Media Representation Theory Pack Four: Postcolonialism/Gilroy

 Postcolonialism/GiYou onlroy

You Only Live Twice, June 13, 1967

Live and Let Die, June 27, 1973

Die Another Day, November 22, 2002

Skyfall November 9, 2012

The scene from You Only Live Twice shows racial otherness. James Bond, the white man, stands out among the Japanese people at the wedding. Even if they are wearing the same traditional clothing and doing the same traditions for the marriage, it shows cultural incompatibility, as we can clearly see a contrast between him and the others, making him look out of place even if they are dressed the same. Switching between Bond and the Japanese people to depict how different they are, creating that otherness as they are showing another type of culture in the predominantly white world shown in movies. In the trailer from Live and Let Die, a binary worldview is being used as it only depicts the black people as the villains. They are depicted to be "savages" as we can see with the little ritual scene where we can clearly see them dancing around a white woman as she is tied up. We see the white hero James Bond swoop in and save her, also during all of the chases, only the black villains are causing harm to white people, as seen with the cops and the wedding. It also nurtures fears, making people afraid of the black community when movies depict them as violent and villains, making the ostracization of black culture and people become more normalized. These points in the film reinforce the binary worldview that white is right and black is bad. The trailer for Die Another Day is nurturing fears by showing him in conflict with foreigners. By doing that, it makes audiences fear those foreigners and puts the white hero into a good position with the viewers, as he is the white hero who will save the day, while the foreigners aren't and are the evil villains. The scene from Skyfall has racial subtext, as we can see a black woman who doesn't have a good enough shot and doesn't want to accidentally kill her ally, but is being forced by her white superiors to take the shot anyway. But when the bullet hits Bond, we see the boss get upset, even though it wasn't the black woman's fault, but hers. The fact that she had to take the shot against her will shows racial subtext as the white people clearly had superiority over her.