Ridley Scott’s Failure to Acknowledge the Truth in 1492: Conquest of Paradise :: Movie Film Essays

Ridley Scotts Failure to Acknowledge the Truth in 1492 Conquest of paradise 1 Why would a person in 1992 make a historical rent about Christopher Columbus discovery that completely ignores the then current debates that psyche whether or not it precipitated genocide? Director Ridley Scott set out to produce the be-all-end-all depiction of Columbus, yet he blatantly neglected to address the most modify issue Native American genocide. In Scotts film, the native voice is unheard, their identity is muted, and their culture is disregarded. The quincentennial celebration of Columbus voyage triggered a proliferation of literary criticisms addressing the controversy over the traditional Columbus myth. 1492 Conquest of Paradise, however, is silent about these issues. Having full knowledge of this multi-faceted debate, did Scott simply take the easy way out by providing another typical Columbus story? Under the pretense of a historical film, did Scott sacrifice historical truth and intellectual integrity for mass cost at the box office? In his silence, Scott decides to avoid the genocide debate. Whether or not the discovery of the New World indeed precipitated genocide is still on a lower floor debate, but it is an important one and should not be ignored. We still have a lot to learn from our heritage and need to address the important issues in order to better learn and evolve. The two strong arguments below represent the two sides of a heated debate that was not represented in the film 1492. They contain harsh truths which arent marketable to the American public but are vital to the understanding of the moral implications of cultural conquest. Pulling The Fleece outside(a) From Our Eyes 2 Columbus is a mainstay of American patriotism. He is the patron saint who planted the seeds of our nation. Our culture has been lulled into his heroic myth for hundreds of years and has celebrated this valet with much pomp and circumstance. Columbus worthiness has been the subject of much controversy and is now being linked to such un-heroic terms as mass murder, holocaust, and genocide. 3 supply by hundreds of years of Western propaganda, our nation created the American Dream from the realities of an American Holocaust. By refusing to recognize the desecration of the native population, an atrocity is ignored a shame doesnt exist without a victim.