Not Just Nazis!
Exploring the myriad ways in which white people can be terrible, as seen in Cruel Intentions (1999) and Midsommar (2019)
As a cis-passing (until I start talking) white man of Eastern European descent (German father, Dutch mother) given the assignment of exploring movies that feature my racial heritage, I was taken aback. The obvious choice, in my opinion, would be to go balls-out with a defiantly edgy, “white people are f — ing Nazis” approach, but that would be ignoring the many additional ways in which my people are capable of being absolutely terrible. Not to mention, I’m fairly certain there are enough academic papers and think pieces written about American History X (Kaye, 1998) and if I’m going write a paper about an Edward Furlong movie it’s going to be Mary Lambert’s heavily queer-coded and bizarre Pet Sematary 2 (1992) — but I digress. My people are capable of being identifiably and uniquely terrible through their spectacularly self-righteous practices, beliefs, and traditions, as evidenced by the films Cruel Intentions (Kumble, 1999) and Midsommar (Aster, 2019). Beyond Nazism, white people also reveal their narrow world views and privileged exclusivity through deeply ingrained social and financial hierarchies (as seen in Cruel Intentions’ disaffected Upper West Side teens), as well as their vain and methodical dedication to maintaining racial “purity” on a spiritual level (as seen within Midsommar’s mountain-dwelling Swedish pagan cult.) Both films help show that beyond basic white supremacy and exclusionary practices, whites have a rich history of self-righteousness and a criminal desire to pursue the things in which we believe to benefit only our own.
The astonishing apathy and literal cruelty exhibited by every character in the film Cruel Intentions speaks not only to the selfish nature of the wealthy and privileged but also white peoples’ instinctive practice of “othering” groups based on differences such as class, race, sexuality, and gender. Catherine (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) are obscenely wealthy, sociopathic, perpetually bored step-siblings hellbent on destroying everything (and everyone) around them. Sebastian is introduced as a manipulative womanizer in a star-studded opener where it’s revealed he’s slept with his therapist’s (played by Swoozie Kurtz) daughter (a young Tara Reid), and it only gets worse from there regarding the disposability of each character from a ravenously sexual perspective. The whole film is told through a straight white male lens and even in progressive moments of acceptance we’re still hit with identifiably-late-90s shock humor in the form of homophobic joke or racist remark. Although Joshua Jackson is deliciously believable as an Evil White Gay™ (if you know you know), his character saunters confidently out of harmless territory and into a plot to blackmail a closeted gay athlete with revenge porn — even the white gays are conspiratorial! Though Annette (played by Reese Witherspoon) is a confident and independent person steadfast in her morals and values, she eventually submits to Sebastian adhering to the belief that a white man always “wins” in the end. Attempts to view and portray virginity as virtuous, not to mention the ultimate “prize” for a man thereby attributing a woman’s worth to her virginity and revealing (more carnally) a man’s view that “taking” virginity makes him unique and/or special, aren’t unique to white people but are worth mentioning. Characters of color receive a regrettably expected bad hand, treated as the “fall guy” in more than one scenario: Catherine breaking something and blaming their Chinese maid, Black character Ronald (Sean Patrick Thomas) deceived into fighting Sebastian, etc. Though they get their comeuppance, with Sebastian dead and Catherine exposed, the story is a microcosm of white vapidity where even the so-called “good” characters are self-serving and methodical in their adherence to their specific class belief system and the lens through which all of this is viewed is, of course, white and male.
The ivory & mayonnaise-aestheticized Nordic cult of Midsommar are more tactful in their gracious niceties, but no less ruthless in their determination to continue their ancient way of life, perpetuate their racially-based society, and adhere to ultimately vain practices of dying rather than becoming a soul-crushing burden. Director Ari Aster is coy and playful with his unraveling storytelling style: you pity the characters at the hands of these European traditionalists, only to eventually realize that they’re mostly white and terrible themselves. As we’re introduced to Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor), Dani experiences a familial tragedy meant to inspire sympathy. We’re given a very stylized scene revealing that her sister has killed their parents and herself in one of the most intricately creative murder-suicide scenes ever filmed. Though this is in fact a terrible thing, it’s done at a time when the trope of white kids killing their parents had amassed popularity by a hip, young director who was no doubt plugged into the hyper-aware humor of Gen-Z and meme culture. In other words, even in a situation of true horror, the film takes a nihilistic and uniquely white approach with its treatment of not-specifically-white subject matter. The only characters of color are minor and although they are some of the most sane and self-aware characters, they’re ultimately eliminated not only in the cult’s calculated pursuits but in white director Aster’s own metaphoric and self-referential tale of white perseverance — based on a breakup and conceptualized out of spite. Christian is emotionally lazy in his relationship with Dani, but also brazenly lazy with his approach to school — as revealed in his plan to copy Black character Josh (William Jackson Harper)’s thesis idea. Christian obviously gets his comeuppance (death, again), but was a nearly 3-hour celluloid journey of violent white impotence worth it? Actually yes, but again I digress. Josh is in no way a likable character, but our hatred is pushed to the limits with the film’s notorious rape scene. Josh is chemically coerced into coitus with a young woman to get her pregnant, representing the cult’s morally averse quest to procreate within their desired race. We also get a sense of white people’s much broader desire to remain the majority and the unconscionable and potentially felonious determination with which they seek to perpetuate these beliefs.
As an occasionally binary white male from German and Dutch descent, an assignment to select and discuss films representing my heritage was jarring and slightly distressing. Though The Sound of Music (Wise, 1965) is fun, I felt there were other avenues to explore when describing Eastern European culture’s current mutated state that didn’t rely heavily on Nazis. White supremacy is a common theme, both directly and unintentionally, but 1999’s Cruel Intentions and 2019’s Midsommar also exemplify the myriad ways in which white culture is dismissive, selfish, exclusive, and apathetic, yet simultaneously fiercely adamant about procreation and white proliferation. Cruel Intentions explores the evils of wealthy, white ennui, without any awareness of the white lens through which the entire film was produced, providing for a spectacularly meta viewing experience. Midsommar is unrelenting in its torture and disposal of anyone standing in the way of its subject’s pursuits, whether it’s Dani’s escape from her emotionally abusive relationship, the cult’s pursuit of white male virility, or even white director Ari Aster’s reconciliation with his own failed relationship. White people do have culture aside from Nazism, and these two films exemplify our culture’s desire to divide, ostracize, “other”, and label everything around us according to its potential for threat or benefit. We don’t simply hate as proudly uneducated racists; we establish hierarchies based on things with which others have no control and seek only the most perfect specimens, regardless of their will, to represent and perpetuate our apparently perfect image.
FILMS MENTIONED
American History X (1998) Directed by Tony Kaye. Written by David McKenna. Starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Avery Brooks.
Cruel Intentions (1999) Directed by Roger Kumble. Written by Roger Kumble, based on Le Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Lacios. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon.
Midsommar (2019) Written and Directed by Ari Aster. Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper.
Pet Sematary 2 (1992) Directed by Mary Lambert. Written by Richard Outten. Starring Edward Furlong, Anthony Edwards, Clancy Brown.
The Sound of Music (1965) Directed by Robert Wise. Written by Ernest Lehman, based on The Sound of Music by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer.
