Monday, February 25, 2013

Oscar Travesties

Another Oscar Travesty

In 1942 How Green Was my Valley beat out Citizen Caine to win the Oscar for best picture.

In 1979 Woody Allen's Manhattan lost out to Kramer versus Kramer for best picture.

In 1994 Shawshank Redemption lost out to the annoying, sentimental Forest Gump for best picture.

Peter O'Toole has been nominated for best actor eight times and never won.  Though he clearly deserved to have for won for his role as Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, the best actor nod went instead to Gregory Peck for his role in To Kill a Mockingbird (see earlier post, Lawrence of Arabia, 12/27/12).

At the 2013 Oscar awards the best picture made in 2012 was not even nominated for Best Picture.  I enjoyed Argo (See earlier posts Argo, Art and the need for Camouflage, 12/3/12 Antonio Mendez' Argo and Iran today, 12/9/12) and and have great respect for Tony Mendez, but Argo was not the best picture of 2012.

Nor did the historically sloppy Lincoln (see my post Spielberg's Lincoln 2/6/13) deserve to take the best picture honors.

Commander Kelly declares the best picture of 2012...Skyfall (See earlier post Skyfall, 10/27/12).  In fifty years, no Bond film has ever been been nominated for best picture.  Adele did win this year for best original song and Skyfall also won a technical Oscar for best sound editing which doubled James Bond's Oscar total from 2 to 4 after fifty years of making Bond films (http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/event_oscars_2013.php3)!  Skyfall was clearly punished for being excessively popular -- it was the first Bond film to generate over $1billion at the global box office.  I would argue that while Argo represents a more balanced view of intelligence work than Skyfall (most intelligence workers are engaged in translation, technical work, satellite and cell phone monitoring, disguise and documentation like Tony Mendez and not "wet work" like Bond); nevertheless, Skyfall was by far the better film.  Argo was a good film, a taut film, an interesting film, but it can't hold a candle to Skyfall!

Was Christopher Waltz, who won best supporting actor for his role in Django Unchained, really better than Javier Bardem in Skyfall who was not even nominated for best supporting actor?

In 1963, for example, From Russia With Love with Sean Connery was not nominated for Best Picture which was awarded to Tom Jones.  Which is the more memorable and significant picture?

Did 2006's Casino Royale not deserve any consideration for best picture along with that year's winner, The Departed?

Could it be that Bond being punished by the Academy Awards for being to the right of most Hollywood productions (see earlier post Commander Bond's London, 2/23/12)?


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