The Saddest Part about the Oscar that you missed.
No Injustice. Just a sad moment.
The Oscars are slowly trying to recover their essence. Creating new categories, trying to include more films, precisely to reach a wider audience. There has also been a slow but growing change with a little decentralization of American Cinema in the last five years, with films like Parisita and E.E.A.O (All at Once’) and this year Zone of Interest, competing in the relevant Best Picture category But I think the film industry let it pass an incredible opportunity to highlight the importance of a film like “Killers of the Flower Moon” and to reward an incredible storyteller like Martin Scorsese, who has 26 Oscar nominations in his last four films, but zero wins.
Scorsese is a great historian as well as a good director, always highlighting important points in history through the unique perspectives of his characters Yesterday, the Oscars missed the chance to reward not only a good director, but also one of the most essential works ever made in the history of cinema.Oppenheimer is a work of art. That’s undeniable. The Oscar is deserved. The perception of all the factors that make up a good movie is present in every frame of the film.Even though The plot is built much more on the personal drama of the American Prometheus than on the consequences of the bombs. This is perhaps the film’s only flaw: it explores too little of the details of the decisions made behind the scenes such as the real need for the second atomic bomb, the secret reports in Tokyo which already stated that a Japanese surrender was indeed possible and so many others. It’s preferable to glamorize the whole operation and portray the inevitable tragedies of one man than to talk about the negative impacts on the collective that all this has caused. There is no critique of the creation of the bomb and its impacts, but rather a very well-constructed account of Oppeinhenner and a glorification of a brilliant and controversial physicist (despite having a degree in chemistry). But as you read in the beginning of the article there is a very different film that has gone unnoticed by the entire academy and that you also may not have realized how important it is.
Unlike the film directed by Christopher Nolan, KOFM is a straightforward critique of another shameful episode in American history when it comes to Native Americans: The murders inside the Osage Nation between 1921 and 1925. It’s always worth remembering that the portrayal of Native Americans in the cinema has been plagued by stereotypes for over 100 years, ever since the films of the Old West, creating a mistaken image in the minds of the whole world and especially in North American perception. The idea that they are all the same, that their customs and languages are the same. The image of the “savage Indian” impeding the progress of civilization, among many other images that still prevail among the most lay people who are unaware of the true history of the brutal colonization of North America.
Although the story is told from a white perspective, unlike so many films made with or about Native Americans. Director Scorsesse focuses on giving a voice to the Osage people through an impeccable cast with a great spotlight on LILY GLADSTONE as well as Chad Renfro, who was appointed by the Osage people to serve as the nation’s ambassador to the filmmakers. In case you haven’t seen the movie, the synopsis focuses on a series of murders of members and relatives of the Osage nation following the discovery of oil on tribal land. The tribal members retained the mineral rights on their reservation, but a corrupt local political boss sought to steal the then wealth.
Not even a heavyweight cast including Leonardo di Caprio, Robert De Niro, Erich Worth for adapted screenplay and Martin Scorsese as a Director was enough to reward the importance of this moment. I wonder what will be enough for the Academy to begin to understand that by highlighting a film like this it is possible to create a positive effect on so many years of misrepresentation and also to help deconstruct this mistaken image of the Native American people . We’ve already had a movie like Dance with Wolves, for example, which achieved this feat, but it’s always important to remember that it was a work of fiction in which the hero of a people is a white man. It’s an important movie, no doubt, but we’re now talking about a real piece of history and not a beautiful story told by the brilliant Kevin Costner.
Killers Of The Flower Moon it’s not a fiction story.
If a film like this won, it could make many more people aware of one of the many episodes of massacre and mistreatment of the Native American people. Bringing a film like this to light would also lead to greater study and attention on the part of all these people to the process of forced colonization imposed on so many indigenous nations.
Lily Gladstone winning the SAG Awards wasn’t enough to convince the academy that it’s time for Native Americans not just to be included in the cinematography that is slowly starting to happen, but to win the most important awards in cinema when they finally start to be well represented. This is the time to give prominence and voice to the indigenous community. IT’s time to create a flow of real information to raise awareness in America and the world about the real history.
It’s not fair to be ungrateful. It’s a sad day for the Oscars indeed, an opportunity has gone, but an important door has been opened. The film industry has come a long way in these 100 years of misrepresentation. Other important films and series are gaining prominence and recognition today, such as Bones of Crows, Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds. Little by little, casts, directors and stories about true Native American history are emerging — real and far from stereotypes. May the lights of the projectors continue to grow and bring light to Native American history around the world through the art of cinema.
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