I just read that after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweeted: “The Academy does not condone violence of any form.”
Really?
From what I have witnessed throughout my movie-going years, I had long ago concluded that the “Academy” not only condones but awards “violence of any form.” Consider some Best Picture winners: No Country for Old Men, The Departed, The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, The Godfather, The French Connection, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Gladiator, Braveheart. Those are just Best Picture winners.
And though Mr. Smith appeared in none of those violent Oscar winners, as far as I know, I see that he has appeared in his share of violent films, like the Bad Boys series, that have proven abundantly rewarding for him, in that he has been paid handsomely in money and popularity.
So, it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about. Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Pretty light fare at an event of the Academy that awards and thus promotes films that push some really twisted and destructive depictions of violence into our culture. In another era, they might have followed up the slap by putting on the gloves and meeting in the ring and duking it out. Better than pistols at twenty paces, except that, it being Hollywood and both being stars, we know that they could walk through a nuclear war and come out with just scratches and bruises; so, why not. It could neutralize Smith’s considerable size advantage, or they could just do that with camera angles.
I know little of either of the two men other than the pieces I have picked up in blurbs here and there. I liked Will Smith in Pursuit of Happyness. It seems there was another film I saw him in that I liked, but I cannot remember it. Chris Rock seems friendly enough, but from the little I have seen, he has a filthy mouth. In another era, that would have been enough to get him slapped. Deservedly. But apparently Mr. Smith’s mouth is just as dirty, as is increasingly the norm in this era. So, no justification there. See my article “The Devil’s Bargain Behind ‘Let’s Go Brandon.’”
It seems Mr. Rock’s joke directed at Mr. Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her shaved head touched a raw nerve, given her alopecia diagnosis. And there may have been some bad blood due to Rock’s comments about Ms. Smith at the 2016 Oscars, though by any real sense of decency, Rihanna would have been more justified for slapping Rock in the face for the obscene insult he directed at her.
In the end, there are a few things that struck me. (Do what you want with the pun.) 1) None of the behavior should have been a surprise at an event of the decadent Academy. 2) If decency prevailed, Chris Rock would have been slapped a long time ago. 3) Chris Rock stood his ground and kept his composure despite the blow from the larger man. 4) Will Smith stood up for his wife, however controversially, even within the glamor-coated cesspool that is Hollywood. 5) Nobody was watching. Hollywood has fallen so far from its heights for reasons too numerous to catalogue, woke culture encompassing many of them, that people just do not care about it anymore. I had no idea the Oscars were even in progress until I saw the news about Rock and Smith on a news site.
That takes me back to the late 90s when my wife and I were dating. We wanted to go out to see a good movie, so we drove to a complex showing sixteen different films. We sat in the car and considered all sixteen movies, desperate to find one of them worth watching. We ended up driving away. We have similar experiences these days when we try to find a film on a live-streaming site. Out of the thousands of films available, we rarely find one worth watching, which is especially disappointing to discover of a film after we have watched it. If the Academy would like to recover some of its earlier relevance, perhaps it could start by doing something about that.
Thank you,
P. A. Ritzer
Thank you for reading P. A. Ritzer. This post is public so feel free to share it.
Thanks for reading P. A. Ritzer! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
© 2022 P. A. Ritzer
