Matt Damon: Environmental Media Awards, Eco-SciFi & Ultimate Glamour Guy

Frances McDormand and Matt Damon in "Promised Land" (2012) directed by Gus Van Sant

Matt Damon and Luciana Damon attend the Environmental Media Awards, on October 19th, 2013

Matt Damon, Hayden Panettiere, Bill McKibben and Anna Getty may have been honored at last night’s Environmental Media Awards, but fracking was the real winner. Several anti-fracking films and TV shows, including Damon’s “Promised Land” and “Last Man Standing,” took home prizes at the 23rd annual ceremony held outdoors at Burbank’s Warner Bros. Studios lot.

“Insufferable do-gooder” Damon — as he was described by frenemy Jimmy Kimmel in an opening video — received the Ongoing Commitment Award for his efforts to provide underdeveloped countries access to clean water and sanitation. Source: variety.com

Some critics more recently remain convinced of the utopian possibilities of cyberspace and have gone so far as to dismiss an over-preoccupation with ‘real’ space as eco-fundamentalism. I continually demonstrate in my reading of various Hollywood closures that there is evidence of a renewed sublime mode which affirms and produces a ‘positive’ form of ecological expression. Both modernist and postmodernist expressions of the sublime, including Bertens’s analysis of Lyotard’s use of the term, evoke contradictory feelings which are potentially transgressive.

Haraway prophetically suggests, ‘we are all chimeras, theorised and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism - we are all cyborgs’ (Haraway, 1991). 'Blade Runner' attempts most specifically to work through such chimeras, to (re) construct a populist utopian narrative closure which has significant ecological implications.

LA epitomises subterranean, even terminal ecological difficulties. Possibly the most mediated city in the world, LA simultaneously has become the most ecologically precarious. Consequently, its continual, often noirish representation tends to effectively foreground, if not embody, many contemporary global ecological issues. The LA of AD 2019 in 'Blade Runner' remains perhaps the most dazzling recent cinematic vision of the result of exploitation of the environment for technological progress. ‘The city rots with the waste products of its over-technologist, over commercialised culture . . . The only thing that is recycled is waste, which forms the raw material for architecture, fashion, even transportation . . . the city projects no sense of community’ (Rushing et al, 1995).

Unlike most of the non-individualised masses who scurry around hiding their bodies under big coats and uniform umbrellas, Deckard has nothing to protect himself from these unnatural elements (acid rain) yet somehow appears impervious to their polluting effects. Like the classic private detective, he has also developed a form of extrasensory perception and consequently can articulate upon the dysfunctionality of this ecocidal environment.

Eco-Closure: David Lyon argues that omitting the ‘return to nature’ denouement in the director’s cut version of "Blade Runner" ‘simply leaves one with increased apocalyptic unease’ and pessimistically wonders ‘are decay and death the terminal postmodern condition?’ (Lyon, 1994). -"Hollywood Utopia: Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema" (2012) by Pat Brereton

The basic premise in "Elysium" (2013): the year is 2154, the population of Earth is ravaged by economic and ecological catastrophes. The wealthiest have taken refuge on a giant space station orbiting Earth run by robot butlers and guards, offering them clean air and almost magical healthcare technology.

The casting of Matt Damon in the lead role implies two strategies by Neil Blomkamp. It is immediately obvious that on one level the casting of Damon was a marketing strategy: in a time in which only sequels or established story lines are green-lit by big studios, attaching a big name actor to a new story is a sure-fire way for studios to ensure that they recoup their profits.

On the other hand, the choice of Matt Damon represented a clear attempt to solidify the film’s political credentials. Damon has starred in several political roles, including his roles in Good Will Hunting (with a screenplay by Damon, and in which he infamously describes why he would never work for the imperialist U.S. government), the anti-War on Terror film 'Syriana,' and recently the anti-apartheid 'Invictus.'

The Hollywood actor has distinguished himself from his peers by openly criticizing President Obama: “I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician.’ You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.” Damon is also famous for his speech in 2011 defending teachers against Democrat-sponsored education “reform” at a Save Our Schools rally in Washington D.C. That speech is particularly memorable due to the viral video in which he angrily mocks the libertarian Reason.tv for their coverage of the teachers’ struggle. Source: www.solidarity-us.org

7 Reasons Matt Damon Is the Ultimate Glamour Guy:

1) Respect for the media: It's very rare these days for celebs who show up at events to stop and talk to all the media. Most do maybe a couple of outlets and then duck inside. Damon —one of the biggest celebrities in the world— stopped to talk to EVERY SINGLE OUTLET on the press line and was charming and gracious. The last person I saw do that was Harrison Ford, which brings me to this lesson of the day: Up-and-coming actresses and actors, take a note from the real power players in Hollywood.

2) Never forgetting where he came from: Matt was not about to miss Saturday night for anything, even if his Red Sox were playing in game six of the ALCS ("I have my phone though; it's in my pocket!," he told me). I was equally invested in the game because Max Scherzer was pitching for the Detroit Tigers, and we grew up together in St. Louis. When Matt heard that story—"No way! That's pretty awesome," he exclaimed—we checked the score (Damon's Red Sox eventually won).

3) Speaking from the heart: When Matt went up to the podium to accept his EMA Ongoing Commitment Award for his work with Water.org, he was the only celeb who didn't rely on note cards or a teleprompter. It made his speech that much more powerful.

4) Eight years of marriage and still so in love: He's so enamored with his wife, Luciana. Just look at the way Matt smiles at her. There's truly nothing more romantic.

5) He's hilarious: With a house full of girls, Damon recognizes the importance of a man cave. "I do have a little man area that I can go to that they don't know about," he told a People reporter. "It's basically a closet that I can go to if the estrogen gets too crazy!"

6) A passion cause: As passionate as Matt is about making great films, he's more so about bringing clean water to those in third-world countries who have no access to a basic human necessity. "We had our board meeting yesterday," he told me, "and we have officially reached 1.6 million people with clean water now. That's really awesome."

7) He's a good sport: Just ask Jimmy Kimmel, who roasted Matt in a pretaped video introduction at the start of Saturday's awards. Matt, Jimmy, and Ben Affleck should be the poster children for adult friendships. Source: www.glamour.com