An “anti-woke” scene from “Tár” — a Cate Blanchett movie just released last month — is getting some attention for taking a stand against cancel culture and identity politics.
What’s the background?
Written and directed by Todd Field, “Tár” focuses on fictional character Lydia Tár, who’s “widely considered one of the greatest living composer-conductors and first-ever female music director of a major German orchestra,” IMDB notes.
According to Wired, the scene in question takes place during a conducting class Tár is teaching at Juilliard, during which a student named Max identifies “as a BIPOC pangender person” and finds Johann Sebastian Bach’s “misogyny” hard to take.
Sitting at a piano with Max, Tár plays a Bach piece and asks Max for an opinion on it.
“You play really well,” Max replies. “But nowadays white, male, cis composers — just not my thing.”
Tár shoots back, “Don’t be so eager to be offended. The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring conformity.”
When Max admits some admiration for composer Edgard Varèse, Tár stands up and tells Max that “you must be aware that Varèse once famously stated that jazz was a negro product exploited by the Jews. Didn’t stop Jerry Goldsmith from ripping him off for his ‘Planet of Apes’ score. It’s kind of a perfect insult, don’t you think?”
She pours on more logic, declaring that “if Bach’s talent can be reduced to his gender, birth country, religion, sexuality, and so on, then so can yours. Now, some day, Max, when you go out into the world, and you guest conduct for a major or minor orchestra, you may notice that the players have more than light bulbs and music on their stands. They will also have been handed rating sheets — the purpose of which is to rate you. Now, what kind of criteria would you hope that they use to do this? Your score reading and stick technique, or something else?”
Tár then buries Max pretty deep in front of the entire class, asking for a vote from those in the music room on the better approach for such judgment — and Max rises from the piano bench and begins to walk out of the music room, calling Tár a “f***ing bitch.”
Without missing a beat, Tár calls Max “a robot” as he continues his journey to the door, adding that “unfortunately, the architect of your soul appears to be social media.”
Here’s the scene via Catch Up, which calls it “absolutely based.” Content warning: Language:
\u201cCate Blanchett takes on critical race theory and gender identity politics in her new role. Absolutely based.\u201d— Catch Up (@Catch Up)
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How are folks reacting to the scene?
Former Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall — who just spoke to TheBlaze’s Glenn Beck about why he regrets apologizing to the woke mob — wondered in a tweet, “Has Hollywood gone anti-woke??? I can’t believe what I’ve just seen.”
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade said Blanchett “eviscerates woke gender identity politics in captivating scene from her new film Tár. Don’t expect this one to get Hollywood praise… it is starting to go viral on the Internet, however.”
The Babylon Bee’s Joel Berry offered “props to Todd Field for writing this little monologue.”
The New Culture Forum from the U.K. tweeted, “3 brilliant minutes. It’s hard to believe such a scene was filmed in this day and age. Indeed, we’re so familiar with Hollywood’s milquetoast wokery, that watching this is a decidedly strange experience.”
Jason Howerton, an alum of TheBlaze, said he “never in a million years would have predicted that the most SAVAGE takedown of woke gender/identity politics would come from a Hollywood actress, yet here we are.”
This content was originally published here.
