Wrath of God (1972 movie)
Introduction
Racism has been an issue that has been prevalent through American history with racial discrimination beginning before the slave trade and through time to date. That aside, interracial relationships have been the focus as America tries to amend the racial gaps between the various races in the society. Through film and other forms of art, it is becoming quite reasonable to see several main characters of multiple races interacting and mingling on screen as a way to improve or repair the history of the racial damage had imposed on the American society. Focusing on the film category, the movie “Wrath of God” from 1972 produced by Ralph Nelson starring Robert Mitchum, Frank Langella, Rita Hayworth, and Victor Buono is one of the phenomenal movies of its time. The film is based on the novel by Jack Higgins and also has a plot, and significant themes that relate to interracial relationships and sexual liberalism are highlighted. For this paper, scenes from the movie Wrath of God that support the topics interracial relationships and sexual liberalism would be highlighted as well as some of the issues from the chapters 13 to 15 that are not addressed in the movie.
Wrath of God plot.
The movie revolves around several characters of different races that meet in a town in central America. There, three characters of complicated backgrounds find themselves in a situation with a revolutionary group. In a bar scene where Keogh and Van Horne try to save a native woman (Chela) from imminent rape by a gang of Delgado’s men. Later. Santilla’s troops arrest Keogh and Van. In jail, they are coerced to kill De La Pata. When these men start their mission, they are faced with several hiccups. Still, eventually, they manage to kill De La Pata and freeing the village that De La Pata had taken hostage for in an attempt to find leverage against Keogh and Van Horne.
Issues addressed
The movie is set in a time in the 1920s in Latin America. During this period, the movements towards empowering women had started with certain rights subjected to women, such as the right to vote have been granted to the women of America. Consequently, the world was recuperating from world war I, and nations focused on rebuilding with the woman in the society wanting more roles than the traditional ones they were subjected to. Issues on race were still blazing hot, with minority races being considered inferior to superior races.
From the dimensions of the movie, we are exposed to multi-racial characters where some of them are Latinos while another is Irish. The racial harmony expressed in the film is first exhibited through the bar scene where Keogh, an Irish national, sees how Delgado treats a woman in a demeaning manner and is irritated. This projects the situations that were going on in the world as women tried to find a place in the man’s world. Undermining of women was becoming unacceptable, and the movie characters exhibit that proficiently. Also, in the same scene, Delgado’s men were about to rape Chela, who was not only a racial minority (native) but also a woman who was helpless before men. The status quo of women during the 1920s was that they were perceived as objects of pleasuring the man.
Moreover, looking at the production year of the movie, it was produced in a time where sexual liberation and the sexual revolution were at its peak, with individuals becoming more open-minded to sex and the values that surrounded the topic. Feminists during this time thought that the woman had the right to choose what she wanted with her body. This constituted from who they would want to marry and, more specifically, who they would want to explore their bodies.
Issues not addressed by the movie
On the other hand, there are a lot of issues that are not addressed by the movie such as gay liberations, and normalization of porn. From the chapter in the book, we see that from the 1950s, the playboy culture emerged where several sex symbols were used to feature in magazines as they were a picture in nude poses. The magazine attempted to target men who could pleasure themselves with things that could be obtained for free from the women. According to Hefner, the creator of the playboy magazine, he thought that through his magazine, Americans were able to be more sexually liberal, embracing the ideologies and fantasies they had regarding sex. In addition, through the magazine, traditional morals that governed sex and sexual behavior is are seen to fade away with new sexual values and morals popping up.
Homosexual activities are also not seen in the movies since the only romantic relationships highlighted in the movie are those of Keogh and Chela who project the normal heterogenous relationships that existed during this time
References
D’Emilio, John, and Estelle B. Freedman. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Turner Classic Movies. “the wrath of god (1972). Tcm.com. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1416/The-Wrath-of-God/ (accessed on April 21, 2020)