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12.19pm
30 August 2021
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Joe said
I'm surprised the film Help ! hasn't been mentioned here yet. The Beatles did a fair amount for race relations, but Help ! was an uncharacteristic misstep.I know they were busy doing everything in the 60s, the script and direction etc weren't their responsibility, and everyone was constantly stoned, but getting white actors to pretend to be Indian, stereotyping Indians as bloodthirsty cult members hell bent on murder, and misappropriating an actual Hindu deity for the sake of the plot… well, it's not a good look in the 21st century.
I know times have changed, as Ron Nasty explained so well upthread, but Help ! is one of the few Beatles-related things that has aged particularly poorly. The musical sequences are great though, and we have all the Indian stuff that followed, so maybe they balanced it out in the end. It also hasn't aged as badly as *that* 1972 John Lennon song, but it's not far off.
"Now see what you've done with your filthy Eastern ways!"
I don't disagree with anything you've said here but I still can't help laughing. Even at the time I think it was all meant as a put on.
"Nothing is Beatle-proof."
1.02pm
4 August 2015
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I had always thought that Klang and his cult were playing white characters in the movie too. It was just that their cult had Indian characteristics. It's not clear as to whether their base is in India or even if ending of the movie takes place over there.
Compare to the Nuwabian cult founded by a black man born and raised in the USA. The members dressed like Egyptians and created Egyptian decor and architecture. But few if any members were actually from there.
Of course, I could be way off. Feel free to debunk this theory if it is flawed.
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