one would find themselves struggling with finding the right political reference, and perhaps referencing Korea when everyone's worried about the leader of said country taking such things the wrong way. I doubt any of us want death threats sent to children actors, so modernizing the concepts, and not delving into the history of democracy versus communism is a fail.

Particularly on the part of someone who prides themselves as a historian. The fact a historian dumbed down the historical context for children says a lot about the way she views children. She openly admits she's not a parent, so her treating children like so many other's adults do should be no surprise. Children are far more intelligent than she gives credit for, but she missed a wonderful opportunity to get kids interested in history. Instead, she focused on her letter to the black girl, rather than a universal message meant for all children.