Danny Boyle and Cultural Exoticism

Oscar winning director Danny Boyle has made a few films that have caused cultural controversies. One of these was the 2001 film The Beach based on the novel by Alex Garland. The idea behind both is a criticism of Gen-X pleasure-seeking backpacker culture and centers around a video game obsessed protagonist who finds a secret island community that ultimately implodes and becomes less a version of eden and more of a version of hell. The story is considered an echo of Lord of the Flies and in the same vein as Fight Club in its spirit of modern ennui. The ironic problem with the film was that in order to make the setting, a secluded beach in Thailand, more photogenic, the film crew destroyed some of the natural verdant landscape of the actual beach. The popularity of the film which sumptuously portrayed the paradisical beach also lead to an inevitable rise in tourism to the place; something that both the book and the film are decrying. Lawsuits were filed by the Thai government and efforts were made after the fact to restore the beach to its natural habitat. Boyle's awards-laden film of 2008 was Slumdog Millionaire, its title alone causing controversy as a derogatory term for the impoverished in India. Many thought that the film perpetuated Western stereotypes of India, and in a breezy way glossed over the real pain of the impoverished there. A social activist in India organized a protest for "exploiting the poor for profit." Effigies of director Boyle were burned in protest and theaters were ransacked. Others, in America as well, thought that the film provided a self-righteous form of exoticism of the Indian culture. The movie was exalted at the Oscars, though, and received rave reviews in America for being a feel-good film. Both Boyle films are perfect examples of how audiences of different demographics will decode the text in different ways. The Beach as well as Slumdog Millionaire were criticized for being sacriligeous, The Beach in disrespectful use of Buddhist iconography, Slumdog in misrepresenting religious conflicts in India. While a Western audience may not even see these aspects, viewers of the native countries could indeed be offended.