What The Nominations Tell Us
by Andrew KlavanBenjamin Button??? You gotta be kidding me. I spent three days watching Benjamin Button one evening and if that’s not the emptiest, most meaningless piece of high gloss semi-entertainment produced last year than I don’t know my American Idol. I mean, Brad Pitt’s a great actor who’s had sex with Angelina Jolie, I concede that. But what was the movie about? People don’t actually get younger, right? So it had to be a metaphor for something. But what? As near as I can make out, it was Hollywood’s take on what marriage is like: You hook up when you’re both hot then she loses her looks and he starts acting like a child.
Slumdog Millionaire? Yeah, I enjoyed it—then promptly forgot it: it’s a little, you know, light. And though I sympathize with Muslims getting persecuted in the world’s largest democracy, I can’t help noticing that Hollywood almost completely ignores all the Christians getting persecuted by genuine tyrants like the Myanmar junta and the ACLU.
Milk was also good, an entertaining little hagiography which proved once and for all that Sean Penn has made a deal with Satan:
You can be the greatest actor of your generation, Sean, if you will but embrace my servants Hugo and Fidel.
Yes, my master Satan, so let it be sealed in my blood.
As for Frost/Nixon and The Reader, look, I really wanted to see those, but I had to wash my hair that night. Or someone’s hair.
So what about The Dark Knight? That was a good movie and everyone went to see that. Well, I understand there’ve been whispers from certain shadowy character assassins who look suspiciously like John Nolte that my Wall Street Journal op-ed comparing Batman to George W. Bush may have contributed to the film getting snubbed. If that’s true, I would like to publicly and sincerely say to the film’s producers, director and writers, “Hey, could you lend me a couple of bucks?”
No, I think the real message the Oscar noms are sending is that the films Hollywood takes seriously and the films the people love are not the same films. The Los Angeles Times ran an article last week trying to cast this in a positive light: isn’t it wonderful that movies are getting Oscar respect even if they didn’t make money? But what’s so wonderful about that? Are the visions of American movie makers so deep, brilliant and complex that they can’t express them in ways the ordinary moviegoer can understand? Or is it that their ideology, arrogance and elitism teach them to despise the very people they’re supposed to entertain?
I’m guessing: B.
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81 Comments
I think that it is incredibly counterproductive to consistently quantify artistic achievement based almost entirely on box office take, as has been the habit off some Oscar-whiners this week.
Sometimes a movie doesn't make money because the studio fails to release it wide or adequately promote it. If Frozen River or the Visitor had opened on 2500 screens and received hundreds of millions of dollars in promotion like Benjamin Button, both those films would have made substantially more money. Or are you going to argue that Frozen River and The Visitor are products of "ideology, arrogance, and elitism"?
Maheras, seriously, box office success does not automatically mean that the film is artistically worth a hill of beans. Would you prefer that Best Picture nominatins simply reflect the Top 5 box office champs?
So, by that metric, the BP nominees would be
Iron Man
Hancock
Wall-E
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Dark Knight
That's a good lineup for the MTV awards, but not the Oscars. By the way, be careful ascribing the phrase "shoddily made" to films that in actuality you "politically disagree with".
Joe, the Filmaker,
Boycotts don't work, remember? Ask any Lefty how ineffectual they are when non-Lefties practice them. Of course, they work just fine when Lefties are doing the boycotting.
In all seriousness, there IS a boycott going on. It just isn't organized.
People who are tired of having their country trashed, their values stomped on, their culture marginalized and their intelligence insulted by awful scripts, actors and films are just not going to the movies.
Pete is an interesting contributor. Unlike most of the Lefties who arrive here, he actually has well thought out arguments. It helps to read the other side's opinions. I am enjoying his posts.
You’re correct about the answer being B, Mr. Klavin, but you should also mention that these are the very people upon whom their finances depend. What will they do when no one goes to their movies anymore?
I’m not so convinced the “ordinary moviegoer” is as bright as we’d like to think.. I’m mean, good lord, they elected Barack Obama.
Good point, Bob!
How about Christians harrassed in Israel? You can find videos of it at youtube but the Israeli-controlled media in the US won’t report it when they are determined to fleece Christians for their “homeland.”
Deus Ex Machina!! —-C’mon, the audience isn’t stupid. Just easier to saturate attention with ropes and pulleys from behind the curtain
We are smarter than you may realize and also, applaud this site for the antidote against LAZY SPIN-DOCTORS:
“Musings at the Cooper Hewitt, 24-February 2004″ Debate over the relationship between Art and Design. Thought I would share some juicy tidbits:
OSCAR WILDE: I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautfiful and that beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.
JOHN CHAMBERLAIN: Everything is functional or why make it? And if you don’t believe in arts function, why do you think so many people for centuries came to believe God was an old man with long flowing hair except for having seen Michelangelo’s artwork?
RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER: Art is useless; furniture is useful. This statement is a large enough ‘basket’ to contain the issue. Uselessness says it all. Art is not an idea; it is a thing. If it dropped on your foot, it would hurt. If you sit on it, its a chair. If you walk around and look at it, its a sculpture.
RICHARD TUTTLE: Sculpture and furniture are different intentions but one piece can satisfy each.
DONALD JUDD: The art of the chair is not its resemblance to art, but is partly its resonableness, usefulness and scale as a chair. The configuration and scale of art cannot be transposed into furniture and architecture. The intent of art is different from that of the latter, which must be functional. A work of art exists as itself; a chair exists as a chair itself.
SCOTT BURTON: [Contemporary Art] should take an increasingly relevant position. It will place itself not in front of, but around, behind, underneath (literally) the audience in an operational capacity.
~~~
My friends are laughing at me, asking, “Why are you writing essays? And why are you reading anthologies of theatrical theory? …What do you mean you do this for fun?”
I smile and say, “I don’t know. I guess I’m just curious.”
I realize I am consistently redundant.
The final quote was Thoreau, “Its not what you look at, but what you see.”
SPIN AWAY KIDS!!
This is the reason it’s SOOO hard to find a good NETFLIX pic.
So many of the ‘critically acclaimed’ prize winning movies are
stinkers. As for most of the pics mentioned in the article,
excuse me but if I want to be depressed and confused, I’ll just watch
the nightly news and save the $10!
For the record, I’m as eager as anyone to learn who it is who looks like me running around blaming Andrew Klavan for ‘The Dark Knight’ Oscar snub.
It’s not that I don’t blame him for the snub, I do, I would just never say so in public.
Growltiger, Ron Howard is many things, but “counterculture” isn’t one thing that would leap to mind.
I truly think some of you have internalized the Dark Knight snub to a rather unhealthy level. Yeah, it does sort of stink that Nolan was left out of director, and surprising considering his DGA nod. HOWEVER, apart from Ledger, the film didn’t have a great deal of precursor support in the acting branch, the largest bloc of voters. Before you scream “out of touch leftists”, keep in mind that the majority of the academy voters are over 55 and are generally believed to be artistically conservative. This conservatism in voting has resulted in overly safe nominations that generally fall into fairly predictable and “safe” patterns. It is VERY rare that an out of the box film makes the Final Five for Best Picture. Dark Knight probably didn’t transcend its genre with ENOUGH of the voters in the initial system to gain enough #1 votes to make it.
I have a great idea. We actors should get together and form an association; then, we will pat ourselves on the back with an awards dinner each year. We will give one out for almost everything imaginable.
Hey, should we give out an award for the best driver on the set?
Maybe.
And bye the way, what in the world IS a “best boy?”
I had the good fortune of seeing “The Wrestler” (love those take-home screeners!). I think Mickey Rourke deserves his nod for best actor. Hope he wins.
Best boys are responsible for the daily running of the lighting or grip department. This encompasses many responsibilities including hiring and scheduling of crew, the ordering and returning of lighting or grip equipment, workplace safety, timecards, expendables, loading production trucks, planning and implementing the lighting or rigging of locations and/or sound stages, coordinating rigging crews and additional photography units (if applicable), handling relations with the other production departments, overseeing the application of union rules (if applicable), and serving as the main daily representative of the department with the unit production manager and coordinator of the film.
How exactly is Annie Hall proof that the Oscars are a Hollywood in-joke. Annie Hall mercilessly trashed Hollywood types and Woody didn’t even bother showing up to the ceremony.
I know Hollywood today thinks the majority of its customers — excuse me, its fans — are dumb. Perhaps if we were really thought of as customers instead of doe-eyed peasants, the product foisted upon us would generally be better. But in a business where one has to buy the product sight unseen, there is no way to return shoddily-made product for a refund, and caveat emptor rules the day, maybe they are right.
Thus, since the modern-era fans are believed to be so stupid by the movers and shakers of Hollywood, it stands to reason this same elite bunch also believes that fans are incapable of knowing which films have artistic and social merit. Thus, success at the box office these days means nothing to the Hollywood voting elite — as is evident by the films chosen this year in the “Best Picture” category. This is Hollywood’s way of leading us morons in the hinterlands by the nose once a year to show us what is, and is not, good filmmaking.
And of course, although they try again and again to enlighten us heathens each year, I’m sure many in Hollywood figure it’s really an exercise in futility – sort of like reading Shakespeare to one’s labradoodle.
“B”
I’ve gotten to the point where I get more entertainment out of denying Hollywood $8, then I do out of the movies I’m foolish enough to attend.
Pete said: “Before you scream “out of touch leftists”, keep in mind that the majority of the academy voters are over 55 and are generally believed to be artistically conservative.”
By whom?
I can’t speak for others, but speaking for myself, my frustration with the Dark Knight snub isn’t the after-the-fact conservative analysis. I think most of that is people of conservative persuasions (like myself) projecting that onto the film, not the filmmakers’ actual intention, but I don’t know. Frankly I just had no desire to see any of the nominees except Slumdog, and there were always other things out that I wanted to see more.
In answer to the questions from Doug above:
I felt the film version of “True Crime,” suffered from the fact that Eastwood was too old to play a 35-year-old womanizer. I should add that Eastwood is a great filmmaker and a culture hero of mine, since I’ve criticized him a bit lately.
And no, I would never base a fictional character on another fictional character. The editor was a composite of real editors I’ve worked with.
The correct choice is “D.”
And if you want to know why, please click on my name, “Wag-a-muffin” to see a cartoon explanation.
Thank you.
Oh, joy, Benjamin Button gets the Oscar nods this year. Then we have next year to look forward to, when the latest remake of The Great Gatsby will get all sorts of nods.
Hollywood will eat that one up. America as an empty wasteland where the American dream is nothing but a fraud? You betcha, they’re going to make a movie about that. And Atlas Shrugged will wait to be made, and Empire of Lies will not be made… it’s enough to make you a wee bit frustrated. Here I am, waving dollars to Hollywood, ready to spend them, but they don’t want my money.
Benjamin Button is the only movie off the list I’ve seen this year, and it wasn’t nearly the snooze fest you make it out to be. It was about 20 minutes too long I think, (they could have severed some of the tea drinking nonsense in the middle) but it was a well done movie. Pitt’s acting was par at best. While he didn’t do a bad job, he just seemed uninspired at times. Best movie? Yeah, probably not.
Having said that, Dark Knight was no best picture either. You can cry all you want about the money it made, but you and I both know that revenue is not equal to a good movie. And was it a good movie? Sure it was. Heath Leger was outstanding, but in contrast…Bale’s speech impediment Batman character was as annoying as Leger was entertaining. Am I the only one who misses Michael Keaton’s Batman? The bottom line is it’s a comic book movie. A good one to be sure, but not the best one and certainly not the best movie of the year.
Get over it, the Oscars are never going to cater to your favorite movie. Use them like I do to find out about fantastic movies you might not ever go see. (Life is Beautiful comes to mind)
Now can Big Hollywood move beyond all the wah-wah about Dark Knight’s snub and get back to hating liberals? (something we can all come together on)
wait? muslims are persecuted in India? so… the Muslim tactic of low level terrorizing of anyone else is bothering Hindus? & Christians? How dare they respond back to Islam’s tactic of constant terror! HOW DARE THEY! We must stop the democratic Hindus & Christians of India!
Just like we did in Bosnia/Serbia, in Africa, in Belgium… we must stop the Christians from fighting back! Low level terror to swell the Islamic ranks and force others to convert is OKAY, how else will Islam spread!?
Silly!
Hollywood makes the movies it can. A lot of the people involved don’t care whether a movie makes money or not, as long as they get to say their piece and feel righteous. There’s generally another rube right around the corner that’ll step up and get victimized.
Yeah, another Kate Winslet twisted sex movie, sure, I’m just dying to one of those. She’s got another angle this time, right? I’m speechless.
As for the Academy and the members, I know several people on the Board. One of them edited “Easy Rider” – where do you think he’s at on the issues? And let’s not forget the organization was put together by some actors who wanted respect from the public. Now it’s come full circle. Did you see “The Presidential Pledge”? Somebody forgot to turn off the security camera at the asylum.
Actually, I was very fond of Wall-E. However, the actors’ guild, the largest voting bloc, was pretty vocal when Beauty and the Beast was nominated that they were very displeased about that, hence the animated category.
Again, the older voting bloc is artistically conservative in what they nominate, meaning that edgier films or outside the norm genres generally get passed over in favor of overly safe films that take very few artistic risks. You can whine all you want about Milk getting its awards love, however if you can look at the film just as a film, it’s a rather standard biopic that follows the usual screenwriting points for such films and really breaks no new ground in that respect.
Slumdog is probably an anomaly as the Oscars go, given that its visual presentation couldn’t be any more different than any other BP nominee I can think of, not to mention the complete absence of ANY known actors. Of course, the script, while slightly non-linear, doesn’t really break new ground in screenwriting.
If you have the time, take a look at just what’s been winning major Oscars since the Return of the King Sweep in 2004. It’s been smaller films, more minimalistic films, and definitely not the gigantic epic that the LOTR films were. Dark Knight was certainly the BIGGEST film among the contenders, and maybe it fell victim to a voting bloc that currently seems to prefer more intimate films.
hummmm…I subscribe to Netflix, all of the movie channels, I have a card to the leading DVD/video store and still I can find nothing worth watching from hollywood…
So, even though you actually haven’t SEEN The Visitor, you’re confident that it “might be a product of ideology”, despite fundamentally misunderstanding the actual PLOT of the film?
Cheryl..go see Gran Torino..great pic. I have both HBO and Encore and the only good thing I’ve seen lately is the original Bad News Bears and Firehouse Dog…other than that I tend to find myself clicking back to TMC for the oldies. Just saw “Bringing Up Baby” with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Now that was entertainment.
Jane, I think your post typifies ultimately what is wrong with this site. You post an incredibly elaborate conspiracy of political persecution not actually based on any real facts but merely your own psychological projections of reality.
Instead of understanding that the predominantly OLDER Academy voting bloc has been traditionally very cold towards the comic-book genre, you rant about how the Academy snubbed TDK because they don’t like heroism and tacitly favor evil.
Instead of understanding that the quirky Oscar nomination ballot comes up with the final nominees based on the number of #1 votes a film receives in the first round and NOT the number of overall votes, you buy into the nonsensical notion that somehow the tenuous analogy someone on the internet MIGHT have made to GW Bush doomed the film.
The main reason the film failed to make the final five was because a voting bloc that traditionally nominates artistically SAFE films didn’t really feel that TDK reinvented the wheel, cinematically speaking. The snub might have been an aesthetic failure (even though the last act of TDK was a sloppy unfocused mess), but spinning this into another thread of your political persecution complex is intellecutally indefensible.
Pete wrote: “Maheras, seriously, box office success does not automatically mean that the film is artistically worth a hill of beans. Would you prefer that Best Picture nominatins simply reflect the Top 5 box office champs?….
By the way, be careful ascribing the phrase “shoddily made” to films that in actuality you “politically disagree with”.
I agree that box office success does not necessarily equal artistic merit, but in some cases it absolutely does. “Dark Knight” had both going for it, but it was snubbed for no good reason.
And don’t try and help Hollywood weasel out of the crap it often produces by playing the “Oh, you just don’t like Film X because you disagree with it politically.”
While I admit that sometimes is the case — especially when the political message is so heavy-handed it ruins the film (“Day the Earth Stood Still” remake, anyone?) — there is plenty of apolitical slop that comes out of Hollywood.
Obviously, Mr. Klavan, you are missing what’s right in front of your eyes:
The message of Benjamin Button is that one can watch a man’s life go by in real time, or at least seem that way.
Maheras…of course Hollywood produces a lot of slop. Here’s the thing, it ALWAYS has produced slop. We pretend that the 30’s-50’s were this amazing golden age where nothing but classic after classic was produced. The reality is that for every Mister Roberts or Searchers, there were 300 Teenage Caveman type fiascos that the MST3K crew got rich off of.
My point about not ascribing artistic shoddiness to political disagreement is that the very PURPOSE of this site seems to be kvetching about movies and/or actors based solely on politics or perceived politics. I have no earthly idea why this notion that Dark Knight is supposed to be GW Bush took hold, but I don’t waste time worrying about it because it really had nothing to do with why TDK fell a little short in two major Oscar categories.
Given the quirky way the Oscar nominations are determined, it seems very likely that the older and more risk-averse voters didn’t warm up enough to the film to place it as #1 on more ballots than the other five films. Hell, for we know, the snub could have been from pissed off former Warner Independent or New Line employees that lost their jobs when Time/Warner went kerplunk. Maybe key members of the producers bloc were utterly aghast that Warners screwed up the copyright ownership on Watchmen.
It can’t be too happy of a time at Warners, after all, they are the ones who gave Slumdog to Fox for virtually nothing in return.
[...] Read more « ACORN Watch: Left-wing fraudsters “could get billions” in stimulus money [...]
Yes, the 30’s 40’s 50’s Hollywood produced a lot of slop. It was an industry, and produced wares of all descriptions for all tastes. Because that’s how you make money.
But they didn’t hand an Oscar to the slop.
Mojo, of course Oscar went to slop back in the day. Ever see Best Picture winner The Greatest Show on Earth? Or are you comfortable that Dr. Dolittle received more nominations than Dr. Strangelove?
Just for fun, just how many movies have you seen in the theater in the last 12 months, and what were they?
None. I don’t like sticky floors and overpriced popcorn, nor am I fond of talkers and (even worse) explainers, the bane of movie theaters. I watch at home, which of course means I’m behind the curve of releases by a few weeks or months (depending on a particular film’s box, or lack thereof). I can live with that.
So what’s that got to do with the price of tea in China, Pete? I can’t nominate, nor can I vote. I’m strictly hoi polloi, Hollywood-wise. A mouth-breathing viewer, unfit to comment on the artistry of artistes.
Mojo, don’t you see the box you’ve put yourself in? You admit pretty frankly that you don’t go to the theater to see a movie, yet you simultaneously feel that you already know that the nominated movies are “slop”? It’s easier to make an informed judgement when you’re actually, you know, informed about whatever subject you’re making sweeping statments about. And if you feel that the movies are ultimately beneath you, then why the hell do you care about what gets nominated for an Oscar?
I never called you hoi polloi or a mouth breather, Mojo. Jeesh, the amount of projection you guys resort to is quite astonishing taken in large doses.
Matt, in all fairness, the Republicans have actually lost the popular vote in four out of the last five elections, yet they still consider themselves the overwhelming majority. The way they beat their chests about some things is like a pitcher who gives up 10 runs in the first two innings talking trash after striking out a batter to end the third.
Petartoons and e wrote: “of course Hollywood produces a lot of slop. Here’s the thing, it ALWAYS has produced slop. We pretend that the 30’s-50’s were this amazing golden age where nothing but classic after classic was produced. The reality is that for every Mister Roberts or Searchers, there were 300 Teenage Caveman type fiascos that the MST3K crew got rich off of.”
Yeah, but back then, you got an “A” film, “B” film, a serial or a short comedy, a newsreel, and a cartoon for the price of admission. Everyone knew the “A” film would have certain production standards, “B” films would have lesser stars, a lower budget, etc.
There’s no way in hell back then a crappy, “F” film like “Meet the Spartans” would ever get released as a first-run, premium-priced film. That film was a rip-off, pure and simple.
Never said you did, Pete. I call myself that. It’s a little humor, reflecting the way Hollywood appears to perceive me. Don’t sweat it.
And yes, since I don’t waste my money on obsolete entertainment-delivery systems, I haven’t seen the latest round of late-release Oscar-bait – yet.
What can I say? I didn’t design the system. On the other hand, I don’t game it either. I take what comes, and then decide if I like it or not. If it’s released too late to make it out of the theaters before it gets Officially Oscarized, them’s the breaks. I’m not real concerned with awards or the all-important box-office take since I don’t get a cut of the profits from either piece of marketing.
I am capable of detecting fairly obvious years-long trends, though. Like the annoying preponderance of big-bank “comic book” films in recent years, for example. Tell me that’s healthy.
Marshall McLuhan, where are you?
Rut-roe..Maheras is starting to throw in personal insults, so much for the high ground.
I’ve literally never seen anyone defend Meet the Spartans. Of course, those films do turn pretty healthy profits, given that they cost next to nothing to make. Look up the Box Office Mojo entry on Meet the Spartans, it actually made $85 million worldwide.
However, grade-Z schlock like the Date Movie/Epic Movie stuff really has nothing to do with the Oscars.
Classic movies will stand the test of time and the cream will rise to the top. We live in contemporary times, so none of us can really comment on what future generations will consider to be a “classic”? Will it be Dark Knight? Departed? Chungking Express? Or some film that none of us are even thinking about.
Boycott Hollywood. Stop this insanity. Fight back by not paying to watch these lame movies. www alluc org
Nuff said.
Mojo, you’ve actually stumbled on an important truth in your last post there. There is a preponderance of “comic book” films these days. Take this a little further and you’ll notice that an unfortunately large amount of films are tentpoles, franchises, or adaptations of other intellectual properties. This goes to my earlier point about Hollywood actually being much more risk averse than some of you realize. An original script that isn’t based off a novel, video game, comic book, musical, etc. is less likely to be greenlit than something that is perceived to have a built-in audience. And, no, it’s not healthy.
Each of the Best Picture nominees are adaptations of other works (although I’m not sure who would have read the novel Slumdog was based off of). Nominees like Juno or Little Miss Sunshine are unfortunately rarities in that they were wholly original screeplays.
By the way, Mojo, considering that Slumdog didn’t even have a distributor this time last year, and was very close to being sent straight to DVD, it can be safely said that it wasn’t ever considered “Oscar bait”.
[...] a free domain name by ahmudg on January 25th, 2009 4,108 27,386 Tech News Discussion (2 Viewing What The Nominations Tell Us – bighollywood.breitbart.com 01/26/2009 by Andrew Klavan Benjamin Button??? You gotta be kidding [...]
In what universe is Ron Howard a “useful idiot”? If anything, he’s an overly reliable straight up the middle filmmaker with a rather bland compositional and narrative sense. His career is actually noteworthy for the paucity of artistic risk taking. As I told my very conservative mom who was writing a magazine article fretting about Da Vinci Code, I told her that Ron Howard’s films were about as adventurous as a bowl of corn flakes, and not to fret about the film taking down the Catholic Church.
To be honest, I am sort of confused as to why there is such conservative pushback on Frost/Nixon. When did Reagan conservatives become such big Nixon fans? Howard obviously thought that a successful play could translate into safe box office, and clearly didn’t do much to punch up the film or give it a distinctive vision. Besides, Robert Altmman and Philip Baker Hall did the definitive Nixon with Secret Honor.
“Stumbled”?
Yeah, same way I “stumble” over the damn coffee table at 3 am sometimes. Because it’s there.
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ featured ONE scene of Muslims being persecuted, in Mumbai, no less. It’s hardly the ‘Milk’ for Muslims like Klavan will have you believe. This wasn’t a very well written piece, but I do agree that “The Dark Knight” was snubbed. Big time!
“Two points: 1. A financially successful movie should not automatically be excluded because of its success. 2. A “serious” (pretentious) movie that fails at the box office is not automatically an excellent movie either.”
I would completely agree with your point. Just because a film is a big money-maker does not mean it is a movie without substance, and obscure movies does not make them great by any means.
My feeling is that it should have nothing to do with the box office success, however. As we have seen over and over in Hollywood of late, marketing seems to determine success more than film quality..and should not be rewarded with accolades for movie making talent. It would be like rewarding McDonald’s with the best hamburger award simply because they’ve marketed it so well that they sell more of them.
Actually, I made two valid, separate points in my post which you blended together for some reason.
To recap and clarify, my two points were:
1.) Hollywood makes a product which the customer has to purchase, sight unseen, and cannot return for a refund – even if the product is unprofessional and/or shoddily made.
2.) It’s clear that there are those in Hollywood who think we, the customer, is too dumb as a whole to be able to accurately “vote” for the “best” films each year (with our “votes,” of course, being in the form of box office totals). As a matter of fact, I’d argue that for the category of “Best Film,” there is no need for a “People’s Choice Award,” since, at the end of the year, all one has to do is look at biggest annual box office gross and it’s pretty obvious which film the film-going public thought was best.
I never said that the Oscar nominees for “Best Picture” this year were shoddy films, and certainly did not compare “Meet the Spartans” with any of this year’s nominees.
What I did say was that “Dark Knight” deserved to be a nominee – perhaps even the winner — and was snubbed.
I also didn’t throw around any “personal insults” – unless you think being publicly miffed because I shelled about $35 to see “Meet the Spartans,” one of the worst major releases I’ve ever seen in my life, is a “personal insult” to someone who was on the creative end of that debacle. If that’s the case, then I’m guilty as charged.
Maheras, I still think that conjoining artistic merit with box office tallies is not always the wisest thing to do. I think it is foolish to say that whoever makes the most money at the Box Office should be automatically considered the Best Picture. Shrek 2 was the box office winner a few years ago, should THAT have been nominated for Best Picture? Giant blockbuster films that employ huge special effects and are marketed towards teenage boys are always going to sell more tickets than, say, a film that’s mostly in Hindi featuring an all Indian cast. That, however, hardly means that when the “people” spend $250 million on Hancock and $55 million on Slumdog, that means Hancock is the better film.
I’ll say this over and over, but the quirky voting system, an artistically conservative older voting bloc, and a horrendously written last twenty minutes probably knocked Dark Knight into the 6th or 7th slot in the Oscar race.
I’m not going to insult you, but I have to know. Why exactly did you go see Meet the Spartans? A cursory examination of Rotten Tomatoes and looking up the other films made by those hacks should have been good enough.
Umm, you had me until Sean Penn being “the greatest actor of his generation” deal with the devil, or not. Are you kidding man. maybe the greatest over-actor of his generation. Every role all he does it audition for an oscar. he acts for the academy, not for people who actually pay for a ticket at the movies. he sucks
@ But what was the movie about? People don’t actually get younger, right? So it had to be a metaphor for something. But what?
I’ve heard a lot of people voice this opinion and I think you guys are just over thinking it.
Sometimes the point of a movie is to show us life as viewed from a different perspective that we could never have ourselves. The different perspective doesn’t have to be profound it can be something simple and slightly askew.
Ben Button lives the same life as all the rest of us but just in a different order. He’s brought up in a nursing home where all his friends are dying. His first romance is with a woman acting out some mid life crises. She wasn’t ever actually going to leave her marriage, she assumes Ben is on the same page as her. But of course he’s swept up in the passions of young love.
When it’s time for him to settle down and raise a family he’s too filled with petulent wander lust. He’s constantly either too early or too late for his life’s major events.
I don’t think it needs to be any more than that. You may as well ask why Forest Gump needs to be dumb or why Billy Pilgrim can’t just live his life sequentially. Especially since the main appeal of this film is its awesome effects and textured period sets which I loved.
@ I can’t help noticing that Hollywood almost completely ignores all the Christians getting persecuted by genuine tyrants like the Myanmar junta and the ACLU.
And can you please stop with this nonesense. This site will immeadiately improve after y’all out grow such childishness.
Pete wrote: “I’m not going to insult you, but I have to know. Why exactly did you go see Meet the Spartans? A cursory examination of Rotten Tomatoes and looking up the other films made by those hacks should have been good enough.”
It was an “impulse buy.” My wife and I were at a mall, and when we walked past the multiplex we felt like seeing a comedy. We’d seen 300, but had no advance intel on “Spartans.” And while we certainly didn’t expect a great film, it was freakin’ awful!!
I’m surprised someone didn’t start a class action lawsuit against those guys.
The decline and fall of American civilization is upon us. Remember when American cars were the best cars made? American goods, were, in general, what the world wanted. No more. So why should we be surprised that our films have likewise become mediocre at best? Hollywood has been taking itself a bit too seriously since the mid 60s. In order to be considered “serious” a film has to have a “message” and a left leaning agenda. Nevermind what the public wants to see. What do THEY know? So, like me, many people now choose to get their entertainment from actual Hollywood “stars.” People like William Powell, Fred Astaire, Jimmy Cagney, Gene Autry, John Wayne, in films by geniuses like Frank Capra, John Ford, Michael Curtia, Alfred Hitchcock. Until Hollywood “gets over itself” and starts making entertaining films, it will continue its downward spiral, just as the auto makers have, and I’ll continue to watch films that withstand the test of time. As Samuel Goldwyn is reported to have once remarked – “If I want to send a message, I’ll call Western Union.” Well, Hollywood, if I want to receive a message, I’ll turn on my Blackberry. Otherwise, don’t call me, I’ll call you.
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To MARKA IN THE KEYS:
Since you “will concentrate on classics with dialogue and character development and solid universal themes of sin and redemption, love and loss, evil versus good, heroism of the self-sacrificing sort, not the heroism of “the courage to be me.”
I’d like to recommend to you an obscure gem titled
This Land Is Mine, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara, and George Sanders.
In Nazi-occuppied France, a timid school teacher struggles to be courageous and set a good example to his young students.
Other than having an obviously low budget limiting the set design,
this is a first rate film. I hope you will enjoy seeing it.
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