Introduction of an Essay series on Colonialism in cinema
Colonialism is about the dominance of a strong nation over another weak one. Colonialism happens when a strong nation sees that its material interest and affluence require its expansion outside its borders. It is the acquisition of the colonialist, by brute forces of extra markets, extra resource of raw materials and man power from the colonies.
The colonialist, while committing their atrocities against the natives and territories of the colonies, convinces himself that he stands on high moral ground. Colonizer’s basic assumptions in defense of his action are: the colonized are savage in need of education and rehabilitation. The culture of the colonized is not up to the standard of the colonizer, and it is the moral duty of the colonizer to do something about polishing it. The colonized nation is unable to manage and run itself properly; and thus it needs the wisdom and guidance of the colonizer. The colonized nation embraces a set of religious beliefs superpose and incompatible with those of the colonizer, and consequently, it is God’s given duty of the colonizer to bring those stray people to the right path. The colonized people pose dangerous threat to themselves and to the civilized world if left alone, and thus it is in the interest of the civilized world to bring those people under control. As a result of this, the Whites ventured adventurously in to the so called underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia and they dominated a lot of geographical spaces there. They enslaved the natives, imposed their will at large on them. They eroded the native’s culture and language; plundered the native’s wealth and established their orders based on settler’s supremacy.
The darkest secret of this country, I am afraid is that too many of its citizens imagine that they belong to a much higher civilization somewhere else. That higher civilization doesn’t have to be another country. It can be the past instead the United States as it was before it was spoiled by immigrants and the enfranchisement of the blacks. This state of mind allows too many of us to lie and cheat and steal from the rest of us, to sell us junk and addictive poison and corrupting entertainments. What the rest of us, after all, but sub-human aborigines?” (Vonnegut190)
Since the beginning of the motion picture industry, western colonialism has been one of the themes and at times one of the popular themes of European and American movies. Cinema continued the nineteenth-century western, European and American trend of telling romantic, exotic, and patriotic stories of expansion, conquers and-increasingly-mission or bringing the benefits of “civilization” to the “inferior races”. Such stories had earlier been told in painting, popular books, museums, illustrated journals, juvenile literature and comics. Over the decade of the twentieth century, films with “imperial” and “colonial” themes celebrated and glorified imperial adventures and colonial triumphs and cries. Popular movies projected more myth than reality regarding the nature of colonialism. Colonialism at the movies began at the dawn of the motion picture industry in the late 1900s.
Colonial films typically idealized life in the colonies by emphasizing the modernizing aspects of colonization. Feature films set in colonial settings typically represented their parts of empire as refuges for colonizers looking to escape life in the metropolis. As a result, colonial films did not attempt to reflect the social realities of life in colonized countries. Representation of local characters, places, and customs were regularly presented as escapist, apologetic or overtly racist. Colonial cinema could be considered as an important source to understand the mentality of colonizing societies.
Though the impact of colonialism has been portrayed in many films, it was not a genuine attempt to depict the materialistic and psychological destruction suffered by the colonies. Every film, somehow, would end up justifying the invaders and picture their developmental inventions. The coming of missionaries with the modern medicine to relieve the pain, setting up of factories as a part of developing the colonies, introduction of educational systems to the colonized- everything has been illustrated to cover up the ‘unsung’ cruelties of the white settlers.
Alejandro. G. Inarritu directed The Revenant (2016) could be considered as an honest and truthful attempt to portray colonialism and its impacts upon the native Red Indian community of America.
The Revenant is the avenging story of a frontiersman Hugh Glass on the murder of his son. While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, frontiersman Hugh Glass sustains life threatening injuries from a brutal bear attack. Glass and his companions were on the way back to Fortkiowa after collecting pelts. When a member of his hunting team kills Glass’ only son and leaves Glass for dead, Glass utilizes his survival skill to find a way back to civilization. Grief stricken and fueled by vengeance, he treks through the snowy terrain to track down the man who betrayed him.
Apart from the main storyline, the film picturizes the white man’s attitude towards nature and lives of the native people. Their looting mentality, corrupt trade, greed, racism, superiority complex- are depicted profoundly in The Revenant. This dissertation is about colonialism portrayed in the movie The Revenant.
