Spielberg's Olympian Effort Deserves a Bronze
By nerogates Posted in Archived — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I caught a quick item the other day. Steven Spielberg, the great director who gave us Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Schindler's List, withdrew his role as part of the creative team for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
The Olympics has devolved from amateur athletics to political farce over the years. The 1980 U. S. boycott by the United States of the Moscow Games was followed by the Soviet/Eastern Bloc boycott of the L. A. Games in 1984. Politics is nothing new to the Olympics. From the screw job Jim Thorpe got to Tommy Davis and John Carlos to the 1972 Gold Medal Basketball Game, when the U. S. was upset by the Soviet Union in a controversial ending.
Of course 1972 was the infamous Munich Games. It was one of the first times the world saw terrorism exposed. Ironically, Spielberg made a movie about those very games just a few short years ago. The point here is that this is a guy who knows what is going on in the world. He is not Paris or Britney. For every blockbuster, he has put out thoughtful historical dramas with heart and depth.
Why then did it come as a surprise to him that the Communist Chinese were bad guys? Spielberg cites the reason for his withdrawal is that China has not done enough to push Sudan to put an end to the tragedy in Darfur. This should not come as a shock to a man who may some day make a movie about this very topic.
Beyond that reason, doesn't Spielberg know about the human rights violations? Is he aware of the forced abortions? Is he aware of the child and slave labor which fuels its economy? Will he demand that the merchandise from his upcoming Indiana Jones movie not be produced in the Dragon's Lair of industrial communism?
Spielberg and all the others of his ilk should have never agreed to be part of the 2008 Beijing Games in the first place. He was like Claude Reins in Casablanca. He was shocked to find atrocities in Red China.
-Heroes don't die, they live within us.
Nero
© EMH, 2008
the Olympics were much more than a quad-annual spectacle for me -- they were a dream and a goal. The aforementioned 1980 Boycott provided me one (among many) reason for my disdain for the peanut farmer from Plains with his impotent threats and inept administration.
And just as his boycott screwed nobody except the American athletes, it laid the justification for the Soviet boycott in 1984 -- a boycott that allowed them to avoid the a**kicking they would have enjoyed in LA, and the political humiliation the inevitable defections would have caused.
The political message sent by John Carlos, Lee Evans and Tommie Smith overshadowed the incredible accomplishments of Jim Hines and Bob Beamon -- and for a single act, they were banned for life. The world remembers their Black Power salutes, while forgetting the 25 students murdered by the Mexican military a few days before.
Then, the world watched helplessly in 1972 as the Israeli athletes were taken -- and then murdered by Muslim extremists. Today such an act might not even make the front page as the long list of atrocities in the name of religion mount.
The selection of Beijing by the IOC was the supreme act of cowardice. My support for the IOC, both figuratively and financially ended a long time ago. Only through license do I provide any support to any USOC body -- and that is only by coercion.
That Spielberg actually has come to recognize that Communist China might not be a bastion of liberty is a small step in the right direction. Perhaps the next Olympic Games should be held in Tehran.