Who would've been worth saving, per 1950s Hollywood

Who would've been worth saving, per 1950s Hollywood Jun 30, 2019 21:11:47 GMT

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Post by Eλευθερί on Jun 30, 2019 21:11:47 GMT

Jun 30, 2019 20:23:37 GMT Prime etc. said:

In 1950 the US film audience was majority European-white. The film was made for that audience only, in the same way most Indian films of the same period (and today) were not intended for European consumption. The film discriminates against rural and non-Americans too from what I remember-they don't suggest Europeans have a place on the ships--it's entirely an English American affair-in the same way aliens tended to land in Washington.
Furthermore, air travel was not was it is now--it could take 24 hours to travel from the West to East coast of the US-imagine how difficult it would have been to go from China to the US. It's not like they would have had an airlift from Senegal. I don't think it was malicious in intent-it's a sci-fi version of a lifeboat scenario.
If they added diversity it would be as harmonious as a United Nations meeting.

The information about the need to escape from Earth was communicated to nations around the world. All of the governments ignored the warning until late in the game. The film focuses on the American experience because the American scientist and billionaire backer got involved in the game earlier--but other governments eventually had their own last-minute projects (doomed to fail because they had waited too long). That's why people from other countries are not shown.

But even in 1950, 1 in 10 Americans was black. And while the numbers of Native Americans, Asians, and others who were not white accounted for only a small share of the total population, there were still many thousands of them in absolute numbers in the country.

They had 8 months to plan, so travel time getting around the US was not the major limiting factor.