Sunday 26th April 2026
Blog Page 864

Why ‘The Polar Express’ is a creepy Christmas classic

Maya Little
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Why ‘The Polar Express’ is a creepy Christmas classic

‘The Polar Express’ couldn’t get more Christmassy. It features snow, a magical train, reindeer, children sliding down an enormous sack of presents, and tap dancers delivering hot chocolate whilst singing. Whilst one might not automatically associate the last of these with Christmas, it gives the film the feel-good vibe that is absolutely necessary in any good Christmas film. I watch ‘The Polar Express’ every single Christmas, making it a sort of Christmas film by association (the same way that ‘Chicken Run’ is a Christmas film, even though there’s not a snowflake in sight).

However ‘The Polar Express’ is also deeply weird. Take the animation, for example. Several critics (and my mother) found the characters disturbingly inhuman to look at, because the style falls right into the ‘uncanny valley’: it’s not-quite-human, but it’s close enough to creep you out. Ed Hooks, an actor who teaches animators, suggests that this is because you can’t use motion capture on eyes – the film uses very detailed motion capture to ‘animate’ their characters, but this fails when it comes to the eyes, which were animated separately, meaning the eye movements can look inaccurate and jarring.

For me, however, this inhuman atmosphere only heightens the film’s mysteriousness. The male and female leads are nameless (they are credited as Hero Boy and Hero Girl), making them that little bit more unreachable, their lives comfortably unreal. The elves are nasal, harsh, and not at all cute. There’s a carriage full of broken toys riding behind the children on the train – a dark reminder of the aftermath of Christmas excess.

There’s also the curious character, played by Tom Hanks, who rides on the roof of the train. He helps Hero Boy to safety, tries to intimidate him into not believing in Santa, and disappears through the wind like a ghost. It’s difficult to tell who he represents; is he a reflection of Hero Boy’s fear that Santa isn’t real (‘you don’t want to be bamboozled!’)? Perhaps an alter-ego for the conductor, also played by Hanks (they seem to cough in exactly the same way)? Or, as a deleted scene suggests, simply the ghost of a man who was killed on the train? Amidst the simple plot of a children’s film, the man on the roof is an anomaly that I’ll never quite figure out.

Perhaps ‘The Polar Express’ is just a little too weird, a little too creepy to become a children’s classic, but that’s exactly what keeps me coming back – there’s more to the film than just a watchable display of Christmas and all its joys. Or perhaps I continue to watch it simply because I’ve already seen it so many times; because like all the best parts of Christmas, it’s tradition.

Small town communities step into a modern world

Kathryn Sandilands
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Small town communities step into a modern world

A boy from my old high school died last night. I’m reading it on Facebook; it’s been four hours since the news got out and there are hundreds of comments. He was in the year below me and from the next village over. My best friend calls me in tears – he was close to her brothers, she says, he came round to her house all the time. I wanted to talk to someone from home, she tells me. At this moment I am 300 miles away from the town where we went to high school, at university in England. I did not know the boy who died. But, somehow, I count.

It’s almost the Christmas holidays and my student room is a mess. I’ve got postcards from home on the noticeboard beside my desk. They’re old photos of the high street from around the 1970s – my mum bought them for me from the local newsagents when I begged for post during those first homesick weeks last year. Not much has changed in town during the forty years or so since that photo was taken to make cheap postcards. There’s more parking spaces, maybe. One or two of the shops have changed hands. My university friends would find it funny that I’d know that because none of them are from small towns.

When I moved down south to go to university, I was looking forward to living in a city. The village I grew up in is the kind of place that you love until the age of twelve, at which point you abruptly realise that going to the cinema requires an hour and a half on the bus and you have to ask your mum to drive you round to your friends’ houses. It’s the kind of place that you start to love again once you’ve moved away, I’m learning. My dad went to the same secondary school as me, and if you walk up the street with him on Hogmanay then he knows almost everyone by association if nothing else. When I come home for the holidays, old school friends meet up in the pubs and I bump into my former teachers at lunch times.

I didn’t know the boy who died – I’ve said that already. But my newsfeed is full of him: he wore a bizarrely colourful suit to prom; we had the same history teacher; it looks like he was involved in quad biking. I do know the people posting their condolences. This is how it works in small towns: even when you don’t know someone, you sort of do. Almost everyone is the friend of a friend. Tonight, that means that the outpouring of grief online feels a lot closer to me than it really is. Maybe there’s a similar effect when an eighteen-year-old boy dies in a big city, but right now this feels like something that can only really happen in villages where the names on the war memorial are also the names on the front signage of the shops.

The movement of small town community onto social media is a strange phenomena to observe. There’s a Facebook group which has been specifically created to broadcast issues pertaining to the local community. On an average week, this is full of warnings about road closures and escaped sheep; the kind of issues which are so mundane as to become ludicrous when enshrined in text. When the local council threatened to close the public toilets, there was an online campaign, which successfully ensured their continued presence on the high street. The abolishment of the bakery section of our local Sainsbury’s was met with uproar on this group just last month, and the impending closure of the only bank in town is currently causing great upset.

Common opinion seems to be that social media renders communication less meaningful, causing people to separate even in their togetherness. Tonight, I’d probably disagree with them. Would all of these people have known that this boy died otherwise? Certainly not so quickly, and probably not all at once.

Maybe there’s a certain falsity to this online mourning – it’s definitely a strange thing to behold. The idea of small town values seems like an oddly twee and old-fashioned way to explain the sense of community that is making itself known on Facebook right now. But this is not a case of supporting a stranger who happens to have the same postcode.

Council reactivates emergency plan for rough sleepers

Oscar Baker
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Council reactivates emergency plan for rough sleepers

Oxford City Council have reactivated their Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) this week to help the homeless find overnight shelter, following forecasts of sub-zero overnight temperatures.

The Council and local homeless charities found extra accommodation space for rough sleepers on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

When SWEP is in action, additional beds are made available for anyone who would otherwise be sleeping rough, even if they would not “usually be eligible for the city’s adult homeless pathway.”

Under guidance from Homeless Link, the Council operates SWEP on the first night of a period when the Met Office forecasts sub-zero temperatures for three or more consecutive nights.

Bob Price, Leader of the Council, told Cherwell: “It is not a statutory requirement to provide shelter for rough sleepers during the winter, but the Council believes it has a humanitarian obligation to do what it can to prevent deaths on the streets caused by adverse weather.

“There is no single definition of severe weather – any conditions that increase the risk of harm to people sleeping rough can be classed as severe.

“Many people sleeping rough will already have health issues caused or made worse by homelessness.”

The Council has alerted local providers The Porch, A2Dominion alongside its key charity partners St Mungo’s and Homeless Oxfordshire that the protocol has been activated.

Charlotte Blake, Head of Services at Homeless Oxfordshire told Cherwell: “Hypothermia is a real risk to those with no home and having to sleeping outside in winter.

“The emergency accommodation and support we provide enables people to have a safe and secure place to sleep indoors, warmth, food, a shower and also a link into support services.

“The City Council and the Voluntary Sector agencies working with homeless people and rough sleepers share the interest of this community and have a well established relationship.

“There is a good collaboration of work and understanding of the issues faced by rough sleepers and single homeless people…”

As part of the emergency plans, the Oxford Street Population Outreach Team (Oxford SPOT), based at Homeless Oxfordshire’s O’Hanlon House, notified those on the street that extra shelter had been opened.

Alex Kumar, Chair of the Oxford University SU’s ‘On Your Doorstep’ homelessness campaign, said that this reactivation of SWEP over “these exceptionally cold nights” was a “great thing.”

He also told Cherwell: “With homelessness now at the level of crisis on the streets of Oxford, SWEP is the floor – not the ceiling – of what needs to happen. Let us imagine if the shelters were opened to all every time temperatures dropped below zero for just a single night.

“How many more lives might be saved?

“Or imagine if SWEP were extended indefinitely – if all our city’s rough sleepers who will be given temporary shelters these few days were allowed to stay there for as long as they need with both the protection from danger and the opportunity for improvement that you really struggle to find when you’re sleeping rough.

“Let us imagine these things – and ask, ‘why not?’”

The SWEP plan has been activated three times in December, the last being on Christmas Eve.

Oxford recently lost one homeless shelter – Lucy Faithfull House – due to cuts. A new property in Rose Hill was acquired by the Council last week to serve as shelter in the future.

Oxford pays tribute to professor killed in M40 crash

Libby Cherry
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Oxford pays tribute to professor killed in M40 crash

Oriel College flew its flag at half-mast yesterday in tribute to Dr Mark Whittow, an archaeologist and medieval historian, who died in the multi-vehicle crash on the M40 last Saturday night.

Dr Whittow was to take up his new position as Provost of the college in September 2018, having been a Fellow at Corpus Christi College until now.

Dr Stephen Cowley, President of Corpus, said: “Mark was a deeply likable man, someone who was generous with his time and concern for other people – one of those rare individuals who plays such a large part in conjuring that mysterious alchemy that helps complicated communities like ours to work.”

After studying Modern History at Trinity College, Whittow’s passion for Mediterranean archaeology took him to Turkey in the 1990s where he surveyed Byzantine castles and administered for the Council for British Research in the Levant and the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara.

However, Whittow always asserted that “my chief achievement has been to foster a happy community of enthusiastic young historians.” He returned to Oxford in 1998 as a Fellow in History at St Peter’s College.

Adele Curness, a DPhil student at St John’s College and President of the Oxford University Byzantine Society, has had her entire academic career overseen by Dr Whittow, as both her first year tutor and, eventually, her doctoral supervisor.

“His tutorials, fuelled by iced buns, strong coffee and, occasionally, snuff, were always, in his own words, ‘a hoot’ – I hope that I am able to have my own students look forward to tutorials as much as I looked forward to his” she said.

“His guidance and support brought out the best in all his students. It was clear within seconds of meeting him that he would do anything for you and this kindness inspired in turn a personal loyalty among all who knew him which was inseparable from their love of history itself.”

“Oxford’s community of Byzantinists grows larger every year and Mark’s commitment to the next generation of scholars in the subject was unwavering. I and so many others will miss him enormously.”

Dr Whittow’s loss will not only be felt among his fellow medievalists. His work with the OUSU as Senior Proctor and his role as a Senior Member of the Oxford University Conservative Association meant he cultivated close relationships beyond the History Faculty.

“He never failed to supply a voice of calm at times of crisis, and of reassurance in moments of doubt. Many ex-Presidents recall with fondness and gratitude his preparedness to put other matters aside to discuss personal as well as political concerns. He also taught many Members of the Association over the years, and was much loved as an educator and mentor,” OUCA said in a statement.

Eden Bailey, who was OUSU’s Vice President for Access and Academic Affairs during Whittow’s time as Proctor, added: “He was always really supportive of all of the SU officers, and I reckon Marina and I saw him probably every week of our shared times in office, and valued his humour, wisdom, and sense of justice.”

“His support for us as officers translated to his advocacy for students at large, and indeed all those across the University community. I was so delighted to hear of his appointment as Provost of Oriel, and his is a huge loss to students, staff, and academic community.”

Many other friends, colleagues and pupils have joined the University in expressing their condolences via Twitter.

City council has a flush of successes

Isabel Morris
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City council has a flush of successes

Oxford City Council won a host of trophies at the 2017 Loo of the Year Awards, including the prize of best local authority toilet provision in both England and the UK.

Oxford’s 18 entries were awarded a total of 10 gold and 4 platinum awards. The Council’s parks toilets were also recognised, with Cutterslowe Park winning the National Award for Parks and Gardens in the Leisure category.

Introduced in 1987, the Awards serve “to encourage the highest possible standards in all ‘away from home’ washrooms.” They are supported by national tourism bodies within the UK and are considered ‘the washroom standard’.

Each entry was judged against criteria covering both male and female facilities, as well as any accessible, baby changing, changing space or hygiene room facilities. All entries were judged based on unannounced visits by an authorised Loo of the Year Awards inspector.

Speaking after Oxford’s success, Councillor John Tanner, Board Member of a Clean and Green Oxford, said: “Over the last few years the Council has invested heavily to make the city’s public toilets some of the best in the country. This has been reflected in the awards we have won in 2015, 2016 and now 2017. I want to thank the staff who keep the toilets pristine and the public for leaving the toilets as we would hope to find them.”

The Council’s excellent results follow their success in 2015 and 2016 Awards, as well as a £700k refurbishment project carried out between 2013 and 2016.

The Council maintains 23 public toilets.

2017: A feminist turning point?

Florence Ward
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2017: A feminist turning point?

Hindsight, they say, is 20/20. It’s hard to pinpoint cultural turning points until you have the benefit of several year’s distance. But occasionally things change at such a prominent and rapid pace that they force themselves into plain sight. 2017 feels a little like one of those points in time.

Just a glance at the highest-grossing films of this year reveal that strong female leads are very much in fashion. Beauty and the Beast, released in February, is not only at the top of this list but also the tenth highest-grossing film of all time. Granted, the story is a modern retelling of a classic girl-meets-prince fairy-tale. But Emma Watson is unlike any other princess. After turning down the role of Cinderella because the character was too ‘passive’ for her and refusing to wear a corset with the iconic yellow dress, the 2014 UN Women goodwill ambassador gave us not just Belle, but bell hooks. Wonder Woman and Star Wars: The Last Jedi also made the top ten, both films in which the female characters are well-rounded and at the forefront of action. Contrary to outdated belief, these cinematic enterprises cement the idea that women belong in superhero and sci-fi genres as much as men.

It is not just on screen that women have been stirring the patriarchal pot. The Power – in which Naomi Alderman imagines an alternate matriarchal world – won the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction earlier this year. We have also seen the publication of several modern feminist manifestos. Mary Beard’s Women and Power observes the roots of misogyny from classical civilization to present day, arguing that in order to incite change, it is our conception of power that must be re-thought. Rebecca Solnit’s latest collection of essays, The Mother of all Questions, argues that female history comes hand in hand with the history of silencing. She could not have known that its publication in November would come straight after the accusations against Harvey Weinstein, but the timing was almost fateful. Here were stories of sexual assault from women all over the world, and here was a book that provided at least a part of the answer, proposing a new feminism that’s open and accessible to all.

This cultural wave of feminism, which has felt as though it gathered speed as the year progressed, has touched everything. Cardi B topped the Billboard Hot 100 with her solo song, Bodak Yellow – the first time a female artist has done so since Lauryn Hill. Viola Davis became the first black actress to win the “Triple Crown” of acting. TV shows Big Little Lies and The Handmaid’s Tale swept the board at The Emmys.

The relationship between pop culture and politics is a complicated one, and there is doubtless influence that goes both ways. This defiant feminist movement that we are seeing seems, at least in part, reflective of important changes happening across the globe politically. The Women’s March on 21 January became the largest single day protest in U.S history with over 4,000,000 marchers estimated. In June, Britain elected more than 200 female MPs for the first time.

Girls may not yet be running the world as Alderman envisioned, but they’re finally having more of a say in it. It’s been a year in which women have risen up, all over the world, fictional and non-fictional. We still have a long way to come – UN women defined the year 2030 as the expiration date for gender inequality – and it would be naive to think that changes in pop culture have an automatic knock-on effect in the real world. But the more women we have on our screens, in the pages of the books we read and in the music we listen to, the more they will become impossible to ignore. The progress that 2017 has seen should set a precedent for the years to come.

Five playlists for all your vac moods

Zahra Farzanekhoo
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Five playlists for all your vac moods

The winter vac can be very difficult. It is both very long and very short. Too long to be away from all your university friends, but too short to fit in all the work you have been set. In my case this should include revising for my upcoming mods. Instead I decided to create five playlists that I think will capture the various emotions many of us find ourselves having at this peculiar time.

They say there are five stages to grief. I reckon the same could be said for accepting the winter vacation and all the feelings it brings.

Stage One:​ You actually miss Oxford

You have been looking forward to going home since 1 October. You crossed out each passing week on your calendar, slowly working your way towards 2 December. You got over the supposed Week 5 blues (they hit in 8th Week instead). You dealt with the mess that is food in hall and the two hour queues at Bridge. You did all of this with the hope that it will all be worth it when you eventually get to go home and your mum welcomes you back with her homemade lasagna.

But no. Of course, good things do not happen to you. No one even realised you were coming back (“you’re done,​ already?​”) and so they forget to pick you up. You realised the Mexican lasagna that LMH hall served is your life now and so you wish you were back at Oxford. At least in Oxford, someone gave you attention (even if it’s just the scout or the porter). You miss your friends, the free food at welfare tea, and ​maybe​ even your tutors…

Stage Two:​ You have a little breakdown

By little I mean big. You just want to lie in bed all day and stare at the ceiling. But your family don’t let you. You want to be alone and not have to think about collections. This playlist will help you get out all the tears you’ve be storing all term (there’s no time to cry in Oxford). Make sure to cry enough to cover Hilary term, as well.

Play this and you will be too busy crying to submit an Oxfess.

Stage Three:​ It’s nearly Christmas and the aforementioned breakdown shows no signs of subsiding

You are not done with your breakdown but it’s nearly Christmas and surely you can’t be crying during Christmas, right? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. I created a Christmas themed breakdown playlist, just for you.

Stage Four:​ You miss your friends, significant other, and your tutors

Self explanatory, really. Listen to this as you think about your crush, your college porters, your college pets, your friends, your tutors, and your boyfriend/girlfriend. Listen to it whilst submitting a very low effort Oxlove instead of, you know, just texting them?

Stage Five:​ The Post-Breakdown

It’s a Christmas miracle! The tears have run out and you didn’t lose the plot as much as you thought you would, just a few days back. You are now able to go back to your usual life. You agree to meet some of your friends from back home and you remind yourself of how great life was before Oxford happened. Except it’s now 5 January and you’ll be back in a few days…

Maybe next year just skip straight to Stage Five.

The death of Fullscreen

Lizzie Monaghan
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The death of Fullscreen

Have you ever heard of Fullscreen? The chances are, you haven’t – and that’s a shame. Come January, you will probably never hear anything about it again.

Fullscreen is, in fact, a video media company. Back in April 2016, it launched an online video subscription site, designed to rival the more dominant and competitive services like YouTube Red – premium-tier on-demand video sites, which create their own exclusive original content as well as hosting other shows.

“We wanted to provide a new platform for the breakthrough creators, personalities and storytellers of social entertainment  – and the fans who love them,” says Fullscreen’s CEO and founder, George Strompolos. The “mission” of Fullscreen, he affirms, is “to empower creators”. Since its release it has indeed been host to a number of excellent original serials produced by emerging online influencers, comedians and filmmakers.

“Millions downloaded our app and hundreds of thousands became paying subscribers.”

Strompolos himself had previously worked for YouTube and the company that owns it, Google. An intimate awareness the growing gulf between the corporation and its talent would certainly account for the centrality of community and creator-collaboration in his new company’s mission statement.

Interestingly, the majority of Fullscreen’s more prominent content creators – the likes of Grace Helbig, Shane Dawson, Jack Howard, Dean Dobbs and Hazel Hayes – first found their creative feet (and their media following) on YouTube. Many of them are still creating content on the site. However, whilst YouTube’s format may have favoured these talented, though medium-sized, content creators in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the same cannot be said of the site today.

Sure, YouTube’s corporate evolution may not have affected so much the giants of the community, with subscribers well into the millions. But the increasing precariousness of YouTube’s ad-revenue system, the inaccessibility of its algorithm, the ever-growing pressure to produce videos with high production value, and the recent introduction of its premium tier, YouTube Red, have been pushing its smaller creators under. Even taking into account the additional revenue provided to creators through working with brands and in-video product placement, making videos on YouTube alone simply isn’t enough to pay the bills of an aspiring filmmaker.

Financially, staying with YouTube is becoming less and less of an option for ‘breakthrough creators’. As such, many have utilised external measures in order to stay afloat – often it’s through Patreon, or streaming sites like Twitch. In the case of aspiring YouTube filmmakers, collaborating with Fullscreen would have been ideal.

One of Fullscreen’s latest and most compelling serials would be psychological crime thriller Prank Me, created by Jesse Cleverly and Paul Neafcy, and directed by YouTube filmmaker Hazel Hayes. Hayes has already illustrated her ability to unsettle in her YouTube portfolio, perhaps most notably in her short-film SEPTEM. In Prank Me, she generates a stomach churning sense of unease and dread, and she places her finger to the pulse of current fears about the culture of viral prank videos on YouTube.

The serial plays out the story of teen vlogger Jasper Perkins, as pressure from his expanding fan base leads him to conduct increasingly dangerous pranks, leading him down a criminal road from which there is no way back. The series focuses on the troubling human implications of current social media. In nurturing an intense anxiety about the disturbing potential of current or imminent technology, it stands strong as a sister to shows like Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. Hayes has a power to craft a drama that at once captivates and unsettles, treating frightening concepts with exceptional nuance

Yet, despite the excellent quality of original serials like Prank Me, and the initial promise of the site in general, Fullscreen’s video on-demand subscription service is set for closure in January 2018.

Whilst Fullscreen may not have taken the internet by storm, one cannot underestimate the significance of its closure. It shows just how hard it is going to be for the medium-sized creators of YouTube to break away from the platform which made them. At the same time, it says a lot about the increasing willingness of creators to break away in the first place. Fullscreen’s site is not the first competitive effort to go south, and it won’t be the last, either. But it’s only a matter of time before something could stick. If a competitor has the right idea, the right form, and at the right time with support from sufficiently influential creators, then YouTube, along with its premium service, could be in trouble.

Nevertheless, Fullscreen’s closure is a real tragedy for many reasons. In particular, its mission statement put community at the core of the company. This element of community is something which YouTube appears to have lost along its corporate journey, but is also something which was vital in YouTube’s definitive success. Additionally, as the company puts in its twitter statement, the impressive quantity and quality of content that they have already produced in the brief time since their launch will have to be given out to “a different home”. At this stage, it is difficult to say where this “home” might be. Optimistically speaking, they could find a home on a recognised site like Vimeo. More pessimistically, they could be placed on another site even lesser-known than Fullscreen, or put back onto YouTube where they’ll be lost to obscurity, or maybe they won’t be re-uploaded anywhere at all.

But perhaps most tragically of all, Fullscreen’s closure will go unnoticed by many, since nobody seemed to know what it was, or what it stood for, in the first place.

Imagining Idris Elba

Lydia Stephens
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Imagining Idris Elba

#OscarsSoWhite seemed to come and go. Viewers held their breath for the opening speech but soon after curtains closed, narratives about the events seemed disbanded and dissembled. Then came speculation surrounding the Nation’s favourite spy, James Bond. Would we get a black or female Bond? Discussions persisted, with the favourite being Idris Elba and in February, after a joke about the role, speculation increased. September proposed eight main contenders, Elba being one. Yet with this came poorly-worded discourses on the ‘appropriateness’ of such casting.

Although there are hostile opponents, the general feeling is discomfort. Whilst the film industry struggles to justify its lack of diversity, for the British public, the issue is not that they don’t want a black James Bond, but that they cannot imagine one. Elba’s flourishing television career indicates the progress TV is making in diversity, compared to film. We know that diversity does exist in England but there is reluctance to allow this to be reflected in the sacred, untouchable media of the motion picture. Both Elba and Abraham Attah remained un-nominated for Oscars after their roles in Beasts of No Nation to much public confusion, with the same true of Jason Mitchell in Straight Outta Compton.

There is something about Elba specifically. Perhaps it’s his tolerance and softness towards the issues. His speech in the House of Commons on TV’s lack of diversity stresses how the issue manifests across all fields as well as race. He argued “when you don’t reflect the real world too much, talent is trashed”. If people cannot see someone in a role, they will never be given the opportunity. Instead, black actors are often stereotyped or compartmentalised. Viola Davis has noted the limited roles available to her, who, since her role in The Help frequently receives scripts for the roles of maids. In the past, the majority of Oscar winning black actors have portrayed a narrow range of characters, principally: slave, maid, jezebel, thug, ‘Magical Negro’, or a famous personality in a biopic.

The fact people ‘just can’t see’ black actors in important roles is due to conditioning exerted by the media. Our imagination is lacking as we just aren’t used to seeing the diversity of life reflected in film. For James Bond, lack of imagination is fuelled by narrow ideas of the perfect English man. Critics forget that today the Englishman isn’t the same as a 1950s English man.

Today, in order to place anyone who is different from the norm in a lead film role would be a political statement, as opposed to an exhibition of raw talent. Recently, a precedent has been set. Ground-breaking films such as Get Out, Moonlight, Loving, Fences, and Hidden Figures call for a more representative Academy.

We often fall into the cliché of heralding film as an art form for all, which shows real stories and real lives, but for it to remain in this image it must commit, as an art, to imitating life in a more honest way.

Disney buys Fox’s entertainment assets for $52.4 billion

Jonnie Barrow
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Disney buys Fox’s entertainment assets for $52.4 billion

Analysing business deals is normally a pretty dry affair, but the recently announced Disney/Fox merger is not just any business deal. Disney’s payment of $52.4 billion for the entertainment division of 21st Century Fox has some serious ramifications on our media and how we consume it, many of which are far more wide-ranging than you might imagine.

Firstly, it’s worth clarifying what exactly Disney have paid all that money for. Fox have sold off nearly all of their entertainment divisions, handing Disney their entire movie-making operation, a lot of their TV stations (including National Geographic and the FX Network), their 39% stake in Sky, and enough of a stake in the Hulu streaming service to make Disney the majority stakeholder in that business.

Fox are retaining control of their international portfolio of newspapers and their US sports and news channels (including the infamous Fox News). This is partly due to some hefty anti-trust laws in the US, but the other reason will have untold effects on our “democratic process”. Selling off these extraneous assets allows Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to focus on his political agenda, paying closer attention to the dissemination of news and his influence over politicians.

But never mind that heavy stuff – this is the Film and TV Section, so let’s talk movies! Not only do Disney now have control of major franchises such as the Alien and Avatar sequels, but the Marvel team now have the rights back for the X-Men and the Fantastic 4, meaning we can finally see them team up with the Avengers on the big screen! As exciting as it might be to see Wolverine fight Iron Man, it’s a little sad when you realise that incredible, adult-oriented side-projects like Deadpool and Logan probably won’t be made anymore under the family-friendly Disney brand. This could also be the case for adult TV shows on FX like It’s Always Sunny and Archer. 

Speaking of TV shows, TV in the UK may be in for a substantial shake-up. Murdoch had previously been in the process of bidding for the remaining 61% of Sky they didn’t already own, but kept being rejected because our regulatory heads were wary of creating an environment where a British equivalent of Fox News could thrive. Under Disney’s ownership, the bid is much more likely to go through, likely leading to the death of Sky News and a vastly changed UK TV landscape. 

That’s nothing compared to what’s likely to happen to streaming, however. It’s been an open secret for a while now that Disney have been looking to create their own streaming service, replete with their entire back catalogue of Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and Disney content, along with some unique shows based on these properties. They now have access to Fox’s entire back catalogue too, so they have even more content they can remove from Netflix and Amazon Prime to show exclusively on their own service. More importantly, now that they own the controlling stake in Hulu, they have the infrastructure to easily roll this service out. All of this, combined with Netflix’s well-reported financial struggles and Apple’s imminent entry into the streaming race, likely signals the death knell for Netflix. 

There is no understating the myriad effects of this deal, and this article has been dense enough without even touching on the likely death of Blue Sky Animation Studios (why would Disney need yet another animation studio to worry about?) or Fox Searchlight (who have been a vital cog in the indie filmmaking machine). Nobody knows where this could all lead – perhaps a golden age of moviemaking and television, or perhaps an unassailable entertainment monopoly that leads to the death of creativity in Hollywood. Your guess is as good as mine, folks.

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