There were criticisms upfront that the 87th Academy Award nominations don't reflect the true picture of blacks' performance in the industry this year. Whites got unusual privileged.
As expected, Nail Patrick Harris kicked off with a joke labeling the program as "the brightest and the whitest" in the history of the Oscars. And, perhaps, to be more harsh on that criticism, throughout the script, Academy engaged number of black artists starting from John Legend performing Glory on stage to Octavia Spencer indirectly participating in the prediction-box drama from audience pool. All efforts seemed somewhat intentional.
As a host, Nail Patrick was no where close to Ellen. The fun part was missing broadly and, in some occasions, replaced by tears-falling moments following calls to action for wage equality, ALS, powerful reminder of the civil rights movement. Even the big boy from Star Trek movie, Chris Pine, could not help crying on camera. Clearly, socio-political dimensions from multiple lenses got more footage and applauses.
However, above all, racism tops the list and that too more firmly with the closing remark by the winning director, Inarritu which came in sequence right after the awkward Green-Card joke by Sean Penn.
“Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?" Penn said right before announcing the winner. And, yet nobody asked Eddie Redmayne (British actor, Theory of Everything) who gave him his green card.
I think Inarritu, who previously worked with Penn in 21 grams, acted quite smartly to handle the situation dedicating his award to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The director's final words during the ceremony were quite timely:
As expected, Nail Patrick Harris kicked off with a joke labeling the program as "the brightest and the whitest" in the history of the Oscars. And, perhaps, to be more harsh on that criticism, throughout the script, Academy engaged number of black artists starting from John Legend performing Glory on stage to Octavia Spencer indirectly participating in the prediction-box drama from audience pool. All efforts seemed somewhat intentional.
As a host, Nail Patrick was no where close to Ellen. The fun part was missing broadly and, in some occasions, replaced by tears-falling moments following calls to action for wage equality, ALS, powerful reminder of the civil rights movement. Even the big boy from Star Trek movie, Chris Pine, could not help crying on camera. Clearly, socio-political dimensions from multiple lenses got more footage and applauses.
However, above all, racism tops the list and that too more firmly with the closing remark by the winning director, Inarritu which came in sequence right after the awkward Green-Card joke by Sean Penn.
“Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?" Penn said right before announcing the winner. And, yet nobody asked Eddie Redmayne (British actor, Theory of Everything) who gave him his green card.
I think Inarritu, who previously worked with Penn in 21 grams, acted quite smartly to handle the situation dedicating his award to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The director's final words during the ceremony were quite timely:
I only wonder - would Inarritu have ended up with the same acceptance speech inspiring his fellow Mexicans, if Penn had not made that stupid, green card pun? Who knows? Perhaps, the entire scene has been staged as per scripts to demonstrate how open the Academy, or for that matter the hollywood industry, is when it comes to racism. Academy loves to discuss it publicly, can even make handful jokes out of it and, at the same time, does not mind giving the best picture award to the Mexican directors in TWO consecutive years!
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