by Scott Darnell
Daily Lobo Columnist
When war broke out in Iraq, there was talk that the Oscars would be postponed in an effort to ensure that needed public attention wasn't stripped from vital coverage of the war.
The talk amounted to nothing however, and the Oscars were aired last Sunday night; unfortunately, our brightest and best actors and actresses, the people we turn to on a daily basis to make us laugh, scream, or cry used the annual fest as a political forum for which they could denigrate President Bush and U.S. war efforts.
Don't get me wrong - most actors/actresses were able to restrain from pushing their traditionally leftist thoughts on the viewing audience, and in fact may have behaved better than most had expected, but there were enough outspoken performers that it sadly tainted portions of the show.
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The most irksome mention of the war with Iraq came from the winner for best male performance, Adrien Brody, for his work in "The Pianist." "The Pianist" addresses Holocaust events and experiences that are quite relevant to many people across the world. His movie was touching and connected with me, but he made a great tragic flaw in his overly philosophical comparison between this war with Iraq and the horrors that happened to the Jewish people during World War II.
Brody said that "the repercussions of war," as well as "dehumanization" are ideas he was made more aware of in making "The Pianist," saying that the Holocaust and the horrific treatment that the Jews were dealt were direct effects of the repercussions of war and the dehumanization of those carrying out the war - the Nazi Germans.
His assertion is flawed because the Jews were systematically killed, destroyed and humiliatingly eliminated not necessarily as a repercussion of war by dehumanized individuals, but because of apathy on the part of other countries in the world - including America; in other words, the intensity of the Holocaust. The event Brody was referring to was not a repercussion of going to war, but a repercussion of other strong, civilized nations not going to war, taking years before they got the guts to commit troops against a bold, evil, and disgusting regime.
If a comparison is to be made between World War II and this war with Iraq (a comparison which is quite difficult to make - circumstances are always so different), then it has to be made in a direction that condemns an evil dictator who has killed his own people and aspires to be a greater, more exalted and brutal ruler.
The utter dehumanization that Brody talks about has come principally from the Iraqi regime - from Saddam, his sons, and his advisors; they use their citizens as shields, and they see them as pawns on their Iraqi chessboard, showing a very evident disregard for the lives of anyone not in the Iraqi elite.
Coalition forces have one mission - to topple that inhumane regime in the interest of the Iraqi citizenry. An estimated 14,000 civilians died in two weeks at Normandy; how many have died in just over a week in Iraq? The answer is nowhere near 14,000, not even an eighth or a sixteenth of that amount - the delicacy with which we are handling this war is unprecedented and needs to be recognized.
Congrats to Adrien Brody - the movie was great, but as a celebrity, he has to understand that his flawed logic could have instilled a false sense of understanding about both the Holocaust and this war in some of his admirers.
Michael Moore was obviously the most vehement anti-war award winner, charging, among other off-the-wall comments, that President Bush is leading us into a war based on "fictitious reasons." Obviously a conspiracy theorist, he somehow believes that there exists a man so petty that he would make up reasons to kill Americans and others and put the whole world in some sort of unrest, all for personal gain.
But the bottom line is rooted in that the Oscars were not a forum for our actors and actresses to push political agendas on vulnerable fans and admirers. Those that did so, or those that take advantage of the power they naturally inherent at any time, are acting highly irresponsibly.
It's funny that Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are two of the most conservative Hollywood figures, but never seem to jump on their soap boxes and raise a ruckus about conservative issues or agendas; Arnold is even considering a run for California governor and has managed to keep his rhetoric temperate.
It's said that with great power comes great responsibility; the coalition forces are acting with the utmost responsibility in their handling of the liberation of Iraq - our actors and actresses, among other public figures, must learn to do the same.
Send any comments or concerns to scottusa@unm.edu
