EDWARD vs. JACOB: Twi-harder

Craig Detweiler — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:55:45 -0800

Forget swine flu. The most intense virus sweeping teens is Twilight. Feverish anticipation for the second part of The Twilight Saga: New Moon has been brewing for months. The most dedicated fans, “Twi-hards,” have taken to the streets of Los Angeles, camping out for days before the second installment of the teen vampire saga opened. Despite blistering reviews from film critics, Thursday's midnight screening set a sales record. It is enroute to being one of the biggest opening weekends in cinema history.

Those who’ve read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series are predisposed to swoon for the tortured teen vampire, Edward Cullen. His radiant appearance, sparkling in the sunlight, echoes David Bowie’s androgynous “Diamond Dogs.” Edward defends Bella Swan with such ferocity, taming his own blood-lust to protect her life. Robert Pattinson brought minimal screen experience (he plays Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter series) to the role. But Edward’s pale skin and private suffering suited the London-born actor. Pattinson even contributed a couple of songs (‘Never Think’ and ‘Let Me Sign’) to the Twilight soundtrack.

What’s the secret of Twilight’s success? Stephenie Meyer found a perfect vehicle to explore sexual anxiety—teenage vampires. Bella and Edward can only be together as long as their passions don’t consume them. When Edward slips into Bella’s bedroom in the first Twilight film, only Edward’s self-restraint saves them. Holding hands and lying in the grass will have to suffice. Meyer’s modest Mormon roots actually suit our post-sexual era. The Twilight series makes abstinence excruciatingly attractive. At last, a steamy novel of dangerous, forbidden love that every parent can love.

Tween girls may be drawn to the androgynous Edward, but surely, over time, they will come to embrace Taylor Lautner’s washboard abs as Jacob. Give me a hearty, Native American werewolf over a fey British vampire every time. I’m committed to Team Jacob.

I’ve been to Jacob and the wolves’ native lands in La Push, Washington. The home of the Quileute tribe has a raw, rugged beauty. Massive waves crash against rocky James Island. Mist hangs in the air. It is isolated, remote, set apart. It is also horribly depressed. Economic opportunities are almost non-existent. La Push is primed for stories and legends compared to the more pedestrian Forks, Washington. Yet, Forks has cranked up numerous ways for Twilight’s fans to tour the area.

I wonder how the Native American community feels about Twilight? Stephenie Meyer places imported vampires in opposition to indigenous wolves. That’s a new twist on an old American story. But she also trades upon longstanding stereotypes of Native peoples as magical, mystical, and attuned to nature. There’s nothing ‘new’ about that moon.

So what kinds of portraits are worthy of Native American Heritage month? Two captivating alternatives arrived in Los Angeles this week. Evan Adams, the star of Smoke Signals, spoke on the Pepperdine campus on Wednesday night. Evan explodes all kinds of stereotypes, as a gay, Canadian, Native American actor who is also a medical doctor! I screened the smart and subtle film based upon Sherman Alexie’s wry stories on Tuesday morning. Amongst Evan Adams’ funniest lines as Thomas Builds-a-Fire in Smoke Signals, “The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV.”

Sherman Alexie loaned his considerable cachet to the re-release of the classic 1961 film, The Exiles. It arrived as a special 2 disc DVD on Tuesday. The Exiles is a poetic portrait of Native Americans rambling around downtown Los Angeles. Director Kent Mackenzie led a crew of recent USC grads through a couple years of intermittent filming. Milestone Films teamed with USC and UCLA archivists to restore this truly indie film. What a luminescent, black and white time capsule they’ve uncovered. These exiles are still trying to find their place in the City of the Angels.

Jacob Black

EDWARD vs. JACOB: Twi-harder