Cameron Crowe’s Aloha movie starring Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone has sparked many controversies. Media Action Network for Asian-Americans, an Asian-American advocacy group, is slamming the romantic comedy and accusing it of “whitewashing” the state of Hawaii.
Is Cameron Crowe‘s Aloha film “whitewashing” Hawaii? Some people from the Aloha State are upset that the Jerry Maguire director opted to use an all-white cast for a movie set in Hawaii. Guy Aoki, co-founder of Media Action Network, put out a statement blasting the flick that will be released on May 29. It read:
“Caucasians only make up 30 percent of the population [of Hawaii], but from watching this film, you’d think they made up 99 percent.”
Aoki continued with:
“This comes in a long line of films — The Descendants, 50 First Dates, Blue Crush, Pearl Harbor — that uses Hawaii for its exotic backdrop but goes out of its way to exclude the very people who live there. It’s an insult to the diverse culture and fabric of Hawaii.”
Crowe had promised to tell the “rich story” of Hawaii, but did not give any real presence to Asian-Americans in Aloha. Asian-Pacific Islanders were only given roles of characters with no names.
Aoki explained:
“They didn’t even have names. How can you educate your audience to the ‘rich history’ of Hawaii by using mostly white people and excluding the majority of the people who live there and who helped build that history — APIs?”
This is not the first major controversy for Aloha, which was originally set for a December 2014 release. Amy Pascal, the former Sony executive, who got fired after the email scandal, did not think much of the project. In the leaked emails, Pascal wrote:
“People don’t like people in movies who flirt with married people or married people who flirt. The satellite makes no sense. The gate makes no sense. I’m never starting a movie again when the script is ridiculous. And we all know it.”
Here is the synopsis for Aloha:
“A celebrated military contractor returns to the site of his greatest career triumphs and re-connects with a long-ago love while unexpectedly falling for the hard-charging Air Force watchdog assigned to him.”
Cameron Crowe has not addressed the “whitewashing” claims.
What are your thoughts on the Aloha controversy? Will you go and watch it?
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