artbroken: I'd like to tank the Academy

Patrick (

artbroken) wrote,
@ 2007-02-26 15:37:00

Entry tags:

artwankage

I'd like to tank the Academy
I'm curious - when, for you, was the moment when the Academy Awards became completely meaningless?

Obvious 1997 is going to be a big milestone in the Oscars' Spiral Into Retardity (you like that? I just came up with that), since that's when Titanic cleaned up at the awards. All the little technical awards, yeah, nobody seriously had a problem with that. But Best Picture and Best Director? That turgid, glacially slow pile of sentimental garbage? Get your hand off it, James Cameron.

But I put it to you that 1994 was when the Devil finally paid out on the deal He signed when cinema sold its soul - the year Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Best Director for Robert 'Back to the Future II' Zemeckis and Best Actor for Tom 'Mazes and Monsters' Hanks. This heartwarming parable of how the American values of courage, acceptance and monumental stupidity were far superior to filthy Commie notions of intelligence and historical accuracy scooped the entire betting pool at the Oscars that year, and (it seems) went on to explain why George W. Bush became President not once but twice.

Yeah, sure, I blame Forrest Gump for Iraq. But more to the point I blame the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sentimental Whining About the American Dream In All Its Glory.

It's not like I was a huge Oscars follower before that point; at age 23, my main point of interest for films was the proportion of kung-fu to gunplay. But when Forrest Gump brought home the fatty bacon and millions worldwide flocked to watch Tom Hanks stepping in dog shit because this was the pinnacle of the Western cinema art... well, I became a little bit cynical about the whole process. Just a little.

For every English Patient, a Gladiator; for every Steven Soderbergh, a Ron Howard; for every Gwyneth Paltrow, a Halle Berry. (Okay, Paltrow's no great shakes, but I really liked Shakespeare in Love, so shut up.) And do not even get me started on fucking Akiva Goldsman winning the Best Adapted Screenplay for A Beautiful Mind when any right thinking Academy would have boiled him down for his essential fats after Batman & Robin and Lost in Space.

So forgive me if I can't jump on the Oscars bandwagon this year; it still smells like As Good As It Gets on the seat. At least they had Jon Stewart hosting last year to sink the boot into the establishment; this year they've decided 'gay but boring' is a better political statement than 'straight but interesting'. Whoot, etc.

So, how about you? When did you finally accept that the Oscars were a soulless travesty? Or have the scales yet to fall from your eyes?

(Post a new comment)

	madefromstars 2007-02-26 05:04 am UTC (link)
	Whatever year it was when The Titanic won a hundred of them. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	madefromstars 2007-02-26 05:12 am UTC (link)
	I thought it was 1998? oh aria's where 1997 for me. Savage garden. blech. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	onlywords 2007-02-26 05:25 am UTC (link)
	Gwyneth beating Cate Blanchett remains my worst Oscars moment. I'm still not over it;-). (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lelak 2007-02-26 05:57 am UTC (link)
	Lord knows it took Gwyneth a while to get over it too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	wolodymyr 2007-02-26 08:55 am UTC (link)
	That one's on my personal top ten, yeah. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	benpeek 2007-02-26 05:30 am UTC (link)
	what if i told you i never respected the oscars? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ashamel 2007-02-26 05:41 am UTC (link)
	I'm sure we'd all be very surprised. But yeah, I can't remember a jarring moment of shock at some dodgy decision. Sometimes I disagree, sometimes I don't (compounded by the fact I'm highly likely not to have seen the winners most years). (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	benpeek 2007-02-26 05:48 am UTC (link)
	yeah, there's no jarring shock for me. for as long as i can remember, people have been telling me that the oscars are all about campaigning and so forth. it's hard to have respect for it. i can manage respect for some literary awards. the nobel, for example... though i was recently told that marquez described it as a lizard hunt. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	artbroken 2007-02-26 06:15 am UTC (link)
	I'd be shocked and appalled! (And by that, I mean 'completely unsurprised'.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

frou_frou
2007-02-26 05:31 am UTC (link)

You're assuming that we were ever taken in by it all?!

Perhaps it was my adolescent obsession with Marilyn Monroe, but ever since finding out about the Oscars at age fourteen, I've seen them as a travesty.

All you have to do is take one look at the history and see that they rarely dedicate awards to those who deserve them. My first example was probably "Some Like It Hot" in 1959. Now seen as the best comedy evar, it was the year of "Ben Hur" and all awards went thataway (hence the expression "Bigger than...) and if it wasn't for the determination of some at the Academy that SLIT should receive at least one award (albeit a minor one), and so they added the special category of "Best Costume Design in black and white". The usual best costume design award going to "Ben Hur". Grrrr.

Jack Lemmon should have won "Best Supporting Actor" that year. And the film should have gotten "Best Adapted Screenplay" as well. After all these years, who even watches "Ben Hur" other than to look out for the gladiator's gold watch anyway?

(Reply to this)

	bunnitos 2007-02-26 05:40 am UTC (link)
	Venomy goodness, premium artbroken, we likes it. =) Btw, I have Mazes and Monsters on video, I haven't watched it for fear it will make me gouge my eyes out, but I have it sitting in a draw much like one would keep a loaded gun. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ashamel 2007-02-26 05:42 am UTC (link)
	I have it on DVD! Mainly because it is the movie that inspired my partner to do all her live roleplaying (with scant regard for any backlash). (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jody_macgregor 2007-02-26 09:50 am UTC (link)
	Some day, I have to watch that. Just so I can say I did. (Reply to this)(Parent)

innocent_man
2007-02-26 05:55 am UTC (link)

I watch 'em every year, I go see as many movies as I can, and I'm well aware that there's glurge and politics and everything wrapped up in it.

So what's that make me, then? Or am I still allowed to accept the fact that other folks' have opinions that might not mirror my own, but that, on the other hand, if not for the Oscars I probably would miss some films that I truly enjoyed and found quite worthwhile?

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	artbroken 2007-02-26 06:17 am UTC (link)
	Or am I still allowed to accept the fact that other folks' have opinions that might not mirror my own No! Never! Shan't! LalalalalahIcan'thearyouIcan'thearyouIcan'thearyou! In the grim future of Warhammer 40K there is only confrontational hyperbole! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	e_princess 2007-02-26 06:03 am UTC (link)
	I used to dream about winning an Oscar for my film score but I don't care for that anymore. Nowadays I only care about Oscar frocks :P btw, how did you go about changing your LJ name? I'm sick of mine. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	artbroken 2007-02-26 06:18 am UTC (link)
	It's good that you can still give a frock, though. As for the LJ name, um... lord, I forget. There was a small fee, I remember that much. Have a look in the FAQ, that's where I found it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ashamel 2007-02-26 06:21 am UTC (link)
	http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=25 (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	e_princess 2007-02-26 10:31 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for that... I must not have been searching in the right place. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sendai 2007-02-26 08:18 am UTC (link)
	Yaye for change! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	e_princess 2007-02-26 10:33 am UTC (link)
	I like a change, too but I'm not sure I US$15 like it... considering I've spent nothing on my LJ for 5 years maybe this is my way of thanking them (by paying them to do more work :P) Maybe I'll just get a new one. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Maybe... sendai 2007-02-26 12:47 pm UTC (link)
	:) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	drjon 2007-02-26 06:27 am UTC (link)
	It's just some glitz thing. I don't actually give much of a fcuk about it, and never have. Oscars parties are good, though. And the event was good to watch when you wanted to get some kind of idea of what movies had come out. But I can't say I ever imbued them with that much awe. (Reply to this)

	minus9 2007-02-26 07:30 am UTC (link)
	But ... but ... Run Forrest Run! The genius of it ... :-) (Reply to this)

	wolodymyr 2007-02-26 09:00 am UTC (link)
	First the Forrest Gump thing, yeah - shot across the bow. And then that year with Elia Kazan. My boyfriend at the time...his grandfather was one of the Hollywood nineteen, his mother's life had also been kind of ruined by it. They were heartbroken. And finally, after the cheap and sordid way that whole thing played out, so was I. (Reply to this)

lokicarbis
2007-02-26 11:55 am UTC (link)

In all honesty, I've never really cared that much. Occasionally I look in on the results to check the odd award (usually Best Supporting Actor for no readily apparent reason) and see that talent was justly rewarded (Kevin Kline 1989, Martin Landau 1995 - or was it 96).

Oh, and until today, I did enjoy bitching that Scorsese had never won the Best Director award he so richly deserves...

(Reply to this)

	A child never forgives an early sleight... craigoxbrow 2007-02-26 12:19 pm UTC (link)
	I was eight in 1n 1983, when Gandhi swept the board - which included beating TRON for Best Costume Design. Now, I realise with hindsight that Gandhi is a better film than TRON but I still don't think the costume designs were anything like as much work. (Reply to this)

	fengshuiguy 2007-02-26 01:29 pm UTC (link)
	Shakespeare in Love? I just... I have no words. I still think her best performance is in the last ten minutes of Se7en. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	artbroken 2007-02-26 07:29 pm UTC (link)
	Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay, so Shakespeare in Love is untouchable in my eyes. (I also have a thing for Joseph Fiennes, but let's not get into that.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	crazyjane13 2007-02-26 10:28 pm UTC (link)
	On the other hand, Scorsese did finally get a guernsey. And An Inconvenient Truth won Best Doco ... in spite of the increasing California Republican phenomenon. And Alien won Best Art Direction. Okay, so that was a while ago now ... (Reply to this)

illdrinn
2007-02-27 05:31 am UTC (link)

I love epic film; even with the shit love scenes I liked Titanic, I adored Gladiator. Gwyneth Paltrow makes me want to hit things, she can't act, she's not even pretty and she apparently can't even listen to a stylist.

This is the first year in a long time where I agreed with a lot of the awards; where American sentiment didn't actually win out. I'm fascinated with what people embrace in popular culture because I just don't get it, the Oscars can be like a car crash but at least it's interesting to see.

(Reply to this)

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