Paraphrase Practice

Roger Ebert review

"I didn't understand why it had to be told so often from the point of view of the 54th's white commanding officer. Why did we see the black troops through his eyes - instead of seeing him through theirs? To put it another way, why does the top billing in this movie go to a white actor? I ask, not to be perverse, but because I consider this primarily a story about a black experience and do not know why it has to be seen largely through white eyes."


My paraphrase:

It seemed somewhat strange that although the story mainly concerned the experience of black men, the story was told from the perspective of a white male. Why was the role played by Matthew Broderick a lead role instead of a supporting one? It would make more sense to focus mainly on the circumstances of the soldiers with asides gauging the effects these circumstances had on the morals and opinions of the officer overseeing the troops rather than the other way around; the audience should mostly be watching the soldiers watch the commanding officer, not the officer watching the soldiers, and the movie does not do a good enough job facilitating this paradigm.