Belly Of The Beast

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Written by Stephen Vittoria
(Los Angeles)

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Richard Rayner wrote what is arguably one of the best books about LA’s scandalous coming of age – and the title sums up the historic crux of this place: “A Bright and Guilty Place.” In fact, never is this place shallower and guiltier of cultural crimes against the people than when basking in the afterbirth of the Academy Awards – the motion picture business’s masturbatory exercise in narcissistic rapture… some folks bordering on adrenal apoplexy.

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So it is all too fitting that “MUMIA: Long Distance Revolutionary” opens on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills just days after the big event when one myth (Argo) won Best Picture over two other myths (Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln).

The biggest myth surrounding the state of mind known as “Hollywood” is the goofy right wing’s belief and bed-wetting yelps about those so-called “liberal Hollywood types” – Babs and Hanks and Spielberg and all the others who have been lining the pockets of the current trigger man in the White House for some time now. I guess murder and neo-liberal predatory actions are okay as long as your guy is in charge. If “Hollywood” is “liberal” then Attila the Hun is Gandhi. Sometimes there are those here who even fashion themselves as revolutionary warriors fighting for justice. Yeah, sure…

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Which brings to mind an exchange in the film between Cornel West and Hurricane Carter. It kind of sums up the Empire’s myth making machine here on the Left Coast:

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CORNEL WEST
Mumia is a very distinctive kind of celebrity. He’s a celebrity that calls into question the superficiality of most celebrities.

RUBIN CARTER
I wanted to go see Mumia for myself… and the next day I was going to fly on a private jet going to LA hoping, vainly it seemed, that Denzel Washington would win the Academy Award as the starring actor in the movie “The Hurricane.”

CORNEL WEST
You juxtapose Mumia Abu-Jamal with Oprah Winfrey… you know that is like John Coltrane and Kenny G. You know what I mean? It’s like, good god almighty, you got depth, tremendous sacrifice, willingness to bare any cost – that’s Coltrane, that’s Mumia Abu-Jamal.

RUBIN CARTER
The contrast between the two places was so extreme because there I was sitting with Mumia and he was daring to dream from Death Row.

CORNEL WEST
Oprah is an entrepreneurial genius, we know that, but thin, superficial, well adjusted to the injustice of society even as she surfaces.

RUBIN CARTER
And then the next day I rode in this private jet to Hollywood, you know to the plush limousines, the plush suits and dresses… and the empty eyes of Hollywood. Nobody was dreaming there.

CORNEL WEST
You never hear her talking about critiques of Wall Street. You never hear her talking about critiques of capital. You never hear her talking about the plight of poor people. You never hear voices on her show that allow that vision to be heard. Never. She is a success. American style.


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American style indeed… Style over substance, myth over reality. That’s why it’s so poignant that “Long Distance Revolutionary” opens in LA right in the belly of the beast… but this isn’t unusual for Mumia: his courageous words and revolutionary actions have been targeting the heart of the American Empire since he was fifteen years old.