Missing Oscar

An open letter to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences�.

 

For the first time in my life a week or so ago, I came across a copy of the classic movie "The Bridge on the RiverKwai."  I was thirteen when the film was released in 1957 and probably had just never seen it because of my age.  As I watched the movie I initially felt it interesting that just a dozen years after Pearl Harbor, the internment camps, and the war with Japan that Japanese, British and Americans were working together in this beautiful film.  At first it seemed that we were quickly bringing an end to the racism that had existed against Orientals in America during and after the war.

 

The movie portrays cultural conflicts between Eastern and Western traditions and the personal battle between the characters portrayed by Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa as they strive to build what was one of the largest movie props ever made.  The “bumbling” Japanese with no idea how to build the bridge and the "superior" British led by Guinness who by the end has gone mad trying to save the marvel he creates for his captors.  Hayakawa rather than committing seppuku (ritual suicide) dealt with earlier in the film is simply stabbed at the end as he also attempts to save the bridge from being blown up.

 

Research on the internet found that Hayakawa had been an early American film star being as well known and as well paid as actors like Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks in the silent film days.  Born in Japan, but moving to the United States in 1911, by 1915 he was earning $5000.00 a week as an actor. (As a young man failing to become a naval officer and seemingly dishonoring his family, Hayakawa had actually attempted seppuku but was saved by his father after stabbing himself in the stomach 30 times.)

 

"The Bridge on the RiverKwai"was nominated for 8 Oscars and won seven of them including Best Picture and Best Actor for Guinness.  Hayakawa was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but became the only nomination for the film that did not win.

 

Another movie dealing with Japanese-American cultural differences was also released in1957.  Sayonara is about American soldiers in the Korean War and Japanese female lovers and wives.  A current quote from Wikipedia states that "Unlike most 1950s romantic dramas, Sayonara deals squarely with racism and prejudice."

Our culture, however, still views minority males as threatening.  The black wife of a white man would never bring the word "Uppity" to mind but the opposite situation seems to be what the word was created for.  A good example of this subtle racism might be seen in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who was accused of and vilified politically for improper conduct with a black woman but who also happens to be married to a white woman.  As Spike Lee points out in his portrayal of “Malcolm X,” Malcom Little received an eight to ten year burglary sentence rather than a typical first offender two year sentence because he was “sleeping with white women.”

 

Sayonara, dealing with white men and Japanese women is praised today as "dealing squarely with racism."  The Academy awarded its first acting award ever to an oriental, Miyoshi Umeki, for best supporting actress in that film.  Sayonara received several other nominations that did not win and the 1957 Best Supporting Actor award went to Red Buttons portraying one of the Americans with a Japanese wife in Sayonara.

 

Hayakawa, on the other hand in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" not only supported Guinness’ Best Actor performance, he co-starred along with him.  I believe that because of the subtle racism that continues today; Sessue Hayakawa was denied the Oscar that he deserved.  I also believe that to make us feel better so that we can claim not to be racist, the female award for Best Supporting Actress in 1957 was given to Miyoshi Umeki.

 

I call upon the academy to apologize to, and posthumously award another 1957 Oscar to Sessue Hayakawa for his brilliant performance in "The Bridge on the River Kwai." Of course, they will someday give him some kind of lifetime achievement award and go home feeling that they have once again done the politically correct thing.  We must all begin to do the truly right thing and really begin to “deal squarely” with the racism that still exists today.

Reviews

[Gandré]

Hi Donn, this was well enlighted view about the movie world in this certain period and also about the problem of rasism. Surroku, I am writing a poem about this, and I started to write it after I have seen an Japanese movie about a blind sculptor who works as a masseur. In the evenings he is making arms, legs and bodies of people from memory. His mother helps him to kidnap a young woman, after years of obsessIve relationship she gave up after mislung flea and she demands (they had obsessive sex) to cut her arms and legs in order to reach deeper sensation, then he does it to him, too and the die.i don't watch movies often but this surrealistic deep movie by showing the isness of being desperate i never can forget.
Rasism develops deeper during crises. So if an economy weakens, first who are to blame taking jobs. - are immigrants. This is happening in subtle layers here in germany. And this country has rasism carved it its history so the government very hard eliminates any form of rasism (today I read.- they inhafted 200 people. They dealed in ebay with right-radical german music CDs. So there must be a huuge group of consuments of this music?? This is scarry!
Injustice and rassism. We need to be critical and never tolerate. Great piece, donn. Bye