Oscars: Now They’re Just Statues
Do the Oscars matter?
Last year, my girlfriend and I attended an event hosted by the Academy called “Meet The Oscars” where you could walk into a room next to the Kodak Theatre and have the Oscar experience recreated for you. When you enter you’re bombarded by paparazzi flashes, and walk down a mock red carpet. Continuing on, they allow you to make your predictions as pictures of the nominated actors and films are plastered everywhere. At the tail end of the adventure, you have a chance to hold an actual golden boy. I walked over to the platform and pulled the Oscar from it’s base. As I held it, I pondered ‘why?’
Point being, The Oscars no longer have the prestige they used to. This was supposed to be the year “everything changed” in an attempt to get more viewers. As good as last year was (and really, four of those five films could have garnered Best Picture), the general audience hadn’t seen anything not named ‘Juno’ that was nominated. Still, last year had something this year’s lacked severely: mystery. If “everything changes” to where the viewer can easily predict the Best Picture winner or the Academy wants to make a political statement, then count me out.
There was a time when the Academy wasn’t afraid to nominate huge blockbusters or divide the awards between two films very deserving of the big prizes. Take 1962 for instance when you have ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ all up for Best Picture. All tremendous films in their own right yet only one could stand, the others had to fall. Looking at the nominees this year, I don’t know if ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ won because it’s a great film or due to lack of competition. Now, provided of the remaining four I’ve only seen ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ (and no way in hell that deserved to win) but the buzz on the others wasn’t particularly strong at all.
Let’s pretend ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Wrestler’ were nominated for Best Picture and Director. Interest is already piqued just by the biggest money maker of the year being in there on top of having three of the best critically acclaimed films in the mix. That makes for much better discussion among film buffs about “who should get it?” rather than what transpired this year. Someone should have put the Academy on notice that when one film sweeps every single little award it’s nominated for, that’s a big indicator that it will get the big ones. True not every year can be like 1962 or 2007, but when it’s so blatantly obvious by ‘Slumdog’s’ fifth win what’s happening you lose your audience. Some films deserve to win everything, while others like the aforementioned happen maybe so the Academy can justify giving that film Best Picture in a lackluster year. No, I don’t hate ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ but I despise how the Academy gave every single award to it when there were much more deserving films nominated in other categories.
The other noticeable “change” for this year was more celebrities being invited to the event. People like Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Robert Pattinson to name a few who have no business being there. Yes, it’s an award ceremony and true most of the people who are invited to other shows shouldn’t be there. One problem: this is THE ceremony, not the MTV Movie Awards. ‘Twilight’ and ‘High School Musical 3′ were never strong contenders be nominated for these awards yet those stars are allowed to show up. Good job with slapping yourself in the face Academy.
These awards used to showcase incredible achievements in film. They may not have always hit the nail on the head, but aside from a few years you never felt bored by the winners. Today, the Academy Awards are no longer about that. They’re now about getting as many A-Listers there as possible, nominating one or two films most of said A-Listers and the general audience have seen, and their TV ratings.
Or maybe I’m wrong and the Oscars never meant anything to begin with. Two underachievers with the Academy include Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock and both are heralded as two of the greatest filmmakers ever. ‘Citizen Kane’ was royally shafted out of Best Picture in 1941 to what some call the greatest crime in cinema. That year’s winner, ‘How Green Was My Valley’, wasn’t anywhere close to AFI’s Top 100 yet another ‘41 film starring Humphrey Bogart sits comfortably in the top thirty. Perhaps the show has always been about who promotes their film the best rather than ‘who had the best film’ Ironically, ‘Citizen Kane’ was boo’ed and lost all but one award due to politics so it could have started there.
In any case, this ceremony doesn’t need to retool it’s structure or invite teeny boppers like Robert Pattinson. The Academy needs to get back to what made them prestigious and an honor to hold that golden statue. Until then (or if Michael Mann and ‘Public Enemies’ are nominated next year), I’m done.
