Review of National Parks Adventure (2016) by Rachel S — 22 Jul 2016

I found this film vaguely racist. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but the sight of 3, white people who look straight out of a J. Crew catalog (okay probably something more sporty), going from national park to park, doing sporty things, seemed all too stereotypical.

The very fit, lean, young, blonde woman smiled perkily no matter what was happening. They talk about the importance of Native American history and philosophy in the beginning, but there are no Native Americans in the film.

There was one brown-skinned person shown in the beginning, for about 5 seconds, but we didn't even see his face. Another black person mysteriously appeared in a later scene, holding a belay rope. We saw him for about 3 seconds and then he disappeared.

After the film was over they showed a montage of people enjoying national parks, which included different ethnicities. The 3 white people on their long road trip smiled, singing, "This land is your land, this land is my land," but I couldn't help but feel that the film portrayed our beautiful country as primarily the land of well-off, good-looking, white people.

I am a middle-class white woman, but I was disappointed with the people the directors chose to represent our national parks. Also, the history given was interesting, but minimal. It's mostly a display of beautiful scenery with not much context.