The gritty modern fantasy is a genre that doesn’t have many contributions yet, but those it does have easily stand as some of the best films offered to modern audiences. Bright, The Seventh Son, uhh, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, I guess. All wonderful, highly regarded films. But the writings on these films seem to focus on their massive impact within the pop culture landscape, and rarely delve into what the films themselves drew upon for inspiration. This has led to much of the subtext of these films to be lost over time. Until now, that is.

After spending the last few weeks heavily analyzing one of Netflix’s hit films, Bright, I have come up with some theories as to what writer and total not-dirtbag Max Landis was trying to say about society. What secrets could the film hold? What worldviews could our eyes by opened to? What hamfisted analogies could one writer make about another? Many. So many. My hands are covered in pig.

My conclusions are possibly controversial, possibly hideous in their implications, but I stand by them. I believe that, in the film Bright, the orc community is representative of the black community in modern Los Angeles.

I know this may be a hard sell, but I am going to do my best. I think the biggest hint that the orcs are a substitute for another race is that they have a very distinguished culture that is openly discriminated against within the narrative. Our hero orc, Nick Jakoby, is the first orc officer in the LAPD, and many officers think that he shouldn’t be due to having “clan loyalty”. I feel the implications here are obvious.

Then we have the more subtle, more racist tidbits thrown throughout the narrative. The music that only orcs like. The graffiti. The ghettos. The obvious implications that they all belong to gangs in which killing someone is a rite of passage. All these things point towards a subtext only I have recently uncovered.

Now, you may be thinking, these broad associations towards an entire race may come off as somewhat racist. Let me be clear, they are very racist. Max Landis is a racist. Is that a surprising statement? No? Then I’m going to use your lack of shock as further evidence towards my thesis statement. Don’t like it? Then write your own review, Max!

In conclusion, I feel that, after years of simply being a film that brings delight on joy to all fans of the DC Cinematic Universe, Bright can now be looked at in another light, one that shines brightly on our society and makes us ask questions. Questions like, what questions? Who’s asking them? Is racism bad? Am I bad? Questions only non-shitbag Max Landis felt qualified to ask.

3/10