Tears of the Sun - a case study of Africa in Hollywood film.

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!Bibliography:\n\nAskew, Kelly & Wilk, Richard (eds.): //The Anthropology of Media: a reader//. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers. 2002.\n\nDowning, John & Husband, Charles (eds.): //Representing race: racisms, ethnicities and media//.London: Sage. 2005.\n\nHall, Stuart (ed.): //Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices.// London: Sage in association with Open University. 1997.\n\nHall, Stuart: 'The Spectacle of the 'Other' ' in Hall, Stuart (ed.): //Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices.// London: Sage in association with Open University. 1997.\n\nLidchi, Henrietta: 'The poetics and the politics of exhibiting other cultures' in Hall, Stuart (ed.): //Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices.// London: Sage in association with Open University. 1997.\n\nMacdougall, David: 'Complicities of style' in Askew, Kelly & Wilk, Richard (eds.): //The Anthropology of Media: a reader//. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers. 2002.\n

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!''Conclusion:''\n\nStudying this film by examining its features leads us to see that the film presents a very poor picture of what African people are like. Were this film to be taken as evidence of what all African people are like, it would not be wrong to conclude that African people are very quiet, emotional people, with simple personalities, and shallow expressions of emotion. We could also conclude that the Muslim Africans are evil, murderous, baby-killing rapists, out to kill all innocent villagers and bystanders. Alternatively, the Christian Africans are calm, gentle people, but do not feel or express any complex emotions or thoughts. They are all one-dimensional people, without any distinguishing personality traits.\n\nClearly, this is an oversimplified and harmful view of what African people are like. It reduces African people to their most basic of features, and stereotypes them in that role. This film does no justice to the complexity of African people, and instead, treats them as eccentricities by contrasting their simplicity with the complexity of the Western world which we are accustomed to. Though it may seem innocuous on the surface, the film reinforces the construction of ‘Others’ as being different from us in many, negative ways. \n

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[[Welcome]]\n[[Introduction]]\n[[Why difference matters]]\n[[How is this reflected?]]\n[[The Woman]]\n[[The Sick People]]\n[[The Lines of People]]\n[[The Emotional People]]\n[[The Villains and The Religious]]\n[[The Speechless]]\n[[Conclusion]]\n[[Bibliography]]\n\n\n<<author>>\n

Welcome

!''How is this reflected in the film?''\n\n The film opens with a significant scene, for all the meaning it holds. It starts with ‘African’ sounding music, over the opening credits. We are then shown a rising, orange sun. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[001.jpg]]}}} \nThese two elements alone are already being used to set the scene for the movie – the rising orange sun and the ‘African’ movie are enough for the viewer to know that this movie will be about Africa. ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ was the name of the national anthem of a former state of Africa called Baifra, now a part of south-east Nigeria – which is exactly where the film is set. [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra for more information.] \n\n The opening sequence of the movie, after the rising sun, is a series of blurry video news clips, during which a voice-over sets the political scene of the movie, in a typical newscaster voice. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[003.jpg]] \n[img[004.jpg]] \n[img[005.jpg]]}}}\nThe newscaster provides the audience with background on the situation in Nigeria, where the movie takes place:\n\n>The tension that had been brewing for months in Nigeria exploded yesterday as exiled General Mustafa Yakubu orchestrated a swift and violent coup against the democratically elected government of President Samuel Azuka. In a land with 120 million people and over 250 ethnic groups, there'd been a long-standing history of ethnic enmity, particularly between the Fulani Muslims in the north and Christian Ibo in the south. The victorious Fulani rebels have taken to the streets as periodic outbursts of violence continue all over the country. Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting or executed thereafter. Fearing ethnic cleansing, the majority of the Ibo have abandoned their homes, and are fleeing the city or searching for sanctuary wherever they may find it. For now, General Yakubu has taken control of most of the country and appears firmly in charge. There's no word yet on the United Nations' reaction to the coup, but United States forces have already begun to evacuate its embassy.\n\n This sequence shows rioting, burning cars and buildings, people running, civilians being shot, military involvement, and a brief shot of bodies piled together at the exact moment the voice-over mentions ‘ethnic cleansing’. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[018.jpg]]}}} \nThe use of the real news footage is a clear attempt at creating authenticity to the movie setting, as though showing that what the movie is about to show //’actually happened’.// \n\n{{centre{\n[img[008.jpg]] \n[img[009.jpg]] \n[img[010.jpg]] \n[img[016.jpg]]}}}\nParticularly interesting is the mention by the newscaster that the tension is between ethnic //and// religious groups; with specific mention of the rebels as being Muslim. We shall take a closer look at this later.\n\nSimply from this sequence alone, we know that the Africans in this movie are murderous, or murdered; powerful or weak; domineering or fearful and running away. This scene tells us that there is great unrest in Nigeria, and everyone is affected.\n

{{{\n\nbinary: ''Binary'': consisting of, and characterised by, only two parts.\n1: Stuart Hall, 1997. p234.\n2: Stuart Hall, 1997. p236.\n3: Stuart Hall, 1997. p257.\n4: Stuart Hall, 1997. p257.\n5: Stuart Hall, 1997. p257.\n6: Stuart Hall, 1997. p258.\n7: David Macdougall, 2002. p52.\nthis: This will be where you can see more text.\n\n}}}

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!''Introduction:''\n\n Films like ‘Tears of the Sun’ offer a unique insight into Hollywood ideology, and the constructs of the ‘Other’ in popular culture. Through analysing this film and its content, we will gain an insight into the way that the identity of racial and religious ‘Others’ are constructed in our popular culture. Throughout this process, it is useful to ask ourselves a question that helps illuminate the matter: what is the film telling us about others?\n\n{{left{\n[img[tots.jpg]]}}}\n\n\n\n\n!!''Synopsis of the film:''\n\nReleased in 2003, ‘Tears of the Sun’ tells the story of a Special Ops Lieutenant called L.T. Waters [Bruce Willis], given the job of rescuing an American doctor from rebel territory within Nigeria. Set against a backdrop of ethnic warfare, bloodshed and violence due to a military coup, ‘Tears of the Sun’ traces the journey of the Lieutenant and his band of American soldiers through the jungles of Nigeria. They’re escorting a group of local Nigerian Africans, because Dr. Lena Kendricks [Monica Bellucci], the doctor they came to rescue, refused to leave her post without taking the able-bodied locals along with her. \n\n We follow the team through the jungles, and watch as they encounter rebels, and must fight to save their group of people.\n\n The stakes are raised even higher when they realize that one of the men they are shepherding to safety in Cameroon is the son, and sole remaining survivor, of the royal family assassinated in the military coup. \n

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Based on code added by Clint Checketts\n''2005.10.14 [1.1.1]'' permalink creation now calls encodeTiddlyLink() to handle tiddler titles with spaces in them\n''2005.10.14 [1.1.0]'' added automatic setting of window title and location bar ('auto-permalink'). feature suggestion by David Dickens.\n''2005.10.09 [1.0.1]'' combined documentation and code in a single tiddler\n''2005.08.15 [1.0.0]'' Initial Release\n<<<\n!!!!!Credits\n<<<\nThis feature was developed by EricShulman from [[ELS Design Studios|http:/www.elsdesign.com]].\nSupport for BACK/FORWARD buttons adapted from code developed by Clint Checketts\n<<<\n!!!!!Code\n***/\n//{{{\nStory.prototype.displayTiddler = function(srcElement,title,template,animate,slowly)\n{\n var place = document.getElementById(this.container);\n var theTiddler = document.getElementById(this.idPrefix + title);\n if(theTiddler)\n this.refreshTiddler(title,template);\n else\n {\n var before = this.positionTiddler(srcElement);\n theTiddler = this.createTiddler(place,before,title,template);\n }\n if(srcElement && typeof srcElement !== "string")\n {\n if(anim && config.options.chkAnimate && (animate == undefined || animate == true))\n anim.startAnimating(new Cascade(title,srcElement,theTiddler,slowly),new Scroller(theTiddler,slowly));\n else\n window.scrollTo(0,0);\n }\n}\n\n\n\nversion.extensions.SinglePageMode= {major: 2, minor: 2, revision: 1, date: new Date(2006,7,3)};\n\nconfig.options.chkSinglePageMode=true;\n\nif (config.options.chkSinglePageMode==undefined) config.options.chkSinglePageMode=false;\nconfig.shadowTiddlers.AdvancedOptions += "\sn<<option chkSinglePageMode>> Display one tiddler at a time";\n\nif (config.options.chkTopOfPageMode==undefined) config.options.chkTopOfPageMode=false;\nconfig.shadowTiddlers.AdvancedOptions += "\sn<<option chkTopOfPageMode>> Always open tiddlers at the top of the page";\n\nconfig.SPMTimer = 0;\nconfig.lastURL = window.location.hash;\nfunction checkLastURL()\n{\n if (!config.options.chkSinglePageMode)\n { window.clearInterval(config.SPMTimer); config.SPMTimer=0; return; }\n if (config.lastURL == window.location.hash)\n return;\n var tiddlerName = convertUTF8ToUnicode(decodeURI(window.location.hash.substr(1)));\n tiddlerName=tiddlerName.replace(/\s[\s[/,"").replace(/\s]\s]/,""); // strip any [[ ]] bracketing\n if (tiddlerName.length) story.displayTiddler(null,tiddlerName,1,null,null);\n}\n\nif (Story.prototype.SPM_coreDisplayTiddler==undefined) Story.prototype.SPM_coreDisplayTiddler=Story.prototype.displayTiddler;\nStory.prototype.displayTiddler = function(srcElement,title,template,animate,slowly)\n{\n if (config.options.chkSinglePageMode) {\n window.location.hash = encodeURIComponent(String.encodeTiddlyLink(title));\n config.lastURL = window.location.hash;\n document.title = wikifyPlain("SiteTitle") + " - " + title;\n story.closeAllTiddlers();\n if (!config.SPMTimer) config.SPMTimer=window.setInterval(function() {checkLastURL();},1000);\n }\n if (config.options.chkTopOfPageMode) { story.closeTiddler(title); window.scrollTo(0,0); srcElement=null; }\n this.SPM_coreDisplayTiddler(srcElement,title,template,animate,slowly)\n}\n\nif (Story.prototype.SPM_coreDisplayTiddlers==undefined) Story.prototype.SPM_coreDisplayTiddlers=Story.prototype.displayTiddlers;\nStory.prototype.displayTiddlers = function(srcElement,titles,template,unused1,unused2,animate,slowly)\n{\n // suspend single-page mode when displaying multiple tiddlers\n var saveSPM=config.options.chkSinglePageMode; config.options.chkSinglePageMode=false;\n var saveTPM=config.options.chkTopOfPageMode; config.options.chkTopOfPageMode=false;\n this.SPM_coreDisplayTiddlers(srcElement,titles,template,unused1,unused2,animate,slowly);\n config.options.chkSinglePageMode=saveSPM; config.options.chkTopOfPageMode=saveTPM;\n}\n//}}}

a case study of Africa in Hollywood film.

Tears of the Sun

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!!''The Emotional People:''\n\n{{centre{\n[img[195.jpg]] \n[img[115.jpg]]}}}\nIn a movie such as this, the topic is bound to evoke emotion from the characters. We see the characters feel the basic emotions of anger, uncertainty, anxiety, confidence, gratitude, happiness, sadness, remorse and fear. Significantly, however, the African people are only ever shown with very basic emotions: happy, sad, frightened, grateful and coldly angry.\n\n{{centre{\n[img[145.jpg]] \n[img[191.jpg]]}}}\nThe white soldiers are shown discussing their feelings about defying their instructions in order to save the people. They discuss the morality of it, and how their action is for all the ‘sins’ they’ve committed in the past. One of the black soldiers makes a remark about the African people being ‘his people’, and that he does it for them.\n\n{{centre{\n[img[193.jpg]] \n[img[114.jpg]] \n[img[194.jpg]] }}}\nOn the other hand, the African people are all shallow characters, and thus show only the most basic of emotions. The woman from the river cries at being frightened, the group of people scream out at being left behind, Patience cries with gratitude at being reunited with Dr. Lena, and cries again when she leaves her daughter on the helicopter to be saved. Many people are shown crying when the group stumbles into the tail-end of the mass murder of a villages’ inhabitants. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[189.jpg]] \n[img[192.jpg]] \n[img[196.jpg]]}}}\nPatience, the lead African character, is shown crying in an astonishing //eight// separate occasions! She is reduced to her basic attributes: a nice, caring woman who is very emotional. She is given no more of a personality than that.\n\n{{centre{\n[img[135.jpg]]}}}\nUnfortunately, this reduction of people to their most basic emotional responses means that the people seem as though they are incapable of showing any depth in their feelings beyond ‘this makes me sad’ or ‘this makes me happy’. If this film was taken as an example of what African people are really like, we could assume that they are emotionally immature, incapable of controlling their tears, and unable to express emotions beyond the most basic of feelings. \n

!!''The Lines of People:'' \n\nA common sight throughout the movie is scenes showing people lining up. In all cases, they are lining up in wait of the help that will be provided to them by the white people:\n\nThey line up while waiting to leave the clinic before the rebels get there. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[049.jpg]]\n[img[051.jpg]]\n[img[052.jpg]]}}}\nThey line up in single file as they walk through the jungle, letting the soldiers go on ahead and scout the area they’re walking into. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[059.jpg]] \n[img[057.jpg]] \n[img[058.jpg]]}}}\nThey stand in a line when they realise that the doctor is leaving on the military helicopters without them. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[102.jpg]] \n[img[107.jpg]] \n[img[111.jpg]]}}}\nAnd they stand in line again when they see the helicopters returning. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[129.jpg]] \n[img[130.jpg]]}}}\n In all of these cases, the scenes show that the African people are incapable of organising an escape party by their own merits. They must wait for the white people to come and impart charity on them by helping them, and so they wait and march obediently in lines. \n\n Again, what is //missing// from these scenes is portrayal of any positive African leadership. They are simply like cattle, being herded by white people towards rescue.\n

!!''The Sick People:'' \n\nAs the woman is being marched from the river to the surgery, the camera pans over a few of the sick people on the beds. This is our second introduction to local people. We see them with bandages, open wounds and injuries, but we barely see their faces. They are reduced to an array of bloodied limbs and swathes of bandages. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[031.jpg]]}}}\nWe see them again in subsequent scenes, and although we do see their faces, we never learn any of their names, get a glimpse of their personalities, nor hear about their stories. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[042.jpg]] \n[img[043.jpg]] \n[img[032.jpg]] }}}\nThere is a special focus on the baby. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[045.jpg]]}}}\nThe camera lingers on the baby for several long seconds. This is used as a tool to strengthen the feeling of hopelessness of the place, and to show that these sick people are all innocent. The baby looks ill and listless, as do the other unmoving people.\n\n The most blatant shot of this series is a shot in which the priest is bending over to heed to one of the sick people. He is in the church, and behind him we see the cross of the church brilliantly lit up by the sun. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[047.jpg]]}}}\nThe framing of this shot makes the message clear and obvious: the priest is the saviour of these people; without him, they would be unable to receive the ‘light’ of medicine and wellbeing.\n\nUsing our method of examining what is //missing// from the scenes of sick people, it is interesting to note that there is a significant lack of African medical staff. All the clinic scenes show white doctors tending to African patients.\n

!!''The Speechless:''\n\nCuriously, this film contained many, many instances where African people were shown in close-up shots, but spoke no lines. Instead, they have been presented as oddities, as the camera pauses on each face in a series of snapshots repeated on several different occasions. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[066.jpg]] \n[img[067.jpg]] \n[img[113.jpg]] \n[img[116.jpg]] \n[img[117.jpg]]}}}\n In each case, the mere presence of the people’s faces has been used as a comment on the situation, instead of having spoken lines do the same. The people are sad, because their faces are sad. They do not express their sadness in words. In fact, many of them do not get the opportunity to express //anything// in words during the entire duration of the movie – they are the silent faces of the Africans.\n\n{{centre{\n[img[160.jpg]] \n[img[161.jpg]] \n[img[162.jpg]]}}}\n This is quite significant. We are never explicitly told by the Africans how they are feeling. We know nothing about the majority of them – we are only given the names of a handful of people, and only two people are shown as having relationships with others: Patience has a husband and a daughter, and Arthur has a friend. Otherwise, these are voiceless people with no stories, no family and no sense of belonging to anything or anywhere. They are simply ‘Africans’. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[231.jpg]] \n[img[232.jpg]] \n[img[233.jpg]]}}}\nThis is further emphasised by a shot from the very beginning of the movie, where we are encouraged to believe that the US Military ships are ‘somewhere off the coast of Africa’. Once again, Africa and its inhabitants are not even given a name. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[304.jpg]]}}}\nThis serves as a stark contrast to the white Americans, who are given names, allowed opportunities to express their emotions, and are each given an opportunity for a spoken line in the film. The white Americans are grounded in personality. The African people are nameless masses.\n\n{{centre{\n[img[269.jpg]] }}}\n

!!''The Villains and The Religious:''\n\nThroughout the duration of the movie, we see many examples of brutal Africans – the rebels. \n \nAgain, these are mainly nameless, faceless Africa people, but these Africans act brutally toward innocent civilians. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[071.jpg]] }}}\nIn one scene, we see these rebels crowd into the mission, where the priest begs for his life, and the life of the nun with him. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[088.jpg]] }}}\nThe African rebel leader looks down at the priest, fondles the cross pendant around his neck, then orders his execution. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[089.jpg]] \n[img[090.jpg]] \n[img[093.jpg]] }}}\nAt first, this may seem like a natural scene – a brutal warlord killing with abandon. However, there is more at play here. It is worth noting that the opening scenes of the film established the rebels as being //Muslim.// Their religious affiliation is completely irrelevant to the rest of the movie, and need not have been mentioned at all. However, it was, and it sets the movie up as a Hollywood exploration of the brutality of Muslim rebels. This is not simply a scene in which racial Otherness is expressed; there is also a highly developed theme of religious difference. This is an //African Muslim// showing callous disregard for the life of a //white Christian//. Put like this, the message the film is imparting is clear: the brutal Africans are //Muslims//.\n\n{{centre{\n[img[198.jpg]]}}}\nThis brutality at the hands of the rebels is a constant theme throughout the movie. They are shown gunning down villagers, pouring petrol on a man and holding a lighter over him, piling bodies on top of one another, raping a woman, killing a baby, and cutting off the breasts of a nursing mother. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[180.jpg]] \n[img[184.jpg]] \n[img[186.jpg]] \n[img[187.jpg]]}}}\nThe two main rebel characters are actors who have perpetually motionless expressions on their faces: the young scowling man, and the older smirking man. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[235.jpg]]}}}\nIn all of this, the implication is clear: these rebels are merciless, evil people, who have no problem committing the vilest of war acts. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[150.jpg]] \n[img[152.jpg]] \n[img[154.jpg]]}}}\nThese ‘bad Muslim Africans’ serve as a stark binary contrast to the ‘good Christian Africans’ being helped by the white American soldiers.\n \nThis contrast is especially emphasised in a scene where the ‘bad Muslims Africans’ are ransacking the village, while the ‘good Christian Africans’ stand on a hill nearby, and are shown to be crying. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[305.jpg]] \n[img[191.jpg]] \n[img[193.jpg]]}}}\nWhilst it is clear that “conflict is an almost essential discursive principle” <<note 7>> for Western filmmakers, it is still important to consider //who is responsible// for the conflict, as we have done here. This provides insight as to the message the film is imparting.\n

!''Who are these Africans?''\n\n!!''The Woman:'' \n\nIn the very first scene to introduce us to a local character, we see a woman walking through a field in the dark, walking towards the river to refill her basin with water. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[021.jpg]] \n[img[022.jpg]] }}}\n\nBut we see the American soldiers come up out of the water and frighten her. They capture her, clamp their hands over her mouth and she is shown as being frightened and crying. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[296.jpg]] \n[img[027.jpg]] \n[img[029.jpg]]}}}\n\nOur first introduction to this woman shows her as a frightened, whimpering woman. Worse yet, when she is marched into the makeshift hospital where our female protagonist is performing surgery, she hides herself behind a white nun, and there are visible tears falling down her cheeks. \n\n{{centre{\n[img[033.jpg]] }}}\n\nWe never hear her name. We only know of her as the scared African woman.\n\nAll of this serves to create a picture of the African woman as a frightened, whimpering, cowering being. Even if the fear is justified, by virtue of the American soldiers’ appearance being genuinely frightening, this is still a rather negative introduction to the local population of Nigeria.\n

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\n\n<div class='viewer' macro='view text wikified'></div>\n<div class='viewer topbutton' macro='top'></div>\n<br><br>\n<div class='viewer' macro='nav tiddlers:[[Welcome Introduction "Why difference matters" "How is this reflected?" "The Woman" "The Sick People" "The Lines of People" "The Emotional People" "The Villains and The Religious" "The Speechless" "Conclusion" "Bibliography"]]'></div>\n<div class='tagClear'></div>\n

!Welcome\n\n*To navigate through this website, click on the ''Next'' button on the bottom right of each page. To go back to your previous page, click ''Previous'' on the bottom left. \n*Clicking on this button <<top>> will take you back to the top of the page you are reading.\n*You can also use the contents links on the left to navigate through the site.\n*Where you see text coloured like <<def this>>, you can hover over it with your mouse pointer for more information.

!''Why does difference matter?''\n\n In order to analyse this film, it is important to first understand how differences are constructed. Theories of difference and assigning meaning have four most important points. These will all be explored further, covertly and overtly, through examples from the film. However, for now, here are the four main points to consider:\n\n''1.'' The theory proposed by Saussure is that “difference matters because it is essential to meaning. […] We know what ‘black’ means because we can contrast it with its opposite – ‘white’”. <<note 1>> This is integral to analysing sources such as films, because often, it is just as important to note what is //missing//, as what is present. A simple way to do this is to consider the elements within the film, then consider their opposites.\n\n''2.'' However, <<def binary>> extremes reduce complexity, and implicitly condemn the ‘other’ negatively. For example, if ‘white’ is normal and good, then it follows that ‘black’ is unusual and bad. Again, this is a good reason to consider both the elements in the film, and those that are significantly missing from the film.\n\n''3.'' Another way we assign meaning and difference is through classification: assigning things to “different positions within a classificatory system”. <<note 2>> This helps us understand objects by understanding the classes to which they belong. We ‘know’ something about a person by the ways in which we can class them:\n• the //roles// they perform:<<note 3>> a parent, a child, a worker, a lover etc.\n• their //membership// of different groups:<<note 4>> gender, age, class, ethnicity etc.\n• their //personality type//:<<note 5>> happy, fearful, anxious, calm etc.\n\n''4.'' Although it is helpful for us to understand differences between people, it is equally important not to stereotype. Stereotypes are harmful, because they choose the few most memorable and widely recognised traits about a person and diminish the person to just those traits. This simplification does no justice to the complexity of people, and results in people being defined by their stereotypical characteristics, even if the //individual// himself has none of these particular qualities. Stereotyping “classifies people to a norm, and constructs the excluded as ‘other’.” <<note 6>>\n

<<br>>University of Adelaide, 2006.