Black washing is the act of rewriting the history of European peoples in cinema and literature by inserting non-whites. It is a well observed phenomena and a deliberate propaganda technique designed to make white people disconnected from their own past. This is now a mainstream position - it is one of the biggest successes from us out here on the fringe to have brought this discussion into the mainstream. The anti-white agenda is now openly ridiculed and mocked by many and yet they still keep doing it. Despite the claims of some that “the woke is being put away” or even that it HAS already been put away there is much evidence recently it is not and on the cultural front the rumors that Snape in JK Rowling’s ‘approved’ mega HBO TV series will be played by a black guy go to prove that there is still a weight of energy around the entire black washing movement.
It is extremely unfortunate that the 2024 film “The Return” also falls victim to this. It is directed by Uberto Pasolini who some readers might be surprised to know also directed the 1997 cult (British) classic “The Full Monty” - which was a film about down and out steelworkers who are victims of the globalization and selling out of the industrial base of England turning to becoming male strippers. That’s an odd film in and of itself but not a bad one. It might even be seen as a kind of Blair era film - some form of hope coming out of the period of downgrading that preceded it. Pasolini has been relatively quiet since that success and can’t speak to the other two films he directed in the interim but he comes back with a tale out of one of the founding works of European identity: The Odyssey. Specifically this is all about Odysseus and his arrival back to his Kingdom.
Let’s get the bad out the way first: I did almost turn this off in a fit of fury at having to witness yet another supporting cast member with lines be a negro. It’s a film clearly on a budget because Ithaca itself isn’t shown to be a big or even bustling place. That is fine, and we do see a fair few white supporting citizens in the squalor of ruin that pervades the whole film but a staggering amount of background and supporting characters are black or brown. It is irritating and tiresome and breaks the immersion repeatedly that Pasolini builds up so well at other times. There are some moments where it is so jarring - one of the palace guards who repeatedly is shown is a lazy black (nudge nudge, wink wink) but the emphasis on showing him is just farcical. Ithaca is basically a multicultural Kingdom seemingly with Indians represented as well. Keep in mind we aren’t talking about swarthy European types, of which there are a few and I take zero issue with but full on sub-saharan blacks. A great number of them in fact make up the ranks of the suitors as well which means you get to see them all die at the end of course which is some pay off.
So the support casting is questionable but it does fade to the background if you persevere with the film and that is in large part because the rest of the casting is actually very well done. Penelope our lonely Queen is played by Juliette Binoche and opposite her is an aging Ralph Fiennes as the war weary Odysseus. These two clearly work well together, despite the fact for most of the film they are of course kept apart. Telemachus is played by Charlie Plummer and is just the right mix of slightly pathetic and neutered to start with before having his own moment of becoming as he fights by his fathers side at the end. Whilst the lead suitor is played by ‘Dutch’ actor Marwan Kenzari his muted Arabic looks are just on the edge of believability and he makes for a decent lead villain albeit somewhat empty in motivation. The best supporting actor is the slave Eumaeus played by an Italian actor Claudio Santamaria. Other good casting choices include the aging Eurycleia who just seems born for that role.
The plot itself does not stray too terribly and is more guilty of a few acts of omission which can’t really be faulted too hard for. It isn’t super important for us to see Telemachus punish the unfaithful slave girls by hanging them for example. So that being said you already know the key points it is how Pasolini weaves them together that makes for an intriguing film. The shooting location is well chosen and the backdrop fantastic, it was indeed shot in Greece and parts of it in Italy so it has an authentic feel to it. Combine this with some truly stunning moments of cinematography and you have some beautiful poignant moments that help tell the story, none ever feel drawn out or over played either. The film is unafraid of them but does not rely on them for total atmosphere creation. There are also these wonderful moments that sing out to you straight from the pages of the epic. Odysseus meeting his dog Argos outside the palace is one such scene and another is when Eurycleia is washing him and finds out who he is. Both feel very real in those moments and as I said it is the emphasis on these kind of story telling moments that suck you in, they also make you forget the obnoxious black washing you saw two scenes before that is how powerful they can be.
Fiennes makes for a fine Odysseus. He is war weary and broken. There is not a ton of dialog and he tells the story as much with his facial expression as his voice. The shame of returning alone, the shame at being away so long. Of seeing his land go to ruin, his people poor, his wife hounded. He is not quite the character of the epic in some ways but I can grant some creative license here with him needing to re-find himself - to become the assertive hero King of old. Telemachus as his son in this iteration borders on the edge of being too whiny and accusatory of the old man - again the divergence here is not too bad and the thematic points of their relationship are tied together but perhaps less overtly than in the epic. Binoche as Penelope is quite masterful in her sadness, though there is not too much more the role requires. She really comes into her own right at the end - her horror and dread at the death of suitors is brought back to earth by Eurycleia admonishing her. In this role she is the longhouse who is so fearful of her son she has clipped his wings. It is a poignant moment when Telemachus disobeys her, becomes his own man, and severs the head of a suitor as the final act of blood letting. He is a man now and will set out as his father returns.
That blood letting in the film truly surprised me because the violence was actually quite different to many modern films. Most of what we watch today suffers from the John Wick effect - hyper stylized violence and sequences that are incredibly complex. Here none of that. The violence is short and to the point - a few moments and then death. It has style but a different kind of substance behind it. Fundamentally it is more believable and real because it is so short, bloody and decisive. The final showdown with the suitors and the bow a good example of this. Odysseus is a man bathed in blood and in that final fight his son too is born anew from similarly being christened with it. One thing that might disappoint some is perhaps less focus on the religious aspect of life. It isn’t completely ignored but it is greatly diminished - in this version we don’t have the Gods as present as they should be but again for a modern audience it just about squeaks by.
As I started this review off with the pernicious reality of black washing I feel I must end it with that. It does greatly disappoint me that this tarnishes the film but I stand by that. The normie, the modern asks us to overlook such things and as I hope you have understood this film is worth watching. It is a bit of a roller coaster though where you bite down your irritation and bile and then you are rewarded. This shouldn’t have to be the case. The casting choices are deliberate ones and made for the reasons we discussed at the start. An attempt to divorce you from your shared historical past. This is an age of the ideological and we can’t escape it. Of late I have been watching a few BBC archive clips from the 1970s and even earlier. It occurs to me that these clips are popular in part because they show Britain how it should be - mono ethnic. How soon though until some wise ass decides that it would be better to have AI insert black faces into these clips of the past? It may in fact be that culture is downstream of politics but judging by the casting of the next up and coming tale of a Greek Epic we are still stuck in the throes of wokeness…