The Oscars - 2016

We usually chat about the Oscar ceremonies here and I'm surprised no one has brought it up.
This was an odd year. I thought Chris Rock did a great job as host, but there were surely disappointments, for me, in the awards.

I saw most of the best picture nominees and am mystified at the success of Mad Max: Fury Road in many categories. To me, it seemed like just another Guy/Man Cave flick. I don't understand the viewpoint that it is a feminist picture as the women were mostly naked Victoria's Secret models who were captive "wives" (slaves) of some fetid oligarch while the men did a passable job playing angry orangutans.

The Revenant was a better film and I'm very glad Leo finally got the nod. The guy has range, that's for sure, though I thought he should have gotten it for Django, in which he was amazing.

The complete snubbing of Carol got my goat.

I expected to dislike The Danish Girl but came away from it with tremendous respect for the cast. It was also a beautifully shot and directed movie. It deserved more recognition.

Spotlight was a bit heavy handed for my taste. A topic that deserved to be covered, however. It was certainly good enough to get the Best Picture nod.

Room, I thought, was wrenchingly good. I wept openly through half of it.

The biggest nincompoopery was passing over Lady Gaga's Till it happens to You in favor of the Bond song. It's hard to imagine any piece of music making a stronger statement. I've never thought Sam Smith could carry a tune in a bucket.

Glad to see "The Revenant" get cinematography and direction. That was an absolutely beautiful film. I also loved Leo's performance. It was raw, visceral, and intense. "Fury Road" also deserved those sound awards. Had a ton of great sound design in it. However, one of my friends thought it should have won Best Picture over "Spotlight" I must admit, I was actually unimpressed with "Fury Road". It had a lot of great visuals and sound design, but was an otherwise bland film. It was good, but I didn't think it was in Best Picture territory. I honestly thought "Spotlight" was better. I thought the subject matter was more powerful and handled with more poise. And it was great to see the DiCaprio finally get something after being in so many great roles. That was a long time coming. Huge congratulations to the guy.

Chris did an overall good job as a host, but his opening, after a few remarks...I got the message.
Yet it went on & on.


Got me thinking....what if George Lopez had been the host?

I was annoyed that Trumbo got passed over. Cranston hit it out of the park with his performance, and the script was excellent. I was annoyed that Redmayne even got nominated for The Danish Girl -- it was an excruciatingly bad performance of an embarassing script, and the pompous direction made it even worse. I was glad, though, to see Vikander win -- she was the lone believable character in that entire picture.

Rock was brilliant. Best host they've had in a very long time -- he managed to both confront and defuse the issue without pandering or pleading. That is the work of a real talent. I've always respected him as a comedian, but I admire him now more than ever.

Does anyone remember when the Oscars were about films and not politics and social justice warriors?

I haven't watched them in nearly twenty years. I check out the lists of winners afterwards. From the criticisms I've read, this year was one of the worst for politicking, as winners can't thank people anymore.

"Thanks to the Academy for the award for best improvised make up in a short documentary animated foreign language featurette. And speaking of transgendered atheist paraplegic blacksmiths being persecuted by big oil..."

I'm not a fan of the Oscars, myself. Too motivated by fashionable causes, too many people getting an Oscar for a performance that isn't as good as the competition, simply because the Academy thought that they had been passed over preivously. I've yet to see The Revenant, so I can't commnt on its quality, but what a shame that either way it will go down as the year that Leo "finally got the Oscar he deserves", rather than it being seen as a recognition of that particular performance. For me, the Oscars died when JUdi Dench was given the Best Supporting Actress for an eight minute cameo (and one she phoned in at that) in the largely unremarkable Shakespeare in Love. Maybe, given that they are reviewing the whole shebang in light of the diversity hoohah this year anyhow they'll rethink the whole concept. Me, I'd like to see fewer of the big name categories (why shouldn't there be a single 'best actor' category for both genders, for instance?), in favour of more recognition for international cinema and the unsung heroes from behind the camera. It'd be nice to see it happen before the Globes too - the whole predicting the Oscars off thed back of the Globes thing is very tired.

I rather enjoyed Mad Max, myself. It's awards were all in the technical categories, and well deserved. More recognition than I thought it would get, actually, given it's very much a genre picture. I don't think I've seen any of the other films mentioned yet. I used to go to the cinema a lot, but it's gotten awfully expensive over here nowadays.

I thought Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the best movies of the year. A film doesn't need a cause, complex plot or Shakespearean dialogue to have a good story, good characters and sheer entertainment value.

As for the "where's the feminism"? angle, I raise the fact many viewers bemoaned the fact that Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) practically stole the show from Max (Tom Hardy), the fact that she took the mothers (breeders) away from a domineering tyrant who regarded them as his property, the move towards getting back to the Green Place where the all-female Vuvalini live (and where Furiosa was born and raised), suggest the film is just a wee bit more than a testorone-fest.

There was talk of a movie focussing on Furiosa, but I gather it's been shelved, at least for now.

Having now seen 45 Years, it may be the best of the entire bunch.

The political agenda stuff has been the dreaded part of the show for ages. I wonder who was first to hijack the podium? Brando?

And what did George C. Scott boycott them for again? I remember reading about that controversy. Was that the one where a native woman came on stage with a feather?

Like many things, I think the sixties have a lot to answer for...

Didn't Scott boycott the year he won for Patton?

Edward said:

Didn't Scott boycott the year he won for Patton?

Click to expand...

Yes, but what was his "message" exactly, something to do with Hollywood hype? Or not wanting to "compete" with fellow actors?

I like his son Campbell Scott's work (mother was Canadian actor Colleen Dewhurst). Big Night is my second favourite film, a great period (50s) piece, quiet but brilliant. Campbell Scott plays a Cadillac salesman.

Scott was opposed both to the idea of competition among actors and to, specifically, the Academy voting process.

Marlon Brando boycotted the ceremony in 1973 in protest of both the U. S. Government's actions in the "Wounded Knee" incident two years earlier, and Hollywood's shabby treatment of Native Americans over the years. Sacheen Littlefeather, an actress of Apache, Yaqui, and Pueblo ancestry, appeared in his behalf to reject the "Best Actor" award he was voted for "The Godfather."

Then, of course, there was Dalton Trumbo, who did not appear to collect his Oscars for "Roman Holiday" or "The Brave One" because Hollywood refused, for political reasons, to permit him to work under his real name. And Charlie Chaplin, whose "Limelight" was refused Oscar consideration until 1972 because of his political views.

Not an Oscar incident, but very much worth mentioning, Clark Gable very famously and publicly threatened to boycott the premiere of "Gone With The Wind" in 1939 because Hattie McDaniel was not permitted, by Atlanta's jimcrow laws, to sit with the rest of the cast. Gable dropped his boycott only because McDaniel himself urged him to do so.

And, in 1938, a committee of 56 leading Hollywood figures led by Edward G. Robinson, including James Cagney, Bette Davis, Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, and Jack and Harry Warner, sounded a call for a nationwide boycott of all German goods in protest of the Nazi regime's treatment of German Jews. There was no significant nationwide broadcast of the Oscars in those days, but these performers found other ways to disseminate their views. They also got barrels full of hate mail from 100 Per Cent American types who demanded that their movie favorites keep their politics to themselves.