Project 24: White (Richard Dyer)

This project was to read extract of Richard Dyer’s ‘White’ from the course reader. Whiteness is rarely discussed in Western culture. It is the norm for discussions on colonialism to centre on issues of power and blackness rather than whiteness. Instead, Dyer takes on the issue of whiteness directly and applies such theories as Gramsci’s Hegemony and Sartre’s ideas of to the film texts he analyses. 

It has taken me some time to complete this project as not only have a read the article ‘White’ (my notes for this article are attached to the bottom of the post) but I have watched the films Simba, Jezebel, Night of the Living Dead and The Battle of Algiers.

Task One: Comparison of Simba to The Battle of Algiers

 

When comparing Simba to The Battle of Algiers you realise that The Battle of Algiers is not in the same mould as the mainstream perspective of Simba. The two films also come from the opposite perspectives; Simba in favour of the colonial powers and Algiers in favour of the rebels. Both are late colonial texts showing the end of empires and imperialism . 

Both show rebellion but in Simba we aligned with the colonialists – and the star, Dirk Bogarde – and in Algiers with the rebels; they are not a mass of threatening people – showing the racism of the first text – but oppressed individuals fighting for freedom from the colonial powers. It challenges the ‘Manichaeism delirium’ quoted by Dyer from Frantz Fanon.  The fixity of stereotypes is turned on its head, especially in the scene where the woman evades being searched – she is carrying a bomb – by wearing western clothes and adopting a western manner. 

The Battle of Algiers has very strong links to the writings of Frantz Fanon analysed in Project 24. Simba represents colonial values while the The Battle of Algiers rejects them.  While the white hold the power in the societies represented in both films Simba throws the question of white legitimacy of white domination into question and Algiers openly challenges it.    

Reference List

Dyer, R. (1988) White. In: Evans, J. and Hall, S. (eds.) Visual culture: a reader. (1999) London: Sage Publications pp. 457-467.

Filmography

The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Igor Film/Casbah Film, Italy/Algeria 1966)

Jezebel (Williams Wyler, Warner Bros. Pictures, USA1938)

Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, Image Ten/Laurel Group/Market Square Productions, USA, 1968)

Simba (Brian Desmond Hurst, Group Film Productions Limited, UK 1955)

Notes  from Richard Dyer's 'White'