Making list of white-guy-leads-foreigners-in-a-foreign-land movies

[Paragon]

Tom Cruise's new movie "The Last Samurai" is part of a movie sub-genre that has always annoyed me...the white-guy-leads-foreigners-in-a-foreign-land movie. You'd think the rest of the world was hopeless and lost before whitey showed up. Help me work on a list of this particular cliche. So far I have:

The Last Samurai
Lawrence of Arabia
Dances With Wolves
The Power of One
Last of the Mohicans

What else?

[Don_G]

1. Shogun For One

And just about any Tarzan movie or the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road pictures.

[Paragon]

3. Good one

Comedies never occurred to me -- thanks!

[Cat Atomic]

2. Big Trouble in Little China

:)

[HEyHEY]

4. Seven years in tibet

[Paragon]

7. Ding ding

Yes! Thank you.

[Cat Atomic]

5. Oh- The Bible.

I was surprised to learn that Jesus was a Swede. Well- he is in those children's books anyway.

[Paragon]

6. Got another - "The Air Up There"

God, that one looked so bad, I was ashamed to watch the commercials.

[HawkerHurricane]

8. Welp...

I hate to be this way, but...
"Lawrence of Arabia" is based (loosely) on a true story.
As was "Glory" which has the same pattern.
There are a number of cases of British Officers leading native troops in the 18th and 19th century to victory; that's where a lot of the stories come from.

[Paragon]

9. I know, I know...

...but it fits the list. I don't necessarily count "Glory" as it's a pretty balanced portrayal -- Col. Shaw led because he was white (and privileged), not necessarily because he was the best soldier.

[HawkerHurricane]

10. Glory...

Showed military leadership that was typical for the time: Upper Class ('nobles') were appointed to command positions; while the troops were commoners. This leads to a lot of situations where the White 'nobles' lead minority troops. It's a affect of European colonialism; and there are some good stories about it.

Of course, Hollywierd has GOT to make up even more stories with the same pattern; I'm not sure why except for
a. Racism
b. a belief that the audiance won't accept a minority hero (ie audiance racism)

[punpirate]

11. Lord Jim ??? n/t

[AlGore-08.com]

12. Keys to the Kingdom

Gunga Din
Robinson Crusoe
Shogun (although it was a mini-series)

[charlie]

13. It doesn't strictly fit your category

but Mississippi Burning is one that annoys me. White FBI agents using Bruce Willis tactics storm the KKK and extract justice on behalf of helpless southern blacks. Pshaw, right... The film says fuck-all about MLK or civil rights activists, and gives undue glory to JE Hoover, who would've shot King and black agitators himself if he could've gotten away with it.

[FlemingsGhost]

14. "Man Who Would Be King"

Sean Connery and Micheal Cain, I believe.

on edit: "The Beast" with Jason Patric as a Russian soldier in Afghanistan

[Guaranteed]

15. Mr. Johnson

Pierce Brosnan directs Africans in building a road.
Saw it in my Black Studies movie class.

[ILeft]

16. A Man Called Horse

[MSchreader]

17. City of Joy

As I recall, that movie had a similar dynamic.

Martin

[Brewman_Jax]

18. Little Big Man

with Dustin Hoffman. I know that there are more, I'll remember as time goes on.