Zionists and vampires: the allegory of Blade

[Rutterkin]

To chill out in a hot evening at the end of a long day recently, I
watched the film Blade (1998) for the first time in several years, and
saw the film anew.

In the film, much of the plot of which is derived from Marvel comics,
vampires are living among humans, hiding behind legitimate businesses
while feeding, when they can, on humans whom they treat disparagingly as
"cattle". A half-vampire, half-human called Blade roams the streets
killing as many vampires as he can find. Unbeknown to him, a group of
radical young vampires, aided by sympathetic humans who aspire to become
vampires themselves, plot to seize control from older conservatives, who
had all been born as vampires rather than having been "turned". The
leader of the young vampires has found a way of sacrificing the
conservatives while using Blade's blood to summon a "blood god" who will
in turn lead the radicals to total domination over their human hosts.

The primary protagonists are a young black man (Blade, played by Wesley
Snipes) and an old, disabled white man (Whistler, played by Kris
Kristofferson) while the primary antagonists are strong young white men
(Frost, played by Stephen Dorff and Quinn, played by Donal Logue). This
role reversal is not, however, mere "political correctness", but a way
of masking to casual viewers that beyond its darkly entertaining style
and action, the film functions as an allegory of Zionism.

The humans represent Gentiles. The familiars represent Christian
Zionists and other collaborators. The conservative vampires represent
European Jews. The young radical vampires represent Zionists. The blood
god represents the Jewish state of Israel. Blade himself represents, in
part, modern weapons. The representation of Israel as a "blood god" is a
particularly delicious nod to the so-called "blood libel".

In the real world, we humans have no character paralleling Blade to even
the odds against the danger from the vampires. We can, though, even the
odds for ourselves by pooling our knowledge, identifying vampires when
we find them, and taking collective action to destroy or at least weaken
them.

[andy]

Post by Rutterkin
To chill out in a hot evening at the end of a long day recently, I
watched the film Blade (1998) for the first time in several years, and
saw the film anew.
In the film, much of the plot of which is derived from Marvel comics,
vampires are living among humans, hiding behind legitimate businesses
while feeding, when they can, on humans whom they treat disparagingly as
"cattle". A half-vampire, half-human called Blade roams the streets
killing as many vampires as he can find. Unbeknown to him, a group of
radical young vampires, aided by sympathetic humans who aspire to become
vampires themselves, plot to seize control from older conservatives, who
had all been born as vampires rather than having been "turned". The
leader of the young vampires has found a way of sacrificing the
conservatives while using Blade's blood to summon a "blood god" who will
in turn lead the radicals to total domination over their human hosts.
The primary protagonists are a young black man (Blade, played by Wesley
Snipes) and an old, disabled white man (Whistler, played by Kris
Kristofferson) while the primary antagonists are strong young white men
(Frost, played by Stephen Dorff and Quinn, played by Donal Logue). This
role reversal is not, however, mere "political correctness", but a way
of masking to casual viewers that beyond its darkly entertaining style
and action, the film functions as an allegory of Zionism.
The humans represent Gentiles. The familiars represent Christian
Zionists and other collaborators. The conservative vampires represent
European Jews. The young radical vampires represent Zionists. The blood
god represents the Jewish state of Israel. Blade himself represents, in
part, modern weapons. The representation of Israel as a "blood god" is a
particularly delicious nod to the so-called "blood libel".
In the real world, we humans have no character paralleling Blade to even
the odds against the danger from the vampires. We can, though, even the
odds for ourselves by pooling our knowledge, identifying vampires when
we find them, and taking collective action to destroy or at least weaken
them.

There's a rather sadder story rarely heard about vampires and Jewish
(and some others from a similar geographical area such as Italians and
Turks) people. That is many in northern Europe traditionally kept out of
the sun in summer as differences in tanning can make such people stand
out. This lead to some of the vampire urban legends, stemming from fear
of other cultures.

It's sad that this still happens in some parts of the UK today, that
people are still so racist- and so fickle that simply skin tone changes
how people are viewed- in the 90s/00s, not the 1950s.