The Impossible

It's just a story of one families survival... nobody is ignoring the other million people who died.. and it's not offensive or something..

Apr 6 - 06:29 AM

Saetre Saetre

Wow there is so much white guilt in here it's unbelievable. I didn't like this movie, not because it was "racist", but because it was tedious and uninteresting. Would it be any better if the main characters were poor thai people instead? No, it would not.

Feb 4 - 11:58 AM

Nickolas Reebok

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1NSUDYclzc

Watch this interview with Maria Belon, ESPECIALLY the part that follows after 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

Jan 28 - 02:36 AM

Nickolas Reebok

If a filmmaker went out and decided to make a movie about the story of how some foreign national from, let's say Thailand, survived the attacks of 9/11, and it was an incredibly powerful and moving film that had a profound impact on people, would you be moaning about "racism". It's a very TRUE story about a SPANISH family and their struggle for survival. No one is forgetting about the 230,000 Indonesians, Sri Lankans, Thais, etc who perished and the millions more who, to this day, are still suffering. Listen, tens of thousands of "rich white families" will have to live with the pain of this tragedy for the rest of their lives as well. Many "rich white" people have done all they can to help the millions of people throughout Southeast Asia who are suffering. Such a pathetic attempt to destroy a movie that has a FAR greater meaning than 95 percent of all the other films that have been produced.

Jan 28 - 02:19 AM

Vinayaka Bhat

well said... i agree with u

Apr 6 - 06:21 AM

Ricky Hood

You said hundreds of Thai people, yet 250,000 people died...do you even recognize your understatement in reference to the point you are trying to make, Mike Kowzun?

Jan 27 - 12:02 AM

Rich Gehring Jr.

Where is any part of the film did it suggest we should only empathize for the "white family" and not feel bad for the countless other people who lost their lives. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, now don't tell anyone this please keep it to yourself.....the movie's story is about this particular families survival of this event. So basically..you started a stupid thread. Or maybe they could make a film surrounding a Thai family and do the whole film in subtitles, that would make millions!

Jan 25 - 10:48 PM

Juan Santos

I very much enjoyed this movie and what I think you don't see, is that it did represent the 100's and thousands of people who died because of this tsunami. What you saw as racism I saw as filmmaking. Yes the characters were manipulated a bit and yes it focussed on a white family but that is not because the creators are trying to be racist or hurt someone, it's to get people to watch the film, so people can relate to the characters depicted in the movie and feel what they feel. Also, Bayona depicted many of the stories of the locals and other people living or visiting during the time in which the tsunami hit. You see it on many occasions in the film, like when the two thai men find Maria, Lucas, and Daniel and bring them to safety, it's because they are trying to help people and protect them no matter what race. Mentioning diversity and care, when Henry is trying to call home not only does everyone help him but they encourage him to fight on and find his family. There are many other examples of this in the film, I think you just need to think more about what the director is trying to tell you over the course of the movie and not take the movie in frame by frame and take it as it is, look into the other stories behind the one highlighted in the film.

Jan 21 - 09:50 PM

Philip Wilson

ALOT of white westerners died that day as well as locals. I mourn them all. Talk about white guilt...

Jan 7 - 01:58 PM

Craig Robinson

And how many? Here's the facts: at least 170,000 confirmed Indonesians died (Asian), at least 12,000 Sri Lankans died. Now, 2500 foreigners died, yet there aren't easily accessible records. We do know that many of the foreigners were Chinese and Japanese though. So, white dude, let's talk about white guilt. Maybe, at most, 1000 white people die. They get a movie. 200,000 Asian people die, they get a headline.

Jan 11 - 05:01 AM

Philip Wilson

Well unfortunately thats the nature of the movie industry, you are not going to be a box office hit if you don't have characters the audience can relate with hence the protagonists are westerners. You could make a good movie about thai locals but its not going to be a hit in the US or Uk, the film industries biggest markets. Thats capitalism for you. Perhaps the film does focus too much on Westerners, but please try and understand the word racism- the irrational hatred of people for no other reason than race. Where was the HATRED for Thais? Nowhere. You devalue that word by using it in ridiculous circumstances such as this. Do those 2500 foreigners not deserve a film? That's alot of people.

Jan 12 - 06:12 PM

Michael Nangle

I totally agree. It was originally based on a story about a Spanish family. Why did the Spanish director change that. Box office success, I assume. He is a good film maker, and Watts is terrific, as usual, but I found the movie manipulative and I always resist that.

Jan 5 - 04:42 AM

Juan Santos

What they were trying to do was get people to relate to the characters in the movie, it's not they want them to think that it was all about whites and their story, it's just a way of depicting the story.

Jan 21 - 09:53 PM

Rebecca Duff-smith

Have you seen the film? If you haven't then I think you're being very ignorant by the comments you've made. Since the disaster there have been a lot of documentaries made showing us the destruction and loss it caused for the countries involved and not just the so called 'attractive white people'. That comment in itself completely disrespects any families that were involved that were there on their 'expensive vacation'. What exactly did you want the film to be about? Surely by representing the disaster within the familiar, that of a family, a lot of people can relate to it some form; therefore reminding us of how awful that day was. If the film was based on a fictional family then I could understand you questioning 'what about the actual people that were there'. But this family was there and this is their story. Why shouldn't we watch it and be given another view of what happened? If you don't like it don't make comments.

Jan 2 - 03:57 PM

Craig Robinson

I think you're being very ignorant about how offensive this movie would be to Asian and South Pacific people. Here's what it says: "You can only make a film about an Asian tragedy successful if it stars white people". It's the fact they chose white Europeans that is so offensive. If you can't see that, then you are part of the problem and why white people are called "racially insensitive". Here, I'm going to school you real quick: Did you know that by being born white, you are more likely to graduate college, more likely to have a high paying job, more likely to be voted into office, more likely to live to old age, more likely to get a loan, more likely to have health insurance, more likely to be a box office film star, more likely to survive cancer, etc. Now why is this?

Jan 11 - 04:56 AM

Matthew Preston

You seem like a little moralfag American bitch, Craigy boy. If you're not SE Asian yourself, why do you even care? Racism is part of human nature. Of course Europeans value the lives of their own tribe (and, I should point out, that on a global scale, Spaniards and Britons aren't really that genetically different from each other). The director was European, he cares more about Europeans. If an Asian director cared more about Europeans than Asians, then you could make the argument that he's a little sell-out bitch (though, again, SE Asians have a lot of Australoid genes that NE Asians don't, so there's no real reason NE Asians would share a brotherhood with Thai people). Judging by your name, you're not even SE Asian yourself, so you're probably one of those irritatingly stupid people who think that human nature is (or at least should be) egalitarian. You're basically having a tantrum about natural law. How unmanly.

Jan 22 - 06:56 AM

Michael Lindsay

White people lose luggage, iPads & survive. 100,000 asians die. We are supposed to uplifted��

Dec 20 - 02:50 PM

Thom Stone

these are the same thoughts that ran through my mind. however, "It tells the true story of a Spanish (though portrayed as British) family's experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami." this is from the wikipedia page for the movie. sergio g. sánchez is the writer of the screenplay. not sure why it was changed from a spanish family to a british family, but that could be because it would have a wider appeal. i don't really think it's racist if they've noticed a pattern that more people see movies with white, english speaking leads. if that's what the audiences go for, then that's what they go for. you can't lay the blame directly on the movie industry. it's society at large.

Dec 18 - 02:43 AM

Vilnis Schulz

FYI Spanish people - from Spain - are white. I too thought about it - and I have a feeling the director and producers did, too. Lots of options: How about, the family speaks in Spanish, and their dialog is subtitled; or, how about they are portrayed as Spanish, but they speak English with Spanish accents? OR, ...someone would be annoyed or pissed off no matter what. How about the main Thai healthcare provider? Likely she'd speak English as her 2nd language, and speak no Spanish - would there have to be another character introduced? Bi lingual Spanish-Enghlish? ... or.... it was a practical decision, IMHO. The writers made a big point of showing us the real family. Enuff said.

Understand the reaction: but it's misplaced here, IMHO. The characters were not bad because they were privileged or because they were white. In fact, the mom and the son showed themselves to be quite selfless. And, unlike many movies, this one did not feature a great white outsider coming to the rescue of the sympathetic, but otherwise helpless brown people. In this case, the poor, rural locals as well as the educated professionals were the heroes every bit as much as the main characters.

Jan 7 - 09:25 PM

Craig Robinson

Ever heard of the Aryan Savior? Yeah, they show themselves as selfless. Still racist because they're better at being tribal than the tribesman. "Look at the great rich white people helping those poor brown people! How selfless! I mean, we need to civilize them, since they obviously can't do it themselves! Oops! We just killed 100,000 native Americans trying to civilize them. Well, can't make an omelet as they say!"

Jan 11 - 05:05 AM

Juan Santos

Well look at the other side. The movie was not at all like you just said, sure it had that i it but it also had they, hey look at poor brown person helping that rich white man. The movie was shown like that. The people helping other people.

Jan 21 - 09:56 PM

Julia Dzagoeva

umm. this is just. ignorant. can I point its a spanish movie firstly?
Watch the movie before making a presumptuous comment.

Dec 14 - 11:07 PM

Craig Robinson

You're right, your comment was ignorant. Because it's a Spanish film, it makes it ok to star white people surviving an Asian tragedy? How can you not see the racism saying that white people are better at surviving a tsunami than Asians. Seriously? You've never noticed that Europeans and Hollywood are incredibly racist?

Jan 11 - 05:07 AM

Ingrid Glaw

You know you can feel sorry for them and the hundreds of Thai people who suffered too, right? What your doing here is just another form of racism "I don't care if white people suffered or died because they were on vacation!" And have you seen this movie yet or just the trailer? I found the trailer gave me the wrong impression of the film.

Dec 14 - 08:05 AM

Craig Robinson

Uh, it wasn't hundreds of Asians. It was about a thousand times that. And here's why it's racist, because they couldn't make a film starring an Asian family to make millions unless it had Jackie Chan kicking people in it. This is the problem with Hollywood. Maybe we should ask a Thai person how they feel about it? Oh I did! And you know what? They shook there head and ignored it. Notice that every critic is also white. Hmm... Very interesting.

Jan 11 - 04:51 AM

Brenda Michaud

Interesting stuff Mr. Robinson....I think you would enjoy this (attached) article which echoes your arguments about white privilege. In case you are still left with some energy to enlighten those who seem to be oblivious to systemic and insidious racism, do pass it on....it is titled:White Privilege, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

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