Split from racially incorrect hobbits thread: racially incorrect Conan adaptations

[Svanhild]

After this incident I'm rather sure we actually will see some ethnic minorities in The Hobbit. Now the media are on it, now the cast needs some ethnic quota or the PC pressure becomes too high. Sad world.

There's a new Conan movie in development, and guess who is supposed to play the role of Conan the Barbarian? Jason Momoa.



You don't believe me? Watch the trailer: http://filmkinotrailer.com/2010/07/c...ilm-fotos.html




They kill the epic plot of Robert E. Howard with an ethnic rastaman. Vomit, guys. Just vomit.

[The Lawspeaker]

Fuck this. I am not going watch films newer then some 15 years anymore.

[Treffie]

After this incident I'm rather sure we actually will see some ethnic minorities in The Hobbit. Now the media are on it, now the cast needs some ethnic quota or the PC pressure becomes too high. Sad world.

There's a new Conan movie in development, and guess who is supposed to play the role of Conan the Barbarian? Jason Momoa.

Conan the Barbadian

[Svanhild]

Conan the Barbadian

I doubt I can laugh about it, the issue isn't supposed to be funny at all. I've read the books and love the old movies and the MMORPG, but this mixed rasta kills it.

[Radola]

I doubt I can laugh about it, the issue isn't supposed to be funny at all. I've read the books and love the old movies and the MMORPG, but this mixed rasta kills it.

That´s true, but still as far as I know, Conan wasn´t firmly described as a pale european...Imagine, that they are gonna do this with eg. Siegfried or someone else from eg. the Nibelungs, Conan isn´t as big problem for me as would be this.

[Fintorah]

I doubt I can laugh about it, the issue isn't supposed to be funny at all. I've read the books and love the old movies and the MMORPG, but this mixed rasta kills it.

Actually, I take what I just said back; they're NOT trying to pass him as some kind of Africanoid.


His ancestry is actually quite respectable if you ask me. Might not be all European, and he might be slightly dark, but good god, if another Idris Elba playing Heimdall, "the whitest of the gods" thing was happening here, I'd be pissed too. Luckily it's not, and I'm amped for this movie.

[Wyn]

Conan was also supposed to be quite tan and dark-haired.

And blue-eyed:

Now he grinned bleakly as the kings reined back a safe distance from the grim iron-clad figure looming among the dead. Before the savage blue eyes blazing murderously from beneath the crested, dented helmed, the boldest shrank.

The Scarlet Citadel

For me though, this actor simply doesn't "look" strong enough to be Conan.

[Liffrea]

Originally Posted by Radola
That´s true, but still as far as I know, Conan wasn´t firmly described as a pale european...

Howard quite clearly states that Conan is a northern barbarian of black hair and blue eyes whose tanned complexion is due to his fighting in southern lands. Cimmeria (Conan’s land) is, in Howard’s maps, roughly where the British Isles are today (Howard’s realm like Tolkien’s was meant to be a mythic, pre-historical version of our world).

I’m not sure if that changed in the non-Howard works, I haven’t read the later books from what I have hard they have been made more politically correct. Howard was a very race conscious man.

[Fintorah]

What I hate the most about action movies these days is the camerawork. They shake the camera back and forth up and down, twirl the lense around! To make it seem like a lot is happening when nothing is.

Kind of like in those car chase scenes through crowded areas, where the cars are going 20 mph. That camerawork can make a fat man sitting and shooting a BB gun at squirrels seem like an epic, fast-paced firefight.

I agree, Conan could have been cast as someone more Europid and Cro-Magnoid (jutting, sloped brow is not a Cro-Magnid feature, contrary to what most people believe). Momoa's still a better cast than Arnold. I honestly don't know who I would cast though. There aren't a whole lot of big, strong, European male actors; almost intentionally so. It's depressing when you realize this idea of short-statured, frail, pseudo-humorous, and white is becoming a stereotype. Which is amusing, considering the strongest men in the world are consistently white. The most impressive men in Conan are all Middle-Eastern, black, or half-white mixed.

And blue-eyed:

Now he grinned bleakly as the kings reined back a safe distance from the grim iron-clad figure looming among the dead. Before the savage blue eyes blazing murderously from beneath the crested, dented helmed, the boldest shrank.

The Scarlet Citadel

For me though, this actor simply doesn't "look" strong enough to be Conan.

Having a watered-down lead actor is a Hollywood tradition .

[Wyn]

Having a watered-down lead actor is a Hollywood tradition .

Then why were you claiming that this Jason fellow fits 'the mould' if the mould doesn't really matter? In addition to the passage I cited describing Conan's eyes as blue, consider this one:

Conan was a Cimmerian by birth, one of those fierce moody hillmen who dwelt in their gloomy, cloudy land in the north.

The Scarlet Citadel

Realistically, if we're going to stick to 'the mould', how much does this actor fit the description of a blue-eyed man from a dark and northern land?

I realise you did specify "better than Schwarzenegger did" but...how? By the way, I'm not a fan of Schwarzenegger as Conan either.