By Asgard's Hammer! Far-righty whities mighty uptighty about black actor playing Norse god

[redirish28]

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/asgards-hammer-far-righty-whities-mi



A US white supremacist group has called for a boycott of the Kenneth Branagh-directed superhero movie Thor on the grounds that a black actor has been cast in the role of a Norse god.

The Council of Conservative Citizens is upset that London-born Idris Elba, star of The Wire and BBC detective series Luther as well as a number of Hollywood films, is to play deity Heimdall in the Marvel Studios feature. The group, which opposes inter-racial marriage and gay rights, has set up a website, boycott-thor.com to set out its opposition to what it sees as an example of leftwing social engineering.

"It well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes," the site reads. "Marvel frontman Stan 'Lee' Lieber boasts of being a major financier of leftwing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the Tea Party movement, conservatives and European heritage.

"Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology."

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This will get interesting.

[Iggo]

1. Yes, white supremacists. Please boycott this movie.

Also, please boycott any other movie I want to see. And please boycott the mall. And Starbucks. And the bookstore. And the local park. In fact, just stay home. All the time. You know, just to be safe.

[geckosfeet]

12. Agreed. They should boycott everything. Especially jelly donuts.

[Posteritatis]

16. And oxygen. (nt)

[Cassandra]

2. Branagh loves to cast out of the box.

He's pretty liberal, as well.

[redirish28]

5. My wife loves his movies both as a director and actor. I'll be honest I don't see the appeal.

[wikileaksfan]

9. Branagh is great as Swedish detective Wallander on Masterpiece Theatre

[Dappleganger]

34. Yes, he is--love that show! nt

[Blue_Tires]

30. In high school, my English class went to see his film adaptation of

"Much Ado About Nothing," and in the following discussion I swear the ONLY thing my classmates wanted to discuss was how Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington could ever be brothers...

[Aristus]

40. Don Pedro and Don John are half-brothers. And Don John was born out of wedlock.

Even as half-brothers, it's a stretch. But still, non-traditional casting is cool... B-)

[blogslut]

3. Idris Elba

*swoon*

[starroute]

18. Looks pretty insanely cool in the part

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Asgard is a place, not a deity.

Lucifer's Hammer, maybe? but not Asgard's.

(TY Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle)




TG, TT

[Obamanaut]

19. Or Thor's hammer, Mjolnir n/t

[gulliver]

6. Idris Elba should stick to playing black characters, like Jesus. n/t

[TheKentuckian]

8. I wish these fucks were forced to watch Huey Freeman's "The Adventures of Black Jesus"

on a continuous loop "Clockwork Orange" style.

[KansDem]

7. Stupid assholes! It's a f*cking myth!!!

These are all Heimdalls:





...So, you f*cking wankers, which one is the "real" myth?

[toddaa]

10. Heimdallr was the doorman of Asgard

Translation: A black actor taking yet another role as butler.

(just seeing if I can stir up more trouble)

[Iggo]

13. LOL.

:rofl:

[Matariki]

11. Do these idiots even deserve one line of Newsprint?

[RZM]

14. Kinda funny

Though I disagree with you assertion that 'this will get interesting.' These asshats will have no effect -- the movie will sink or swim on its own merits, or lack thereof.

This is pretty standard stuff in Hollywood. Movies are often engineered to have 'something for everybody' so as many demos as possible will buy tickets. I wouldn't be surprised if this idea came from the very top.

[Iggo]

38. I'm with you.

I don't think the fact that the SS is sitting this one out will affect the movie's success one way or the other.

[NV Whino]

15. Branagh also cast a black actor to play, heaven help us...

Othello. I believe it was the first time a black man had been cast to play a black man in the role.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Beat me to the punch. :^)

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. If I may, actually the first black actor to play Othello was in 1943.

I got curious about which black actors had played the character, so checked out Wiki:


Stage actors included:

Margaret Webster's 1943 staging starring Paul Robeson as Othello and Jose Ferrer as Iago. This production was the first ever in America to feature a black actor playing Othello with an otherwise all-white cast (there had been all-black productions of the play before). It ran for 296 performances, almost twice as long as any other Shakespearean play ever produced on Broadway. <22> Although it was never filmed, it was the first nearly complete performance of a Shakespeare play released on records. Robeson played Othello from 1930-1959 and played the role in London in 1931 opposite a cast that included Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona and Ralph Richardson as Roderigo, and would return to it in 1959 at Stratford on Avon.

James Earl Jones, 1955, stage.

Moses Gunn, Broadway, 1970.

Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor: theater, 2007.

On film:

Laurence Fishburne: He became the first African American to portray Othello in a motion picture by a major studio when he appeared in Oliver Parker's 1995 film adaption of the Shakespearean play.

I hope I am missing some other film actors.

[NV Whino]

23. Thanks

I didn't know about the others. It was Laurence Fishburne I was thinking of, and I do forget that it was one of the few plays that Brannagh was only a player.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Appreciate your graciousness in my being pedantic.

I waited for years for James Earl Jones to do a film version.
I could listen to that man read the phonebook.!!

[Dappleganger]

35. It was wonderful, a smart casting decision.

[Aristus]

41. In the movies, maybe. Black actors have been playing Othello on stage for centuries.

Ira Aldridge played Othello throughout the first half of the 19th Century, albeit mostly in Europe, where black actors playing dramatic black characters were more accepted than in the U.S.

Paul Robeson received what is still regarded as one of the longest ovations in Broadway history for his portrayal or Othello in the 1940's.

[MrScorpio]

21. My first question to them is, "Am I supposed to care?"

My second question to them is, "Do they have a life?"

It's a freaking comic book movie!

[Motown_Johnny]

22. This may make me go see a movie I otherwise had no interest in

[bluestate10]

24. I saw the trailer. Did not seem too interesting. But now, it's on my must see list. nt.

[chaska]

25. Well, you gotta admit, on the surface a black Thor sounds...

like pretty stupid casting. Cognitive dissonance, hello?

[MrScorpio]

31. It's a Black Heimdall, the guardian of the Rainbow Bridge

Thor's a blonde white guy.

[Motown_Johnny]

33. I think that the point is that all Norse should be considered blond & white

not that I support that point of view, just playing devil's advocate

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

43. Thor is supposed to be a red head

Marvel decided he should be blond - if they can't get that right...


Anyway, I don't really care. It's a movie.

The real Thor kicks Giant Ass!:kick: :bounce:

[struggle4progress]

26. o noes! eek! wadda twadjitty!

[PBS Poll-435]

27. He was freaking awesome in U.S. Office

So cold and unfunny that he was hilarious.

[surrealAmerican]

28. I didn't realize that the comic book ...

... was supposed to be completely true to the mythology.


Too bad they didn't cast a woman.

[Confusious]

37. I'm sure there are plenty of female roles in the movie

Maybe they could have cast a guy as Freya, goddess of love, beauty, fertility, gold, sorcery, war, and death?

Why bother being close to anything at all?

[flvegan]

32. Best OP title ever.

[Motown_Johnny]

36. ah yes, the RAINBOW Bridge. Maybe the fundies should give the rainbow

back to the norse



Context being another thread where the wing nuts want their rainbow symbol back from "da gheys"

[Morning Dew]

39. Thank God it's not Grabthar's hammer

or you'd have a Maktar playing the role.

[Starry Messenger]

42. They didn't use real gods, why isn't anyone up in arms over this?

:sarcasm: I love comics, why do the fascists have to come along and crap on everything cool? I've never been a "Thor" fan, but will watch this in a theatre to get a chance to see Elba on the big screen.