Oscar fever is in the air. And I'm just another one caugh in the mania - but not about the films. I love the fashion and I can't wait to see what the stars will be wearing when they enter in the pre-show, but that's where my enjoyment ends. I am dissappointed with the way the Osacars have changed in their films choices over the past two decades. Slowly, but surely, the Oscars have veered from their original mandate and become an awards show that rewards esoteric films and completely ignores those popular films that everyone goes to see.
Most of the time I haven't even heard of the films until they are nominated for an Oscar. And I'm not the only one. Las year's Best Picture noms were sorely lacking the presence of "Dark Knight." Heath Ledgers haunting performance as the joker was only one aspect of this great tale. And it was a blockbuster sensation to boot.
This year the list is sorely missing another film that was a blockbuster sensation, and a really masterful script and production as well - "Star Trek." This modern re-imagining had great pacing, lovable characters, a witty script, and it looked friggin' awesome.
Now, I'm not saying that every film that is popular deserves an Oscar nod. But over the last while the Oscars have generally grown averse to nominating films that are sucessful at the box office. For those of you who want to write me, let me pre-empt you by saying that this is the general trend - sometimes relatively popular films do make it into the line-up. But it seems that their popularity is considered a detriment rather than a benefit to their nomination. I just wish that Oscar would return to those days of glory when "Casablanca" and "Gon with the Wind" were nominated - both considered hits. Popular films should not, by default, face an uphill battle when it comes to nominations.
Although Star Trek was undoubtedly an entertaining and well constructed film I can’t say as I believe it deserves an Oscar Nod for best picture, I would say that The Dark Knight being such a wild ride was worth a nod at least, but it wouldn’t have deserved to win. I do agree with your statement of popular films being neglected from the Oscars, in fact, last year’s Oscar nominees were so “independent” that it was hard to find someone that had seen them all. Don’t get me wrong, Slumdog was to me a fantastic movie, well-crafted, acted and shot but I feel as though last years Oscars were attempting to be too focused on smaller cinema instead of having a balance of both. As it stands this year I believe they’ve attempted to have a mixture of both independent and blockbuster hits with a diverse mix including the smash hit Avatar (aka Dances with Smurfs) and the Indy sleeper An Education. But once again I feel they could’ve broken this down to 5 films, Up, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, An Education and A Serious Man. Films such as The Blind Side, although touching, deserve to be a Hallmark movie not an Oscar pick, while others like District 9 were a poor attempt at Science Fiction, where someone read Childhood’s End and decided to fill out a 8 minute short into a 2 hour film, but I digress. The point remains the same, the blockbusters have missed out in attempt at pleasing all audiences, and the independent film has seen far too much light because of it’s “independence.” All I hope is that the answer will come when Hurt Locker wins and Kathyrn “Point Break” Bigelow shows that Indy and blockbusters can be one and the same.
ReplyDeleteBut wasn't Avatar ultra popular and nominated (yet snubbed hehe) for like a gazillion oscars?? I do agree that Star Trek should've received at least a few nods!
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