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[hand2handking]

Ready Player One and the Unbearable Whiteness of ’80s Nostalgia

https://www.theroot.com/ready-player-one-and-the-unbearable-whiteness-of-80-s-n-1824212737

Steven Spielberg is the stunt king of Hollywood; he might be the only American director who could create Ready Player One, a film that is literally an homage to Spielberg’s own work in the 1980s.

Ready Player One is all about the adventure of a working-class Midwestern white teen boy who saves the world, the same setup as E.T. the Extraterrestrial, The Goonies and Gremlins, genre-defining hits by Spielberg.

In this modern take on Spielberg films of old, Ready Player One is essentiallyWilly Wonka meets The Matrix with a splash of Wreck-It-Ralph, with flawless action scenes and special effects that rival each of those films in their heyday.

Unfortunately, Ready Player One is also disturbingly brazen and comfortable in its erasure of women and black folks from ’80s popular culture. While ostensibly the movie is about nostalgia for the music, dress, toys and video games of the ’80s, it’s only through the narrow, white male view of the ’80s.

If this were simply a Ready Player One problem, it would be understandable. However, increasingly, through movies and television shows, the 1980s are being rewritten in real time, erasing the burgeoning diversity of the time and replacing it with an unshakable white gaze.

Ready Player One takes places in 2045 in Columbus, Ohio, a city growing so fast, trailer homes are placed on top of one another to form “stacks,” the equivalent of urban housing “projects.” Everyone escapes the drudgery of the real world in the virtual reality OASIS, where people’s avatars engage in commerce, socializing and immersive video-game-type adventures that lean heavily on ’80s pop culture.

OASIS creator James Halliday went missing five years before the movie. Nevertheless, like a Silicon Valley Willy Wonka, he’s left a video promising that the gamer who discovers three hidden keys within the vast OASIS will be able to control the entire operation, essentially the most valuable resource in the world.

Regular nobody Wade Watts (bland Tye Sheridan) has been gunning for the clues for years, as well as his friend Aech (played with equal flatness by Lena Waithe), love interest Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and evil mega-corporation chairman Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), whose Innovative Online Industries just wants to run the OASIS on its own.

The movie has a great setup and a serviceable cast. Then the world it creates all falls apart.

First, given America’s demographic changes, by 2045, chances are Wade Watts isn’t a white guy, he’s black or brown or something in between. However, it’s this kind of whiteness by default that defines and weakens the entire film.

The ’80s-themed OASIS everyone so blissfully plays in is a very white and male place; so much so, it’s unfamiliar to anybody watching the film who actually lived during that era.

The OASIS has Ninja Turtles, Ryu from “Street Fighter” and DeLoreans fromBack to the Future, all white or white-male-identifying characters or films.

Where is the Ghostbusters’ Winston Zeddmore? Jazz from The Transformers? Panthro from Thundercats (c’mon, we all know he was black), or even prominent women like Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake and She-Ra?

Out of all the pop-culture characters available to her, would Lena Waithe’s Aech (who, both in the Ready Player One book and in reality, is a black lesbian) really choose white male robots and cyborgs as her avatars? Black sci-fi folks go out of their way to find people of color, even aliens, to play in games in order to have some reflection of their identity. If that means cosplaying as Roadblock from G.I. Joe or a mechanized Claudia LaSalle from Robotech, so be it.

Ready Player One gives no such agency to the characters of color, even in the future; they view the past through the collective memory of white men. That kind of collective-memory erasure is no small thing; it makes the movie inauthentic and is representative of a larger problem in many recent ’80s period movies and television shows.

Ready Player One, much like AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, Netflix’s Stranger Thingsand FX’s The Americans, takes our modern values and transposes them onto the 1980s. So, on the one hand, women aren’t completely accessories for male leads, and LGBT characters are presented, and with nuance, but no such reimagining seems to occur with black culture or issues; in fact, the opposite is happening.

For all the punk, A-ha and Peter Gabriel love ballads you heard on four seasons of Halt and Catch Fire, you’re telling me that nobody ever listened to a rap song? Even though Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys were two of the most influential acts of the decade?

Stranger Things can identify an abusive father by making sure he screams the homophobic slur “******” in 1984, but it conspicuously dances around the fact that Lucas, the token black kid on the show, is being bullied by a racist?

I can tell you without question that “working class” Midwestern white folks had no problem calling anybody “******” or “******” in the ’80s, no matter how much modern writers want to pretend otherwise.

Even The Americans, which does a better job with the complexities of race than most other ’80s period shows, still falls far short of a legitimate multicultural view of the Reagan era. There are at least a dozen episodes in which the family watches television, but they’ve never watched The Cosby Show? Their Christian, politically liberal daughter never rocked a “Rev. Jesse Jackson for President” T-shirt?

Collective white memory is a serious drug.

The erasure of black culture from the collective memory of the 1980s is no small nitpicking of the liberal cultural critic. Every time black folk are written out of America’s past, we have to fight to relearn it.

Writ large, Ready Player One, with its frothy retelling of the ’80s, is no different from decades of Western films with no black cowboys, rock ’n’ roll retrospectives that eliminate the black roots of the music, and commercials that appropriate our past while removing us from it. Today’s Gap commercials would lead you to believe that white people invented breakdancing and pop-locking.

Recasting the past for mass consumption isn’t simply an oversight, it’s an act of cultural hostility. Your past is being gentrified: In essence, get with the program or be erased from history.

There is literally a scene in Ready Player One where Aech is “punished” for not knowing the same pop-culture references of other main heroes. It’s a not-so -subtle message about race and assimilation: You’re welcome so long as you view the past through our white lens, and our experience supersedes your own lived experience.

Yes, the ’80s were about spiked-hair gel, but they were also about high-top fades. Americans loved the Terminator’s “I’ll be back” as much as they loved Axel Foley’s famous laugh and signature Detroit Lions jacket.

The 1980s were the beginning of the true integration of “black culture” into mainstream American “white culture,” but Ready Player One would have us believe that a five-second dress-up montage featuring a Purple Rain Prince suit and Michael Jackson’s red-leather Thriller jacket was the only thing black people contributed to pop culture from 1980 to 1989.

As pure adventure escapism, Ready Player One is a fun movie, but it is ultimately alienating. The film doesn’t ask; instead, it aggressively forces you to rearrange your memory of ’80s popular culture in order to go along for the ride.

If you’re not willing to do that, you can’t win the game. But when you notice that the game was never made for you, there’s a lot less interest in playing, let alone watching.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

She was in an episode of Black Mirror!

I wish it were. It it were an episode of black mirror

Spoiler

homeboy woulda popped the protagonist in the face at the end. Would have been much more enjoyable.

Anyone else thought that the one actress looked like Lil Mama

Spoiler

They both born in '89 too

Definitely saw this. What’s funny is she was actually in the Playtest episode of Black Mirror. But I’m sure y’all already discussed that.

 

[Master Zik]

I caught a few Easter eggs; battle toads, tmnt, the obvious ones

It was cool to see Spawn for a split second.

Never saw the full list of Easter eggs but I'm not even tempted to see this multiple times to catch them all

 

[beh235]

Watched this last night, it was a cool movie. I had no qualms with it.

 

[WASPS ANDD ASPS]

Def saw Lil Mama tho whole time
Would love to see a full reference list.

They shoulda had a scene with the head bad guy and Bane lol

 

[WASPS ANDD ASPS]

The lil mama lookin girl is gonna be Ghost in the new Ant Man film

 

[ekinskywalker]

What in the Hunger Games Video Game Matrix type ish is this Real life movie telling the story of today? LOL

Movie was good, I wish I would've seen it with some dorky people because I was the only one geeked out!! Lol

 

[Sinner]

Saw it again yesterday just for spotting the references. One thing that really hit me this time was how much the orchestral soundtrack reminded me of BTTF... which is no surprise, I guess, considering that it was Silvestri's work. But I guess it was also intentionally done to create that feel.

Also... how do we define what are Easter Eggs and what are References? Like, I guess, that Gremlins box was an Easter Egg, while his Thriller suit was a Reference?

 

[Magic33]

Saw it again yesterday in IMAX.

The car race and battle near the end was worth it.

 

[Grine]

Did anybody notice a Nintendo Power Glove? I didn't see it. Just curious.

 

[hand2handking]

was the thriller suit the only piece of black 80's nostalgia?

 

[Magic33]

was the thriller suit the only piece of black 80's nostalgia?

No, 80's and 90's are scattered throughout. From the music to avatars.

 

[parada45]

I enjoyed the movie even tho they changed a bunch of stuff from the book

I loved the book

 

[Remy LeBeau]

Never read the book and didn't know what to expect going in but this movie was AMAZING. Fav thus far this year.

 

[ilike turtles]

What's this movie even about? All I got from the tv ads is that its a film about old pop culture references. What's the plot??

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Visually it was great. Nice easter eggs. The story is kind of trash, though. It's basically millennial Willy Wonka with pop culture blended in, which was really cool with how much they leaned into the whole golden ticket/Willy Wonka thing, but it feels unoriginal.

While I love it, I can't help but think that a lot of what makes this movies good is playing on personal nostalgia. Like, I LOVED the Kubrick stuff, but it's really just Speilberg taking the opportunity to tip his cap to Kubrick. It's great, but again it feels like a giant rehash.

 

[everysingletime]

Visually it was great. Nice easter eggs. The story is kind of trash, though. It's basically millennial Willy Wonka with pop culture blended in, which was really cool with how much they leaned into the whole golden ticket/Willy Wonka thing, but it feels unoriginal.

While I love it, I can't help but think that a lot of what makes this movies good is playing on personal nostalgia. Like, I LOVED the Kubrick stuff, but it's really just Speilberg taking the opportunity to tip his cap to Kubrick. It's great, but again it feels like a giant rehash.

I haven't watched the movie yet but I read the book and the story was good.

 

[pdino]

I loved the movie! Constant action, great CGI, nice references to pop culture and nostalgic with my video games from the past/present

 

[Sinner]

What's this movie even about? All I got from the tv ads is that its a film about old pop culture references. What's the plot??

Basically a treasure hunt in a virtual world... finding an "Easter egg". Winner gets complete control of this virtual world (which the whole wold uses) and half a trillion dollars.

 

[dhart48]

was the thriller suit the only piece of black 80's nostalgia?

I thought he changed into Prince's Purple Rain outfit during that scene

 

[calibeebee]

I enjoyed the movie even tho they changed a bunch of stuff from the book

I loved the book

They missed

 

[Mamba4life]

Haven't seen the movie yet but that's one thing that struck me as odd about the book. The author went out of his way with his 80s music references and not ONE mention of MJ or Prince. I understand people have preferences and prefer certain genres but come on now. The only way you were alive in the 80s and didn't hear MJ was if you didn't have a damn radio. If you had a radio and turned it on you heard MJ. I don't care what station you listened to.

 

[calibeebee]

Haven't seen the movie yet but that's one thing that struck me as odd about the book. The author went out of his way with his 80s music references and not ONE mention of MJ or Prince. I understand people have preferences and prefer certain genres but come on now. The only way you were alive in the 80s and didn't hear MJ was if you didn't have a damn radio. If you had a radio and turned it on you heard MJ. I don't care what station you listened to.

You should of known what time it was when dude worshipped RUSH as the greatest band OF ALL TIME. That's really all I needed to know about the authors version of "80's nostalgia"

 

[Magic33]

I thought he changed into Prince's Purple Rain outfit during that scene

It was multiple outfits. You're sort of posting spoilers btw.

 

[Magic33]

Visually it was great. Nice easter eggs. The story is kind of trash, though. It's basically millennial Willy Wonka with pop culture blended in, which was really cool with how much they leaned into the whole golden ticket/Willy Wonka thing, but it feels unoriginal.

While I love it, I can't help but think that a lot of what makes this movies good is playing on personal nostalgia. Like, I LOVED the Kubrick stuff, but it's really just Speilberg taking the opportunity to tip his cap to Kubrick. It's great, but again it feels like a giant rehash.

Actually it's a little deeper than that.

Especially as our society has become further entrenched in social media and the stuff people do for instragram, WSHH, likes and don't even care about the repercussions like with Facebook, being tracked or deliberate fake news stories. It's only going to get worse as virtual reality tech increases. What is reality will continue to lessen.