Oscar and his cousins

Back during the small debate about Brokeback Mountain I said that in an environment in which Michael Moore could win an Oscar awards were worth less than nothing. I wanted to take a little time to explain what I meant. First of all, I did not mean that the Oscar is always awarded to the actor, screenplay, director and so on that is the most anti-American and pro-left. In that case the Academy Award would not be useless. It would, instead, be a valuable tool for identifying worthless trash. Instead, the Oscar is awarded sometimes for valid artistic reasons and sometimes for politically correct reasons. For example the Academy finally awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar to Elia Kazan (one of the greatest directors ever to live) even though he had "named names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Blacklist era. Then they turned around and gave an Oscar to Michael Moore for a "documentary" who's every major (and almost every minor) point was a documented lie. Moore won that Oscar for one reason and one reason only; Bowling for Columbine was seen as effective gun control propaganda.

Look at the movies that are being listed as "serious contenders" for the Oscar this year. First, Brokeback Mountain. If this picture wasn't a homosexual love story it would no more be Oscar material than a hundred other pleasant, well made (but forgettable) chick flicks like Under the Tuscan Sun or Maid in Manhattan. Next Syriana, I have heard that his film is so confusing (meaning poorly written) that the studio is sending reviewers a flow chart to help them keep track of the plot twists. In short the movie claims that America (who in real life is spending its blood and treasure to bring democracy to the Middle East) and the oil companies are murdering pro-democracy Middle Easterners in an effort to keep the region "stable". Then there's Munich (see my post below). The movie which tells us that on a moral level that there is no difference between the terrorists who murder innocent athletes and the government operatives who are sent to administer justice to them.

What about Oscar's "cousins"? I'm not just talking about the Golden Globes, which are awarded by the foreign press (the same foreign press that greeted George W Bush's reelection with headlines asking how America could be so stupid). I'm also talking about other awards like the Nobel Peace Prize which was once awarded to arch fool Jimmy Carter then to mass murderer Yasser Arrafat (do I really need to say more). Also, the Nobel Prize for literature which was given to a hack (Harold Pinter) who, because he is dying, took what may be his last chance to address his public to deliver a hateful, ignorant anti-American screed.

The world's self appointed cultural and intellectual elites have an agenda which is hostile to the United States, its Christian religious heritage and its capitalist economic system. They have demonstrated that whenever they can use the awards and honors that are theirs to pass out to advance that agenda they will do so. We need to take their pronouncements with not just a grain, but an entire shaker full of salt. To bring things back around to Brokeback Mountain, it might well be a great movie, but no amount of critical acclaim or awards will prove it. Its very subject matter, its message, require acceptance, praise and reward regardless of its true artistic value.