Bigger than TV’s Emmy Award, Broadway’s Tony Award, the World Series, Super Bowl, and the NBA Championship is the Academy Award—the Oscar. Everyone loves movies! Gangsters, pro athletes and government officials love a good movie. Movies are a global phenomenon and Hollywood, home to the film industry, is the faithful supplier of movies and movies stars.
Some of you may have never seen a Broadway play and prefer streaming to TV, but you’re likely to watch at least one or two movies a year. Some watch that many every day. You may not be fans of football, basketball or baseball, but you’ll wait eagerly for months for a new blockbuster to premier. This may explain why movie stars are so revered, so celebrated. Movie stars are all but worshipped. Have you ever wondered what movie stars worship?
Movie stars worship critical acclaim, box office success, fame and fortune, and yes, the statue. Some of our best and brightest, spanning a cross-section of professions and career paths were appalled by the slap.
I approach the incident from an entirely different angle absent of the Rock joke or the Smith assault. Irrelevant to me is which apology was well-placed, well-timed, or most sincere. What matters to me is what has always interested me– the statue.
Supposedly named after a former Academy head’s uncle Oscar, I’ve often wondered what the statue actually represents. Uncle Oscar or Uncle Remus, the statue is the god of all awards, symbolizing the pinnacle of success and achievement in the business of entertainment. I see the army of sword clutching golden soldiers are clearly guardians, but of what? The dramatic arts are typically represented by the twin masks of comedy and tragedy, so why the little tough guys with swords? Not to mention their scary, life-sized counterparts. What or who are they protecting? What or who do they represent?
What if the evening was a ritual, as pagan rituals traditionally require, incantations, sacrifice, and a celebration? Rock’s statement was followed by Smith’s ominous procession to the alter. The slap was symbolic of striking down a sacrificial lamb. The golden statue, the Oscar, was a long-awaited reward, commemorating years of dutiful compliance with and completion of the prerequisites of a new, higher membership in a dark society.
A tearful pledge of contrition followed the presentation, a public standing ovation, then celebration and partying into the night. What if his was an ordination, an induction ceremony— a Rite of Passage? Jada Smith, the Matron, powerbroker and head of the Smith family would not have been more pleased, given her newly won status and station, reward for her role in a long painstaking process of family sacrifice.
If Will Smith was Knighted before the eyes of the world, it would explain the genderless, sightless sword bearing soldier statuettes which guard the secrets of the society. Notice the statues have no eyes, ears or mouths. The Word says: “They did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot hear, see or walk.” Revelations 9:20 If my conjecture is mere fiction and folly, it nevertheless, may have all the makings of one heck-of-a Hollywood movie.
These other words come to mind:
“For what does it profit man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.” Mark 8:36
“The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply.” Psalms 16:4
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