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Purple Hearts director defends Netflix film amid backlash

Purple Hearts director defends Netflix film amid backlash

Purple Hearts has been one of the most popular films on Netflix this month, but some viewers have taken to social media to call out themes of racism. Now, the director has stepped in to defend the project.

The romance drama has been watched for more than 100 million hours on the streaming service (via Vox), but received mixed reviews. While some fans said it made them "ugly cry", others questioned whether the film promoted explicit racism and potential sexism, portraying its female lead as a control freak.

It follows Cassie (Sofia Carson), a liberal aspiring musician who enters a "marriage of convenience" with conservative US Marine Luke (Nicholas Galitzine), "but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real."

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Now, director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum has responded to the criticism, in an interview with Variety: "I hope that people understand that in order for characters to grow, they need to be flawed in the beginning. So we very much intentionally created two characters that had been bred to hate each other.

"In order for the red heart and the blue heart to kind of turn purple, you have to have them be kind of extreme. Some of the people that they’re surrounded with are even more flawed than they are.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

"They both have been neglected by the system; he’s hurt in a war that doesn’t seem to be ending and she’s slipping through the cracks of the healthcare system. I do hope that anyone who’s in any way insulted by it understands that our intentions are very pure, and it’s because we feel like people need to grow and need to start to become more moderate."

Purple Hearts is now streaming on Netflix.

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