Thursday, March 19, 2009

What the military can learn from the Hollywood and the Academy Awards.

. Thursday, March 19, 2009

Hollywood is overwhelmingly liberal, from the struggling actors trying to break into films to the top executives. It is a view that leaks into the movies that are being made, and the comments made by film industry people when they talk to the media. But as opposed to a balance between liberal and conservative views, Hollywood has a toxic almost militaristic hatred of anything conservative. I could go on and give examples of movies that express liberals as being the saviors of the world, and conservatives? being the evil destroyers, but that is a topic for another blog. What I want to address here is what the Military can learn from Hollywood and the Academy Awards.

The best actor award for 2009 went to Sean Penn. So what? The guy is a good actor, I for one wouldn?t consider him a great actor, and all I see is Jeff Spicoli. Especially when he was nominated along with Richard Jenkins, and Frank Langella two actors that have long careers, Brad Pitt who is very popular and did an excellent job, and Mickey Rourke an actor that left Hollywood to escape the drugs and lifestyle that he himself says was going to kill him. Mickey Rourke?s performance is the type of performance that the Oscars are for. So why did it go to Sean Penn?

Sean Penn received the Oscar not for his performance on screen but off. It was given to him, to show that Hollywood is firmly behind their liberal agenda. To me the Oscars are nothing more than a way to promote their own agenda and less on recognizing a truly great performance. This leads to the award being meaningless for what it was designed and becomes a symbol for something it is entirely not.

The Military should take note, with respect to its own awards, and the justification needed to receive an award. During my deployment in Iraq, I was attached to the S-1 section of a Brigade and was given the task of handling awards, or more precisely I reviewed the award packet and ensured it was complete before we sent it up to the Commander. I saw soldiers put in for awards that would embarrass me to read; a recommendation for a bronze star because a soldier installed air conditioning on hummers. Believe me in the middle of the summer in Iraq you want A/C on your hummer, but installing A/C on a hummer when that is your job does not justify a bronze star, in fact it doesn?t even justify the lowest award the military offers. Why? Because if you?re a mechanic, it?s your job, and the military doesn?t give awards for do your job. But what was most alarming were the recommendations for awards that were because soldiers held a particular view. You don?t get awards because you agree with your commanders or disagree with your commanders, but unfortunately I saw it on several occasions where leaders wanted to recognize particular soldiers because they shared their view, and they wanted to promote that view. Luckily none of these went through; to bad we can?t say the same thing for Hollywood. But if they had, not only would it had belittled the award, it would have undermined the leadership, destroyed moral, and caused soldiers to openly question their leaders decisions.

Hollywood let us down by giving an award to an actor for what he stands for and not his accomplishment.

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