Rachel Dean-Ruzicka argues in her article, “Themes of Whiteness and Privilege in the Films of Wes Anderson,” that although Wes Anderson’s films are not outright racist, they are a danger to society because they normalize whiteness and flaunt white privilege. Society is negatively affected by this because the audiences will then believe it is acceptable to assume white norms and white privilege, which leads to complications for ethnic groups that fail to live up to these white expectations. As a popular film maker, it should be Anderson’s responsibility to create an atmosphere for all ethnicities so that his films may mirror reality and not create a false world of whiteness that people subconsciously believe to be the truth. Dean-Ruzicka researches four of Anderson’s films: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited, in order to individually showcase each film's preoccupation with whiteness through Anderson's characters and directorial decisions.
In Bottle Rocket, Anderson’s Latina character, Inez, is boiled down to a stereotype of a maid who can’t speak English very well. She contrasts with the white characters who have the ability to have successful lives but decide to become robbers, whereas she does not have the ability to choose or change her social position. The same problems prevail in Rushmore, where a white, non-entitled student tries to find his place as a normal rich white kid by lying about his background. It normalizes that being white means being rich and having high status, whereas being a different ethnicity is to be poor and have low status. To make matters worse, Anderson uses primarily white actors in the central scenes and has non-white actors standing off towards the sides. Dean-Ruzicka brings up how Anderson makes his characters’ light skin in The Royal Tenenbaums even whiter by using white makeup, bright lighting, and contrasting their faces with darker background colors. Anderson includes some characters of color in his film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but they only act as background characters, holding no actual power. White main characters have the most dialogue, and therefore, the most power. The country of India in The Darjeeling Limited is seen as an exotic place for the three white characters to find themselves. Though they don’t actually experience any Indian culture, they manage to create situations where they can stereotype for laughs.
Dean-Ruzicka's article argues that it is partly the audience’s fault for continuing to praise Anderson’s racially problematic work. Society won’t be able to challenge white washing until creatives like Anderson begin changing the way they portray race and culture in their work. If this doesn’t happen, it will continue to create a never ending cycle that continuously puts down minorities. Studying whiteness is important because we as a society must challenge the status quo and stop spreading the message that the ‘ideal’ person is white and minorities only deserve supporting roles on and off screen.
References
Dean-Ruzicka, Rachel. "Themes of Privilege and Whiteness in the Films of Wes Anderson." Quarterly Review of Film and Video 30.1 (2013): 25-40. Web.