The Oscars-Star Wars controversy

Last year I posted this entry, in which I wrote a somewhat detailed analysis of times the Academy (the Oscars) kind of messed up either nominations or winners of the award. I wrote it because like I said back then, time has proven that Oscar's don't mean that much when we talk about true trascendence of a film, an actor or a director. This year though, ironically my post is meant to defend the Academy on what I think is one of the most absurd controversies seen in show-business.

Will, Jada and Jaden just can't
keep away from the headlines

As the 2016 nominees were announced early in the week, a few headlines were filled by well-known celebrities such as Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffallo, criticizing the lack of diveristy of the Academy, as no african american artists were nominated in any of the top categories. I titled my blog "The Oscars-Star Wars controversy", because at the same time thousands of fans are bashing the latest Star Wars installment on grounds of how it feels more like a politically correct remake of A new hope, than an actual continuation of the Star Wars saga. So what is the relation ?

Being one of the thousands of fans who feel dissappointed by The Force Awakens (as you can read my Episode VII blog), I couldn't help but to question myself and my beliefs regarding the review I gave to TFA, after seeing it break almost every single box-office record, earning an 8.4 rating on IMDb, and reading so many postive reviews from several critics, and even Hollywood celebrities such as Kevin Smith. I wondered whether if I was wrong in thinking TFA was a dissappointment instead of being an actual great Star Wars film. I had to go see the film again, but before doing so, I read and went over almost every single review (and video review) available. I also read the dozens of fan-theories trying to explaing the 942 unanswered questions in TFA, from Rey being Luke's long lost daughter, to Rey being Obi-Wan's granddaughter, passing through Rey being the actual chosen one to bring the force back in to balance. None of the reviews I read, or the theories I went through, or anything I came in contact with, could make me change my opinion about TFA.

Even George Lucas has expressed dissatisfaction with the new direction of "his baby"

After once again analyzing Ep VII, I couldn't reach any other conclussion other than TFA is nothing but what I call "A-Safe-Bet."

The explanation for this term follows suite: My guess is that when J.J. Abrahams and Disney were handed the assignment of making Episode VII, the project overpowered them and they simply didn't know what to do. They probably found themselves cornered with the dilemma of either developing something new or to stick to a winning formula, the latter being the chosen alternative, or as I like to call it, "A-Safe-Bet." Nothing could go wrong if they simply remade A new hope and tweak it a little bit for the new millenial target. Moreover, Abrahms and Disney went for the expanded Star Wars fan base, by developing "A-Safe-Bet" in a "Politically Correct" movie, an expression that has gained quite a trend in the past years. Fpr those unfamiliar with the expression, being PC means to try to please everyone, while missing to please the actual target you should. In TFA's case, they tried to please all demographics, but not the actual true Star Wars fans.

Doubt it ?

The force feels "forced" on this one 

Rey: the female hero, following the Hunger Games trend to please teen females.
Finn: african american star.
Han Solo: old school.
Kylo Ren: emo/goth.
Poe Dameron: the level headed.

So what does this have to do with the Academy this year?

The Oscar nominees for best actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and director, all fifteen are caucasian (or simpy said, white). Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith have complained the Academy should be ashamed for not including any African-Americans. Knowing the I have almost 0% of PC, in my humble opinion, this has no sense whatsoever, and only adds more negativity instead of being beneficial to our society.

First of all, the Academy Awards (the Oscars, for that matter) were perhaps described best by the late great George C. Scott as a "two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons", also adding that the politics surrounding the awards was "demeaning." Like I said earlier, time has proven on several occasions that Scott's affirmation may be quite on the money, with movies, actors and other artists that would have likely entered oblivion, had not been nominated, yet alone even won the award.

Seriously. Without googling, can you tell if this won an Academy Award? If so, how many and which year?

In a world living in the year 2016, where globalization is more and more a main protagonist in our lives, less and less regionalization becomes a decisive factor in culture -including cinemas-, and the Oscars are no exceptions. The golden statue has been losing the essence of capturing interest of movie enthusiasts, while other international festivals have been gaining more and more notice, such as Cannes, Sundance, Las Palmas and London Film. Needless to say, and to quote Tug Speedman in Tropic Thunder, there is a lot of marketing and politics in being nominated for these awards.

Then, what is the big deal if the Academy didn't nominate African Americans?

I would like to believe that the Academy at least tries, to nominate five of the best performances for each category, whether if they are Caucasian, African American, Indians, Spanish, French, Chinise, Japanese, Norweigans, or Hispanics. Of course, Hollywood most likely will not be including in their nominees any Indians, Japanese, Chinese or Norweigans, it's ridiculous, why would they?

One of the most brilliant exchanges of the satirical masterpiece "Tropic Thunder" deals with the "how to get nominated to the Oscars" issue, and moreover, "how to win it by never going full retard"

And that's precisely my point with this year's fuzz.

Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett complain the Academy has no diversity. This means that they would be somewhat "satisfied" if the Academy would include African-Americans in their nominations. This begs to ask the question: How many African-American's are enough so that Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith feel content with the Academy's diversity ? Two out of five ? Three out of five ? Of course the number doesn't matter as it is not a question of percentages. That approach is simply ridiculous. Spike and Jada are talking about the Academy being "politically correct", pretty much like TFA is.

But let's forget about TFA and the Oscars, and let's use two completely different scenarios to wrap up this whole mess.

Scenario #1: Southpark Episode 7 - Chef goes nanners.

Southpark's is known as a series with a very satirical yet down to Earth approach to most of the subjects its deal with. In Season 4 Episode 7 (hahaha, ironically, episode 7), two secondary characters Chef and Jimbo, develop two opposite opinions on the subject that the town's flag depicts four white figures hanging a black one on a gallows. Chef (being African American) believes the flag is racist and should be changed, while believing the whole town is racist if they don't think so. Jimbo on the other hand, believes the flag should not be changed, being it somewhat of an honor to the history and tradition of the founders of Southpark.

Southpark's town flag

The whole episode goes over and around the fact that the school children, specifically the main protagonists (Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman) should sort this out via a school debate, with some of them agreeing to keep the flag and others agreeing with changing it. However,when the day of the debate arrives, it is discovered that surprisingly the group that agreed to keep the flag as it is, did so without perceiving that the person being hung was African American, but instead, a human being, meaning they didn't pay attention to the race of the person. Chef is touched (as well as Jimbo and the other adults atending the debate) by what the children point, so the adults reach a compromise of ethnic diversity, changing the flag by now having the four people of all races (including an African American). The moral of the episode is the fact that anti-racism makes people racist, therefore make them perceive things according to your own race, therefore leading to more racism.

Southpark's new town flag

Scenario #2: The NBA MVPs

If you look at a list of the NBA MVPs in the last 40 years, you'll probably won't be surprised that finding a white player is not as frequent as the days with full moon. In fact, the last 30 years have seen only three white players, that's 1/10. Is the NBA not diverse enough ? Oh wait, I know what some people will say. "Well, have you seen that Woody Harrelson movie, "White men can't jump?", to which I would reply "Oh my..." So let's go to a recently announced award, FIFA's Ballon d'Or, won last week by Lionel Messi a record fifth-time. In the last 30 years, only two black men have won the award. So Spike: Is FIFA also not diverse enough?

Judge for yourself. White man can't jump too good ? Or NBA is bad at white diversity ?

Here's the thing, Spike and Jada: NBA MVPs are won by the Most Valuable Player of the season, regardless of he's white, black, chinese, or even if his team won the NBA Championships or didn't win it. Same goes for the Ballon d'Or.

Maybe the same thing happened with the Academy this year? Maybe, unfortunately, the Academy couldn't fit any leading black actors with better performances than Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Leonardo Di Caprio, Michael Fassbender and Eddie Redmayne. Jada thinks the Academy has no diversity ? Well here's a thought: why don't you get your agent to get you a good script with a great role, good enough to be better than Cate Blanchett's, Brie Larson's, Jennifer Lawrence's, Charlotte Rampling's or Saoirse Ronan's ? Spike thinks the Academy has no diversity ? Well here's a thought: go get yourself a script (or even better, you develop one), so you can be nominated as best director, as you once were, instead of rambling on on how the Academy is not diverse.

Again, I will repeat this. I'm not taking sides with the Academy, but I can't get over the fact that, man, Meryl Streep, like it or not, has 84 Oscar nominations because, well, she's perhaps the greatest actress of all time. She's so damn good, that even in a movie as banal as Devil Wears Prada, the woman got nominated ! I wonder what would make Jada happy. Maybe see Jaden Smith nominated for his awesome performance in the Karate Kid ?

The goddess of acting. She could earn an Oscar nomination by playing a McDonalds cashier. Make that a drive through McDonalds cashier. 

I'm not a huge Fox follower, but this Stacey Dash interview hits the nail on the head.

I like the part where she especially mentions Obama being President and funded by Hollywood. What more true than that ?

So sum things up, this is where it all comes to.

The Force Awakens went through the road of being PC, and it deservedly got slammed by true Star Wars Fans.

The Academy didn't go through the road of being PC, and it undeservedly, got slammed by the media !

... which means, whichever route you choose nowadays, you'll likely be slammed for your decisions and your actions, deseverdly or undeservedly.

Cheers !

H.