Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire
The Critics, Awards, and Shortcomings That Make a Sensation
Jan 15, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire is the film driving the train that everyone seems to want to be aboard. With five Critics Choice Awards, a clean sweep with four Golden Globes, and more trophies on the horizon, it is being hailed as a brilliant piece of cinema. But just as the frenzy reaches its peak, a backlash is taking shape in the form of a moralistic argument against the film's exoticism.
Exploitation or Revelation?
Poverty Porn is the phrase offered by Alice Miles, critic for The Times, in her assessment of Slumdog Millionaire and director Danny Boyle. Miles points to the depictions of poverty and violence as an unfair use of the real world suffering of others at the service of a classical rags-to-riches narrative. What's missing from this reproof is the realization that such filmic representations of the exotic, and the complex ethics of how to engage them, are nothing new.
Instances of this trend can be identified as far back as the documentary boom of the 1920s which produced fascinating yet flawed entries like Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922) and F.W. Murnau's Tabu (1931). These popular films celebrated the quaintness of Inuit and Polynesian culture respectively, doing a disservice to their subjects by opting not to discourse on the complex reality of life outside the developed world.
More recently, Boyle's approach in Slumdog was employed by Fernando Meirelles in crafting 2002's City of God, one of the most thoroughly proficient films of the past ten years. Both take their setting in the slums of a vibrant global city (Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro) where the tragic lives of young people fall into high relief against the beauty of nature and wealth. This dichotomy makes for good drama and in both Slumdog and City it provides an ideal background for a coming of age story in which a young man will be faced with hard decisions about which direction to take his life.
Again in similar fashion, each film centers on a message of hope, asserting that even in the most abject circumstances the individual's will to power is never put to rest. It is here that Slumdog Millionaire falls short, relying on the gimmick of serendipity and a television game show to pull its protagonist, Jamal, out of the slum. Rocket, the teenage photo enthusiast of City of God, benefits from his wise choices and pure heart, his ultimate success left for us to infer.
Concerns about exploitation no doubt issue in part from Slumdog's highly editorialized style (another trait carried over from City of God) with rapid editing, an unrestrained camera, dynamic color palette, and contorted narrative structure forcing viewers to see human suffering in ways that are not solemn and judicious. It is clear, however, that Boyle is using this method not to glamorize the horrors he depicts but rather to provide a means of approaching such disturbing subject matter obliquely, thereby bringing audiences closer to it than they might otherwise be willing to get. The happy ending, then, may be a reward for an uncomfortable brush with a harsh reality, but the lingering effect is one of uneasy enlightenment.
The Slumdog Scenario
It is worth asking why City of God met with few of the ethical criticisms levied against Slumdog Millionaire. Besides never quite acquiring the buzz that currently surrounds Slumdog, partly due to suffering from the stigma of a foreign language film (Slumdog includes just enough English to placate the weary viewer), there is the notable difference that City of God was made under the direction of a native Brazilian filmmaker. Whatever social authority this may imply is certainly not afforded to Boyle, whose outsider status gives him a fresh perspective on Indian culture but also leaves room to doubt his sincerity.
Any such doubts should ultimately be put to rest by the film itself. Slumdog Millionaire is not only hopeful but thoughtful. Its success is deserved, but viewers too deserve to know that in City of God its postulate and execution have been used to more perfect ends.
