There’s been lots of outrage in the media and online about the problematic white savior trope and white washing in Matt Damon’s latest flick, The Great Wall.
In the film, white boy Matt Damon plays a European mercenary who journeys to the great wall along with that other white dude who got his head smashed in Game of Thrones and that other white dude who got his d*** smashed in Antichrist, to fight monsters and probably save the day, I don’t know, I haven’t watch the movie.
Apparently Jason Bourne and the Green Goblin committed the greatest sin in modern filmmaking, being white and fighting monsters in a time and place where white people did not do that. White savioring, as the kids call it.
Throughout the film’s marketing, Damon and Chinese director Zhang Yimou have defended the film against these accusations. They argue that the presence of white people in Ancient China is just as ahistorical as mythical monsters the size of Apache helicopters. These arguments, however, have not appeased the culture critics, who maintain that Damon is indeed some kind of great white savior, who is not only capable of being an Oscar winning actor, but single-handedly saving the people of China as well.
But obviously there’s a flaw in these so-called culture critics’ critiques. If Matt Damon was such a great white savior, why couldn’t he save his movie from totally sucking?
At the time of publication, The Great Wall has an abysmal 36 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics hate the film, and not just for its racist implications, but because it is bad. Flat characters, dumb premise and a screenplay written by out-of-touch Hollywood writers who have probably never been to China, let alone fought monsters there.
You’d think if Damon could use his power of whiteness to save a whole nation, he’d at least be able to score in the 70 percentile range. Damon is less of a white savior and more of a white loser.
And according to Jonathan Kim of HuffPo, Damon barely even white saviors the Chinese people. He actually is awed by their technological and cultural superiority and must learn to become more Chinese in order to join their ranks and fight the monsters. What a cuck! That’s not the nostalgic white supremacy I’ve come to expect from Hollywood.
Damon clearly doesn’t live up to the hype. Hopefully in his next film he can really show the audience what it means to save people with your skin color. Do better Matt!