Tarnished Oscar Gold

“It's a political time, so I imagine the Oscars will look exactly like your Twitter of Facebook feed. Why should we ignore for three hours what we're talking about 24 hours a day?” – Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton” creator, in a guest column for the Hollywood Reporter on February 20, 2017

At the nexus of art and commerce, the movie business has always been about escapist entertainment. Today, that dynamic is severely undermined by actors making polarizing statements during awards shows. Naturally, everyone is certainly entitled to an opinion. Yet, sometimes it's wiser to keep a controversial view private if it's likely to alienate the public. After all, ticket buyers keep the whole industry afloat. Isn't this lack of civility equivalent to biting the hands that feed them?

Recall, the purpose of the Academy Awards is to celebrate the practitioners of the dream factory. Perhaps the best representation of this was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers gliding across the dance floor in their “Top Hat” (1935) finery! Watching them, the audience could briefly forget about their Great Depression troubles. This Sunday, the glitterati dressed in designer duds for a three-hour spectacle should behave accordingly. Why then does Lin-Manuel Miranda encourage real-life banality to intrude?

Would someone read Lin-Manuel his Miranda rights: swear him—and his fellow travelers in La-La Land—to blissful silence just this once? Honestly, does anyone go to the theater to be lectured to? Historically, as today, people go to movies for many reasons: for vicarious experience, to learn something new, to have an emotional outlet or simply to be distracted from our social ills. None of the above include to feel irritated. Therefore, the Silent Majority speak loudly—with their feet—by avoiding the cinema. Likewise, the TV ratings for the Oscars has also fallen to the lowest point since 2008. Who isn't weary of the vitriol—the perpetual airing of grievances and political causes—by the rich and famous? And why should these truly fortunate complain, or target fellow Americans for holding a different perspective?

The statistics of erosion tell the tale. Only 9.7 percent of the population or 27.3 million people (read: 3 percent of adults in 2017) still go to the movies weekly. Compare that to 80 million or 65 percent of the population who went to the movies at the same rate during the Astaire-Rogers era. Of course, high cost and a plethora of modern options are contributing factors to the titanic decline. And exactly how does A-list divisiveness help?

In skilled hands, any successful movie message is accomplished with subtlety and persuasion. Even though the medium is fictional, the heart and the intellect are authentically moved. Actors function as living props in the enterprise of telling a story. Their talents are based on conveying other people's words. Without the safety net of a script to parrot, these professionals at make believe are lost. Ironically, they come off as hollow when they ad-lib. Thus, it's clear why their turned off viewership has dwindled—and their do-gooder intentions fall on their cradled Oscar's deaf ears.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

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“Hamilton's” Burr “Assassinates” Pence

“The fundamental source of all your [read: progressive Democrats] errors, sophisms and false reasonings is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges [read: God-granted rights and freedoms]. You would be convinced, that ... civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.” – Alexander Hamilton on February 23, 1775

What is it with the unfortunate intersection of troublemaking thespians and political leaders in American theaters? In this case I refer not to Lincoln and Booth, but to Vice President-elect Pence and “Hamilton assassin,” lead actor, Brandon Victor Dixon.

Recall, Mr. Pence is newly elected, not yet in office. He's paid a small fortune for Broadway theater tickets. He's out for the evening with family for a few well-deserved hours of entertainment. It's bad enough that the partisan New York crowd ungraciously boos him. Given this polarized environment, was it really appropriate for Dixon (playing the ironically “murderous” Vice President Aaron Burr) to add editorial heat by publicly calling Pence out? Now imagine if President-elect Barack Obama was in Mike Pence's “Hamilton” hot seat.

By invoking the heightened emotions of a contentious election, Dixon targeted the innocent man present with damning words: disrespecting Pence, Trump and the voters. Despite his lofty rhetoric, this actor's clearly manipulative behavior was unmistakably designed to incite political tensions:

“We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us: our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

How is this not metaphorical character assassination? One somehow doubts Dixon would have slandered Barack Obama as he unkindly insulted Pence. If that did happen, identity politics obsessed liberals would be shrieking from the rooftops how close-minded (even racist!) the spokesman of the “Hamilton” cast is. (How dare they not give Obama the benefit of the doubt!) While everyone is entitled to an opinion, another American value is giving the new fellow a fair shake. Thus, Dixon's premature and wholesale condemnation is the only “alarming” element here. It's fascism in full flower.

For the record, arrogantly smug Obama said in January of 2009: “Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.” (Contrast that to Trump who tellingly said in his victory speech: “we won.”) The fact is that Barack Obama has been the most divisive president of the modern age. With overreaching executive orders he habitually ignored Congress and the rule of law, never considered the conservative perspective (populating the vast spaces between coastal urban centers), and never even pretended to represent the Silent Majority who has tapped Donald Trump to be the 45th U.S. president.

Apparently the “Hamilton” company is corrupted by progressive ideologues in desperate need of a crash course in Founding Father philosophy. They pay lip service to the value of “diversity” while rankly embodying intolerance. Today, poor Alexander Hamilton turns restlessly in his grave! His life is portrayed by a troupe of ignorant pretenders; led by “assassinating” actor Brandon Victor Dixon: the epitome of a rabble-rousing poser.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
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