Netflix Cleopatra Review - Racism and Cultural Appropriation?

hey folks so I've watched the new Netflix  documentary about the Cleopatra that   everybody's raging against and  uh so what did I think about it   eh the show's entire claim to fame is the racial  controversy that has generated without that it   would be a completely forgettable retelling of a  great story that has already been told countless   times the production is mediocre the acting is  all right but the casting is completely off it's   completely inappropriate if it wants to claim to  be a historic documentary if they had called it a   work of fiction knock yourself out make Cleopatra  a green woman from Mars and she drives a Mustang   through the streets of Cairo for I care that actually  sounds like a it would make a good Doctor Who episode   anyway if you're making a documentary the bar  is set a little higher because you need to   account for certain historical accuracies so let's  start with the simple stuff the sets the sets are   passable I believe it was all filmed in this huge  permanent set they have some place in Morocco and   it's where pretty much every Egyptian enactment  documentary has been filmed in recent years   and the sets have Egyptian elements but they  don't seem to be too informed it's just Egyptian   looking stuff to make it look Egyptian for  example there is this one scene in particular   we have Anubis and Isis in the background for  some reason and uh gibberish on the wall and   some Egyptian symbols and whatever is this at  first I thought it was cuneiform but I can't read it   can you read cuneiform if that's what it is  I'd love to know what it says the acting it passes   for a documentary the actress who played Cleopatra  I actually like her she has really good energy   she is good but uh I would much rather have  seen her play one of the Kushite queens with her   Warrior Queen attitude and there her skin wouldn't  be a mismatch also so that would be even better   it's distracting how much the cast  doesn't seem to fit the roles because   Julius Caesars I think maybe looks the best of  them but a little a little too young perhaps   and uh we do have statues of Caesar you know what  he looked like Marc Anthony the guy doesn't look   at all like Marc Anthony Octavian I think was the  worst because Octavian was a very baby-faced man   and their actor they used this scruffy battled  hardened guy that doesn't look at all like   Octavian so it is distracting but the big deal  about this whole thing is was Cleopatra black   not likely really in the period of history where  this takes place in the later half of the first   century BCE Egypt was ruled by the Ptolemaic  dynasty the Ptolemies they were Macedonian   Greeks we know what they looked like there is  plenty of statues and coins and depictions of   them and they were diabolically incestuous  let me show you Cleopatra's family tree   I'll leave it on the screen so you can see how  it doesn't exactly branch out it weaves itself   at one point the experts in the documentary bring  into question Cleopatra's ancestry and use that   to justify that she should have been black because  why not we don't know who her grandmother was and   we're not entirely sure who her mother was  so she must have been black shouldn't she   um indeed there is two elements of uncertainty in  Ptolemy's family tree which may have added a drop   of likely Persian blood to their lineage but from  the evidence we have the likelihood that they had   sub-Saharan blood is next to nothing so I'm sorry  but Cleopatra would have looked Mediterranean   and uh our reason for believing that is that  oh look we have depictions of Cleopatra we   know what she looked like we have paintings and  statues of her so why is this even a debate is   beyond me really there is an insistence of the  narrator referring to Cleopatra as an African   queen which is technically correct Egypt is  in the continent of Africa but that is as   vague as saying that Elizabeth II was an European  Queen it is correct but it's painfully vague   some people seem to think that Africa is this  homogeneous place and that if you are from Africa   you must be all the same and that is very ignorant  at best and racist at worst. Africa is an immense   place you can fit two United States in there and have  room left over and the variety of ethnicity they   have there even amongst the people of the dark  skin is huge so you can just say that because   you're from Africa you must be this so yes she  was a queen in the continent of Africa but that   doesn't automatically translate into what color  her skin was I think this documentary lacks any   reason for existing really other than trying to  push the ideas of a vocal minority of Americanized   views to rewrite history one of the presenters  she sounds outright delusional when she rambles   on about how it doesn't matter what anybody says  her grandmother told her that Cleopatra was black   so that settles the matter I guess nothing  beats granny wisdom in my opinion this was   a wasted opportunity it's a huge waste of money  and talent and it serves for nothing other than   to offend people and appropriate their culture  so I cannot recommend this show it left me sad   because it could have been good but it wasn't  so have you watched the Netflix Cleopatra   what did you think of it let us know in the  comments I would love to hear your opinions   and thank you so much for watching all  the way to the end I'll see you next time

Channel: Egypt 101

Views: 146,071

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Id: O2G9xWQFtd0

Length: 6min 0sec (360 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023