Here's the full transcript, worth seeing in text, because the actorly performance of the text makes it harder to understand the rationality of it. It feels like an emotional cascade. You get caught up wondering how does he feel and does he really feel what he is expressing and what is he really saying and is he coherent and is coherence necessary?
I’m full of so much gratitude now. I do not feel elevated above any of my fellow nominees or anyone in this room, because we share the same love...This speech will also end with "love" — "Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow" — and we just saw a montage of the nominated actors that ended with Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) saying "Remember, truth may be vital, but without love, it is also unbearable." But the love in question at this point was:
... the love of film. And this form of expression has given me the most extraordinary life. I don’t know where I’d be without it. But I think the greatest gift that it’s given me, and many people in [this industry] is the opportunity to use our voice for the voiceless.Oh, no! It's going to be a political speech. The Oscars got off to a bad start with Brad Pitt — who won the best supporting actor Oscar — saying he only had 45 seconds to speak, "which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week" and maybe Quentin Tarantino could do a movie about the impeachment where "in the end the adults do the right thing." Tarantino has been doing movies based on historical events where the good guys win in the end, and the movie Pitt won his Oscar for is one of those movies, so his line was well-crafted, but I hated seeing one political side given precedence. The show was just starting, and he was telling half the country their perspective on the world is not valued. Ah, maybe not. His remarks are focused on the desire for witness testimony in the Senate, not the quest to be rid of the President. That puts him in the Susan Collins position, which isn't all that divisive. But it rubbed me the wrong way. Me — and I'm not a Trump voter — I'm just someone offended by the 3 years of disrespect shown to the people whose candidate won an election.
But Phoenix didn't go into partisan politics. In fact, he is trying to pull people together:
I’ve been thinking about some of the distressing issues that we’ve been facing collectively. I think at times we feel or are made to feel that we champion different causes. But for me, I see commonality.That's the opposite of divisive.
I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity. I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the center of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.We're called back to nature, away from the disconnection. If we put milk in our coffee, there is — somewhere out there — a cow that was used. Phoenix doesn't go from there into a PETA lecture. He gets back to human life:
We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment.That's almost right wing. It's at least inclusive of the right. The environment matters, but we can go for innovation and technology and find solutions. It's not about giving things up. Then comes another right-wing-friendly idea, personal responsibility:
I have been a scoundrel all my life, I’ve been selfish.This reminds me of Trump, last Thursday, going on about his impeachment acquittal: "We went through hell, unfairly, did nothing wrong, did nothing wrong, I've done things wrong in my life, I will admit, not purposely, but I've done things wrong." Oh, Trump couldn't confess "I have been a scoundrel all my life," but he did confess "I've done things wrong in my life."
I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. I think that’s when we’re at our best: when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for our past mistakes...A clear statement against the cancel culture.
... but when we help each other to grow. When we educate each other; when we guide each other to redemption. When he was 17, my brother wrote this lyric. He said: "Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow."The brother, River Phoenix, died in 1993, when he was 23. He wasn't rescued or educated or guided. Joaquin Phoenix was 19 when he lost his brother, and now he resurrects that brother's spirit in a simple call for love.
A+
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 204 of 204"Cookie: While I may often disagree with your positions, I like you. And you have my respect, as well, not that it matters. ;-)"
Thank you, mockturtle. I really do appreciate your friendly words.
I must admit when I read the headlines today of "Joaquin Phoenix slams artificial insemination of cows and milk in coffee in Oscar speech," I rolled my eyes and sighed. I imagined some loon-ball lefty diatribe decrying the rest of humanity as cruel, heartless monsters, shredding anything that was good a decent in the natural world. I was disappointed because I like Joaquin Phoenix as an actor. I think he gives great performances with a lot of consideration and depth for the roles he plays. It generally does not affect me if an actor or performer or artist holds different politics than me, or different values, but it does bother me that person gets preachy about it and appears contemptuous of those who don't share those same opinions.
But thankfully this was not one of those speeches. The tone was not one of condemnation and derision, it was one of hopefulness and unity. And the PETA stuff was really just small tangent of this speech. What he was really doing in his speech was calling on people to approach situations with love for their fellow man (and I suppose other sentient beings) and if you are trying to persuade them to change their ways it is not because you think they are awful, wicked, and terrible, but because you think they would be better off and would be better people behaving in another manner.
It is interesting in his penultimate paragraph that he uses the language of redemption, because his speech had a somewhat Christian vibe to it. Jesus did not care what you did in the past, all we're welcome to him. What he cared about was what a person would do in the present, and what they would do in the future. And this wasn't just about helping out your fellow man, it was about uplifting oneself. It was about personal redemption, about salvation.
So grading his speech as a speech at an awards ceremony that is an exhortation for people to act in a better way, I would give it an A+ as well. He came off as earnest without being divisive. Overall grading it as purely a speech at an awards ceremony I would give it a B-, because those speeches are best when they express gratitude, humility, and desire to share the glory with the numerous other people who played roles in getting the final project done.
Can't stand subtitles (subtleties?), but since I've lost interest in film (foreign or otherwise) it's moot. By the same token, no time for awards for and sermons from play-acting folk.
I tried to keep up with the New German Cinema (pretty difficult in my neighborhood) back in the day but found it mostly windy and overblown, a lot like Wheinie Boll and Gunther GraSS.
Narr
"1917" is a bloody muddy slog
I like subtitled films if they're good, and not if they're bad. AND i vastly prefer them to Dubbed hollywood films which are always horrible. Listen to a Disney film with their crappy dubbed American voices, and then listen to the Japanese version. God, what a contrast.
And talking about 'muricans not wanting anything other than Comic superheroes is so out-of-date. Hollywood makes films for the world. That's one reason why they're so dumbed down and badly written. There's no point in writing great English dialogue, if 2/3 of your global audience doesn't speak English.
As for the Oscars its just a freak show. Hollyweirdos. It was like that in 1979 when you had Jane Fonda and her crowd, and its the same today.
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