Oscar Only Once More

This is the last time I'll write about this year's Oscar show. I just want to comment that despite the fact this year's show was overall the most disappointing (in terms of who won the major awards) since the year 2000, I'll still watch and I'll still enjoy. Why? Because it is the Oscars and I truly enjoy movies and the predictions are half the fun.

I recently read a Stephen King article about this year's Oscar show and he asked, "Was Crash the best picture of the year?" He said it wasn't and I agree. While I don't agree with him on which picture was the Best Picture, I do agree that Crash was an important picture. As far as the best picture goes, I truly believe that of the five nominess, Munich was the best movie of the year 2005. Munich tells of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games and the subsequent assassination of the Palestinian terrorists responsible. It also shows why the war in the Middle East has continued unabated. It's a gripping and important film that everyone should watch. Yes, liberties were taken and some of the things in the film are speculated. However, it goes a long way to showing why peace is so hard to achieve in one of the most polarized areas of the world.

I've heard the theory that Brokeback Mountain did not win Best Picture because it wasn't nominated for Film Editing and a certain portion of the academy does not vote for movies that are not nominated in that category. While that may or may not be true, a lack of a nod in film editing is not the only reason Brokeback didn't win. First off the last time a film that wasn't nominated for Film Editing won Best Picture was back in 1980 when Ordinary People took home the prize. Every other year since then the Best Picture has been in the Film Editing category. Having said that, I think, arguably, the biggest reason Brokeback didn't get the top prize is because of the content. It's about two cowboys who have a decades long sexual relationship. Most of the 6 thousand some odd academy members are older, white men; many of whom are probably stuffy and conservative. That seems to be a paradox considering the field they represent. One sidenote to Brokeback is that it has been billed as groundbreaking; that's not true. There have been other films that deal with the gay theme with high profile actors. Most notably is the film Making Love, a 1980 film that starred Harry Hamilin, Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson, and Academy Award winner Wendy Hiller. Brokeback is only groundbreaking in that it deals with ranch hands out in the west in the 1960's-1980's. Before this film, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were not popular and commanding actors. It remains to be seen if they continue in their high profile status.

Felicity Huffman actually had a double whammy in terms of her missing out on her award. I've said this before and I'll say it again: I truly believe that Felicity Huffman gave the best female performance of the five who were nominated. Reese would be a not too close second. The movie Transamerica was so little known that even some of the gay people I know was not aware of it before it came out. And some of them are movie buffs. The second strike is the fact that Huffman plays a male-to-female pr-op transgender and shows her "appendage." It seems to me if the academy really was more liberal and not as older white male that Huffman would probably have walked away with the prize. She certainly deserved it.

Well, as I said, I'll keep watching the Oscars because when the academy gets it right, it's pure gold; actually, it's britannium or copper (the Oscars aren't pure gold). Above I said that this year's show was overall the most disappointing since 2000. Let me tell you how the winners would have stacked up if I had been in charge. Julia Roberts would still have won her award. Instead of Best Actor Russell Crowe for Gladiator, Ed Harris would have won for Pollock. Albert Finney would have won Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich instead of Benecio Del Toro for Traffic. And Julie Walters would have won Best Supporting Actress for Billy Elliott instead of Marcia Gay Harden for Pollock. And the big prize would not have gone to Gladiator but to the Steven Soderbergh directed Erin Brockovich instead. I think it would have been really exciting and cool to have director Steven Soderbergh win for both of his films that year. He DID win Best Director for Traffic.

peace out,

paul