Review of Belle (2013) by Maggie M — 01 Jul 2014

I think I adores this movie not just for its humanization of people in love with real meaningful obstacles before them, but perhaps most of all for its portrayal of the utter banality of white supremacy. For every sneering violent racist white person we have whole handfuls of others who will tell anybody who'll listen that they accept Dido in spite of her race. I was happy to see that the white supremacy in the movie wasn't a caricature. The violent racists were enabled by a population of well-mannered and generally civil peers who cherish the appearance of moral high ground but can't fool someone like Dido, who must face the reality of their feelings to survive the limitations of other people's esteem for her.

A little odd that for all its clear vision of race, hereditary social position goes completely unquestioned. Our chief example of social mobility gets it by catching the eye of a virtuous social better, and Dido is fairly uncritically discussed as deserving of humane treatment because some of the blood in her veins is worth something socially.

It's a lot to ask a film to tackle all that, and Belle was still very very good. Its lack of clarity about class is just odd in contrast to its excellent show of what white supremacy does to people (both its victims and its vessels). We are expected to care about Dido because she is beautiful and rich and fancy and noble, and it isn't always clear why the audience should care about enslaved people except because Dido does; after all it isn't as though they show up onscreen.