In last Saturday’s New York Times, Anand Giridharadas wrote an interesting article about Slumdog Millionaire and the American Dream of self-reliance, the full text of which can be found here:
“…the film’s freshness lies not just in how the West sees India. It lies, too, in how Indians see themselves. It portrays a changing India, with great realism, as something India long resisted being: a land of self-makers, where a scruffy son of the slums can, solely of his own effort, hoist himself up, flout his origins, break with fate.
And that may explain the movie’s strange hold over Americans. It channels to them their own Gatsbyesque fantasy of self-invention, and yet places it far enough away as to imply that it is now really someone else’s fantasy. Indeed, after the havoc wreaked on ordinary self-reliant Americans by the impenetrable workings of the markets, after the go-it-alone trading of Bernard L. Madoff, after even President Bush enlisted the government to rescue private markets with a huge bailout, the mythology of the self-reliant self is under siege in America to a degree not seen in a very long time.”
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3 responses to “Slumdog Millionaire and American Self-Reliance”
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It’s a good movie to watch (the powerful part is India the country, and not really the plot/narrative. For Americans, it’s definitely good to think outside of our cultural box), but it’s not much of a gospel movie. I concur. I prefer 28 Days Later (same director).
AMAZING quote, RJ. thank you so much.
i agree with john about the movie. maybe it had been too hyped up for me, but i didn’t think it was the best thing i’ve ever seen. that is, i liked it but wasn’t blown away. 28 days later remains boyle’s masterpiece.
i’ve watched it twice now, once before the awards hype and once afterwards.
although i see the point of the nytimes commentary, i think the hold it has is, in fact, the tried and true love story. money and being self-made isn’t even jamal’s main interest. the movie doesn’t really glorify success, but rather seems to be critical of the corruption inherent to india’s boom (nothing unique here!).
boyle does use the movie to challenge the current caste/social structures of india, calling into question the injustices that come with it. it may not be his most brilliant movie, but it’s pretty skillfully executed.
there is a very powerful redemptive moment in the film, at the very end. i don’t want to spoil it. i’ll just say that it’s there.
do you think boyle will make sunshine II? that’s a pretty good moive too!