France Wins the Oscars: Part 4

This should be read as a direct continuation of; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/france-wins-oscars-part-3.html 

Trumbo: This is another 1950's set biopic telling the story of Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo. It focuses on a very dark period in American and particular Hollywood history.

Being what I think these days would be termed a "Progressive" or a "Liberal" Trumbo joined the Communist Party of America during the Second World War back when the US and the Soviet Union were still officially allies.

Then when the Cold War began America was gripped by fervent waves of anti-Communist paranoia. This was largely led by Senator Joe McCarthy and his Un-American Activities Committee. They were particularly worried that the Hollywood producers of movies like "The Wizard of Oz" - I recently read an analysis of it as a metaphor for the 1896 Bryan V McKinley Presidential race - were secretly brainwashing their audiences with Communist propaganda.

In 1947 Trumbo and nine others - collectively; "The Hollywood Ten" - were summoned before McCarthy's committee and asked to name other members of the Communist Party of America. Although I've heard it said that Trumbo was more interested in worker's rights and civil rights than keeping the Red Flag flying over the Kremlin all 10 refused to testify. So in 1950 they were all jailed for 11 months for contempt of Congress.

Upon release from prison the Hollywood Ten found that they had all been blacklisted by every Hollywood studio. As the studio system still very much dominated the movie industry in those days that blacklisting effectively meant that the Hollywood Ten's careers were over and they were doomed to never work again.

Trumbo however refused to give up and spent years secretly working on scripts for the "B-Movies" that eventually began the Blacksploitation movies of the 1970's. 

He actually won the 1954 Best Screenplay Oscar for "Roman Holiday" but due to the blacklisting Trumbo had to let his friend Ian McLellan Hunter take all the credit. In 1957 Trumbo again won the Best Screenplay Oscar for "The Brave One" even though at the time it was credited to "Robert Rich" - a fictitious pseudonym of Trumbo's.

As such Trumbo serves to remind the Oscars So White protesters of Hollywood's long history of activism on liberal and civil rights issues. It also makes the point that perhaps there are worst hardships to endure then not winning an Oscar at your first attempt.

Officially this anti-Communist blacklisting ended with the Presidency of John F. Kennedy and Trumbo being brought in from the cold by Kirk Douglas to write the script for "Spartacus" - suddenly the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene makes a lot more sense. However the suspicion has always been that the blacklists never really went away and continued just below the surface.

Take for example the 1976 movie "Rocky." This is of course about boxing. However it is also about the deep yearning of a working class man in post-industrial Philadelphia's to do whatever it takes to become part of the wealthy elite. 

I've long felt that particularly under President Ronald Regan this reference to the struggle of the working class was viewed as so dangerously close to Communist propaganda that Sylvester Stallone was forced to make the truly awful "Rocky IV" to prove his flag waving patriot credentials.

So despite what it might say on the official documents I doubt Sylvester Stallone's nomination this year has anything whatsoever to do with the movie "Creed."

There appears to have been an example of this type of political censorship at this year's Oscars. Based on the nominations I get the distinct impression that the Academy was keen on humiliating Turkey for its support for ISIL by handing "Mustang" Best Foreign Feature and Charlotte Rampling Best Actress. While it's certainly abusive I supposed that you could say that Rampling's character in "The Night Porter" is the child bride of the Nazi.

The Best Foreign Feature award was handed out right before Lady Gaga took to the stage to promote the "It's On Us" campaign against sexual violence. She was introduced by US Vice President Joe Biden. As Biden is the US' point man on Turkey this would have been hugely embarrassing for him.

Therefore the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seems to have been intentionally playing up the security threat to the Oscars in order to put pressure on the Academy not to do anything to embarrass the regime. 

For example just on Thursday (25/2/16) there was a shooting spree in Hesston, Kansas which was absolutely littered with references to the Wizard of Oz. On Saturday (27/2/16) members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were violently attacked by Black Lives Matter protesters in Anaheim, California and forced to stab three of the attackers in self-defence.

It seemed this pressure paid off with Best Foreign Feature going to "Son of Saul." Due to the nomination of Kate Winslet I suspect that the Academy was well aware that this was a cynical attempt by Hungary to take everyone for fools. The question is; Does Biden realise that? After all "Theeb" clearly went right over the heads of the Obama administration.

Charlotte Rampling's Best Actress Oscar went to Brie Larson for the "Room." I suspect that the "Old Nick" character in the movie would argue that he wasn't keeping Larson's "Ma Joy" character prisoner. He was merely keeping her safe.

Sylvester Stallone's Best Supporting Actor then had to go to Mark Rylance to keep Bridge of Spies in public view. 

The Best Documentary Short went to the Pakistani movie "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" which deals with many of the same issues as Mustang. Only in a shorter format and a less high profile category.

I should make clear though that I'm not trying to detract from the achievement of any of the winners. After all the mere fact they'd been nominated for an Oscar means that they've excelled.

With their deafening cries of "Racism!" and "White Privilege!" the Black Lives Matter campaign seems to have become the new McCarthyism crushing any attempt at free speech or free expression that dares to get in their way.

The most high profile examples of this probably come from the news coverage of all these police shootings. In particular the Walter Scott shooting in South Carolina and the Laquan McDonald and Cedrick Chatman shootings both in Chicago, Illinois.

In the America there is a common law principle known as; "The Fleeing Felon Rule." This holds that if a felon is fleeing you are entitled to shoot and kill them to prevent their escape. This was tightened in the SCOTUS ruling Tennessee V Garner (1985) so you had to have an honestly held belief that the fleeing felon posed a danger to the wider public. It was tightened again in the SCOTUS ruling Graham V Conner (1989) to ensure that the belief not only had to be honest but also reasonable.

The video of the Walter Scott shooting quite clearly establishes that he is a felon - by way of assault of a police officer - and that he is fleeing. It also shows him to be in possession of an offensive weapon creating more than a reasonable belief that he is posing an imminent danger. Likewise we have footage of McDonald and Chatman both fleeing the scene of a felony in possession of an offensive weapon.

As such none of these cases are anywhere near as outrageous as the Black Lives Matter protesters would have you believe. However you won't hear any of that on the news. 

Honestly I cannot count the number of times I've watched Anderson Cooper on CNN interview not one but four talking heads who all agree that these cases are murder plain and simple despite the fact that is a clear legal nonsense.

Obviously you expect that from the left-leaning media such as CNN. 

However it seems that even the traditionally right-leaning Fox News feels unable to fulfil that most basic duty of a journalist - reporting the facts - when it comes to Black Lives Matter protests. To me the reason for this seems clear - they're terrified that if they dare disagree with Black Lives Matter then Black Lives Matter will come and burn down their houses.

During the Northern Irish Troubles the British government passed a law that broadcasters were not allowed to give voice to the terrorist cause. The Obama administration appears to have passed a similar law - US broadcasters now may only give voice to the terrorist cause.

The Black Lives Matter campaign seems to be just the tip of the iceberg though with a much wider attack on free speech going on in university campuses across the US and even the UK & Europe. Here thousands of students are demanding "Safe-Spaces" to protect them from people they disagree with and "Triggering Warnings" on academic texts that challenge their world view.

The term "Safe-Space" has its roots in the time when homosexuality was illegal. It referred to a location - such as a bar - where people could acknowledge that they were gay without being arrested or having their heads kicked-in.

In its modern context "Safe-Space" seems to mean a place where you will get your head kicked-in for expressing a political view - no matter how reasonable or peaceful - that the group-think doesn't approve of. Melissa Click being a case in point.

Black Lives Matter have helped bring this campus culture into the mainstream. Particularly with the campaign to have the Confederate flag removed from the civil war memorial outside the South Carolina statehouses. It feels as if they're trying to remove any reminder that the Democrat Party backed the Confederacy during the civil war against the Republican backed Unionists. 

Recently I saw Helen Mirren who stars in Trumbo being interviewed on the UK's uber left-wing Channel 4 News about the movie. The presenter Jon Snow asked her if it was a reference to Donald Trump. She responded with the sort of withering look that only Helen Mirren can deliver.

Straight Outta Compton: The lack of recognition to this movie has frequently been cited by Oscars So White as an example of racism. 

However it seems obvious that it was overlooked because much like "Selma" last year it made the cardinal sin of trying to whitewash an uncomfortable element out of the story. Specifically Dr Dre's violent misogyny. 

The only nomination that it did receive was for the screenplay - sometimes known as a "Treatment" - which was given to the two white screenwriters. That strikes me as a particularly pointed snub. 

The director Felix Gary Gray should probably be grateful that very talented people took the time out of their busy schedules to explain his mistake to him. 

Joy: This tells the true story of Joy Mangano who in 1989 was single mother living in her mother's basement trying to care for her depressed mother, her elderly grandmother and her two children while trying to hold down a full-time job. 

One day Joy invents a self-wringing mop. She then seeks out investors and a manufacturer to build this new mop. After successfully launching her new product on the home shopping networks such as QVC Joy discovers that the manufacturer has been ripping her off all along patenting the design for themselves and stealing all the profits. This forces Joy to embark on a whole new battle to get back what is rightfully hers. She was successful and is now a multi-millionaire.

This story obviously sends the message to the Oscars So White protesters that in life many, many people face hardships. However some of them just get on with it and succeed anyway rather than constantly blaming everyone else and demanding special treatment.

The movie also brings together much of the cast and crew from the 2012 multi-Oscar winning movie "Silver Linings Playbook."In that movie whenever Bradley Cooper's character - Pat Solitano - hears the song that was played at his wedding it drives him into violent, uncontrollable, near psychotic rage. 

When mental health professionals talk about "Triggering" that is what they mean.

What we have in the Black Lives Matter movement and across university campuses is boring people trying to make themselves seem more interesting. And failing.

20:10 on 29/2/16 (UK date).