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Our postmodern society is far enough away from our own pioneer days for us not to recognize the power that "mythos" had. "Robinson Crusoes — dressed entirely in buckskins" was how one St. Louis newspaper described the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, according to Marshall B. Davidson in The Drawing of America: Eyewitness to History.
Who saved Lewis and Clark’s butts in the wilderness?
Their faithful Indian sidekick, Sacajewea.
Boy, is she an ethnic sidekick!
A century after Defoe and less than 20 years after Lewis and Clark, the American writer James Fenimore Cooper began writing five books (The Leatherstocking Tales) about Natty Bumppo (nicknamed Hawkeye) and his faithful Indian sidekick Chingachgook. These books rapidly became the literature of the American Empire.
Hollywood has made four Mohican movies. In 1992 Michael Mann brought out his version of The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and the Native American activist Russell Means. No one noticed that Crusoe became American and Man Friday became an American Indian.
During the filming Means managed to organize the Native American extras and gain more daily pay for them. However much Means the activist succeeded, even he still never recognized how he himself was helping perpetuate the role of the ethnic sidekick.
By the way, one of Michael Mann's two biggest successes prior was Miami Vice, which featured Don Johnson as Sonny Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Johnson's ethnic sidekick. Guess which actor still has the more active acting career? In 1997 Don Johnson gained his own series, Nash Bridges, on CBS; his sidekick is Cheech Marin, who was the ethnic sidekick in Kevin Costner's Tin Cup.
 Huckleberry Finn  |
But the Crusoe elements are there under the surface, too. Huck, for instance, is the boss of Jackson's island just as Crusoe is of his. "It all belonged to me, so to say." He explores it, with both gun and tobacco pipe in hand, just like Crusoe. When Crusoe says, "I was the lord of the manor; or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had possession of," we can hear Huck's voice like an echo across the water. Just as Crusoe can fortunately scavenge his stranded ship for supplies before it sinks, Huck too can scavenge the House of Death before it floats away downriver.
But most importantly, when Huck stumbles upon "the ashes of a camp-fire that was still smoking," his frightened heart is in his throat, almost as much as Crusoe when he spots "the print of a man's naked foot on the shore." Neither gets any sleep that night. Years pass before Crusoe meets Man Friday; within an hour Huck wakes the sleeping Jim.
When we first see him, Nigger Jim, for all his freedom, comes off as little more than a "blackface" clown, the common racial stereotype of that long-ago America. He is as one-dimensional as Friday. But the secret of Huckleberry Finn is that young Huck lives with and learns from Jim and gradually discovers what Humanity is about, while Crusoe never sees Friday as anything over than a slave serendipitously acquired. Huck growls, "All right, then, I'll go to hell" and decides to "steal him out of slavery."
Perhaps for this reason, this resolution of the Crusoe conundrum makes Huck Finn the greatest of all American novels. (According to Ernest Hemingway, all American novels stem from this book.) Because it is with the boy Huck Finn’s crisis of conscience that the Ethnic Sidekick begins to evolve away from the racist patronizing and condescension into a more unique and more powerful paradigm.
Of course Robinson Crusoe has spawned popular culture's Lone Ranger and Tonto. The Lone Ranger is the Old West's Robin Hood and, after his beginnings in fiction, he moved to radio, animated cartoons, a TV serial, and feature films. An essential element of the Long Ranger's legend is Tonto, his faithful Indian sidekick. Tonto not only nurses the Lone Ranger back to health after he and the other Texas rangers have been ambushed, but he gives the Lone Ranger the old Indian silver mine for his silver bullets.
Let us also not forget that the comic book hero Green Hornet is the great-grandson of the Lone Ranger and that his sidekick Kato is Japanese, another ethnic sidekick. Even though Kato constantly mispronounces his own name, giving it a Western slant. (Think this is all ancient history and not relevant to contemporary film? Guess what sits over the horizon? Maybe starring Jet Li as Kato for $5 million, according to a recent Variety.)
* * *
The paradigm pops up in the damnedest places. In the 1942 classic movie Casablanca, Rick Blaine and his ethnic sidekick Sam find themselves stranded in North Africa. For all intents and purposes, Rick and Sam might well be stranded on a desert island. Not only are they encircled by Nazis, but Rick is described as an American who (for vaguely defined reasons) cannot go back to America.
Casablanca
Rick (played by Humphrey Bogart) is a saloon owner who has opened his Cafe Americaine, and, as we know, "Everyone comes to Rick's." For reasons of love, Rick has made himself unapproachable, a desert island. He may be the only saloon owner in history or fiction "who never drinks with his customers." The one man who shares any of his secrets is Sam (played by Dooley Wilson).
Rick Blaine is a classic American hero. We watch like greedy voyeurs as he walks away from the world and its troubles. We watch breathlessly how he goes through great emotional trauma and much physical danger before he decides to reenter the world and face up to its troubles. Like Crusoe, he is a businessman. Like Crusoe, he stands alone. Like Crusoe, he not only survives but thrives in a hostile place. He has a very personal code of honor and all the winds of the world cannot sway him.
His relationship to Sam is solid. Sam is not only Rick's employee but also his closest friend, his only confidante. When the movie was released, The New York Times review of the film called Sam "Rick's devoted friend." When the Germans are about to occupy Paris, Sam is the only man who can get Rick back on the train at the Gare de Lyon. But when Rick gets his hands on those letters of transit that guarantee safe passage out, not once does he think of sharing one of those exit visas with the black man he arrived with. Rick may well leave Casablanca, but Sam doesn't even merit a moment of consideration.
"He goes with the Cafe," Rick tells Senor Ferrari, the owner of the Blue Parrot and "the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca." Admittedly, when Ferrari hints at further illegalities, Rick insists he "doesn't buy or sell human beings." Still, Rick has no problem leaving Sam behind.
Consider that in the early 1940s the role of Sam was considered equal to the role of a white leading man. That the role was a breakthrough for black actors. We should remember that the only Oscar any African-American had won at this time had just gone to Hattie McDaniel for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. We should perhaps remember that The Hollywood Reporter's review of Casablanca called Sam "Rick's faithful Negro piano player."
Does that make Casablanca a racist movie?
* * *
Sidney Poitier would be the next African-American to win the Academy Award for his acting in Lilies of the Field. But the role he is most remembered for is as Tibbs in the 1967 movie In the Heat of the Night, which won six Oscars, including one for Rod Steiger as Best Actor. What made Heat so memorable was that Poitier refuses to play the ethnic sidekick for the Chief of Police.
 Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption |
Speaking of movies, how many Lethal Weapons have been made? Who gets higher billing? Mel Gibson or Danny Glover?
The ethnic sidekick appears in so many of our stories. Indiana Jones had his Middle Eastern buddy Sallah (played by John Rhys-Davies). On television, Bob Culp had his ethnic sidekick (Bill Cosby) in I Spy. Robert B. Parker's Spenser has his Hawk. Magnum, P.I. had his black buddy T. C. There was an ethnic sidekick in all three Die Hard movies.
The TV series Alien Nation was one of the more comedic shows on American television. Extra-terrestrials are here on Earth! Yes! They came from Outer Space in fantastic ships . . . and yet they are still second-class citizens in our suburbia. They came as slaves. They are Instant Ethnic Sidekicks.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Speaking of outer space, let's not forget the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars. In that one, a monkey played the Friday role until a Martian Friday came along, and the two of them worked in tandem to teach Crusoe what being human really means.
Speaking of teaching what being human means, there are almost 3 million copies of Theodore Taylor's 1969 novel The Cay in print. This wonderful young adult novel, a cross between Crusoe and Huck Finn, has even spawned a sequel, the 1993 Timothy of the Cay, thanks to the 300,000 letters from fans that author Taylor received. Consider recent movies, such as The Indian in the Cupboard, Kazaam, and First Kid.
Who teaches whom the Meaning of Life? Consider Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in the smash hit The Matrix. Consider Michael Clarke Duncan in the Stephen King-based The Green Mile, which starred Tom Hanks. Who "explains" Life After Death in the Robin Williams-Cuba Gooding, Jr. movie What Dreams May Come? What is Edward James Olmos’s relationship to Harrison Ford in Bladerunner? Who remembers the black actor who took a bullet for Nick Cage’s character in Con Air? (Answer: Mykelti Williamson)
Consider Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters, Ice Cube in Three Kings, or Ving Rhames in Out of Sight. (Wasn’t it Rhames at the 1998 Golden Globe Awards who gave away his award to Jack Lemmon? Didn’t his generosity dismay you?)
Remember the stink about Jar Jar Binks in Stars Wars: Episode I? Was that computer-generated artifact a subconscious manifestation of a racist stereotype? I know I wasn’t alone when I thought so.
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