Oscars Preview
12th September 2013
John Derbyshire, Patron Saint of Dyspepsia, goes to the (kinda sorta) movies.
I have to admit, he’s got some real contenders here. My favorite:
Afratar. A group of African Americans, weary of groaning under the heel of white privilege and fearful for the lives of their children at the hands of trigger-happy racist cops, have built a starship and fled to a distant solar system. There they have colonized a planet, which they have named Sha’Quaynelle, and established a peaceful and prosperous society.
Just as the Sha’Quaynellians are engrossed in the annual planet-wide chamber music competition, a fleet of ships from a large mining corporation arrives, crewed entirely by white men chewing tobacco and speaking with Southern accents. They want to plunder Sha’Quaynelle for its mineral wealth. The Sha’Quaynellians are forced to flee the clean, beautiful cities they have built and take to guerilla warfare in the forests.
A heroic Sha’Quaynellian physicist discovers a way to nullify the invaders’ technology and cut off their communication with Earth, defeating them at last. In the closing scenes we see the evil white invaders being used by the Sha’Quaynellians as beasts of burden while they rebuild their cities.
“A searing indictment of American racism.” —Christian Science Monitor
You’ve got to admit, that would be a shoo-in.
September 12th, 2013 at 09:27
No lock on the Oscar unless the Sha’Quaynellians are also all gay/lesbian.