I was on the internet a few months ago, and I had my usual we-should-promote-as-often-as-we-deride. To my surprise, I was unable to find a single list of films that did not have white saviors. So now I ask you to help me with these lists. They are presented with the grand caveat- being on either list does not mean that I think they’re good or not, nor does it mean I think an analysis of the movie can be bottled down to the existence of a white savior trope. I’m simply noting what is. At some point, when the lists are longer, I will revisit this and perhaps link each movie to my favorite comprehensive analysis of its use of the trope within the context of its other merits or fuck-ups.
Movies Without White Saviors
- Legend of Bhagat Singh
- Machete
- Great Debaters
- Che
- Milagro Bean Field Wars
- Wind that Shakes the Barley
Movies With White Saviors
- Elysium
- Avatar
- Dances With Wolves
- Pathfinder
- Amistad
- Timestoppers
- Machine Gun Preacher
- Cool Runnings
- A Time To Kill
- Blood Diamond
- Glory
- District 9
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Mississippi Burning
- The New World
- Schindler’s List
- Power of One
- Cry Freedom
- Burn!
- Prison Break
- Mangal Panday: The Rising
As you can see, this isn’t binary. I include the Wind that Shakes the Barley, for example, because all of the heroes are colonized Irish, and none are English. There are other movies in the list where the racial, ethnic, national, or species context also make them complicated picks. Schindler’s List isn’t included, for example, because even though all of the characters would be white in the US context, they were not under the Third Reich.
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