The film’s true hero is Commander Lin Mae ( Tian Jing in a star-making role), whose function is to teach the unkempt Western barbarians the value of discipline, self-sacrifice, and cooperation for the good of a nation’s singular cause. However, what’s interesting is that while the film is using the white savior trope in order to seem like a Hollywood action film, the film’s messaging clearly makes William a subservient character to the grander splendor of the Chinese army. Upon seeing their struggles, William decides to step up and assist the army in their protective task.įor those concerned about the white saviorism of Damon’s character, those fears aren’t entirely unfounded, as William is a supernaturally competent bowman who does act as the face of the film’s primary action setpieces. They are soon captured and brought to the Great Wall of China, which in this fictional history serves as a barrier to keep a ravenous monster horde from crossing into populated lands. In ancient China, a couple of European mercenaries, William and Tovar ( Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal, respectively), quest to find the mysterious new invention of gunpowder and bring it back with them to their homelands.
And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the film manages to be somewhat entertaining in the process. As a demonstration of this exact moment in the shifting dynamics of China’s role in the global entertainment marketplace, The Great Wall is a film rife with opportunities for think pieces and serves as a peek into what the future may hold. The Great Wall is the first big attempt by the Chinese film market to garner worldwide box office acclaim, and it does so by adopting Western tropes in order to convey a propagandistic pro-China message. It’s got quite a bit of fun to it, but even more than a good movie on a purely textual basis, it is a fascinating film on a subtextual basis. So, William is not based on a real person, but you can think of him as the American perspective of The Great Wall.The Great Wall is not a great movie. In the words of director Yimou Zhang, spoken in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "the story is really told from an American's perspective." That might be because the film was actually worked on by six white, male writers. It wasn't altered because of me in any way," he continued. "It's a monster movie and it's a historical fantasy and I didn't take a role away from a Chinese actor. "The whole idea of whitewashing, I take that very seriously," Damon told the Associated Press, via The Guardian. After the film was accused of whitewashing, Damon defended himself, saying explicitly that the role of William was written for a white man, not an Asian actor.
Rarely do Hollywood movies feature Asian leads, or even predominantly Asian casts, so to see Damon lead The Great Wall as a version of the white savior stereotype is disappointing. The Great Wall has been under fire for putting a white male protagonist on the forefront of a film set in China. So, if you were hoping that William's whiteness could be excused by historical fact, I'm sorry to have to tell you that it can't be. The film, according to The Atlantic, takes place in 11th century, at a time when the Chinese were most definitely not fighting against mythical creatures. The Great Wall is fantasy, through and through, so it's safe to say that William isn't actually a historical figure. In fact, the entire film is a piece of historical fiction, with little basis in reality other than the existence of the wall itself. Yet like the monsters they fight in the film, William is not based on a real person. Putting all the controversy of having a white man be the star of a movie set entirely in China, something that could explain the casting is if the film is loosely based on a true story, and if William from The Great Wall is based on a real person. Starring Damon as William Garin, a white warrior, The Great Wall is about a man who decides to help the Chinese defend the Great Wall against monsters on the other side.
Oh, you don't? Well, somebody did, and thus The Great Wall was born. When you think of a movie set entirely on the Great Wall of China, you think of Matt Damon.