Activist: Black people can be more than faceless gangster henchmen. Can't we have some real characters? You know, every day people?
Hollywood: Hey! Yeah! I see what you mean! We've got this great psycho killer coming up! We can make him a black guy! And that would work really well! He's be really hard to spot in the shadows!
Activist: Erm, no, that's not what I mean. We don't think that's a reasonable or accurate portrayal of black people.
Hollywood: Really? <Consults big book of Hollywood stereotypes.> No, no. Says so right here in the myths and legends box. All black people are gangsters and hoodlums with huge bulging muscles and huge bulging crotches. And they're completely impervious to morality. Only pure hearted american white males can kill them.
Activist: But that makes no sense! An anyway they’re not really like that!
Hollywood: Hey? What do you expect? This is Hollywood! It's all make-believe!
Activist: Can't you show them as mothers, fathers, businessmen and upstanding members of the community? Just normal people.
Hollywood: Hey! Hey! Slow down! I said make believe not miracles! Next thing you’ll be expecting realism, fully realised characters and intelligent dialogue...
Werewolves have to be invulnerable, have super senses, be stronger than Hulk and crush insignificant humans beneath their paws like the worms they are. Oh and the transformation has to really hurt and they must be only vulnerable to silver! The myths tell us so!
You could make a film like that. And it might even be a profitable film. But it wouldn’t really be a film about werewolves, and it wouldn’t be a film I’d like to watch. For that the werewolves have to be characters, not stereotypes. They have to have major and outstanding vulnerabilities in both body and mind. They have to behave in ways we find reasonable with motivations we find recognizable - whether from the human or canine box of tricks.
With respect to al the sensible types, I’ve seen too many people on this board treat werewolves (in my humble opinion) like “Hollywood’ above (and in the real world) treated black people. And like “activist’ I’d really prefer the makes of this film don’t do that, and by contrast, they do include things like realism, fully realised characters and intelligent dialogue.
Which I'm sure they will.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
ANTIcarrot.