I actually watched some of the Oscars this year. Did everyone notice that when Jon Stewart was at his funniest,
no one in the audience was laughing? Hollywood sure struggles at laughing at itself.
I actually got irritated early on by George Clooney. I first to have to say that I think Clooney is a great actor - I especially love "O Brother Where Art Thou." Man that's a great movie.
Anyways, in response to Stewart, who had jokingly referred to the charge that Hollywood is "out of touch" with mainstream America, Clooney eloquenty declared that it was probably a good thing that they were. "[W]e are the ones who talked about AIDS when it was only being whispered... We talked about civil rights... I'm proud to be part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community."
This all sounded well and good at first, because those are great issues to care about. I think Hollywood has at times brought important, needed awareness to some issues. Many times the Academy has produced movies that inspired Americans to be better, reach out to others, to help others. Well-crafted movies can move us to want to be better people. They heighten our awareness of the plight of others, or make us consider aspects of our humanity. I think of movies like "Hotel Rwanda", "Schindler's List," "The Power of One," "Rainman," "Chariots of Fire" and so forth. Sadly I think there are less inspiring movies lately. Such movies are more frequently being replaced by movies that celebrate cynicism and moral relativism.
But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that Clooney was actually conveying an even deeper message. He was saying that the reason mainstream America feels like Hollywood is out of touch with them is only because Hollywood is BETTER THAN mainstream America. It seems that in Clooney's mind Hollywood elites are simply a nobler, higher, smarter, better class of people. This kind of condescending attitude is, I believe, emblematic of the problem with Hollywood -- "Regular" mainstream Americans think they're good people who care about issues too, and don't like to be told they are somehow inferior by the likes of those who are, on average, notoriously bad at living good lives themselves, regardless of how much they parrot the latest (however how noble) cause.
I'm not saying that Clooney in particular leads a bad life. Clooney is simply saying what many in Hollywood would be thinking. It's understandable that Clooney wants to defend himself and those like him, but instead he came off to me as self-congratulatory and condescending.
Am I being too critical?
Click here for
Ben Stein's take on it.
