Even after discussing this film in class to understand the significance that it may have had on U.S. imperialism, and how the U.S. forced Haitions into a forced labor system, I still just see it as a crappy 1930 horror film. It is very hard for me as a film buff to get past the horrible script and crappy casting, to see what this film ultimatly ended up doing.
I will say the filming technique that was used throughout the film reminded me of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Right at the beginning of the film when the couple was riding in a coach towards the castle in which they were to be wed, the use of shadows and darkness to set the scene, had a lot of the same essence that Dr. Caligari did. For some reason Bela Lugosi's character in some bizarre way reminded me of Dr. Caligari. The way that Legendre posed a threat over the leading woman in a more sexual manner, was a lot like how the character of Ceaser in Caligari wanted the female lead and both main characters ended up turning these women into "Zombies". I know that may be a big stretch in trying to correlate these two films, but the whole time I was viewing White Zombie, Dr. Caligari kept coming across my mind.
Even in the reading it states that "Legendre's threats towards the heroine seems exclusively sexual. But if the repressed returns in a distorted form containing elements of the forbidden, then Lugosi's representing Legendre functions similarly." This made me realize how Dr. Caligari and Legendre are similar in having complete control over humans, and creating them into their own type of zombies, but also how Legendre does link to U.S. imperalism over other countries and how we as Americans are filled with guilt from what we have done in the past, and essentially are still doing.
Overall, I found this movie only amusing for the mere fact I could draw connections to a wonderful silent film such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but other then that, I wouldn't really waste my time on watching a horror film that ultimatly, had me laughing.
I like alot of what you are saying here. The film's horror aspect pretty much fell short, although some of it was creepy. However, like you, I was fascineted by the correllations between the film and US imperialism. I like how this film, although masked by the plot, can be used to study America's involvement with the Haitian people in the 1930's.
ReplyDeletei definitely agree with your opinion of the film. Even though I didn't initially catch the deeper meaning (about US imperialism), and now knowing that this was the implication, I still think they could have done a better job in executing the production so it would have been more visually and cognitively appealing. I mentioned in my blog the 1-dimension-ness of all the characters. I still can't get over it! Not one of them engaged me in the film, which definitely made me feel the 'nightmare' aspect we discussed in class, as I just wanted it to be over! Knowing that the film actually served some purpose does validate it to an extent though.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I hadn't thought of the comparisons to Caligari. But you're right. And there were so many expressionist elements in this one, that it's very likely that it was an influence.
ReplyDeleteSometimes crappy movies can be fascinating, for different reasons than good ones.
Sometimes not though.