The Green Cockroach

1,225 words

The “superhero movie” [less reverently, the “comic book movie”] has always been an ‘implicitly White’ genre, for fairly obvious reasons; indeed, the whole notion of a “black superhero” seems a contradiction in terms, despite heroic efforts on the part of good-thinking Liberals in the MSM, hoping to expiate their guilt over profiting from such a “white supremacist” enterprise. [Stuff Black People Don’t Like has covered this issue in all its ramifications, from the failure of M.A.N.T.I.S. to the casting of Black Thor, collected here].

Most recently, it has, in the hands of director Christopher Nolan, even been the vehicle, if only by accident, for such radical, not-ready-for-mainstream ideas as what Trevor Lynch has called “weaponized Traditionalism” [see his reviews of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight].

In keeping with the theme, it was perhaps inevitable that after such a ‘new hope‘ the entertainment Empire would ‘strike back,’ and another film critic, Armond White, is here to give us the good news.

White is himself an interesting figure. As so often happens in this mongrelized country, he is, despite his name, of the African persuasion. Despite writing for a free, throwaway newspaper in New York, itself despised as a sort of hipster/neocon hybrid answer to the legendary Village Voice, he is a prominent voice among the city’s, and thus the nation’s film critics. Rather than toe the line of supporting “our people” he has used his pulpit to pursue a maverick line that many, including myself, have suspected of being not so much based on a coherent artistic vision as simply “automatically gainsaying,” as the Pythons would say, whatever the critical “consensus” is. As such, he has not only dared to refuse to worship such brothas as Spike Lee, and publicly attack the integrity of the incestuous little clique praising the sneering Jewish hate-fest Greenberg, but also written in defense of the simple White pleasures of Mamma Mia [see my take on his review here].

Still, since the touchstone of his “vision” seems to be a positioning of Steven Spielberg as “our greatest film maker,” [the increasingly sophistic defense of which leads many to suspect he is, indeed, kidding], it comes as no surprise to see him rushing to greet the arrival of The Green Hornet as the Judaic comeuppance to the genre that Some People have been waiting for. White’s review is well worth consideration, if not intense study, for what it tells us about the strategy of White displacement that lies at the heart of even the most “non-MSM” cultural products.

But first, a refreshing taste of the “bad old days”:

Right out of the barrel, White is in your face: the TV Hornet, played by Van Williams, was “stiff,” and you know what that means; he’d probably look worse on the dance floor than Adam West doing the “Bat-tusi”.

Moreover, he “embodied the straight-arrow WASP handsomeness Hollywood idealized until the counterculture revolution of the ’60s validated ethnic facial irregularities.” I guess this is what White has in mind:

But have no fear, the wait is over:

The new screen version of The Green Hornet flips Williams’ square-jawed virility for tall, goofily boyish Seth Rogen. This time, affluent crime fighter Britt Reid is also the embodiment of the Jewish schlemiel, a satirical take on superhero convention that responds to the inanity of Hollywood’s contemporary franchises.

Wow! One paragraph in, and an entire cultural stratagem is revealed! Holy Mason Mind control! Under the guise of the famous “self-deprecating humor,” and supposedly as a hip “critique” of Hollywood, the Jewish changeling is switched for the Aryan ‘stiff’ [as in dead, man]. By rudely barging into the superhero role, as the Ost-Juden rudely barged into German society [Cuddihy], the “lovable goofball” mocks and debases the Aryan ideal. And if anyone complains: get a sense of humor, he’s just kidding, laugh a little, don’t be a Stiffly Stifferson!

We’ve seen this before in other genres; here’s Woody Allen as “Jimmy Bond“:

Indeed, White immediately celebrates the Freud-Kafka-Allen treatment:

Now Britt Reid displays father issues, obnoxious infantilism and ineptitude from the Woody Allen archetype of ambitious Jewish self-deprecation.

Huzzah! From the people who replaced Christmas with Festivus, now a Superhero for the Restovus!

Now it’s time for White to flex those “film critic” muscles and take us to school:

It conveys the prolonged adolescence that usually goes unmentioned in American pop culture and is key to the superhero genre’s apparently undying appeal. Most superhero action films exploit adolescent response; a bratty-satirical version of The Green Hornet is the first to reckon with this fact. Exchanging WASP handsomeness for ethnic childishness means The Green Hornet’s best moments are actually about something.

See, it’s an improvement! Just as Our Freud and St. Marx ripped off the thin veneer of civilization to expose the nasty “reality,” so we learn that the Superhero genre is actually about: masculine inadequacy!

Now The Green Hornet’s entire law-and-order pretense instantly cuts to the secret of superhero fiction: . . . the childlike neediness of masculine insecurity . . . in his need to appear potent and fearsome.

Actually, we’ve seen this before as well. It’s so old a schoolyard taunt [excuse me, “critical theoretical trope”] that event these well-schooled White boys from Minneapolis were hip to it years ago:

As in the earlier “Ordeal of Civility,” the weak and neurotic Jew deals with his justified sense of inferiority not by attempting to ‘man up’ but by tearing down the “illusions” of the Aryan, whose strength and self-confidence are mere masks [like the Hornet’s] covering up the “reality” of HIS weakness. Genius!

And lest the dense WASP, like the hapless Winkelvoss brothers whose fleecing at the hands of Mark Zuckerberg White celebrated from his ’get Whitey’ persona in reviewing The Social Network, fail to get the point still, White makes it country simple:

Simply put: Gondry corrects such gloomy superserious nonsense’s [sic] as The Dark Knight, where Christian Bale embodied the bland WASP ideal. Gondry corrects Christopher Nolan’s entire lugubrious con game (including Inception) using psychological comedy. Better yet, using ethnic comedy.

Corrects! Not since the boys at Delta House got the answers to the psych exam from The Jewish House have we owed so much to our Hebrew guests. Thank you, sir, may I have another!?

Genug! You can read for yourself as White lovingly details the debasing of characters, plot, and romance, but the bottom line is that White sees that the eviscerated corpse of the superhero genre can now, perhaps, have some potential:

[T]hese childlike elements help The Green Hornet put superhero fiction (its devices as well as its insufficiencies) in a context that almost revitalizes the genre. … Thanks to Gondry, the superhero franchise that has become a blight on Hollywood suddenly shows unexpected potential.

Potential for what? One hesitates to ask, fearing an answer worthy of H. P. Lovecraft at his most “racist.” As Portnoy’s psychiatrist said, suddenly speaking up at the very end:

Now We May Perhaps to Begin?

For now, let’s wash that stench of kasha from the nostrils of our souls by enjoying this double does of White Supremacy: White Superhero Van Williams and White Jazz musician [yes, White, and from New Orleans — Chocolate City!] Al Hirt.

Source: http://jamesjomeara.blogspot.com/2011/01/green-cockroach-superhero-movie-less.html