Accents
Star quality plus conviction
Feb. 20, Sunday, was TV overload. Up till midnight all because of the “Oscars” climax. Immediately after dinner, the big box was on for the Academy Awards night ceremonies that ended very late Eastern time on our side of the States (this writer being in hibernation here in South Carolina). We stayed through to the end because we wanted to know whether Sean Penn, our best bet, would romp away with the Best Actor award. The long wait paid off. The family favorite copped the Oscar statuette.
In the stretched-out announcements of the different categories, I nestled to a comfortable position in the bedroom and made do with a smaller screen. Sleepy-eyed, I was roused by a jubilant shout and clapping from the other room which could mean only one thing: Sean Penn made it! And there was the actor looming large as the applause went wild, his peers in standing ovation.
Penn won in Milk as San Francisco City Councilor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights advocate. The movie berates California’s anti-gay legislation banning gay marriage. In his acceptance speech, the actor got political and did not mince words as he took potshots at the homophobes with their irrational disapproval of gays and lesbians. “I think it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect, and anticipate their great shame in their grandchildren’s eyes… We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.”
Milk as well as Slumdog Millionaire, the Best Picture awardee, and the rest of the nominated films would be available in DVD’s a few months after they have gone the rounds of theaters. That’s the way of commerce. Synopses of the films in the Internet never give away the ending. That, too, is the way with commerce. So hold your breath in suspense. If the movie is a book adaptation, no problem; viewer’s focus is now on other areas of cinematography and how the actor/actress neatly brought the whole shebang to the expected denouement. One can always play the role of critic, having fun to see how close one can be to the results of the next Academy night. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or AMPAS (USA’s counterpart of the Philippines’ Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences or FAMAS) annually honors the denizens of moviedom as it pursues the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Movie aficionados enjoy predicting the outcome of the Academy awards popularly known as the “Oscars.”
It was heartening to hear previous Oscar awardees in praise of nominees— achievers introducing fellow achievers, peers honoring peers. Said Robert De Niro who introduced Penn: “Tonight it’s great to be an actor; in life it’s great to be a good human being and that is Sean Penn." Said to belong to Hollywood’s left-wing, Sean Penn is known as a “tireless supporter of progressive ideas.” He was among the majority of Americans opposed to the Iraq war, forcing him to write an Open Letter to George W. Bush. One has to go back to recent history to get the full impact of Sean Penn’s letter. It circulated in cyberspace and reached many homes before America launched the arrogant “Shock and Awe” and the so-called “Operation Iraqui Freedom” in March 2003. My daughter Rose in Oakland, California (who was in the protest march against the Iraq war with her family) has emailed me Sean Penn’s letter, one of the precious things stored in my computer. Excerpts:
Nov. 3, 2002
An Open Letter to the President of the United States of America
Mr. Bush:
Good morning, sir. Like you, I am a father and an American. Like you, I consider myself a patriot. Like you, I was horrified by the events of this past year, concerned for my family and my country. However, I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil. I believe this is a big world full of men, women, and children who struggle to eat, to love, to work, to protect their families, their beliefs, and their dreams. My father, like yours, was decorated for service in World War II. He raised me with a deep belief in Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as they should apply to all Americans who would sacrifice to maintain them and to all human beings as a matter of principle.
Many of your actions to date and those proposed seem to violate every defining principle of this country over which you preside: intolerance of debate ("with us or against us"), marginalization of your critics, the promoting of fear through unsubstantiated rhetoric, manipulation of a quick comfort media, and position of your administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim. You lead, it seems, through a blood-lined sense of entitlement. Take a close look at your most vehement media supporters.
See the fear in their eyes as their loud voices of support ring out with that historically disastrous undercurrent of rage and panic masked as "straight tough talk." How far have we come from understanding what it is to kill one man, one woman, or one child, much less the "collateral damage" of many hundreds of thousands. Your use of the words, "this is a new kind of war" is often accompanied by an odd smile. It concerns me that what you are asking of us is to abandon all previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future. It worries me because with all your best intentions, an enormous economic surplus has been squandered. Your administration has virtually dismissed the most fundamental environmental concerns and therefore, by implication, one gets the message that, as you seem to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world, would you also be willing to sacrifice ours. I know this cannot be your aim so, I beg you Mr. President, listen to Gershwin, read chapters of Stegner, of Saroyan, the speeches of Martin Luther King. Remind yourself of America. Remember the Iraqi children, our children, and your own.
There can be no justification for the actions of Al Qaeda. Nor acceptance of the criminal viciousness of the tyrant, Saddam Hussein.
Yet, that bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop. However, principles cannot be recklessly or greedily abandoned in the guise of preserving them.
I do understand what a tremendously daunting task it must be to stand in your shoes at this moment. As a father of two young children who will live their lives in the world as it will be affected by critical choices today, I have no choice but to believe that you can ultimately stand as a great president. History has offered you such a destiny. So again, sir, I beg you, help save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror. Don't destroy our children's future. We will support you. You must support us, your fellow Americans, and indeed, mankind.
Sincerely,
Sean Penn
San Francisco, California
Sean Penn—peacenik, anti-war, anti-imperialist—speaks for all of mankind. “A good human being” to quote Robert De Niro again. Truly a citizen of the world. The conviction of the man rings in every word. It’s not just star power; it’s principles, too. I could only wish that in our own Philippine roster of movie stars, one will come up with Sean Penn’s forthright concern for humanity. One that shines superbly with star quality and possessed with the courage of his convictions.
(Email: lagoc@hargray.com)