Argo reflects US-style heroism

After sweeping the Golden Globe Awards, Argo won the Best Picture award at the 85th Academy Awards. Though the intense and simulative plot, and excellent performance of its cast helped Argo bag the Oscar, politics too played a role in its success, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

Argo has once again drawn the world's attention to Iran and other Middle East countries. Of late, American filmmakers have focused on the Middle East through movies such as The Hurt Locker, A Separation and Argo.

Argo highlights American-style individualistic heroism. The United States aborted the mission to rescue American prisoners for fear that failure would bring shame on Washington. But the hero in Argo, Tony Mendez, decides to save six people, and actually does so by disobeying orders, which is characteristic of individualistic heroism. No wonder, Argo has found favor with the Academy and American audiences alike.

A line in the film, "history starts out as farce and ends up as tragedy", reflects the US policy in the Middle East. Looking back at the past decade, chaos best describes the situation in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed and millions have been rendered homeless thanks to American policies. Instead of bringing relief to people in the Middle East, American-style democracy has caused social and political turbulence in many countries in the region. Besides, the US has lost thousands of its soldiers in its attempt to spread "democracy" in the region.

In short, Argo won the Academy Award because it is a near perfect marriage of film and politics.

A growing social malaise

Li Guanfeng, previously called Li Tianyi, and four other youths were detained on Feb 20 for suspected involvement in a gang-rape. The 17-year-old is the son of famous People's Liberation Army singer Li Shuangjiang. Such cases have sparked heated public discussions on "misuse of the family name", says an article on gmw.cn, Excerpts:

Although Meng Ge, Li Guanfeng's mother, hopes the public and media forgive Li, she must know that society will not tolerate criminal activities. The law will take its course and Li will be punished if he is guilty of raping someone.

Moreover, if guilty, this would be the second time that Li has broken the law. He was released only a few months ago after being in a government correctional facility for one year for seriously assaulting a couple. To make things worse, he was only 15 years old and driving without a license in Beijing when the first incident took place two years ago. Li Shuangjiang, reached an out-of-court compensation settlement with the aggrieved couple.

Unfair use of family wealth and connections has become common in today's society. In fact, a person's family background is now an important element of social competition among youths.

According to a recent online survey, more than half of the people believe the status of parents has a strong bearing on children. People are unhappy at the misuse of social, political and monetary power by some families to get things done their way. Such abuse of power is making it even more difficult for ordinary youths to realize their dreams.

Li Guanfeng is an extremely bad advertisement for his father. But misuse of power and money has become common: Youths want to misuse family status and money to make it big in the shortest possible time.

The public is less interested in what punishment Li Guanfeng will get if found guilty, and more interested in how ordinary youths will realize their dreams in the absence of free and fair competition.

(China Daily 03/01/2013 page9)