At a campaign rally in Colorado, President Donald Trump criticized the Academy Award's decision to honor Parasite with the Best Picture Oscar. The film, directed by Bong Joon Ho, is a black comedy thriller that follows a low-income family, the Kims, as they scheme to gain employment at the household of a wealthy family, the Parks. Beneath the surface, the movie serves as Joon Ho's statement on class division and inequality; a message made clear in Parasite's shocking final moments.
Before taking home Best International Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards, Parasite had already garnered widespread praise. It won the top prize at Cannes in the spring of 2019 (taking home the coveted Palme d'Or) and was the recipient of multiple other awards, such as the Screen Actors' Guild's Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture. Parasite broke several records, including becoming the first-ever foreign film to be honored as Best Picture and tying Joon Ho with Walt Disney as the individual to receive the most Oscars in one night.
Trump disparaged the film's win at a campaign rally in Colorado Springs, before wishing that Hollywood would return to making "great movies" like Gone With The Wind. "How bad were the Academy Awards this year," Trump asked according to The Hollywood Reporter. After pausing to allow the crowd to boo at the 95-year old awards show, Trump continued, "And the winner is... a movie from South Korea! What the hell was that all that about? We've got enough problems with South Korea, with trade. On top of that, they give them the best movie of the year. Was it good? I don't know. Let's get Gone With the Wind back, please? Sunset Boulevard. So many great movies."
Among Parasite's many great attributes, the cast and crew's diversity meant a lot to Academy voters who have been accused of a lack of representation in their nomination choices. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite has floated around on social media for years, eventually shaming the Academy into expanding their membership to represent a more diverse group of creators. The President's xenophobic comments imply a foreign-made film shouldn't be eligible for the award, but this isn't even the first time an internationally made movie has been nominated for best picture (it's the 6th).
Parasite was up against popular releases from some of Hollywood's best-known directors. Movies like Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Martin Scorsese's The Irishman seemed like surefire wins, but Parasite took home multiple trophies instead. Perhaps Joon Ho's glib take-down of the class war affecting citizens in South Korea struck a nerve with Academy voters because similar income inequality is prevalent in the U.S. It's unclear if Trump has seen the film. Still, its message could easily apply to many of his lower-income supporters. Maybe instead of attacking a film he's never watched, Trump could hold a movie night at the White House and absorb Parasite's anti-capitalist message.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter