For Christmas I received a copy of Get Out  on Blu-ray and I have been digging through the bonus material including the writer/director Commentary by Jordan Peele. Peele reveals that the story has a deep mythology/backstory extending all the way to the Templar Knights and I respect the world building and considerable thought given to the back-story.

One of the aspect I watched closely as I reviewed the film was approaching it from the criticism that the film was racist in it depiction of its white characters. Naturally since the characters represent a small secret society they should not be taken as representation as a generalization of any lager demographic. These characters are racists, not the cross burning variety but racists just the same. However how does this work in conjunction with the theme, story, and film over all?

When I watched then movie in the theater I did not come away with the impression that it was racist or prejudicial and that remained my reaction as I re-watched it, even though throughout the running time there is not s single admirable Caucasian character. This was not reaction to some other media constructed made a similar situation; two examples are the Harry Potter franchise and Sleepless in Seattle.

In the Harry Potter films much is made about the difference between magical people, Wizards, and the non-magical, Muggles, with the author herself making the statement that the overarching theme of the work is a plea for tolerance and yet throughout the seven books and eight films, I am not speaking about the sequel franchise, there is not one admirable muggle character. The lack of an admirable muggle bothered me and in my opinion undercut the story’s powerful theme. It has sparked of heated debates between myself and some Potter fans that I consider this to be a fault in the story’s execution.

Sleepless in Seattle  possessed a similar dynamic but one that is driven around the difference between men and women. Throughout the film’s running time a common recurring motif is the difference between the sort of movies men like, such as The Dirty Dozen  and films that women enjoy such as An Affair to Remember. In the script it is a repeated concept that men just do not ‘get’ An Affair to Remember  and there is no male character that loves that movie, presenting the divide a reality. (And ignoring that An Affair to Remember, was written, produced, and directed by men, so at least some men must ‘get’ it.)

So if I had a reaction to the broad stereotyping of characters in these two films why did I not have a similar reaction to Get Out?

I think I have puzzled out the answer. In the two examples the broad difference are part of the theme and the manner in which the character react to each other. in Harry Potter the subject of muggles, how they lives, and what they are like surface again and again comically for our heroic wizarding characters and with fascistic overtones when touched on by the villains. In Sleepless in Seattle  the issue of the difference between men and women is s central aspect to the story a point emphasized by the film An Affair to Rememberis used to illustrate.

In Get Out none of the black characters make broad generalized comments about white people. The character’s comic relief best friend Rod, who often voices the wise advice for his friend to be wary makes no comments that the wife girlfriend or her family are not to be trusted because they are white, his warnings are caused by the situation and his ‘TSA Tingle.’ This simple but important element allows Get Out  to avoid the stereotype trap that others stories with this sort of subject fall into.