Martin Scorsese
rubbed fans of the Marvel franchise the wrong way when he said of the superhero
films that he saw them less as cinema and more like “theme parks.” Speaking in
an October 2019 interview, the famed director explained that he didn’t feel
Marvel films were the usual stuff of human experience traditionally seen on
screen. But Marty seems to have forgotten that one of his own films has been
incorporated into an amusement park.
Cinecittá World, opened
in 2014, is built on the site of Dino De Laurentiis’ former studio, Dinocitta. Situated
just outside Rome, the theme park is a tribute to the involvement of Italians
in cinema. An Italian American, Scorsese’s nineteenth century-set Gangs of
New York (2002) provided the inspiration for the look of Cinecittá. Both
the film and the park hark back to Hollywood’s Spaghetti Western era of the
mid-1960s, so called for the involvement of Italians, such as Sergio Leone, in
the making of the sub-genre. Ennio Morricone who composed the soundtrack for
films of that time also did the music one hears at Cinecittá.
Yet, isn’t it intriguing
that it is the Western, a film genre so emblematic of America, that informs Cinecittá’s
attempts to pay homage to Italian cinematic heritage?
Sure, the genre of
the Western suitably provides the backdrop of adventurism that amusement park-goers
crave, replete as it is with fantasies of taming the wild and encountering
savages (never mind that these are natives defending their homeland against
marauders). But there’s more to be gleaned of how the Western sets the stage
for a roller coaster ride of conflation between national sentiment and the
movies at theme parks.
Let’s depart Italy’s Cinecittá and enter Bollywood Parks Dubai (BPD). Established in 2016, BPD is the only theme park in the world to pay tribute to India’s film industry. But just like Cinecittá relocates the American Western to Europe, BPD brings Bollywood to the Emirates. And if America had its Spaghetti Westerns, then 1970s’ India cooked up the Curry Western – films that use the ethos and look of the Wild West as the setting for desi drama.
The most famous of
these was the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Sholay (1975). One of the rides
at BPD recreates the film’s tale of two petty crooks conscripted
by a retired policeman to protect his village against dacoits. As part of the
ride, guests shoot at bandits on a screen which mirrors the look of the film’s
frontier aesthetic that could be mistaken for a scene from a Spaghetti Western.
Considering, though, that the lawless west of Sholay is actually the east, how does one tell the Indians from the cowboys?
What’s more, on my
visit to BPD, nearly every one of the park-visitors involved in the pretend shootout
on the ride was Arab or South Asian, the latter making up the largest demographic
in Dubai. As much as amusement parks may seem separated from the “real world,”
I had to wonder if the simulated violence I was witnessing might somehow reflect
a bit of the tensions of the outside world, especially with South Asians
outnumbering Arabs in the Emirates. Further, the curious spectacle of South
Asians shooting people who looked like themselves on the video game-like ride
itself made me muse if there was a caste/class angle to ponder.
Inadvertently, the
Curry Western, as it is employed at BPD serves as a metaphor for the westward
frontier crossing of South Asians into the Middle East, possibly along with multicultural
frictions. At Cinecittá, the Spaghetti Western is reminiscent of the immersion
of Italians into American culture, presaged indirectly by the journey of
Columbus. That original Italian thrill-seeker, who erroneously “discovered” the
region, much to the detriment of indigenous peoples, had gotten lost on his way
to the Wild East. Even as history and the tensions of the outside world are
never fully excluded, theme parks immerse participants into cinematic realms, the
vicariousness of film-watching translated into a physical experience of
fantasy.
As for the Marvel
movies being “theme parks,” Scorsese may not be far off the mark. Aren’t
superheroes after all just cowboys in capes?
From The Peacock.
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