A very long Hollywood awards season is underway. The Golden Globes are next month, but the Oscars will be awarded until the end of April. Once again, the Envelope has produced a series of roundtable discussions with some of the most creative minds in entertainment. LA Times staff writer Mark Olsen talked to several major directors about their films' historical significance and their impact on racial injustices today.
The film Da 5 Bloods, directed by Spike Lee, focuses on Black soldiers' experiences during the Vietnam War and the traumas they brought back home with them.
"During the height of the Vietnam War, African American soldiers were a third of the fighting force in Vietnam, yet we're only 10% of the American population. Black people have been dying for this country from the get-go. The first person to die for the United States of America was a Black man—his name was Crispus Attucks. So, we've been dying for this country, but this country is still shooting us down in the streets. George Floyd was a tipping point, and the whole world saw that," Lee said.
Paul Greengrass, who directed the film News of the World, said when he was making the movie, he thought about ways it tied into contemporary issues while exploring a road to optimism.
"When I read the novel The News of the World, it seemed to me it had that possibility. It was set after the Civil War at a time of bitter division when America was failing to find a road to healing. It is this strange odyssey of the man Capt. Kidd who goes on to offer the possibility of finding that road towards hope and redemption," Greengrass said.
The film, The trial of the Chicago 7, directed by Aaron Sorkin, focuses on anti-Vietnam War protesters accused of conspiring to provoke violence in the street and riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. But, the story of The trial of the Chicago 7 is still relevant today.
"I never meant for the film to be about 1968; I always wanted it to be about today. We never imagined how much about today it was going to be. We thought the film was plenty relevant when we were making it last winter. As Spike said, protest was being demonized, athletes—mostly Black athletes—were protesting peacefully by taking a knee during the National Anthem and were being called un-American," Sorkin said.
Sorkin adds that the film only got more relevant when racial injustices occurred in mid-2020.
"I think it was in May that George Floyd was murdered, and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and there were protests in the streets. Suddenly those protests were being met by tear gas and nightsticks. I've been asked a couple of times if I changed the script at all to mirror events, and I didn't. I rewrote the script plenty of times in the 14 years since I was asked to write a movie about the Chicago 7, but in the normal process of a screenwriter rewriting a script to make it better. But I didn't change the script to mirror events; events changed to mirror the script," Sorkin said.