Look For More Hollywood PC at This Year’s Oscars
by Jeffrey JenaAs we move towards tonight’s granddaddy of all awards shows, I am starting to wonder several things: First, after seeing an editorial in the New York Times and a very drab and unhappy looking professor of women’s studies on Fox News call for just one best actor and best supporting actor award to end sex discrimination in Hollywood, I am starting to think lots of people are reading my blogs. Over a year ago I poked a little fun at the politically correct Screen Actors Guild for not using the word “actress” but still give and award for a “female actor.” The left has now jumped on my bandwagon so maybe there is hope for America and Hollywood!
The second thing that has been on my mind is which brand of political correctness will prevail this year’s Oscars. Will the “I’m voting for ‘Avatar’ because it ridicules America and its military” faction be stronger than the “It’s time a woman won best director” faction?
There are other political considerations in this year’s voting but this got me to thinking about past years and whether or not the nominations and awards really are all about the art. It seems that all sorts of considerations, political, social, personalities and career get mixed in and often the storytelling gets left on the cutting room floor. In the interest of brevity I will limit my comments to the years I can actually remember, which, if I am honest, would rule out several years in the early seventies and mid-eighties.
Back in 1967, we all rushed to see “The Graduate” with anti-hero Benjamin played by Dustin Hoffman. A good movie but not a great one. “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Dr. Doolittle,” and winner “In the Heat of the Night” were also nominated. So was the entirely forgettable “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” nominated for its subject matter and the casting of Hollywood legends Tracy and Hepburn?
In 1970, the double question mark of “Airport” and “Love Story” were nominated. Has anybody under the age of 75 gone back and given “Airport,” the forefather of the disaster film genre, another look? What do you get when you take an unbelievably banal book and make a very predictable movie? With “Love Story” you got a best picture nomination for the chick-iest chick flick of all time. The beautiful and irascible young woman in the picture getting cancer and dying may have done the trick in getting the nomination, a lesson not lost on the makers of 1983 winner “Terms of Endearment.”
I have this other theory about the Oscar’s: If you want to get a nomination for an acting award, play someone with a physical or mental problem. There are tons of examples, like “Rain Man,” “Forrest Gump,” Scent of a Woman,” All About Eve,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “As Good as it Gets,” I could go on and on, but you get my point.
Of course the all time champ of getting a best picture nomination that it didn’t deserve is “The Godfather: Part III.” The result of all this was that now I believe that Marlon Brando and George C. Scott were right: leave the trophy and take the cannoli.
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36 Comments
Holy crap! "Airport" was nominated for an Oscar?! Wasn't it a precursor to the Irwin Allen terror flicks, where a cast of celebs screams blood-curdling shrieks for most of the film? That it was nominated seems to me up there with Obama getting the Noble Peace Prize for absurdity.
As a kid in the '60s and '70s, my hip, but babysitter-less parents often took me to many films of the era – a plethora of totally inappropriate for kid films, but most were, even I as a kid thought, really good: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Harold and Maude, Bonnie and Clyde, Every Woody Allen film, Shampoo… I remember them all well.
But the night I saw "Aiport", I'll never forget. My family was in Portugal, when my dad decided to take the family to a movie: "Airport". I was not yet seven and found the chaos in the sky terrifying. It was the night before we were to take a plane back to the United States. I can blame that film on my then newly acquired fear of flying.
My dad has a bizarre sense of what's appropriate for children.
'A Beautiful Mind' , except when the real character is a jew hating, men's bathroom pervert. I can't understand why Ron [Opie] Howard left out these sterling details?
Let's make it really politically correct. Everyone gets an Oscar. That way there won't be any hurt feelings. We shouldn't be making anyone uncomfortable now should we? Thanks for playing everyone, you all did a terrific job.
Without "Airport" their would have been no "Airplane", so don't knock it.
Usually when the "looney" left, (note to myself, find another adjective for the left other than looney
which, in a way, degrades the excellence of Warner Bros Looney Tunes) sorry about that. When
the ….. left agrees with my position I reexamine my position, but I do understand your point.
Socialpolitical themes are always good nominee materal and very good chance of winning.
Let's have the marxist Oscars. Everybody wears gray overalls and winners get an extra food ration book.
Let's see…. A celebration of over-stoked egos, filled to the brim of self-congratulations and self-adulation for the ability to take other peoples words and perform them. Hmm. Nope, I don't think I'll watch it either.
Really, honestly; can you even imagine a less rewording 3+ hours of low level entertainment? I would rather watch grass turning brown than this.
Or "The Big Bus".
Hey, I'm encouraged by that Steve Pond article that says they're bringing back the words: "…And the winner is…"!!
What, there's a competition!? That's not very PC, this talk of winners and losers.
I'll take that as a minor victory, saying "And the winner is…" instead of "And the Oscar goes to…" Only in my dreams would the presenters ever say, "And the film that was better than all the pathetic losers WAS…!"
I bet this year's Oscar will be the least watched one yet. I wasn't excited about ANY movies released in the past few years, and could not care any less for any releases last year.
Aren't they basicly all dressed up like barbie doll's and bring their current partners with them and then say they love themselves again and again. Its all about ego and money and looking hot but stupid
Well played.
Well Well
That is a great idea except we can't have the Neanderthals who made American Carol get an Oscar can we. We need to edit your statement just a little don't we. Everyone who makes a movie that is approved by the political elte film critics appointed for life by Obama gets an Oscar and everyine esle gets sent to the reeducation camp. There now you have a progressive utopian ideal also know as progtology for some strange reason. And whil we are at it who the H3!! is Oscar anyways. It needs to be called an Obama.
take your pick…….
crazy, crazed, mad, wild, raging, frenzied, lunatic, schizophrenic, psychotic, psychopathic, psychoneurotic, paranoid, non compos mentis (Latin), maniacal, raving, demented, rabid, berserk, unbalanced, unhinged, act of one's mind, out of one's head, moonstruck, unsettled, mentally unsound, mentally diseased, sick, suffering from hallucinations, bereft of reason, daft, deluded, possessed, stark mad, having a devil, obsessed, disordered, touched, addlebrained, addlepated, addleheaded, nutty*, loony*, nuts*, schizo*, schizzy*, tetched*, balmy*, screwy*, loco*, off the wall*, wacko*, cuckoo*, bughouse*, crazy as a coot*, mad as a March hare*, gone*, derailed*, half-cocked*, haywire*, bats*, batty*, off the beam*, having bats in the belfry*, round the bend*, bonkers*, unglued*, nutty as a fruitcake*, off one's nut*, off one's rocker*, out of one's gourd*, dotty*, pixilated*, cracked*, having a few buttons missing*, one can short of a six-pack*, frothing at the mouth*, bananas*, not playing with a full deck*, out to lunch*, not all there*, wigged out*, off the deep end*; see also sick, violent 2, 4.
Excellent point. Dross is necessary for some of the very best parody out there.
"Will the “I’m voting for ‘Avatar’ because it ridicules America and its military” faction be stronger than the “It’s time a woman won best director” faction?"
Count on it. It's far easier to point the finger than to foster the change many Hollywood liberals only claim to want. The fact is that the status quo benefits them, so naturally they don't want it changed. But it's necessary to maintain the act for "street cred". They're actors: acting is what they do best.
Man I loved that movie….
I have to cop out to the fact that do enjoy breaking out the Airport movies to see now and again (and I'm under 75). While the first Airport movie was the best of them and a good popcorn flick, the best picture nomination was too much.
Haven't watched the Oscars in quite a while. There just isn't any class.
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Of course, NONE of those things happened tonight, did they? Don't worry, next year this site will be breathlessly writing about how awfully political the ceremony was and all the political speeches…
Gotta say, I enjoyed the Oscars more than I have in a long time. The burger, fries and shake I ate while watching it weren't bad either.
'If you want to get a nomination for an acting award, play someone with a physical or mental problem….All About Eve."
I'm not even going to criticize or be a smart ass. Just somebody explain that, please. I had to read it several times to make sure I read "All About Eve".
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Because it would offend Larry Craig's constituents. Happy now?
Hey thanks, Individualist, While some of those are what my dad used to
called me and brings a tear to my eye. the rest are certainly useable.
A cornucopia of lefty terms and all currently being used to describe
Matt Damon but he won't mind.
You are correct on your excellent points, I overlooked that positive message films or anything critical of democrats or liberals doesn't deserve to be released. Also, the Obama trained critics will quickly adopt the one's philosophy of America bad, Europe and rest of world good, so only foreign made films with foreign actors, directors, producers etc. etc will win any Obamas. That's change that Obama would approve of.
I liked Godfather III.
AIRPORT is actually a remake of a movie called ZERO HOUR, almost the same story line, dialogue, and shot-for-shot action, but played straight. It was on TCM the other night. Hilarious.
I noticed that, too. "Winners"?! Doesn't that mean the rest are (gasp!) "Losers"?!
I also liked Godfather III….just not as much as the first two. It was a decent movie though (save for Sofia Coppola and the absence of Robert Duvall).
I should have known Avatar wouldn't win, but I picked it on my ballot (I have a friendly wager with my wife). I picked director though. I knew they couldn't resist the chance to award it to a woman. But I should have known….
The Academy rarely gives Best Picture kudos to sci-fi/comedy/horror/fantasy. The Lord of the Rings was more or less an achievement award. But Star Wars, E.T., Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harry Potter, etc. all lost. The argument could be reasonably made that they were the best pictures of their years.
I would have to say that the most overrated, lauded films of recent times must be JFK and Titanic. The former is absolutely hilarious to watch today, with completely hammy, over-the-top performances from usually great actors (Jack Lemmon, Joe Pesci, etc.) And it makes absolutely no sense. As far as Titanic, it gets the ship right, but is in essence a teenage melodrama, loaded with attitudinal anachronisms, patronizingly centered on those things Hollywood just can't get enough of: race/class/gender. It's kinda entertaining though…..silly, but entertaining.
Sounds like my Dad. When we were little, we were watching one of those movies about an innocent person or persons who get accidentally locked into a dept. store over night full of doberman pinchers and german shepherds.
And right near the end, the old man shows up with a full grown german shepherd.
If I recall that's the only time we all went to bed with out being told to. We got out of that room as fast as we could.
I use modern-liberals, to not sully the memory of true classic liberals, that were concerned with things like, say, LIBERTY.
Good point, Liberals of yesterday would be Republicans of today, some even conservatives.
It boggles ones mind.
Maybe they meant "Three Faces of Eve."
I did mean Three Faces of Eve! Yikes! Thats what I get for writing while in Mexico! Maybe I can blame it on the water!
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