FAST FIVE Oscar Watch: Best Foreign Language Film

Editor, News; Toronto, Canada (@Mack_SAnarchy)
FAST FIVE Oscar Watch: Best Foreign Language Film
Can an American film win Best Foreign Language Film? It could if it is Fast Five. Because quite simply it is the biggest pro-Portuguese language event in American pop culture history since women's beach volleyball and I found at least a dozen bakeries in the Toronto area that sell pastéis de nata. 

I'm going to start with the obvious distinction that Fast Five has over almost all other domestic action films this year. Subtitles. They are an everyday reality for the average ScreenAnarchy reader for we delve into international cinema as often as we breathe. But for the common man? I say 'nay nay'. Few 'American Made' action films have ever gone as far as Fast Five has to preserve a nation's language and culture. Often, as is tradition, we are never let in on conversations that the internationals, and let's face it often the baddies, are having, thus we assume they are rotten bastards and they can only be conceiving plots of pure evil that will take away our loved ones and increase property taxes. But with Fast Five Mr. Lin and pulled off a convincing coup against American Action Film etiquette. He was not afraid to let the life and color of Rio bleed through on the screen and it begins with the simplest of allowances: letting cultures speak to us in their own language. Take his comedic relief duo Tego and Rico. Already a plus, they are a far, far cry from recent comedic duo efforts like the awful Skids and Mudflap. But they are allowed to banter back and forth often changing up between Spanish and English in the middle of conversation, the subtitles dancing across the screen like Carnival samba dancers. To even consider pulling off humor in such a manner up until now was unheard of. More importantly though, main baddie Reyez and his henchman Zizi are free to order death and destruction in Portuguese from the very start. While other filmmakers assume their audience is neither inclined to read subtitles, intolerant of other cultures, or just plain illiterate, Mr. Lin and his cast and crew allow their characters to speak in their native tongue. Call it an Action Pentecost if you will. 

My other defense is this. Tourism. Laugh if you will but you cannot tell me that every submitting country's Minster of Tourism doesn't look at their submission and hope that it will be a film that will paint their country in a positive light. Are culturally condemning Action films the proverbial shark/piranha in the real life waters of international tourism? Where would you want to go on your next vacation? A country troubled with religious persecution, dysfunctional families or bodies found in the woods? Would you want to be vacationing in a country torn apart by war? No. There are other more positive ways to live your lives on the edge. And you can start to find that edge under highway overpasses in Rio de Janeiro. It is where hot, drunk chicks- wearing dresses that are too small for their already impossibly tight butts- go to hang out each night. They drink, they strut, and they dance along chain link fences. Who wouldn't want to visit a city like Rio if this is what its hot female population does at night? Let me ask you another question. Where else can you participate in unlicensed money vault towing? What other city even has the infrastructure to accommodate such a thrill seeking participation sport? Are you a freerunner? Then by golly are the favelas of Rio for you! Leap from roof to roof in the favela of Rocinha just like Dominic, Brian and Mia did. Local freerunners run tours star as low as around 50 Brazilian Reals I'm told. 

And if all this thrill seeking is not your cup of tea perhaps a religious pilgrimage is in order. The big draw for the Bible Belt folk has to be the Christ the Redeemer statue at the peak of the Corcovado mountain overlooking the city of Rio; embracing it with wide open arms as the sun rises each morning. Considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the 5th largest statue of Jesus, He welcomes saints and sinners alike to this bustling metropolis. And director Justin Lin was sure to remind Christians and Catholics alike that He is there by including Heavenly depicted shots of our Lord and Savior a multitude of times throughout his opus. 

As Miss Diesel said in her forearm sweating confrontation with Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs, 'This is Brazil!'. Yes, Miss Diesel. This is the Brazil that I'd want to visit. Neurotic parrots be damned. Never before has this city been bestowed such a varied and glowing visual essay. For its preservation of the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture Fast Five must be considered a shoe-in for at least a nomination as Best Foreign Language Film.
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