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The show is over and most of the revelers have gone home so it’s time to take stock of the 81st Annual Academy Awards --- a celebration of the movie business that will go down in history as the most un-American Oscar Ceremony of ‘em all.
Please note, I didn’t say anti-American--- actually, there was precious little America-bashing that took place as part of the show and, for the most part, a paucity of political preachments. Sure, Sean Penn (who won Best Actor for his title role in MILK) and Dustin Lance Black (who got Best Original Screenplay for his work on the same film) made impassioned pleas for gay marriage, and Penn denounced supporters of Proposition 8, but that’s hardly surprising considering the content of the movie that brought them their award. All in all, this may constitute the gayest Oscar night in history – with Hugh Jackman sitting himself on Frank Langella’s lap and joking about kissing him, and several romantic clips showing two guys locking lips. Considering the need to broaden the broadcast’s audience and to penetrate middle America this may constitute a questionable strategy, but it’s not inherently un-American.
The lack of nationalistic focus at the Academy Awards seems to have been in every sense intentional. Unlike so many past Oscar ceremonies that made at least some show at flag-waving (even in the context of honoring patriotic movies of the past) this show boasted a totally international, cosmopolitan flavor --- nothing about it said “USA.” The Aussie Hugh Jackman may have been a debonair and good-natured host, but isn’t he the first Oscar host in 81 years who isn’t an American? Bob Hope, Johnny Carson,Billy Crystal, David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Ellen DeGeneres, John Stewart – they all took different approaches to the job of hosting the show, but they were all clearly identified as American stars, part of the U.S. film industry. (The fact that Bob Hope was born in Britain and came to Ohio at age 5 is beside the point-- hir tireless work for USO and visiting troops overseas identified him unmistakably as a great American patriot).
Aside from the Australian nationality of the host, nearly all the most prominent winners also came from abroad to claim their Oscars – from Britain to grab the statuettes as producer of the Best Picture (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE), as Best Director (Danny Boyle for SLUMDOG) and for Best Actress (Kate Winslet for THE READER). Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger for THE DARK KNIGHT) was Australian and Supporting Actress (Penelope Cruz for VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA) was Spanish. Of the Big Six Awards (the four acting awards, plus best picture and best director) the only American winner was.... Sean Penn--- who, given his well-publicized friendships with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, hardly counts as a “USA is Number 1!” type.
The other oddity about this year’s Oscars is that for the first time, the Academy seems to have handed out more awards to Muslims than to Jews. For an industry supposedly dominated by Jewish Americans, this is surprising indeed. A.R. Rahman (who converted to Islam as a young man and works with Islamic charities together with Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens) won both music awards (Best Score and Best Song) and embraced one of them by declaring “God is Great.” Meanwhile, the favored film for Best Foreign Language Picture—Israel’s entry, WALTZ WITH BASHIR—lost in an upset to an unheralded offering from Japan. None of the winners of major Oscars in any category is visibly identified with the Jewish community (Sean Penn’s father is of Jewish origin, but Sean himself doesn’t claim to be a Jew). Given the continued prominence of Jews in Hollywood, and given the constant claims that the whole industry is run by some Hebraic conspiracy, this surprising development ought to open some minds.
For the record, I’m glad that the brilliantly-crafted but deeply disturbing WALTZ WITH BASHIR avoided the Oscar because its bitter, nightmarish depiction of the Israeli army only serves to re-enforce some of the most negative (and unfair) stereotypes about the Jewish state and its history.
At the end of the show, there’s a nagging question: what aspect of this entire production stamped the Hollywood “Dream Factory” as an American (rather than international) industry? Even the avoidance of political references -- reassuring on one level -- also helped to denude the broadcast of its American identity. When viewers around the world turned off their televisions, they might have wondered if the show would have been different at all had it originated in London – or Sydney, for that matter. While the movie industry relies on the international market for more and more of its revenues, the televised Oscar broadcast won’t get healthy again until it re-connects with the American mainstream. I’m not at all sure that this edition of the show – in spite of its notable strengths , including its greatly improved pacing --- will constitute a positive step in that direction.
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