By Mark HadleyMonday 21 Mar 2011MoviesReading Time: 4 minutes
When David Seidler made the long walk from the audience to the stage at the 83rd Academy Awards it was clear that he wasn’t used to this sort of adulation. He went to the wrong side of the stage; he had to be shown where the microphone was. At 74 he was the oldest ever recipient of an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Reflecting on the golden statue, he told the star-studded audience, “My father always said I would be a late bloomer.” The story Seidler had scratched out for an adoring world was The King’s Speech. Standing in the spotlight after five decades of trying, he represented both the film’s chief theme and the ideal that the Academy most consistently awarded this year: personal sacrifices will pave the road to public triumph.
The King’s Speech told the story of King George VI and his struggle to overcome a debilitating stutter so that he could address his people in a time of profound crisis. Hollywood was so captivated by the story that it handed over three additional Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor to Colin Firth for his performance as the stammering monarch. But at another level entirely, The King’s Speech was David Seidler’s story as well. As a boy he too had battled against a stammer till the age of sixteen. Not surprisingly, he dedicated his award to other battlers,
“I accept this on behalf of all the stutterers throughout the world. We have a voice. We have been heard.”
Individual triumph over exhausting odds threaded its way through most of the top contenders for this year’s awards. In True Grit Hailee Steinfeld played Mattie Ross, a 14 year old girl who braves the hardships of America’s western frontiers to ensure her father’s murderer is brought to justice. Likewise The Fighter features Matt Damon as a middling boxer overcoming the limitations of family and background to claim the Welterweight Championship of the World. Even David Fincher’s The Social Network, which chronicles the rise of the Internet behemoth Facebook, focuses its story on founder Mark Zuckerberg’s struggle to overcome personal and legal impediments to turn a college project into a 25 billion dollar company. But it’s also The Social Network that shows Hollywood is mindful that not all roads to the top lead to happy destinations.
The Social Network won three academy awards – Best Writing, Editing, Music – for a story that finishes with the king of online friendships ending up the loneliest man in the world. An even stronger warning about the toll triumph can exact is found in the winner of this year’s Best Actress. Black Swan is the frightening tale of Nina the ballerina (Natalie Portman) who sacrifices first her health, then her self-respect and finally her sanity to become the ultimate dancer. Dying on the floor of her Swan Lake set, she celebrates that she was finally “Perfect!” But at what cost?
Personal success is not a new theme for Academy Award nominees. But this year’s winners make it clear that sacrifice on its own cannot be considered a virtue. Billions of dollars and waves of applause can amount to nothing in the end. Triumph can be both noble and futile. Which it is depends on what the character has sacrificed to get there. Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg allows every relationship to falter for the sake of his virtual creation. He “…eats, lives and breathes” Facebook, but we’re left with the impression that it won’t be enough to sustain a happy life. By contrast, Colin Firth’s George VI is prepared to set aside his dignities and his fears, but will not be parted from his family and friends. And above all it is the needs of his people that keep him striving to speak clearly:
“If I am King, where is my power? Can I declare war? Form a government? Levy a tax? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority because they think that when I speak, I speak for them.”
It is no wonder that The King’s Speech was the most celebrated film of this year’s Academy Awards. Every actor, writer, director and producer would like to own the story behind the story. Every award recipient hinted at the sacrifices made and thanked some group of people they had striven for. Everyone saw himself or herself as the battler who had overcome for the sake of those relationships. Their struggles gained in value because their motivations were centred on others. I think this is why Hollywood will continue to return to Christian themes, and ultimately the character of Jesus himself. The heroes of The King’s Speech, even Ghandi and The Queen, pale beside a figure who gave so much for those who loved him so little. The ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate good of others sits at the heart of the Gospel story. Rest assured The Passion will not be the last film about Jesus to become an Oscar nominee.