Making Sense of the Oscars
Confused? Surprised by this year's Oscar nominees and winners? You should be. It represents a fundamental attitude change on the part of the Hollywood elite. After six years of Bush and increasingly onerous studio control, they finally gave a collective finger to the suits, big time. For starters, Crash, the "spoiler" was a Lions Gate Film. Lions Gate releases films in the $1 - $10M budget range, it is part of a new breed of studio and their product was considered preferable to that of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's formulaic contender Walk the Line, Jack Welch's GE owned NBC Universal's contender Brokeback Mountain and Sony's offering, Capote.
Usually studio marketing has much more effect on Academy voters, they usually walk lock-step up to the plate to vote for the films most heavily promoted "for your consideration". This year it was supposed to be "Walk the Line" which so poorly imitated that which made Ray great (next time try James Brown, focus less on the seamy side and more on the music and please, please, please don't ever make us listen to Phoenix and Witherspoon instead of Johnny Cash). Then of course, Cinderella Man and North Country used popular formulas (Million Dollar Baby and Erin Brokovitch) as vehicles for big stars. All of these films were made and marketed as Oscar contenders and failed.
George Clooney, Hollywood's premiere insider this year, told us all, when he took the first award of the evening, what's going on. As he told us, and New Yorker Jon Stewart, we like being out of touch in Hollywood. They're not out of touch like DC is out of touch. When you get out of touch in DC, you get Bush/Cheney/McCartheyism. In LA, out of touch is giving an Oscar to Hattie McDaniel in 1939, so there. What they're out of touch with in Hollywood is the type of close-minded attitudes and fears that creep into the hearts and minds of people all over this country, all over the world, who trust Wal-Mart, which spends billions for your love and trust, more than their next door neighbor who has a different ethnicity. The next door neighbor would need to be "crashed" into on an LA freeway before any real compassion and understanding could take place.
So, all five nominees for Best Picture this year cumulatively grossed under $187M (Does that include Crash on DVD? Probably not.), less than the gross for Chicken Little. According to my teenage son, to whom all of Hollywood genuflects, Pixar's offering deserves it. And there you have it people, this year the nominations were not run around the teat at which Hollywood suckles. Sure, we know the only people going into theaters these days are teenage boys, but these highly paid actors can only take so much Steve Jobs/Peter Jackson/George Lucas... we want art with heart and if the American public can't make its voice heard because, yes, the Hollywood suits are completely out of touch, the actors, who make of the bulk of the Academy, will do it for us. Thanks!
Show me another year where Oscars went to rappers (for song) and black actors who made pimp films for $12K (yes, that's what Terrence Howard was paid for Hustle and Flow). Dolly said it best, redemption comes in all forms. And last night, Hollywood redeemed itself, just in time. I mean Jon took a very pointed shot, right off the top, and I think it stunned everyone. He said, hey don't pirate the goods people, these millionaires are hurtin'. Jeez, that showed a hell of a lot more balls than the music industry, who has been ranting and raving at the Grammys. Not that Stewart was cleared on that remark, I'm sure he'll never be asked to host again, but, it just goes to show how even the New Yorkers, who have a similar economy, based in the arts, view Hollywood and its product. What a comeuppance!
Poor Jake Gyllenhall looked pretty embarrassed at being the Michael Green of the film industry. Please people, go see the films in the theaters, the last time and place on earth where people are gonna pay ten dollars to see a film. Look how big they are (Hey, on the big screen HDTVs you can see every pore on the faces) and how much fun it is to see them with a bunch of strangers, look, hundred year old Mickey Rooney thinks so. Did you check out the theme? Cinema Paradiso, old time theater, it looked like a black and white ball, everyone got the memo, even the penguins (Enron movie got robbed!!). You know what that was about, don't you? It was the soft sell. They've learned from what happened to their poor cousins in music. No ranting... yet.
I guess the Academy members saw the neutered Grammys, realized that there but for the grace of Bram Cohen go I, and got religion. They've seen one industry go down and they're scared shitless, they're next. Well, at least they're taking matters into their own hands and using the guilds they have created to keep more centered in their art. I hope it will pay off for them. The music industry had its day in the sun and can't survive but the film industry can reinvent itself, as it has done before, and extend its longevity, possibly forever, if they keep doing their job, as they have this year.
Usually studio marketing has much more effect on Academy voters, they usually walk lock-step up to the plate to vote for the films most heavily promoted "for your consideration". This year it was supposed to be "Walk the Line" which so poorly imitated that which made Ray great (next time try James Brown, focus less on the seamy side and more on the music and please, please, please don't ever make us listen to Phoenix and Witherspoon instead of Johnny Cash). Then of course, Cinderella Man and North Country used popular formulas (Million Dollar Baby and Erin Brokovitch) as vehicles for big stars. All of these films were made and marketed as Oscar contenders and failed.
George Clooney, Hollywood's premiere insider this year, told us all, when he took the first award of the evening, what's going on. As he told us, and New Yorker Jon Stewart, we like being out of touch in Hollywood. They're not out of touch like DC is out of touch. When you get out of touch in DC, you get Bush/Cheney/McCartheyism. In LA, out of touch is giving an Oscar to Hattie McDaniel in 1939, so there. What they're out of touch with in Hollywood is the type of close-minded attitudes and fears that creep into the hearts and minds of people all over this country, all over the world, who trust Wal-Mart, which spends billions for your love and trust, more than their next door neighbor who has a different ethnicity. The next door neighbor would need to be "crashed" into on an LA freeway before any real compassion and understanding could take place.
So, all five nominees for Best Picture this year cumulatively grossed under $187M (Does that include Crash on DVD? Probably not.), less than the gross for Chicken Little. According to my teenage son, to whom all of Hollywood genuflects, Pixar's offering deserves it. And there you have it people, this year the nominations were not run around the teat at which Hollywood suckles. Sure, we know the only people going into theaters these days are teenage boys, but these highly paid actors can only take so much Steve Jobs/Peter Jackson/George Lucas... we want art with heart and if the American public can't make its voice heard because, yes, the Hollywood suits are completely out of touch, the actors, who make of the bulk of the Academy, will do it for us. Thanks!
Show me another year where Oscars went to rappers (for song) and black actors who made pimp films for $12K (yes, that's what Terrence Howard was paid for Hustle and Flow). Dolly said it best, redemption comes in all forms. And last night, Hollywood redeemed itself, just in time. I mean Jon took a very pointed shot, right off the top, and I think it stunned everyone. He said, hey don't pirate the goods people, these millionaires are hurtin'. Jeez, that showed a hell of a lot more balls than the music industry, who has been ranting and raving at the Grammys. Not that Stewart was cleared on that remark, I'm sure he'll never be asked to host again, but, it just goes to show how even the New Yorkers, who have a similar economy, based in the arts, view Hollywood and its product. What a comeuppance!
Poor Jake Gyllenhall looked pretty embarrassed at being the Michael Green of the film industry. Please people, go see the films in the theaters, the last time and place on earth where people are gonna pay ten dollars to see a film. Look how big they are (Hey, on the big screen HDTVs you can see every pore on the faces) and how much fun it is to see them with a bunch of strangers, look, hundred year old Mickey Rooney thinks so. Did you check out the theme? Cinema Paradiso, old time theater, it looked like a black and white ball, everyone got the memo, even the penguins (Enron movie got robbed!!). You know what that was about, don't you? It was the soft sell. They've learned from what happened to their poor cousins in music. No ranting... yet.
I guess the Academy members saw the neutered Grammys, realized that there but for the grace of Bram Cohen go I, and got religion. They've seen one industry go down and they're scared shitless, they're next. Well, at least they're taking matters into their own hands and using the guilds they have created to keep more centered in their art. I hope it will pay off for them. The music industry had its day in the sun and can't survive but the film industry can reinvent itself, as it has done before, and extend its longevity, possibly forever, if they keep doing their job, as they have this year.
posted by Intervision at 4:28 AM
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