Donald Trump might have tried to rip into South Korean critic darling Parasite, but the film’s U.S. distributor, Neon, isn’t having it.
Thursday night, Trump held a rally in Colorado Springs, CO., where he railed against Parasite‘s success of becoming the first non-English language/non-silent film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. “How bad were the Academy Awards this year?” he said. “…And the winner is…a movie from South Korea! What the hell was that all about? We’ve got enough problems with South Korea, with trade. On top of that, they give them the best movie of the year. Was it good? I don’t know. Let’s get Gone With the Wind back, please? Sunset Boulevard. So many great movies.” Though it would be surprising that Trump has actually watched Sunset Boulevard, given its story could be seen as one parallel to his presidency. He also categorized Parasite as “Best Foreign Film,” the former title of the Oscars’ Best International Film category.
People on Twitter were quick to point out the dog whistle that is Trump asking for Gone With the Wind, seeing how the film romanticized slavery and cast the antebellum period as a time of mourning for white Southerners.
Trump goes off on the Oscars for giving Best Picture to Parasite because it’s a South Korean movie pic.twitter.com/GUGKdExTbw
— Claudia Koerner (@ClaudiaKoerner) February 21, 2020
Trump complains that South Korean films are winning Oscars and that we need more like “Gone With The Wind,” a movie that even in 1939 was recognized as being racist as hell https://t.co/1pv7KOv8U2 pic.twitter.com/vagYfs1CUy
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) February 21, 2020
But it was Neon who had the last word, simply tweeting, “Understandable,” as to why Trump would hate the film. “[H]e can’t read.”
Understandable, he can’t read.#Parasite #BestPicture #Bong2020 https://t.co/lNqGJkUrDP
— NEON (@neonrated) February 21, 2020
Consider the mic dropped.
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Photo: NEON
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