Even four years into his term, Donald Trump can’t stop obsessing over Hollywood, this time setting his sights on Oscar winner Parasite. At a Colorado rally this week, the president mocked the South Korean movie’s Best Picture win at this year’s Academy Awards, grousing over the lack of love for Gone With the Wind, a four-hour epic that Trump, who has a famously short attention span, has definitely seen. But Parasite‘s U.S. distributor Neon was quick to hit back at Trump, mocking another thing that Trump is famous for: his inability to read.
At a Colorado rally on Thursday, President Trump criticized Parasite‘s historic Best Picture win at the Academy Awards this year, according to Variety.
“How bad were the Academy Awards this year?” he asked, to jeers from the crowd. “Did you see it? The winner is… a movie from South Korea! What the hell was that all about? We got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of that, they give them best movie of the year? Was it good? I don’t know. Let’s get ‘Gone With the Wind.’ Can we get ‘Gone With the Wind’ back, please?”
Gone With the Wind won the Oscar for Best Picture 80 years ago, long before Trump — who likely looked at the Wikipedia list of highest-grossing American Oscar winners to come up with that zinger — was born. I also highly doubt that Trump has the attention span to sit through the 4-hour David O. Selznick epic, but anything I say to poke holes at the president’s speech can’t compare to Neon’s Twitter burn of Trump.
“Understandable, he can’t read,” the Twitter account for the U.S. distributor of Parasite posted. It’s a perfect cherry on top to the ongoing discourse online over whether Americans should be forced to read subtitles to enjoy Bong Joon-ho’s darkly satirical masterpiece. (Spoilers: they should.)
Understandable, he can't read.#Parasite #BestPicture #Bong2020 https://t.co/lNqGJkUrDP
— NEON (@neonrated) February 21, 2020
Trump later continued in his tirade against Parasite, “I thought it was best foreign film, right? Best foreign movie. Did this ever happen before?”
He was right that this never happened before — Parasite‘s Best Picture win marks the first time a foreign-language film has won the Oscar’s highest honor. But Trump’s whole speech is sadly in line with the president’s ongoing xenophobic messaging and anti-Asian sentiment. Trump has been criticized before for mocking the accents of South Korean leaders and his whole agenda has been based on anti-immigrant bias and xenophobia.
But nice burn, Neon. We have nothing but respect.
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