Oscar's War Protest Trifecta

Oscar's War Protest Trifecta
bushwatch.com, 03.24.03

Liberal Hollywood has been under conservative attack from the days of Nixon and McCarthy up to the present days of Lieberman and DeLay, so it's no wonder that Oscar played PC this year, not wanting to have Hollywood and Vine turned into Freedom and Vine. Word was out a week ago that the usual progressive activists who have spoken out at past Academy Awards were being kept from the podium this year. That didn't happen, because podium tasks were carefully assigned so that speaking out would be awkward and self-defeating for the selected activists.

Susan Sarandon was given the job of introducing clips of those who died this year. (Steve Martin said he would be honored to be on that list some day.) Richard Gere was selected to introduce a clip of his CHICAGO, up for a best picture award. Gere said nothing about the war, even in code. Sarandon talked about how important it is in life to learn to live with one's deeds. Even Babs kept herself on a short leash, talking about how she values living in a country where everyone, even artists, are free to speak out, but choose not to speak out. That left the war protest fireworks to the Oscar winners.

Spanish director-writer Pedro Almadovar won for Best Original Screenplay and took up most of his five minutes accepting the award for TALK TO HER on behalf of the people of the world who believe in human rights and international legality. Almadovar said his time was up and the audience applauded, perhaps finding the allusion to those who question the legality of the Bush war vague enough to ignore.

Earlier, Adrien Brody, who won Best Actor for THE PIANIST, confessed that his speech was unprepared, but interrupted the orchestra when it tried to cut him off after a few minutes, claiming that this was his only shot and he had more to say. Brody then talked of the world's sadness caused by the dehumanization of war, hoped that God and Allah would watch over mankind, and called for peace, getting a standing ovation from the audience. Supporting Actor winner Chris Cooper (ADAPTATION) also called for peace in his speech, but the most pointed peace reference came from the mexican star of Y TU, MAMA TAMBIEN, whose name I didn't catch, who introduced the original score of FRIDA, saying that Mexican painter and communist Frida Kahlo would be against the Bush war if she were alive today. But the real anti-war fireworks was reserved for the Best Full-length Documentary winner.

Progressive activist Michael Moore won the Oscar and a standing ovation for BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, and came on stage to accept his award with a large group of people, most of whom, it turned out, were the other documentary filmmakers whose films were up for the same award. Moore began by saying all of those folks were on the stage because they were in agreement with what he was going to say. He then said, "We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons." He went on to say, "Shame on you, Bush. Anytime you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against ya, your time is up," as the orchestra upped its volume and the mic sunk into the stage. Moore's speech drew both boos and applause, but most of the audience sat in nervous silence.

Not long after, host Steve Martin came back on stage and told the audience that it was really sweet backstage, the Teamsters were helping Michael Moore into the trunk of a limo. "You should see it," he told the laughing audience. Then Julia Roberts came out, stared into the camera, said, "Well." And paused. For a moment you could see her thinking. Then she blinked and went on with her duties.

--Jerry Politex, 03.24.03