Brando’s Comments Draw Fire, Support : Sensitivity Is a Matter of Taste

It is Marlon Brando’s earnest contention that while Hollywood movies have portrayed demeaning stereotypes of every minority, they have never depicted Jews in the same scurrilous way. This, Brando asserts, is because “Hollywood is run by Jews. It is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of people who are suffering.” He maintains that [he lists assorted slurs to describe ethnicities] are routinely seen, but never “the kikes.”

Immensity is a consistent characteristic of Marlon Brando. His talent is immense; his ego is immense; his condescension to Larry King and his audience is immense; his contempt for the acting profession is immense; his ignorance of movie history is immense.

This ignorance feeds his disposition toward bigotry.

In the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, degrading Jewish stereotypes worthy of Hitler can be seen in innumerable features, short subjects and animated cartoons--three of them by lovable old Walt Disney himself.

In the original release version of “Three Little Pigs,” the wolf disguises himself as a peddler, wearing a mask with a hooked nose, a black derby, thick glasses and the clothing of an Orthodox Jew. He talks with a thick, sing-song accent.

Disney later substituted another, blander wolf disguise in that scene.

George E. Stone, Benny Rubin, Smith and Dale, Artie Auerbach (“Mr. Kitzel”), Sam Hearn (“Schlepperman”), Lou Holtz, George Sidney--Jewish dialect comedians all--were to American Jews what Stepin Fetchit, Willie Best and Mantan Moreland were to African Americans, what Henry Armetta and Franklin D’Amore were to Italian Americans, what Chris-Pin Martin and Leo Carrillo were to Mexican Americans, what Willie Fung was to Asian Americans, what Jay Silverheels was to Native Americans.

There was plenty of stereotype to go around.

In a 1930 Vitaphone two-reel short, Eddie Cantor and Louis Sorin portrayed two rapacious Jewish tailors gulling a customer. In 1996, the skit could leave no humanist--let alone a Jew--unembarrassed and uninsulted.

This will probably come as a revelation to Brando, but generations ago, ethnic humor--Irish comics, Dutch comics, Jewish comics, blackface comedians--so repugnant today--was considered acceptable entertainment.

It was not entertainment offered in a spirit of ugly prejudice. It was part of the American melting pot process. Times change. People change. Fashions change. Only ignorance and stupidity remain constant.

It is cheap work to grade the past by the wisdom of the present. By that yardstick, Marlon Brando is smarter than Sir Isaac Newton.

In the present day, Hollywood can point to pretty well-rounded presentations of minorities. For every black street hood, felon or drug-pusher, there is an intelligent naval officer (“Crimson Tide”), an invincible action hero (“Passenger 57”), a macho private detective (“Shaft,” “Devil in a Blue Dress”) and an enterprising safari leader (“Congo”). Representations of Asian Americans, Mexican Americans and Native Americans are demonstrably not what they used to be.

The credible representation of empowered women or gays is a more troublesome area. Hollywood has yet to get that quite right. But they’re in there trying.

“Sensitivity” is a word that is frequently invoked by political activists. But sensitivity is a matter of personal taste. There are indignant protesters against undignified comic depictions of minorities who think that obese people and stuttering people, on screen, are a laugh riot.

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In this era of political correctness, there are self-righteous, self-appointed Cultural Commissars who declare--in order to be “truthful” or “honest”--every minority must be portrayed with the integrity of an archangel and the solemn dignity of a funeral director.

The Commissars should remember that any art that is forced to conform to a political agenda--however noble that agenda may be--ceases to be art and becomes politics.

In speaking of “the Jews,” Brando joins hands with those yahoos who speak of “the blacks,” “the Latinos,” “the gays,” “the Asians,” “the liberals,” “the conservatives” or “the South”--as if each group had a perfect and enduring unity of interest, outlook and opinion.

To fill another gap in Brando’s meager store of knowledge, he should know that movies are not owned and controlled by “the Jews.” Like almost everything else, they are owned and controlled by “the Banks.”

Brando’s ill-advised statements have been condoned by a number of his Jewish friends.

How on Earth does he keep them?