Nigsy? Trigger? N-word dilemma bounces on for Dam Busters II
Name of Wing Commander's dog is headache for remake's producers
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Keystone/Getty Images
Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC with members of his squadron, whom he led on the 'dambusters' raid on the Mohne and Eder dams
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A full-scale model of a Lancaster bomber has already been built, as has a replica of the famous bouncing bomb. But producers of a remake of The Dam Busters have yet to resolve one question: what on earth are they to do about a dog called Nigger?
The anachronistically-named black Labrador was the faithful companion of RAF Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who led the British mission to destroy German dams in 1943. The dog is central to the plot: not only was he the mascot of Gibson's 617 Squadron, but after he was killed in a car accident, his name became a codeword for the bombers' prime target.
While the name was still acceptable when the original movie was made in 1954, that is no longer the case. So the film-makers, who include New Zealander Peter Jackson, director of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, are faced with an unenviable choice: ditch historical accuracy or risk widespread offence.
The executive producer, Sir David Frost, asked the actor Stephen Fry, who is writing the script, to propose alternative names, but rejected his suggestions. Sir David declared last month: "Guy sometimes used to call his dog Nigsy, so I think that's what we will call it. Stephen has been coming up with other names, but this is the one I want."
This week, however, Jackson denied that a decision had been made. His assistant, Matthew Dravitzki, told New Zealand's Dominion Post: "To stay true to the story, you can't just change it [the name]. We have not made any decisions yet. The script is still being written, and that decision ? will be made closer to the time."
Nigger featured in Paul Brickhill's 1951 book, The Dam Busters, which inspired the film. He also rated 12 mentions in the original movie.
Shooting of the £26m remake is expected to begin later this year, although the cast has yet to be revealed. Jackson, the producer, whetted appetites this week when he unveiled a Lancaster replica in Masterton, north of Wellington.
When the project was announced in 2006, Jackson acknowledged the canine-related difficulties. "It's a situation where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't," he said. "If you go one way, people are going to say we've sold out to political correctness. If you go the other way, you're obviously going to be inadvertently offending people. So it's a no-win scenario."
In 2001 ITV was criticised for editing out all mentions of Nigger's name when it screened the original film. Index on Censorship called the move "unnecessary and ridiculous", while viewers complained that key sections had been omitted. In the US, the film has been screened with the dialogue dubbed to rename the dog Trigger.
Jackson has said that he wants to be faithful to the book and 1954 film. His version, he pledged, would be "as authentic as possible and as close to the spirit of the original as possible".
The Dam Buster raid was one of the RAF's boldest wartime missions, and the remake – to be directed by New Zealand's Christian Rivers – will use details that were still classified in the 1950s. Shooting is expected to take place near Wellington and in Britain.
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Comments
The dog was not called Trigger, Nigsy, Trigsy, Piggsy, Bigger, Pigger, Digger or Figger no matter how much we may want it to have been. The dog's name was Nigger. Socially unacceptable though that may be now, and offensive though it will be for some, it is a word that was, like it or not, in common parlance at the time.
Shame that what is a fantastic story of courage and heroism should be overshadowed by such a debate.
If Jackson does for it what he did for King Kong we will be left with a very long, boring technical marvel that creaks along because it belongs to a bygone time. Remakes are lazy, make something original and contemporary.
Nowadays there's so much PCness no doubt all the accents will be regional and with a New Zealander making it, we will likely see the British potrayed as stuck up and useless and other nationalities getting the credit or since it's PC, the blame. We'll see endless German civilians dying with no background on their revolting support for Hitler and genocide.
Nigger was a common name for black dogs in the 40's, my Mum's next door neighbour's dog was called Nigger, it means quite literally black and in the UK it did not carry connotations of racism or reference to black people of whom there were very few in most of the country. Clearly, he was a much loved dog and the name was bestowed with affection. I detest the ITV edit of this film, they spent 3 seconds editing it incompetently, morons. ITV is a third rate channel with no idea about how to present movies. Why bother at all to show a botched version of the film? They lavish editing on Britain's Got Talent, shame they have little editorial talent of their own.
I tend to watch films twice (in quick succession, once without any real knowledge of the actors speech - hearing impairment - and second time to go with the sub-titles, interestingly my original hunch of whether a film is worth it or not still stands after undergoing the sub-titles run. So in both senses let the word BE.
Context is all.
These were brave men who put their lives at risk for the good of all black or white. And what I understand the name really has no real connection to the racist term.
But even if it did it should still be used and not rewritten out of history.
Nigger Motherfucker and Nigger seem more than OK.
About twenty years ago I was in a play that called for a "freedom fighter" (won't go on about the who-what-when-where-why:but it was about a noble, though lost, cause). Script called for a young hero (white) to use the word "nigger," a word in common parlance in the period of the drama but a definite no-no in the late 20th century USA. We actors were thoroughly dismayed. Long debate about what to do. Asked several black friends what they thought. Unanimous response, best expressed by a very pro-active, savvy friend originally from an inner city once torn apart by race riots. His unhesitating reply: "Say it." Why? "Because the audience is going to gag, and that's exactly what you want. You need to show them the irony of a 'freedom fighter' having a huge blind spot--the guy is a hero in one place, but accepts slavery in another. See?" So we gulped and went ahead. Every single night, the audience gasped. And every single night, half a beat later, they got the point. Absolutely no one who saw the play thought of us, the production team, as racists. But they really got that we have all inherited racism, no matter how "benign" its manifestations. And that's worth remembering. It's a lesson I haven't forgotten.
But serious as it is, racism is not the heart of this story. Not even close. It's the mission. It's the Dambusters. And it's going to be tough to out-do the original, de-classified info notwithstanding. The immediate post-war actors had real memories of the war, and their personal verisimilitude is impossible to replicate--odd RP speech patterns, B&W film, casual slouching toward a tea mug while chewing a cigarette--impossible to do again. I watched that film again and again as a teen--and in the 60's, the N-word was not exactly polite where I came from. But the dog is not what I remember: it's the dams. ...And the development of the sight; the challenges of low-level flying; the flak; the destruction, not of factories, but of villages; the empty rooms that before one dawn saw young men roll out of iron beds and by the next stood empty while a "personal effect"--a travel clock--ticked. I was a post-war baby--born almost to the day five years after Roosevelt's death. I remember hearing still-young men talk, heard the stories: quiet voices with soft understatement barely hiding the longing for the ones who never came home. In 1954, when the original was made, the wounds were still raw. N-word or no, it's not about a dog. And if that's what it's going to turn into, don't make it.
White trash
Honky
Darkie
Political Correctness gives me crazations! - what right does anyone have to be offended on behalf of someone else!
Neil, of the Kerslake family,
Freeman-on-the-Land at Common Law.
Not least of their problems is how to cast Michael Redgraves part. Genius actors are hard to come by these days.
Oh yes, I am not white either.
I do think that we can take minor liberties with historical accuracy if to do otherwise might mislead a modern audience though.
Consider a film version of Jane Austen's 'Emma'. Strictly speaking, given the state of dentistry in Regency England, Emma should be presented as having very poor dental work. Yet, it is essential that a modern audience understand that she is handsome and without a rival in beauty (until Jane Fairfax comes along) within the small world she grows up in.
Likewise it is arguable that a new audience might think that Guy Gibson calling his pet "Nigger" was making some sort of big statement; which was never intended at the time.
The fictionalisation and ethnic cleansing of the WW2 conflict in cinema has gone on for years but no one raised any protests concerning this matter. You will barely find any Indian soldiers in any film about WW1 or 2 and if they are there, they usually don't have any significant part (and yet I counted more than fifteen WW2 Victoria Cross recipients from India alone).
So this whole debate about the historical accuracy of calling a dog, "Nigger", is just a farce. Yes the word may have been acceptable in the period it was set in and yes, it may have been intended with no malice but it was an offensive word to someone of colour then and still is now.
Most of those protesting have probably never been the recipient of it. It might be OK for one of the readers protesting its exclusion to be comfortable with character's uttering it on screen but myself and many of my colleagues would certainly not be.
Given that nearly all historical biopics do change and compress events/times/characters for a film, why this one detail is suddenly more important "historical fact" than crediting all the people involved in the actual Dambuster mission shows a lack of knowledge of the film production process.
The other reason is purely pragmatic. Sure, keep to the historical truth of keeping the dog's name as "Nigger" but then let's see how the film plays in the US. Every film has to make a return on it's investment and the US is the biggest English language territory. I don't think any film that naively uses the "N-word" in this context is ever gonna survive a week in a suburban multiplex. If there's a premiere screening, which celebrity is actually going to attend and then risk being drilled about the dog name's on the red carpet?
Whine on about keeping the word in and about this myth of overwhelming political correctness but I bet most of those complaining would be happily comfortable with the rest of the film's simplification of the historical record to tell a darn-too good to be true but it was- yarn.
Faisal A. Qureshi
www.ukscreen.com/crew/faq
They're not talking about changing the names of pilots or Barnes Wallis or the squadron etc. It's a dog. I'll say it again as most people seem to have been ranting on as if it was Guy Gibson whose name was being changed - it's not, it's a dog. To try and use this as an opportunity to gripe about an overly PC world seems disingenuous or foolish indeed...
it would not be right to call him something other than NIGGER
The guy's of 617 giver there live's for us all
the code name for one of the dams breaching was NIGGER too so you going to change that too
Guy Gibson V.C would turn in his grave if he know that his dogs name was removed from the film just coz of his name
I think it is about time this PC shit was stoped its all bull shit
to meany do gooders and they are corsing more harm than good
So NIGGER should stay in the film
my family had a black Lab called NIGGER too
the dog is part of the film too let him keep his name
DAVID L from oxfordshire