{"id":1358033,"date":"2022-03-04T05:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1358033"},"modified":"2022-03-04T07:57:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:57:23","slug":"academy-museum-of-motion-pictures-focuses-on-apologizing-for-films-rather-than-celebrating-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/academy-museum-of-motion-pictures-focuses-on-apologizing-for-films-rather-than-celebrating-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures Focuses On Apologizing For Films Rather Than Celebrating Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Facademy-museum-of-motion-pictures-focuses-on-apologizing-for-films-rather-than-celebrating-them%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1358033&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-03-at-8.40.51-PM-1024x549-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>For such a self-absorbed company town, Los Angeles is surprisingly sparse on organized tributes to its\u00a0<em>raison d\u2019etre<\/em>: Besides the Hollywood Museum and the Walk of Fame stars scattered around the sidewalks, there are few places dedicated to promoting and preserving the history of the film industry.<\/p>\n<p>So when the long-anticipated, then long-delayed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (a venture of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which sponsors The Oscars) finally opened on Wilshire Boulevard in late September, it filled a gap, if perhaps not a burning need.<\/p>\n<p>The $25 tickets, purchased online in advance, secured a timed reservation.\u00a0Masks were required (this is Los Angeles, after all).\u00a0A sign seen nearby offered this depressing anti-science language: \u201cWearing a face mask over nose and mouth is encouraged in outdoor spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some say the museum resembles the Death Star from the outside, which pains the architect Renzo Piano, who insists it\u2019s more of a soap bubble. Inside, the proceedings are dark, rather like a movie theatre (remember those?) Maybe too dark; twice I was directed to continue the tour when I prematurely exited an exhibit.<\/p>\n<p>Since this is the Academy Museum, there is a focus on the annual Oscars ceremony. We skipped paying an extra $15 for the Oscar Experience, when you can deliver your own videotaped Oscar acceptance speech while holding a genuine gold statue.<\/p>\n<p>The museum\u2019s core exhibit is spread across three floors under the rubric \u201cStories of Cinema.\u201d The \u201cSignificant Movies and Moviemakers\u201d gallery contained, along with\u00a0\u201cCitizen Kane\u201d\u00a0(of course) and Bruce Lee (sure) an exploration of the 2002 film\u00a0\u201cReal Women Have Curves,\u201d which I don\u2019t remember as particularly influential. Then again, all aesthetic judgments are judgment calls.<\/p>\n<p>Other details weren\u2019t judgment calls, but panicky attempts to stay abreast of the current unforgiving political environment. The map guide included a \u201cLand Acknowledgement\u201d in which the museum \u201cacknowledged the Tongva people as the traditional caretakers of the water and land on which we program, curate, educate, and discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The museum certainly reached beyond the white male Jewish\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commentary.org\/articles\/rob-long\/hollywood-history-jews-academy-museum\/\">origins<\/a> of Hollywood. A voluminous temporary gallery devoted to renowned Asian anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki was initially puzzling but ultimately enchanting in its quirkiness, including a fake tuft of grass where visitors could absorb video of passing clouds.<\/p>\n<p>Also charming was The Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope, a carousel of characters from the\u00a0\u201cToy Story\u201d\u00a0movies that worked like a 3-D flipbook under the flickering light.<\/p>\n<p>But Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s classic thriller\u00a0\u201cNorth by Northwest\u201d\u00a0was used seemingly as a pretext to apologize on behalf of the U.S. government of 130 years ago for offending the Lakota Tribe by using Mount Rushmore with its \u201ca controversial and painful history\u201d as a backdrop \u2014 a controversy that barely anteceded the invention of celluloid.<\/p>\n<p>In the gallery ostensibly devoted to the monumental backdrop of Mount Rushmore\u00a0(Hitchcock didn\u2019t film any action scenes on the monument itself), the designs were given short shrift in favor of handwringing inside the gallery\u2019s wordy wall captions. One read in part: \u201c\u2026Indigenous communities consider the monument itself a desecration of sacred land taken from the Oglala Lakota in 1877. Ownership of the land is contested to this day.\u201d Given the museum\u2019s long gestation, one suspects an ideologically motivated change in emphasis midstream after liberals suddenly remembered during the Trump administration that Mount Rushmore was racially problematic.<\/p>\n<p>The sometimes-dogmatic filmmaker Spike Lee has his own suite within the museum\u2019s sprawling three-floor core exhibition\u00a0\u201cStories of Cinema,\u201d with a surprising emphasis on Lee\u2019s personal items such as autographs and notes from celebrities. Of course, the left-wing filmmaker is in no danger of having his exhibit canceled for his attempt to spread 9-11 inside job conspiracies in his<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbo.com\/nyc-epicenters-911-2021\"> 2021 HBO special.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More dire were the embedded slide presentations under the rubric, \u201cComplicated Histories Of Animation.\u201d The introduction contains this amazing passage: \u201c\u2026.the slapstick nature of cartoons, in which an exploding stick of dynamite has no lasting consequences, readily makes way for casual depictions of violence against minorities and women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The subject \u201cWomen In U.S. Animation\u201d was introduced with a warning: \u201cThis media contains sexist content that may be disturbing to individuals.\u201d\u00a0Even a seemingly innocent childhood memory like<em>\u00a0<\/em>\u201cSleeping Beauty\u201d\u00a0is problematic: \u201cThe depiction of an unconscious woman being saved by a kiss suggests that physical affection without express consent is justified. Such messaging about consent can be especially influential on young viewers, animation\u2019s primary audience.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Pepe le Pew is of course a serial sexual offender: \u201cThroughout the history of animation, male characters have pursued female characters through predatory behavior\u2026\u201d Dan Quayle\u2019s 1992\u00a0\u201cMurphy Brown\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/opinions\/twenty-years-later-it-turns-out-dan-quayle-was-right-about-murphy-brown-and-unmarried-moms\/\">controversy<\/a>, in which the Republican vice president was mercilessly mocked for criticizing a fictional mother for having a child out of wedlock, seems positively quaint now.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the hysterical politics can be skipped by avoiding the wall captions and video displays. When it\u2019s not trying too hard to impress, the museum recaptures the serendipitous magic of the movies. <\/p>\n<p>Give yourself two hours and you\u2019ll see something you didn\u2019t know you wanted to see. Dorothy\u2019s ruby slippers are here, but there is also\u00a0\u201cWizard of Oz\u201d\u00a0ephemera like wardrobe test shots from actress\u00a0Gale Sondergaard\u00a0in costume as the Wicked Witch, before leaving the project when the filmmakers decided to ugly up the character.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the lens and scripts used on\u00a0\u201cCitizen Kane\u201d\u00a0is a lame early poster for the now-classic movie featuring the pleading tagline \u201cIt\u2019s Terrific,\u201d leading one to suspect the studio didn\u2019t know what to do with the masterpiece. A full-scale model of the shark from\u00a0\u201cJaws\u201d<em>\u00a0<\/em>dangles over the atrium. There\u2019s an interesting segment on how the layering of sound effects makes the rollicking opening scene of\u00a0\u201cThe Raiders of the Lost Ark\u201d\u00a0so memorable. <\/p>\n<p>My favorite artifact was a skull from\u00a0\u201cAlien.\u201d\u00a0I foolishly rushed through the costume gallery\u00a0and missed the crazed, colorful \u201cMay Queen\u201d dress from\u00a0\u201cMidsommar,\u201d composed of 10,000 silk flowers. There\u2019s much more in that vein, including one of the three original animatronic E.T.\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the exhibits successfully balance unexamined celebration and knee-jerk condemnation.\u00a0And if it\u2019s all too much dazzle, you can step away and enjoy the panoramic views via sky bridge from the rooftop deck, from which\u00a0one can see the famous Hollywood sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For such a self-absorbed company town, Los Angeles is surprisingly sparse on organized tributes to its\u00a0raison d\u2019etre: Besides the Hollywood Museum and the Walk of Fame stars scattered around the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}