On Slumdog

As you are probably aware, Slumdog Millionaire has topped all the year's best-of lists, it cleaned up at the Golden Globes, and it will likely do some serious damage at the Oscars as well. Indeed, the critical response to Danny Boyle's latest has been almost entirely positive, as it is currently sitting at a pretty impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even the soundtrack to the film is one of the top-downloaded albums on iTunes. 

To my recollection, no movie since Crash has enjoyed such overwhelming critical appeal alongside such great popular acclaim.  In fact, I think this response is for much the same reason. Crash was a thoroughly enjoyable, sentimental pop movie with a really clever-though-implausible plot, which managed to convince its audience that after sitting through two hours of popcorn fun they had attained a sophisticated, balanced understanding of racial relations in Los Angeles. Similarly, Slumdog seduces the viewer with its M.I.A. soundtrack, its colorful glimpse into Mumbai's call centers and urban sprawl, and its concluding homage to Bollywood dance, convincing him that he now has attained greater social consciousness through learning the plight of orphans at the hands of the beggar mafia. Slumdog purports to stare India, which is so hot right now, in the face, warts and all, and it doesn't even give you subtitles that are hard to read.

However, for both of these movies, this nigh universal approval has given way to counter-arguments from a few dissidents. There were many that loathed Crash, urging that it had made its audience no wiser, and alleging that it merely perpetuated unhelpful stereotypes about race. The same is true now with Slumdog. Many, especially Indians, are standing up to say that the portrayal the film gives of India is unfair, contending that it emphasizes the nation's flaws and ignores its virtues - other than pretty colors and pretty girls. 

But in fact, this very reason is why I really love both of these movies. Truth be told, I also liked them simply for the drama - Crash with its heart-wrenching car-crash rescue scene, and Slumdog with its self-sacrificial, love-is-destiny message. But what was really notable about these movies is how they wrestled with key principles of contemporary liberalism and managed to gain the general approval of much of society, liberals included, in the process. 

Crash was remarkable because it went against the grain of race-relations cinema. A typical race-relations movie involves some oppressed black people, some sympathetic white people who reach out to them, and some Dickensian caricatures of white bigots with Southern accents, who say things like "law don't go 'round here." Indeed, this is the story you are supposed to tell about race relations. But Crash, on the other hand, told the story that everyone is racist, no matter what color, and at the same time suggested that all of our offensive racial stereotypes may even have some merit. It's quite something that a major Hollywood movie could get away with saying this and still win an Oscar.

Slumdog is much the same. Contrary to our prevailing sense that more indigenous cultures in "the developing world" possess more nobility and general insight into life than we in the West with our lattes and frequent flier miles, Slumdog painted a picture not only of the vibrance of India with the saris, the bindis, and the Taj Mahal, but also showed its filth - the religious violence, the insuperable caste system, and the exploitation of children as beggars. Indeed, as some news articles are now noting, Slumdog actually portrays a fairly sanitized version of that filth. For instance, Manisha's father was telling me the other night how his sister saw a woman in India begging for money while holding a screaming child with bandaged eyes. Someone tore the bandage away to find that the woman had taped two live cockroaches to the child's fully healthy eyes, simply so the child would continue screaming and garner the sympathy that leads to charity. That story will stick with me for a while, and I expect that Slumdog's story will stick with us as well, even if we aren't supposed to think too much about it.

So if nothing else, I admire these movies because they tell, to popular and critical acclaim, the stories that liberal orthodoxy would rather not have them tell. Even where their take on these issues is trite or sentimental, I nevertheless admire that they are willing to preach it.