Grumman wrote:It helped that Zeus's racism motivated him to be a better person. Being the best person you can be is admirable, even if you're doing it out of spite.
True, but at one point Zeus says something to the effect of "sounds like a white man problem" in a situation where a madman is leaving bombs laying around and threatening to blow up a random school. I can understand his anger, but it did make him out to be a pretty big asshole.
McClain then lies to Zeus saying a bomb found in Chinatown was actually found in Harlem. Now, McClain is making an assumption that only threatening black lives would motivate Zeus, "non-white" not factoring in. But he's not far off base considering Zeus' previous comments.
I'm not saying I disagree with Zeus' world-view considering racism, but his motivations in the early parts of the movie are certainly racist on a level people would assume white viewers would be uncomfortable with. I think the movie would likely catch more flak if released today than it did in the 90s, even though Zeus comes off as an easy character to empathize with, even to viewers that the character wouldn't like. At least not until the end of the movie where it seems he's at least had a few shots taken at his world-view.
I just feel if you're going to make race an issue
make it a fucking issue and don't be a little kid about it. If it doesn't matter, don't make it an issue. I feel like action in general (not just movies) is being so fucking watered-down lately, this by-the-book numbers game of executive checklist bullshit just makes it tired. "Let's not offend minorities by just not including minorities."
It's sort of funny to me because Zeus was such a fish out of water (his race really doesn't factor in much into the Die Hard plot). The times he's in trouble it's because he did something besides just "being black." He had the chance to be one big mess of a character and hugely insulting. But he wasn't, he was damned cool. The writers decided to take a shot at racism when it wasn't needed and it paid off.
He also barely rates as a side-kick. Much more partner/equal. And I really can't think of another character in his vein since and that's 20 years ago. Unless the character is played by Will Smith. MiB and Wild Wild West for two examples.