This year, the 88th Academy Awards held on Sunday, February 28, had a hashtag that people on social media have used to express their opinions about the show, the protests and Hollywood’s lack of diversity as a whole. These same opinionated tweeters are claiming now that host, Chris Rock, is being blamed for low viewing rates despite the boycotts and statements made by other actors (cough, cough Will and Jada Pinkett Smith). Chris Rock was put in a position, as a black actor and comedian, where he couldn’t possibly avoid the subject of racism in Hollywood.
Chris Rock said in his monologue, people who suggested he quit were the people without jobs. He made it a point that those boycotting are not making an affective change, in that, had Chris Rock declined the opportunity to host he would just be replaced and that is the reality of a show like the Oscars.
Much of us, as student leaders at a diverse school, understand that our school’s acceptance of diverse groups is only a small part of a whole. Our small college community reflects the social unrest of the country around us. It’s not a subject we can escape, and as a diversity club leader myself I can safely say, we don’t want to.
Many on social media have expressed that the race is not just made up of black and white, which is true. However, Chris Rock, brought up how race is not a new controversy in Hollywood but before African Americans had protests that were more important than an award show, such as lynching and police brutality in the 1960’s.
“Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right Hollywood is racist. But it ain’t that racist that you’ve grown accustomed to. Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like, ‘We like you Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.’ That’s how Hollywood is. But things are changing. Things are changing.” Said Rock.
The last thing I will say about Rock’s monologue; the lack of black nominee’s at an award show is not the biggest problem in Hollywood and the entertainment industry knows it.
Rock said, “Hey, if you want black nominees every year, you need to just have black categories. That’s what you need. You need to have black categories. You already do it with men and women. Think about it: There’s no real reason for there to be a man and a woman category in acting. C’mon. There’s no reason. It’s not track and field.”
Now, moving onto the male and female winners for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Leonardo DiCaprio (ah what a name), was nominated six times in his life for an Academy Award starting as early as 1993. He has fallen victim to several internet memes, one being the lyrics to Frozen’s “Let it Go,” over a picture of DiCaprio looking like he’s on the verge of tears. As a DiCaprio fan, I have to say it is sad that he did not get an Oscar for The Wolf of Wall Street or The Aviator, both movies in which he depicted real people, in my subtle opinion, brilliantly. This year he won for a movie called The Revenant, a movie summarized as “Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Hugh Glass, a 19th-century American frontiersman who is left for dead by his comrades after being mauled by a bear during a winter expedition.” by the Academy.
When I watched him accept this award, I somehow thought to myself, “Okay, he’s going to say something about finally winning. He’ll make a joke or be very happy about it.” What he did say, did not disappoint me as much as it shocked me. He was so graceful in his
acceptance that I ended up forgetting all about those petty memes and remembered how much I thought he had deserved it.
He talked about global warming. He finally wins an Oscar and he talks about global warming… what a guy. But it just showed me that good actors, don’t expect to be rewarded for every great job they do. They don’t need a group of people’s seal of approval to show them what is important to them. Maybe I read too much into his speech, maybe I took it too personally.
This speech, reminded me of Ashton Kutcher’s 2013 Teen Choice awards speech where he talked about getting an education and how sexy being smart is. These people are influential in their performances and in their use of their platforms. That’s what I took away from Leonardo DiCaprio’s win. He didn’t say, look I deserve to win, instead he said, look I shot this movie at the tip of the earth and I realized how horribly we’re taking care of this planet, let’s not be extinct because of it.
Most of the Oscars was, as my Professor would say, “predictable.” First time Oscar nominee, Brie Larson won for her leading role in the movie Room about a hostage woman striving to raise her son in the outside world. She went up against Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlotte Rampling and Saoirse Ronan for this award.
Among movies as whole peices, Inside Out won for Best Animated film, Stutterer won for Best Short film (Live action) and Bear Story won for Best Animated Short. Lastly, but certainly not least, the Oscar for Best Picture went to Spotlight. This movie was about, “the journalists of The Boston Globe’s (2001) Spotlight team,” who “began investigating Father John Geoghan, who is accused of molesting more than 80 boys. As they dig deeper and acknowledge their paper’s own failings, the team uncovers a conspiracy of lawyers and government officials who helped the Boston Archdiocese hide the pedophilia of many priests and deny justice to the victims.” This movie only won one other Oscar, Sunday night, for Best Writing/Original Screenplay.
Overall, if you have the chance to watch a recording of the Oscars, I highly recommend it because it may not have been the most entertaining award shows but it did touch on all of the sore yet important subjects human beings are dealing with today, both on and off the screen.
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