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How to receive a BAFTA as ungraciously as possible


Andrew Reid
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While I feel that functioning social democracies have to be the light, I also find it amusing that people think racism is something that only white people do to colored people. Ever sit down with an African in India/ Asia? Terrible what they regularly endure. I certainly know what I experienced.

As much as I like Joaquin, this feels out of place. But I also find it amusing how unsettled the audience looks... until he emotionally releases them back into their coddled and pampered lives ;)

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It’s an increasingly strange world we live in.

Equality doesn’t mean every conceivable variation has to be represented in equal proportions in all events at all times...

Generally the equality of opportunity is so much better now - by no means perfect but far far better than even a few years ago. And, in my view, it’s equality of opportunity which is the prize of a civilised society not the equality of outcome in one random event (and let’s be honest, such awards are hardly representative of the world - and it’s problems - as a whole).

 

 

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It's a tough one - Joaquin isn't the only person to mention it at the event, but he clearly has the loudest voice - it's been posted all over the internet. Also, how many awards has he won for 'Joker'? Basically all of them right? How many times can he thank his agent? How many times can he nod to his fellow nominees and ask Christian Bale to suck just once? The whole thing is rubbish at this point, he's just trying to use his airtime to his advantage.

Personally, I think it's an artist's job to speak up about the things they feel unjust about. Sure equality in the film industry is a small part of the world's injustices, but if Joaquin started talking about the situation in South Africa that @Amazeballsmentions, it'd feel like it came from nowhere. In the 1 minute he has to talk, an actor can only really talk about the industry they're in.

Films can perhaps make a better point with more time and a more focused discussion topic, and let the art speak for its self but many of them will have a smaller audience. How many people around the world have watched this small speech? How many people would watch a movie about inequality in the film industry?

This is why - for me - music has so much more emotional power compared to any other art form. An artist can make their point, explain it, express it in a way that resonates with their listeners and then hammer it home all in the space of 3 - 5 minutes. That means you can listen to it easily 20 times a day and share it with your friends. Films and books simply can't do that. Photos and painting take more energy to read into them. A song spells it out for you, but still gives room for your own imagination to make even more connections.

Phoenix has stated many times over the years that he thinks awards shows are stupid and pointless, and leaving his award on the podium made me laugh. Good for him.

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I don't think many white men feel the so called privilege.

Which is why we end up with protest votes at election time.

The whole political correct thing doesn't connect with ordinary people.

Politics is obsessed with skin colour, not the gaffer on a film set who just happens to be born in a country where white people are a majority.

Why should he feel ashamed just for being part of an industry?

I don't think anybody who works in the film industry should be shamed into believing they are part of an institutionally racist conspiracy.

Some of the most incredible countries in the world are monocultural. Japan is about as close to a monocultural society as it gets and where is no shame in it. In fact Japan is arguably all the more unique and special for it. Are we suggesting Japan should now be reduced to 40% to 50% native Japanese people, in order to represent a greater number of skin colours and cultures? No.

Discrimination against majorities is as wrong as discrimination against minorities.

This constant shaming of talented hard working creative people for being white males has gotta stop.

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Wow. So because most white people don’t walk around feeling privileged removes the de facto privilege bestowed upon them for centuries?

And the whole “political correct thing doesn’t connect with people” is just flat out condescending. So “ordinary people” can’t be allies, ie. decent human beings informed about questions regarding social issues? 

It’s so incredibly sad that these kind of topics on any forum always end up about the white man’s hurt feelings. As if the act of calling out racism is somehow inherently more hurtful than actual racism.
 

“Politics is obsessed about skin color”, that’s funny because I think people in general are kind of obsessed about skin color (especially Sony’s on this forum), but it’s only now when the paler shade of skin is also named, not just taken as a neutral general thing. Then all of a sudden there’s an obsession - not when you scream the n-word or more recently make jokes about East Asians with regards to the corona virus. 

Nobody is trying to shame the hard working gaffer into believing anything, I think it’s more about including the hard working people of color when it comes to recognizing the industry. One doesn’t negate the other. 
 

And then the Japan example. Always the Japan example. Let’s not go to the extremely weird exotification of this “monocultural” country where everything is so special and great because of their monoculture. Because it isn’t.

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12 hours ago, Amazeballs said:

Did he say a word about what's going on South Africa right now?

As much as I'm not a fan of  (imo misguided) Phoenix' acceptance speech, this sort of argument is ridiculous. Ignoratio elenchi. Because he failed to mention specific injustices his entire point is diminished?  C'mon.  If you don't like what he's doing, just say so.

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16 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

As much as I'm not a fan of  (imo misguided) Phoenix' acceptance speech, this sort of argument is ridiculous. Ignoratio elenchi. Because he failed to mention specific injustices his entire point is diminished?  C'mon.  If you don't like what he's doing, just say so.

OK, find some interviews with him. Does he ever mentions this problem anywhere? Noup. He doesn't. It's not a PC topic. And he never will. He only speaks about currently popular trends without any knowledge of how they are actually represented in real life around the world besides some Hollywood sentimental cliché of oppressed blacks and jews. 

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4 minutes ago, Amazeballs said:

OK, find some interviews with him. Does he ever mentions this problem anywhere? Noup. He doesn't. It's not a PC topic. And he never will. He only speaks about currently popular trends without any knowledge of what how they are actually represented in real life around the world besides some Hollywood sentimental cliché. 

He also never talks about North Korea. Or Putin, probably never mentions Trump publicly and has never said that the moon landings were real or fake. It's not his job to know about any of that, he has minimal exposure to it and it's not his position to voice his opinion about it in a very public way. He is exposed, daily, to the film industry and so he is in a position to talk that.

Should he personally feel bad for anything happening within the industry? Who knows. Should he talk about it, get other people talking about it? Sure, aren't films supposed to get people talking? He's said everything he can possibly say about 'Joker', but people keep giving him a microphone, so he has to say something else. And he's succeeded, people have been talking about this topic all over the world and he's added fuel to that conversation... what a shame.

Ricky Gervais said basically exactly the same thing, he also dragged in pedophile rings within the industry and that was fine. He said it as a joke. Phoenix said it in earnest, meant every word and wasn't pausing for laughs, instead the room was silent. That's his big mistake, he's Joker, he should always pause for the laughs.

I'm honestly a bit confused as to what we're talking about here. Are we discussing that an actor is trying to shed some light and that's a bad thing? Or are we discussing that he did it in the wrong scenario? If he said his thank you's, blew kisses to his adoring audience and hugged the presenters, but then sat in a formal interview setting with a news channel and voiced his opinion there, would there be a topic for it? Of course not.

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9 minutes ago, Amazeballs said:

OK, find some interviews with him. Does he ever mentions this problem anywhere? Noup. He doesn't. It's not a PC topic. And he never will. He only speaks about currently popular trends without any knowledge of how they are actually represented in real life around the world besides some Hollywood sentimental cliché of oppressed blacks and jews. 

But why exactly does he have to mention a certain specific in order to make his case?  Should not mentioning other injustices, even if it's only the ones he's aware of, be enough?  

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