OK, so they estimate that about a billion people watched the Oscars telecast tonight. And there were a lot of storylines leading up to the ceremony. There were the sexual harassment scandals and the #MeToo movement, the success of the all-black production of Black Panther and the call for more inclusion, the backdrop of the #OscarsSoWhite movement from 2015, and the underlying horror of the Trump Administration’s attempts to reverse 50 years of racial, social and economic progress.
So all of this was slow-burning tonight as Jimmy Kimmel took the stage to steer the ship. And how did it turn out? Well, Jimmy was OK, and the show itself was fine, but in all honesty it felt like a boring PSA for diversity. It was one of those “eat your racial, social, and economic vegetables” moments.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m all for diversity, and I’m definitely down with the cause. I really am. But here was Common detailing every crime of the Trump Administration. And here was Mary J. Blige delivering a semi-slave-era hymnal about hope and sorrow. And there was that Pakistani actor from that movie with the white chick who gets sick. I mean I’m down with all these folks, but it all just felt like a bit much.
Then here came Taraji P. Henson making an impassioned introduction for Mary J. And then we had a scripted, powerful #MeToo moment when Frances McDormand, who won best actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri took the stage to accept her award, and asked all the women in the audience to stand up for women’s rights and equality in Hollywood and the world. Which most of them did.
And it was a great thing, it really was, but it all just felt so… I don’t know, corporate and sanitized. It was as if the Dow Jones top thirty companies got together and said, “OK, fellas, we gotta’ address this racial diversity issue in Hollywood, and we gotta’ address #MeToo and women’s rights, and we gotta’ attack Trump, but let’s keep it wholesome and not really offend anyone.”
I mean, maybe you could say the telecast spoke truth to power, but when just about all of Hollywood is against Trump already, were they really taking a risk? I would say it was more of a calculated business move to be on the right side of “the struggle,” and to make sure moviegoers know that the big studios are with them, and that they feel their pain, to echo a famous Bill Clinton phrase.
Which may or may not be true. Because I’m sure there are plenty of progressive people in Hollywood. But there are also a lot of people driven by the bottom line, who are willing to speak up for women, or minorities, or even against Trump. But they won’t take on corporate America, where a lot of the real power is, if it affects their bottom line. They just won’t, and that’s a fact.
Ask Bernie Sanders. That’s why at 76 years old he’s still a viable candidate for President in 2020. Because he speaks truth to power, and to corporate America, and he’s been doing it for 50 years. Unlike Hollywood, which still mainly cowers to corporate interests.
So all in all, it was an interesting telecast, it was an educational telecast, but I can’t really say it was a fun telecast. It was like taking your vitamins. I mean, in 2018, anyone who matters is down with the cause. Can we go a little deeper though, and even more importantly, can we have a little fun while we’re doing it? Because that’s what this show was really missing. Fun.
And isn’t fun what the movies are all about?
