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12-04-2015, 11:51 AM
Brooklyn tells the story of a young Irish immigrant (Saoirse Ronan) who comes to Brooklyn in the early 1950s in search of opportunity and a better life. The film has earned a scorching 98% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has earned more than its share of Oscar buzz, with nominations for Best Costume Design and Adapted Screenplay all but assured. Nominations for Best Actress for Ronan and Best Director for John Crowley would also come as no surprise.
But in light of the Syrian immigration crisis and the racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia it has engendered, the widespread acclaim for Brooklyn deserves a second look. Watch the trailer for Brooklyn below.
Ronan plays Eilis, an Irish teenager who, despite her intelligence, has few prospects in her small town. So her older sister (Fiona Glascott) pays her passage to New York and connects Eilis with a priest (Jim Broadbent) who arranges her visa, a place to live in a Brooklyn boarding house, and a job at a swanky department store. While initially beset with homesickness and loneliness, Eilis eventually acclimatizes to life on the East Coast, attending night school and winning the affections of a very sweet Italian plumber (Emory Cohen). But before Eilis can put down roots, circumstances bring her back to Ireland, where the familiarity of home and the advances of yet another extremely sweet suitor (Domhnall Gleeson) has Eilis wondering where she really belongs.
Personally, I found Brooklyn to be a winning, enjoyable film -- the kind of inoffensive fare you could take your parents or grandparents to over the holidays (I saw it with my parents over Thanksgiving). Ronan continues to distinguish herself as one of the best young actresses of her generation, and nearly every character in Brooklyn has likable and redeeming qualities. The cinematography is pretty, the clothes look great, and the story is sure to give your heartstrings a firm tug.
But make no mistake -- Brooklyn is not a story of any real significance, and is barely about the immigrant experience at all. Eilis does not encounter any anti-immigrant or anti-Irish sentiments, and what she experiences is mostly identical to what would happen to most young people moving to a big city from a small town they've never ventured from. What makes Brooklyn a good movie is that we share this experience with a thoughtful, fresh-faced, kind young woman who we get to know as a person and whose struggles we can empathize with.
So what are we to make of the near-universal acclaim and affection for an immigrant story like Brooklyn when the reality of actual immigrants from Syria has been met with such hatred, distrust, and cold-heartedness from the political right?
Not that it's a competition, but Syrian refugees today are much more in need of our sympathy and compassion than an immigrant like Eilis. Unlike today's Syrian immigrants, Eilis is not fleeing fighting, hunger, an oppressive regime, or an unemployment rate that has soared over 50% like Syria's has. She did not risk her life making a dangerous, arduous journey over land and sea to reach the Eastern Seaboard -- seasickness aside, Eilis' trip across the Atlantic via oceanliner is comparatively cushy. She has lodging and a job awaiting her arrival, she has no children or family to support, and she doesn't even have to contend with a language barrier. And, as we see later in the film, life back in her Irish hometown is pleasant and comparable enough to life in Brooklyn that Eilis agonizes over whether to return to the US at all.
While I wish that the source of this empathy deficit -- even as one side endures vastly greater hardships -- was more complex, it's hard not to see racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia as its primary roots. And the fact that the voices most loudly opposing taking in Syrian immigrants have almost exclusively emanated from America's republican party and nativist/conservative groups across Europe buttresses that conclusion.
There was a time in American history when the Irish were discriminated against and seen as "the other" based on stereotypes about their alcoholism, propensity for violence, the incompatibility of their Catholic beliefs, and the belief that they only possessed the mental capacity for menial labor that should be done by American workers anyway. But the Irish were still white, spoke English, and were Christians in a predominantly Christian nation with British roots, so the stereotypes against them didn't last long, especially since the Irish were visually indistinguishable from other white Americans. And due to the realities of modern-day white privilege, a character like Eilis is viewed today as an individual with her own story and identity. I'd bet that even Donald Trump would not describe Eilis as just another alien job stealer burdening the system.
On the other hand, republicans are doing everything they can to convince Americans that because Syrians are mostly Muslims, all of them share the same identity and beliefs as ISIL fighters. The humanity of weeping mothers, hungry children, and dead infants is ignored as republican governors line up to (illegally) block Syrian refugees from being settled in their states (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/syria-refugees-governors-reject-215927), concluding that the ISIL attacks in Paris have made every Syrian a suspect/accomplice/terrorist. In spite of the millions of Muslims living peacefully and harmoniously in the US, Islam is being painted as so dangerously incompatible with America's culture and values that Trump has implied that American Muslims should be registered and tracked (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/11/20/3724432/trump-muslim-database/) while Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz have said that American aid should only be extended to Syrian Christians (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=entry/jeb-bush-syrian-refugees-christian-muslim_5648b98de4b045bf3def84df).
If a film were released tomorrow about a teenage, brown-skinned Muslim girl from a country even close to the Middle East who emigrates to the US in search of safety and a better life, republicans would vilify it as dangerous, even treasonous propaganda that aids America's enemies, and would surely call for the film to be boycotted. Yet a film like Brooklyn about a teenage, white-skinned Christian girl emigrating to the US in search of a slightly better life draws nary a peep of protest from America's right wing.
Brooklyn is a fine, well-acted, technically-proficient, inoffensive film that is very easy to like. But when a white Christian immigrant in a movie is extended more compassion, understanding, and humanity than actual non-white Muslims fleeing for their lives, we should all wonder why.
Follow ReThink Reviews on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/RethinkReviews), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ReThinkReviews), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/rethinkreviews). -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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But in light of the Syrian immigration crisis and the racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia it has engendered, the widespread acclaim for Brooklyn deserves a second look. Watch the trailer for Brooklyn below.
Ronan plays Eilis, an Irish teenager who, despite her intelligence, has few prospects in her small town. So her older sister (Fiona Glascott) pays her passage to New York and connects Eilis with a priest (Jim Broadbent) who arranges her visa, a place to live in a Brooklyn boarding house, and a job at a swanky department store. While initially beset with homesickness and loneliness, Eilis eventually acclimatizes to life on the East Coast, attending night school and winning the affections of a very sweet Italian plumber (Emory Cohen). But before Eilis can put down roots, circumstances bring her back to Ireland, where the familiarity of home and the advances of yet another extremely sweet suitor (Domhnall Gleeson) has Eilis wondering where she really belongs.
Personally, I found Brooklyn to be a winning, enjoyable film -- the kind of inoffensive fare you could take your parents or grandparents to over the holidays (I saw it with my parents over Thanksgiving). Ronan continues to distinguish herself as one of the best young actresses of her generation, and nearly every character in Brooklyn has likable and redeeming qualities. The cinematography is pretty, the clothes look great, and the story is sure to give your heartstrings a firm tug.
But make no mistake -- Brooklyn is not a story of any real significance, and is barely about the immigrant experience at all. Eilis does not encounter any anti-immigrant or anti-Irish sentiments, and what she experiences is mostly identical to what would happen to most young people moving to a big city from a small town they've never ventured from. What makes Brooklyn a good movie is that we share this experience with a thoughtful, fresh-faced, kind young woman who we get to know as a person and whose struggles we can empathize with.
So what are we to make of the near-universal acclaim and affection for an immigrant story like Brooklyn when the reality of actual immigrants from Syria has been met with such hatred, distrust, and cold-heartedness from the political right?
Not that it's a competition, but Syrian refugees today are much more in need of our sympathy and compassion than an immigrant like Eilis. Unlike today's Syrian immigrants, Eilis is not fleeing fighting, hunger, an oppressive regime, or an unemployment rate that has soared over 50% like Syria's has. She did not risk her life making a dangerous, arduous journey over land and sea to reach the Eastern Seaboard -- seasickness aside, Eilis' trip across the Atlantic via oceanliner is comparatively cushy. She has lodging and a job awaiting her arrival, she has no children or family to support, and she doesn't even have to contend with a language barrier. And, as we see later in the film, life back in her Irish hometown is pleasant and comparable enough to life in Brooklyn that Eilis agonizes over whether to return to the US at all.
While I wish that the source of this empathy deficit -- even as one side endures vastly greater hardships -- was more complex, it's hard not to see racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia as its primary roots. And the fact that the voices most loudly opposing taking in Syrian immigrants have almost exclusively emanated from America's republican party and nativist/conservative groups across Europe buttresses that conclusion.
There was a time in American history when the Irish were discriminated against and seen as "the other" based on stereotypes about their alcoholism, propensity for violence, the incompatibility of their Catholic beliefs, and the belief that they only possessed the mental capacity for menial labor that should be done by American workers anyway. But the Irish were still white, spoke English, and were Christians in a predominantly Christian nation with British roots, so the stereotypes against them didn't last long, especially since the Irish were visually indistinguishable from other white Americans. And due to the realities of modern-day white privilege, a character like Eilis is viewed today as an individual with her own story and identity. I'd bet that even Donald Trump would not describe Eilis as just another alien job stealer burdening the system.
On the other hand, republicans are doing everything they can to convince Americans that because Syrians are mostly Muslims, all of them share the same identity and beliefs as ISIL fighters. The humanity of weeping mothers, hungry children, and dead infants is ignored as republican governors line up to (illegally) block Syrian refugees from being settled in their states (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/syria-refugees-governors-reject-215927), concluding that the ISIL attacks in Paris have made every Syrian a suspect/accomplice/terrorist. In spite of the millions of Muslims living peacefully and harmoniously in the US, Islam is being painted as so dangerously incompatible with America's culture and values that Trump has implied that American Muslims should be registered and tracked (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/11/20/3724432/trump-muslim-database/) while Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz have said that American aid should only be extended to Syrian Christians (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=entry/jeb-bush-syrian-refugees-christian-muslim_5648b98de4b045bf3def84df).
If a film were released tomorrow about a teenage, brown-skinned Muslim girl from a country even close to the Middle East who emigrates to the US in search of safety and a better life, republicans would vilify it as dangerous, even treasonous propaganda that aids America's enemies, and would surely call for the film to be boycotted. Yet a film like Brooklyn about a teenage, white-skinned Christian girl emigrating to the US in search of a slightly better life draws nary a peep of protest from America's right wing.
Brooklyn is a fine, well-acted, technically-proficient, inoffensive film that is very easy to like. But when a white Christian immigrant in a movie is extended more compassion, understanding, and humanity than actual non-white Muslims fleeing for their lives, we should all wonder why.
Follow ReThink Reviews on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/RethinkReviews), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ReThinkReviews), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/rethinkreviews). -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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