Celie Johnson, Kunta-Kinte, Susannah Dean of New York, all of these characters have back story, experiences and characterization based on their race and skin tone. Their specific stories are all informed by living as a person of color in the various eras in which they lived. To switch their race would undercut the story being told and often render the themes moot and meaningless.
The argument that people like yourself put forward, that switching the race of Roland is just as egregious, is a false equivalence.
Roland comes from a land and era where race really has no bearing on social constructs or concepts. A person in Roland's world is not as informed by their race or skin pigmentation. As such, although Roland has been described as white, and there are a few key moments in Drawing of the Three that play off of Detta's mistrust of a white Roland (which could easily be turned around by calling him an Uncle Tom), the core of his character has absolutely NOTHING to do with the color of his skin, and I can point to a hundred moments throughout the series where his race plays no part and only his character - such as his obsession with the Tower and his nobility as a Gunslinger - inform the action.
Because of this, the SJWs as you call them, feel that people who say Roland can't be black, really seem to be having a subtext that a black character can't have the nobility, the quest for the Tower, the steely gaze, and all the other character traits described, which is where the accusations of bigotry and whatnot come from.
I do not hold with these assessments, but I have no problem with changing Roland's skin tone. Even if that means we don't get the "blue bombardier eyes" that King so frequently references, if we get a good performance from Elba that is all that matters to me.
And just as a counterpoint to the initial argument, there are several literary characters that have had race changed from white to black in book to film adaptations that worked splendidly. Most notably Creasy in Man on Fire was portrayed excellently by Denzel Washington and I feel makes a good case for changing Roland to being a black actor.
I don't know if you're aware of this but I've already changed things. I killed Ben Linus.
--Sayid
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Kung_Fu_VooDoo
8 years ago
You're kidding.....2 decades of books.....8 novels....countless cross overs.....a score of comic books....dozens of Stephen King approved illustrations....and NOW you're gonna make him black at the first movie? Jesus Christ on a pogo stick man! THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!
Okay, since I'm apparently ignorant and backwards and whatever choice word you chose to throw at me, why the phuque would they change him to being black? How in ANY was does this do anything other than demonstrate the arrogance of the director? How does this add to the story? What if he was Vietnamese? Or Australian Aboriginal?
It doesn't work because the fans of the series have a model (that Stephen King plainly gave us) of what Roland looks like. He looks like a 40 year old Clint Eastwood with, as you pointed out, bombardier eyes. What people look like is equally as powerful as who they are and perhaps more so.
As for suggesting I and others believe a black character does not have the characteristics required to play a Gunslinger, that's patently bullsh!t and you know it. Susannah Dean possess ALL of those characteristics and fans have done nothing but cheer her on from book two until she rolled out to find her NEW Eddie.....I will be equally pissed if they cast her as Native American.
This is like Cat in the Hat and a host of other attempts to change perfectly fine and established things for the better and in the process tea bag a bunch of peoples expectations. We fell in love with a story. The story has characters. We've been told who and what these characters are. It's absurd to think a director can improve upon the genius Stephen King created over a period of 20 years.
The greatest trick the devil ever played, was the one where you pick a card, then he shuffles....
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MaximusGrandimus
8 years ago
Please tell me what choice words I used or where I called you ignorant...? I think I was pretty respectful in my post and laid out a pretty reasonable difference as to why Roland can change race easily but not Susannah Dean...
I don't know if you're aware of this but I've already changed things. I killed Ben Linus.
--Sayid
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MaximusGrandimus
8 years ago
Answer me this too. Is Roland's race important when he tells Ben Slightman he should hope for a chance to die when the Wolves attack because of his betrayal of the Calla folk? Does his race matter when he engages in the shootout with Balazar in the Tower Club? When Susannah ruminates numerous times that Roland would sacrifice one or all of his Ka-tet for the Tower? When he and Jake are running from the Tick-Tock man under Lud? When he kills the entire town of Tull? When he faces down the Red King and enters the Tower? When he faces Mordred and the Dandelo? When he is tricked by Maerlyn's grapefruit into killing his own mother or when he takes his Testing at the tender age of 16? Does Roland's race or color inform ANY of these moments?
I don't know if you're aware of this but I've already changed things. I killed Ben Linus.
--Sayid
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