– What we’re guilty of is an egocentric world view; the belief that we’re the center of the universe. We go into the natural world, and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf, and we put it in our coffee and our cereal. And I think we fear the idea of personal change because we think that we have to sacrifice something – Joaquin Phoenix said in 2020 while accepting an Oscar for his leading role in Tood Philips’ nihilistic “Joker”.

It was just days before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has irrevocably transformed our world. A month earlier, the British host of the Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais, had mercilessly mocked the Hollywood elite (and Greta Thunberg) with a speech that still breaks social media records today.

WAR IN UKRAINE

The last two years have ploughed Hollywood. A “woke culture” has sprung up; not only the right wing was being “cancelled”, but also disloyal liberals, such as J.K. Rowling; even Netflix, the politically correct frontrunner, has been accused of trans-phobia (specifically: Dave Chappelle for his stand-up special “The Closer”). The cultural revolution of the children of Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School (critical theory turns into critical race theory) is in top gear with the accelerator on.

So the Golden Globes were scrapped (allegations of racism and financial embezzlement) and the final ceremony was held on... Twitter. No one can imagine any comedian breaking PC norms at any Hollywood gala as overtly as Gervais did.

Not much about Ukraine

One thing, however, remains the same. Hollywood celebrities prefer to fight fashionable ideological wars on stage rather than talk about the real war that is taking place in Europe.

The recent Academy Awards were dominated by one event. Will Smith didn’t like Chris Rock’s joke about his wife’s baldness, while in fact she was suffering from an autoimmune disease causing hair loss on the scalp. The star came on stage, slapped the comedian and threatened him, using dirty language. The broadcast was interrupted for a moment.

Moments later, Will Smith collected an Oscar for his role as the Williams sisters’ father in “King Richard: The Winning Family”. The entire Dolby Theatre applauded him as the actor dissolved into tears, suggesting that the devil had tempted him to evil. Jim Carrey commented on it. – I was sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is just spineless, en masse – he said.

No matter how we judge Rock’s probably tasteless joke, it’s hard to disagree with Carrey. Smith later danced with an Oscar in his hand at an Oscar party, and the tears on his cheeks quickly dried up. He apologised on social media the next day, but even so, expectations are growing in Hollywood that he will face punishment. Receiving an Oscar? Only theoretically possible.

That embarrassing event not only overshadowed the Oscar for Best Picture, awarded to the family-friendly, touching and modest Coda, or the devastating failure of Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” (the iconic western actor Sam Elliot called the film “a piece of shit”; there were 12 nominations, but only one statuette – for Best Director), but also paved over Hollywood’s silence on the war in Ukraine.

It was not a total silence, but compared to the uproar of Hollywood after the US invasion of Iraq or the aggressive comments against Donald Trump’s presidency, the response of the elites from the “dream factory” was embarrassingly weak. Chernivtsi-born Ukrainian actress Mila Kunis (Мілена Марківна Куніс) spoke on stage about the strength and dignity of those “facing such devastation”. She called for a minute’s silence.

Although Kunis and her spouse Ashton Kutcher (actor and model, ex-husband of Demi Moore) donated $35 million to Ukraine and participated in a video conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the words “Ukraine” and “Russia” did not appear in Kunis’ Oscar speech. Ukraine appeared only on a barely legible black board, which the producer showed after her speech.

Blue ribbons, which symbolise support for refugees (they are not in the colour of the Ukrainian flag and the inscription on them does not mention the country), were pinned by Jamie Lee Curtis and Samuel L. Jackson, who received an honorary Oscar, while the co-host of the gala, Amy Schumer, once used the word genocide in the context of what is happening in Ukraine, but immediately combined it with the defence of the right to abortion.

Ukraine was also mentioned by actor J.K. Simmons. But there were more jokes on stage about the Republican Party and condemnation of the legislation prohibiting ‘LGBT agitation’ in Florida schools or anti-abortion laws in Texas. All that turned out to be more important than genocide carried out by the Russians.

I shall destroy the statues...

The most unequivocal was actor Sean Penn. – There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give [Zelensky] the opportunity to talk to all of us. It is my understanding that a decision has been made not to do it. That is not me commenting on whether or not President Zelensky had wanted to… If the academy has elected not … to pursue the leadership in Ukraine, who are taking bullets and bombs for us, along with the Ukrainian children that they are trying to protect, then I think every single one of those people, and every bit of that decision, will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history… If this turns out to be [true] … I will smelt [my awards] in public – Penn said two days before the gala. And then on CNN, he said that if the Ukrainian president was not invited to speak at the gala, other guests should refuse to attend.

Will Penn actually smelt his Oscars? Knowing his adventurous past, I’m convinced he’s capable of it. He and his foundation CORE Response are currently helping refugees from Ukraine. The foundation has already raised over $1.5 billion for the cause.

It is significant that Sean Penn has just become the face of Hollywood aid to Ukraine. On 24 February, the day of the Russian attack, he was in Kiev filming a documentary. Then he crossed the Polish border on foot, showing the plight of refugees.

Penn is a staunch leftist. But he met with the prime minister of a conservative Polish government and praised Poland on CNN for helping refugees. On the same station where Poland until recently was portrayed as a xenophobic country unwilling to allow immigrants brought by Lukashenko to the border with Belarus.

It is no surprise that Penn has committed to help Ukraine. He is a supporter of Joe Biden and a radical enemy of the Trump wing of the Republicans, which today distances itself from Ukraine and seems to see Putin as a katechon of conservatism.

The actor travels to Ukraine, just as he used to travel to Iraq (2002) and Iran (2005), where, as a correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle, he even attended a prayer at the University of Tehran. He bought, with his own money (56 thousand dollars), an advertisement in the Washington Post in which he appealed to President George W. Bush for the end of violence in the Middle East.

His politically heated head led him to bizarre meetings with Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez at a time when Venezuela supported the Syrian regime. Chavez, incidentally, had previously used Penn’s anti-Bush letter in his speeches against the US.

Hollywood bully

These same dictators were hounded by three-time Oscar-winning acclaimed director Oliver Stone. Sean Penn starred in his “U Turn” and for a time they both saw hell only on the right.

Today, Stone continues to justify Vladimir Putin, with whom he made a propaganda documentary a few years ago. He regrets that Russia invaded Ukraine, but believes that NATO, which provoked Moscow, is to blame.

Sean Penn, on the other hand, is currently condemning Russia at every turn, which is not obvious in the context of his other odd political excursions. In 2012, the star backed Argentina in the Falklands dispute, bringing up the issue of colonialism. British media at the time called for him to then give the Malibu estate to Mexico.

Penn also had been involved in compromising activities in Mexico. When the country’s authorities captured drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, it turned out that Penn, together with actress Kate del Castillo, had previously conducted an interview with the gangster, which appeared on the day of his arrest in the Rolling Stone magazine. Penn apologised for the interview, although he defended himself saying that his intention was to show how disastrously the fight against the drug business was being conducted.

In 2020, the filmmaker supported Armenia in its war with Azerbaijan and criticised US ties with Turkey. – Armenians are being slaughtered by Trump pal Erdogan with weapons WE provided thanks to the weapons WE provide them. THIS is NOT America! Biden for America’s new birth! – he declared.

Sean Penn was Hollywood’s leading hooligan in the 80s. His turbulent relationship with Madonna, brawls with paparazzi and extras (the actor spent 33 days in jail for beating an extra on the set of Colors) and constant fights with journalists – this was the face of Penn, who, from the early years of his career, was drawn to socially engaged cinema. Roles in the anti-war manifesto “Casualties of War” (1989) by Brian De Palma and “Dead Man Walking” (1995) by one of the leading left-wing filmmakers Tim Robbins were Penn’s first political films.

Then came “The Assassination of Richard Nixon”, “All the King’s Men” and finally Gus Van Sant’s “Milk”, about San Francisco’s first gay councilman, which brought him his second Oscar. Penn’s first statuette was for Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River”. Like the legendary Clint, Sean Penn has no problem dissociating himself from his own environment.

He mocked political correctness, asking whether from now on only a Danish prince has the right to play Hamlet. He recalled that with today’s demands from the left, as a heterosexual he would not have the right to play Harvey Milk. In January this year, while promoting his new film “Flag day”, in which he cast his daughter Dylan, he lamented the feminisation of modern men. – I think that men have, in my view, become quite feminised. I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them. There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt – he said in an interview with the UK’s Independent.

Today, at a time when even the left, which fights against gender stereotyping, applauds Ukrainian men going to the front, Penn’s statement takes on another dimension. The war in Ukraine has restored meaning to symbolism that the new left tried to destroy at all costs. The virtue of valour, the appeal to religious archetypes (Zelensky speaking of “hell awaiting Russians”, Biden quoting Pope John Paul II) and militarism have all come back into vogue.

So maybe in Hollywood there will return a need to fight dictators like Putin, whose actions will prove more important than robbing cows of their milk? Or maybe even the virtue of bravery won’t be reduced to just an actor slapping a comedian in the face at the Oscars?

– Łukasz Adamski
– Translated by Jan Ziętara