The Academy Awards has bestowed nominations on The Revenant as Leonardo DiCaprio seems to get punished and beaten for all the crimes against Native Americans perpetrated by genocidal Americans. It is good that the movie gets respect and that Native Americans are shown in a light that goes beyond the whitewashed history America clings to. The genocide, lies, murder and butchery committed against the first nation of America is still a crime the US has never paid for.
DiCaprio used his best-actor award speech to “share this award with all the First Nations people represented in this film.”
Along with recognizing his co-stars, DiCaprio urged recognition of indigenous people’s history and lands.
“It is time that we recognize your history, and that we protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people that [are] out there to exploit them,” he said. “It is time that we heard your voice and protected this planet for future generations.”
The gun smoke of the last American-Indian war cleared more than a century ago. But descendants of the San Carlos Apache have been waging a new federal battle for more than five months, defending their land — and, in recent days, allowing themselves to hope that this time they might even keep it.
The assault began late last year, when Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona slipped a fine-print rider into a thousand-page bill to fund the Pentagon. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 gave essential money to the U.S. military. Thanks to the rider, however, the must-pass legislation also offered a surprise giveaway to the world’s largest mining company: a sacred stretch of Apache land.
A view of what would be the site of a future block cave mine at the Oak Flat Campground in the Tonto National Forest near Superior, Arizona May 30, 2015. Considered a home to the San Carlos Apache tribe, the site is slated for development into a copper mine by Rio Tinto.
Photo by Deanna Dent/Reuters
The land — known as Oak Flat — lies about 70 miles east of Phoenix. It’s been protected under federal law since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower closed the area to mining. That ban was renewed by Richard Nixon’s Interior Department in 1971. But Oak Flat sits on a massive copper reserve, which has attracted suitors with deep pockets and lots of dynamite.
The clash comes down to commerce versus religion: Oak Flat is the Mount Sinai of the San Carlos Apache, a place where the equivalent of the Holy Spirit came to earth. It functions like an outdoor church, mosque or synagogue: a setting for prayer and coming of age ceremonies, especially for girls. The Society of American Archaeology says the Apache have been there “since well before recorded history.”
But soon Oak Flat will belong to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the Australian-British mining giant Rio Tinto. The simple language of the rider says that 60 days after the government completes an “environmental impact statement,” Oak Flat will officially transfer to Rio Tinto, regardless of what the impact statement actually says.
…so it’s good that the Academy Awards is prepared to begin that process. It wasn’t always that way, back in 1973 when Marlon Brando won best Actor for the Godfather, listen to the sneers (drowned out by applause) by the person Brando asked to accept the win.
Senator McCain is surely one of the worst specimens of humankind alive today. He has been a warmonger in Vietnam, Ukraine and the Middle East His whole life seems to be devoted to furthering the ambitions of his corporate buddies and killing and maiming innocent people. It is apparent here he is also an enemy of indigenous people in his own country.
I have always thought the film “Little Big Man” available on you tube was a really good watch, with Dustin Hoffman playing a white man caught between the Indian and European settlor communities, and I recommend it for a nights entertainment https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL15F3BC6F1EAC5479
Dances with Wolves is another good one.
Great to see Leo Di Caprio use his acceptance speech for something useful.
I read that Johnny Depp was trying to buy back Wounded Knee and planned to gift it back to the Native American people – Wounded Knee was at the centre of Brando’s Oscar refusal.
The American system which allows “riders” to become attached to laws they have nothing to do with makes for a terrible governance system.
And the corporation know how to use them – bribe politicians with campaign funding.
It’s interesting that so many English corporations are such bad actors in the USA – Pearson, BP, Rio Tinto.
The bloody Yanks are so busy exporting Manifest Destiny to the whole world right now, especially to the Middle East, that they prolly won’t even notice the point of this movie OR Leo’s comments on the Native Americans…
Pain porn.
This is an excellent critique of what I’m sure will be a dismal piece of flagellation.
Found in The Guardian.
As for DiCaprio? He’s a fucking actor. He’ll whore out his opinions to whomever has the most influence and money. No one listens to a politician with good intentions but when an actor speaks the world falls silent and breathlessly fawns over their every word.
We live in strange times, or perhaps we don’t. Perhaps this is what defines us as a species.
At least the above films are not as bad as the six o’clock news.
Yuk .
Johnny Depp was trying to buy back Wounded Knee and plans gift the land back to the Native American people.
Great to see an awards acceptance speech that isn’t minutes of mindless, breathless Thank yous to people we’ve never heard of and Vanessa Redgrave’s ‘Zionist hoodlums’ speech must be one of the best political Oscar acceptance speeches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeGWxHvKs48
Senator McCain is surely one of the worst specimens of humankind alive today. He has been a warmonger in Vietnam, Ukraine and the Middle East His whole life seems to be devoted to furthering the ambitions of his corporate buddies and killing and maiming innocent people. It is apparent here he is also an enemy of indigenous people in his own country.
I have always thought the film “Little Big Man” available on you tube was a really good watch, with Dustin Hoffman playing a white man caught between the Indian and European settlor communities, and I recommend it for a nights entertainment
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL15F3BC6F1EAC5479
Dances with Wolves is another good one.
Great to see Leo Di Caprio use his acceptance speech for something useful.
I read that Johnny Depp was trying to buy back Wounded Knee and planned to gift it back to the Native American people – Wounded Knee was at the centre of Brando’s Oscar refusal.
But of all Oscar speeches, Vanessa Redgrave’s ‘Zionist hoodlums’ speech must be the greatest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAcOsK9gRLk
The American system which allows “riders” to become attached to laws they have nothing to do with makes for a terrible governance system.
And the corporation know how to use them – bribe politicians with campaign funding.
It’s interesting that so many English corporations are such bad actors in the USA – Pearson, BP, Rio Tinto.
The bloody Yanks are so busy exporting Manifest Destiny to the whole world right now, especially to the Middle East, that they prolly won’t even notice the point of this movie OR Leo’s comments on the Native Americans…
Pain porn.
This is an excellent critique of what I’m sure will be a dismal piece of flagellation.
Found in The Guardian.
The Revenant.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/17/revenant-leonardo-dicaprio-violent-meaningless-glorification-pain
Similarly
Van Diemen’s Land
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Diemen's_Land_%28film%29
Ghastly junk in pretty clothes.
As for DiCaprio? He’s a fucking actor. He’ll whore out his opinions to whomever has the most influence and money. No one listens to a politician with good intentions but when an actor speaks the world falls silent and breathlessly fawns over their every word.
We live in strange times, or perhaps we don’t. Perhaps this is what defines us as a species.
At least the above films are not as bad as the six o’clock news.
Yuk .
Johnny Depp was trying to buy back Wounded Knee and plans gift the land back to the Native American people.
Great to see an awards acceptance speech that isn’t minutes of mindless, breathless Thank yous to people we’ve never heard of and Vanessa Redgrave’s ‘Zionist hoodlums’ speech must be one of the best political Oscar acceptance speeches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeGWxHvKs48
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