Roland Emmerich Responds to Stonewall Critics

[stephaniec]

Roland Emmerich Responds to Stonewall Critics

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2015/08/06/roland-emmerich-responds-stonewall-critics

The Advocate/BY Trudy RingAugust 06 2015 11:36 PM ET 

"Director Roland Emmerich is responding to those calling for a boycott of his new film, Stonewall, because, they say, it erases the role of transgender people as well as people of color in the 1969 riots that gave rise to the modern LGBT rights movement."

[Ms Grace]

...the movie hasn't even come out and some people are losing their $#@&??!??

[suzifrommd]

Sounds to me like a desperate attempt to salvage box office sales.

...the movie hasn't even come out and some people are losing their $#@&??!??

Yes, but I understand the fears of the activists - that the controversy might actually make a success of a movie that deserves oblivion. The whole "see the movie before you judge" meme kind of supports this.

If transgender POC are offended by the trailer, that's enough for me. In the U.S. we're going through a major national discussion about how those groups that are not marginalized have a hard time seeing marginalization of other groups. I would feel really uncomfortable telling people they shouldn't be offended when I haven't walked in their shoes.

[Ms Grace]

I've just never found a trailer to be an accurate representation of a movie's themes, story, characters, etc. I prefer to judge a movie by the movie, not the trailer. A trailer is less than 1% of the movie so who knows, the movie might be great or it might be crap but I won't judge it on a trailer unless it says something deliberately false, misleading or insensitive/insulting.

The problem with these kind of movies is that they usually focus in on one or a few individuals in order to the story. Anyway, I'll be more interested in whether it is a good movie.

[wanessa.delisola]

The question here is: Who the hell watches a Roland Emmerich movie??? 

[Ms Grace]

oh, I just love me some mindless CGI disaster porn.

[Eva Marie]

Meh - it's a movie.

But there is a *lot* of history at work here.

The gays have historically thrown us under the bus time and again to achieve what they want (ie: Barney Frank on ENDA), and some folks in the gay community, having won general acceptance, have now become the oppressors they once fought.

Its well accepted by most people having some knowledge of the event that trans people started the Stonewall riots. However, there have been several attempts by the gays since then trying to co-opt the event.

I think that trans people see this movie as just more of the same trans-erasure from the gays.

The director is cleverly standing on the fact that the movie is fiction to explain the gay white male in the lead role. I wonder how many people will see this movie and not realize that it is fictional? Could the director not find a trans person willing to play the lead role?

This was an opportunity to portray an event accurately. Unfortunately it is a swing and a miss.