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"Sucked up all the guilt"?
Jun. 3rd, 2014 03:52 pmI know, three posts a day are too many, but I just came across a spectacular example of open mouth, insert foot on a writer's part. When actors do something like this, I tend to give them more leeway because their jobs are to bring someone else's words to life, not to come up with ones themselves, and they're not required to resemble their characters outside of said job.
But if someone writes, say, a biopic about Nelson Mandela, you would think just a liiiiiitttle bit of sensitivity to race issues and privilege developes. Not so in William Nicholson's case. He doesn't think the reason why Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom flopped was due to inherent problems of the biopic genre (too much life to cover in too little time, and he didn't choose one period, which is the smartest thing to avoid that trap, but really tried to do it all, with the result that you get a sense of "Highlights in the life of Nelson Mandela"). Or the fact that he managed to write a script about a poltician with amazingly little politics (more on this in my review at the time, here). Or that out of a huge ensemble, the only character other than Mandela himself given a chance to breathe and develop was Winnie. Oh no. The reason, according to this article, why Mr. Nicholson believes Mandela flopped is simply that there wasn't enough white guilt around anymore after the success of 12 years a Slave. (Because clearly the only reason why an audience would want to watch a movie about Nelson Mandela was so they could feel properly guilty, and 12 years a Slave, I quote, "sucked up all the guilt about black people that was available" during this year's awards season.
Being on a roll, William Nicholson didn't leave it there. Nelson M. was also to blame for the failure of the biopic because of his dying in the week it was released. ""Mandela died as I was in the royal premiere with Will and Kate. We were deluged with Mandela stuff and after a week we all thought, please take it away, we've heard enough about Mandela."
And while we're on the subject of Mandela the man, he desperately needed Mr. Nicholson to write his speeches for him. "All but one ... were made up by me because his own are so boring. I know it sounds outrageous to say a thing like that, but when he came out of prison he made a speech and, God, you fell asleep."
There isn't enough facepalm in the world. Like I said - the man makes his living as a writer. Then again, he wrote Gladiator, and this definitely feels like baiting the arena...
But if someone writes, say, a biopic about Nelson Mandela, you would think just a liiiiiitttle bit of sensitivity to race issues and privilege developes. Not so in William Nicholson's case. He doesn't think the reason why Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom flopped was due to inherent problems of the biopic genre (too much life to cover in too little time, and he didn't choose one period, which is the smartest thing to avoid that trap, but really tried to do it all, with the result that you get a sense of "Highlights in the life of Nelson Mandela"). Or the fact that he managed to write a script about a poltician with amazingly little politics (more on this in my review at the time, here). Or that out of a huge ensemble, the only character other than Mandela himself given a chance to breathe and develop was Winnie. Oh no. The reason, according to this article, why Mr. Nicholson believes Mandela flopped is simply that there wasn't enough white guilt around anymore after the success of 12 years a Slave. (Because clearly the only reason why an audience would want to watch a movie about Nelson Mandela was so they could feel properly guilty, and 12 years a Slave, I quote, "sucked up all the guilt about black people that was available" during this year's awards season.
Being on a roll, William Nicholson didn't leave it there. Nelson M. was also to blame for the failure of the biopic because of his dying in the week it was released. ""Mandela died as I was in the royal premiere with Will and Kate. We were deluged with Mandela stuff and after a week we all thought, please take it away, we've heard enough about Mandela."
And while we're on the subject of Mandela the man, he desperately needed Mr. Nicholson to write his speeches for him. "All but one ... were made up by me because his own are so boring. I know it sounds outrageous to say a thing like that, but when he came out of prison he made a speech and, God, you fell asleep."
There isn't enough facepalm in the world. Like I said - the man makes his living as a writer. Then again, he wrote Gladiator, and this definitely feels like baiting the arena...
