USU students discuss controversial film ‘Stonewall’
Roland Emmerich’s “Stonewall,” released on Sept. 25, has been met with instant controversy.
Critics have accused it of white-washing history and erasing large groups of people from its narrative. Several Utah State University students shared about their thoughts on the film and it’s surrounding controversy.
“I feel that at least the director might have had good intentions going into it, but — just the whole, how it was white-washed and how none of the racial background or anything that really started Stonewall has really been portrayed very well. It’s not the story, and it’s focusing on the stereotypical,” said Rachel Collier, an undeclared freshman.
The film is a fictionalized retelling of the 1969 Stonewall riots. The Stonewall Inn in New York City was, and still is, a gay bar and popular meeting place and safe haven for LGBTQA persons, particular those with low income and nowhere else to go.
On June 28, 1969, the New York Police Department raided the inn and arrested several of the customers for, among other things, cross dressing and homosexuality. As police escorted — and in several cases, carried or dragged — the Stonewall patrons to the patrol wagon, one woman yelled at the crowd of bystanders, “Why don’t you guys do something?” That inspired the crowd to grow angry and lash out at the police.
The resulting riots are largely seen as the origins of the modern LGBTQA rights movement.
“Had this film been cast like it had gone down in history, this film could have been groundbreaking,” said Anna Lantis, a junior in elementary education. “It’s very sad to watch such an important event to a very diverse group of people get the Tom Sawyer treatment, like, ‘let me get my whitewash brush.'”
The film follows fictional lead Danny Winters — played by Jeremy Irvine — a young gay man kicked out of his Midwestern home by an intolerant family. As he flees to New York City and finds his way to the Stonewall Inn and his interactions with various other characters in the bar. Some characters are fictional, such as Trevor — played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers — and some are based on real people present during the historical events, such as Marsha P. Johnson, played by Otaja Abit. By the end, Winters joins in the riots and is even shown throwing one of the first bricks at the police.
But some students disagreed with Emmerich’s lead cast decisions for “Stonewall.”
“We could have gotten out of our cookie-cutter white male lead that a lot of film franchises have fallen victim to,” Lantis said.
Emmerich, himself a gay man, came out just a few years ago. He has been trying to make a movie about the riots since the late 1990s. His project was green-lit late last year.
But Love is for Everyone, or LIFE, member Sarah Wipple said just because someone is in the umbrella LGBTQA, that doesn’t mean they don’t cater to stereotypes.
“I don’t think having one area of non-privilege gives you a pass,” said Peter Harrison, an interior design sophomore. “His standard should be the same as everyone else’s.”
Despite the controversy, Harrison said he still wanted to see the film.
“I think it’s important to watch films or address topics that may be uncomfortable or may have a bias or may be inappropriate,” he said. “While I don’t agree with the way the film was portrayed and the characters and the whole story behind it, I’d be curious to see what the director’s perspective was. To me, that’s very valuable.”
But others, like creative writing and art senior Melli Stokes, said that she won’t see the film.
“I don’t want to support the erasure of trans people from their own story,” she said, adding Emmerich’s blind spots toward transgender people and people of color was “emblematic of our entire racist, transmisogynistic society.”
Harrison added while all the criticism of the film was getting was fair, he questioned whether we were applying this same level of scrutiny to all the films we watch.
LIFE president Amanda Looney said she wanted to watch the film to form her own opinions about it, but she would not support the film by spending any money on it.
“The only way we’re gonna get change is if we straight up say ‘No, that’s not okay,'” she said. “If you’re a filmmaker and the thought, ‘people will be more comfortable seeing this’ pops into your head, don’t do a freaking movie about Stonewall. If you’re not going to do it right, don’t do it.”