Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: The Screen Actors Guild Awards

by Jeffrey Jena

I’ve been a member of The Screen Actors Guild for almost thirty years. They spend my dues on politically correct crap I don’t agree with and to my knowledge have never supported a political candidate for whom I would vote. A lot of the better known members scream for a government takeover of health care but do not pressure the union to adopt a policy which would allow actors who work less to still have access to the union plan. At the same time, thousands of paid-up members continue to chip in with their dues to support richer members’ benefits. Exactly the opposite of what they would like the government to do.

sag-awards

A lot of my slack jawed knuckle-dragging conservative friends ask me why I remain a member. If I ever want to work in film or television again I have to be a member. The “art” of  television and film-making is a closed shop. I do get a really cool card to carry around in my wallet and I get to vote on the SAG Awards every year. Getting to vote on the SAG Awards has a great perk; I get screener copies of a number of the nominated movies. I got “Up in the Air” and “Precious” today. Most of them are films I would never pay $12 to see in a theater. I usually see a lot of  the nominated films during downtime on ships or airplanes.  For example, I recently saw “Inglourious Basterds” on a plane. I thought the first scene was compelling and then the movie disintegrated into mess which couldn’t decide if it was a farce or a Sam Peckinpah homage.

I understand that the vast majority of folks in my profession don’t agree with me when it comes to politics or art. Many of the films that get nominated for awards make less money than General Motors, and that isn’t easy. Also, in Awardville, making money and entertaining people are almost grounds for disqualification from receiving accolades unless, like James Cameron, you throw in an anti-American undercurrent. Then, of course, there is the question of values in films.

The liberal elites that run the entertainment industry tend to “pooh-pooh” films that have what they consider to be pedestrian middle-class values. Apple pie, motherhood, traditional marriage, fidelity and patriotism are a one-way ticket to being ignored. But… Putting a gay couple, a woman with a stripper pole or a heroin problem or anything that says America is the bad guy at the center of your film usually means a seat up front at the Kodak Theater in April.  

This is probably why the two best films I saw in 2009, “Up” and “The Blind Side” got a total of one SAG Award nomination. I don’t think we’ll see a lot of support at the DGA or at the Academy Awards for these or any other “family” films, either. 

The best award will come when they’re released on DVD and thousands of us out here in Flyover Country watch them at home.


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Posted Jan 13th 2010 at 5:07 pm in Culture, Film | 64 Comments