A new rom-com on Netflix has faced backlash for its themes and content, while still being one of the most popular picks on the streaming platform right now. The film “Purple Hearts” is about a woman who marries a Marine to get health insurance, and various aspects of the film have angered viewers, leading many to claim that it is racist, misogynist, and even military propaganda. In response to the outrage, the director of Purple Hearts said, Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaumand one of its stars Sofia Karsonhave spoken out in defense of the romance.
Read on to see which specific parts of the film upset subscribers, and to hear Rosenbaum and Carson’s responses to their complaints.
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Purple Hearts – which was released on July 29 – is about a liberal musician, Cassie (Carson), who agrees to marry a conservative Marine named Luke (Nicholas Galitzine), for a year. She has type 1 diabetes and urgently needs health insurance to pay for her treatment. Meanwhile, Luke joined the military to pay off a debt after suffering from an addiction. As time goes by and Cassie and Luke become more and more difficult and time apart, they actually do fall in love with each other.
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Backlash over the film includes claims that it is military propaganda and that it contains unverified instances of racism and misogyny. For example, at one point another Marine offering a toast says, “This one is to life, love and the hunt for some [expletive] Arab, baby!” Cassie is upset by the comment while Luke is not.
“I don’t get all the fuss about the movie ‘Purple Hearts’, I mean it’s just your normal boring movie with a lot of racism and misogyny romanticizing the military!!!!” wrote one Twitter user.
another said“Purple Hearts is US military propaganda using the invasion and deaths of 1.2 million Iraqis as a romcom, not to mention defending his racist girlfriend and telling her to sit down and stop it when she’s him.” exclaimed after cheering ‘hunt’ down a bit [expletive] Arabs.'”
Someone else wrote“the way purple hearts aren’t even subtle [sic] but blatantly anti-Arab anti-Hispanic racist misogynist AND pro-military propaganda but people are foaming at the mouth because they are enemies of lovers.
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Rosenbaum spoke out in favor of Purple Hearts in an interview with Variety, saying that the film aims to show how two very different people can come together despite their differences.
“I hope people understand that characters have to be flawed in the beginning in order for them to grow,” she said. “So we very deliberately created two characters that were bred to hate each other… For the red heart and the blue heart to be kind of purple, they have to be kind of extreme. Some of the people they They are even more flawed than themselves. They’ve both been neglected by the system, he’s wounded in a war that never seems to end, and she’s slipping through the cracks of the healthcare system. So they are both neglected by the system and then they live under the same roof and in these extreme circumstances they learn to become more moderate and to listen and love each other.”ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb
Rosenbaum added, “I hope that anyone who is in any way offended by this will understand that our intentions are very pure and that is because we feel people need to grow and become more moderate.”
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Carson, who not only plays Cassie but is also an executive producer on Purple Hearts, also shared her opinion on the film.
“Why I fell in love with the film is that it’s a love story, but it’s so much more than that,” she told Variety. “It’s two hearts, one red, one blue, two worlds apart, that are really raised to hate each other. Through the power of love, they learn to lead and love one another with empathy and compassion, and transform into this beautiful shade of purple. We wanted to represent both sides as accurately as possible.”
Similarly, Carson told , “We definitely wanted to show the dichotomy between these two characters and their incredibly different political views without taking sides. And also show that she, especially Cassie’s character, never gives up on who she is or what happens to these two people is that instead of growing closer with hatred and division, they start seeing each other as people, not just political ones views but with compassion and empathy Call it optimistic but this is the story we wanted to tell: When you lead with love, love can heal in ways that can be quite powerful.
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Despite the backlash, many people have been streaming Purple Hearts on Netflix. The film was viewed for over 100 million hours and took the #1 spot of the Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans Action film The Gray Man.
Carson and Rosenbaum also think the film thrived amid the backlash because of the positive response it received for portraying people with type 1 diabetes. “We both felt like it was a big part of the story and a cool responsibility to shed some light on it,” Rosenbaum told Variety. “But every time we’ve spoken to someone before that who has type 1 diabetes, they’ve just been so grateful because it’s usually like they’ve been a soft spot for a character in movies, and a lot of times they die from it .”
Carson added that the response she experienced was “so beautifully overwhelming” and that “so many people saw or felt comforted by this film.” The actor continued, “This is everything we could wish for as filmmakers and as artists.”