A few weeks ago I went home for the weekend and somehow John Trudell came up during a conversation with my father. To my surprise, my dad did not know who he was but he was reminded of Marlon Brando’s Oscar acceptance speech back in 1973. Of course, being the responsible blogger/pop culture nerd that I am, I immediately searched for a video of this speech on YouTube. The following is a video of what happened after Brando won Best Actor for his role in “The Godfather.”
Marlon Brando Speech Link (I apologize for the lack of embedding. YouTube won't let me)
I was horrified by the “boo’s” that came raining down upon this poor American Indian woman in the middle of her speech. It’s hard to tell whether they are booing because they disagree with the cause (I would imagine it would be really hard to “boo” for equal rights but the times were different) or if they just despise Marlon Brando. From what I’ve heard and read, Brando had a reputation for being a jerk as far as the media was concerned. Still, while I think Brando should have been there to deliver the message himself, I respect him for making an effort to help American Indians gain equal rights. The full text of his speech can be found here and he states that he did not attend because he felt he could be more useful helping out the citizens at Wounded Knee.
But, I am very curious as to what all of you think about Brando’s address. Is it effective to use an Oscar speech for a message like this? Could Brando have used a different forum where he wouldn’t have alienated as many people? I’ll end by quoting from Batman Begins (or maybe it’s Spider-Man?), that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Brando was an icon who had more resources than us non-celebrities and he used those resources to try and do what was right. More power to him.
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Wow, that clip was amazing and beautiful. As far as your question is concerned, I believe that the Oscars are a good place to get your message out to many people, only because there is such a large population of viewers. However, on the flip side of the coin, you absolutely never see someone make a statement on the Oscars, or any award show, that does not get made fun of for years to come. I am reminded of Fiona Apple's plea for Turkey's! However, I think that Brando was wrong to not accept the award, because that is what truly alienated the people. If he accepted, and then had that beautiful Native girl who was as approachable as they come (rhetoric anyone?) make her speech, then I think he would have gotten a better reaction. It was still amazing though, and that girl was very brave. (And btw, it was Spiderman, Peter Parker's Aunt who told him that great power... etc. ;-))
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