Except for a few brief minutes when I turned on the TV Sunday, Feb. 22, to record a program, my boycott of the Oscars held true and fast for yet another year.
It’s funny, growing up, I used to look forward with no small amount of anticipation to tuning in to the Academy Awards each year. This was the pre-cable (at least for my family) and satellite TV and pre-Internet era. It was more difficult in those days to get a glimpse of your favorite actor (Harrison Ford), actress (Molly Ringwald — I know, I know, stop rolling your eyes) and director (a tie between Spielberg and Lucas).
I don’t know when it started exactly, but it was probably during the 80s that the Academy Awards began to spiral downward into an unbashed political platform for Hollywood to espouse all of its kooky, far-left liberal causes, beefs and ideologies.
At first this was only irritating, an annoyance to be waded through for the chance to see your personal hero or heroine take the glizty stage under a spotlight. It was still worth it to see who won Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Picture of the Year.
But the rhetoric became more and more vitriolic, foul and just plain old obnoxious. Like anyone really cares what some pampered, grotesquely overpaid celebrity thinks about a particular political issue or bleeding Third World cause?
The list of offenders is laboriously long. Names like Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, Spike Lee, Tom Cruise, and Sean Penn come to mind.
Rather than honoring the best in their field, the Oscar voters turned the program into a politically correct freak show drawing attention to the latest grievous social injustice and a summary denouncement of conservatives and traditional American values. These days, there’s always some Hollywood idiot up at the podium hijacking the broadcast while he castigates millions for their beliefs, values or the way they voted in a democratic process.
By many of the teary, self-indulgent acceptance Oscars rants during the three-plus hour Hollywood narcissistic love-in, an uneducated (or uninformed) viewer might think these egomaniacal stars were elected leaders, scientists, accredited sociologists and deity, all wrapped into one nice little nip-and-tucked bundle.
Even Mickey Rourke — whose was nominated this year for Best Actor in the film “The Wrestler” — sees through the litany of posers and pretenders.
“Actors should shut up about politics, because they tend to be ill-informed finger-pointers who just cozy up to some flavor-of-the-month liberal, you know?” he said.
The other thing about the Oscars that’s broken is the films that are honored. Rather than recognizing the excellence of some of the year’s titles that most moviegoers have enjoyed, its all about political crusade flicks, and art house and indie films no one has even heard of, let alone seen. It’s like Academy members are too sophisticated and above the rabble of general release films most Americans have seen, so they all cast their ballots for obscure, dark, brooding dramas only released in New York and Los Angeles.
While I’m a fan of foreign language, art house and indie pictures, I think we need to get back to movies most Americans have screened and actually care about.
So, did Hollywood get it right for Sunday’s 81st Annual Academy Awards? Let’s examine the winners.
BEST PICTURE: “Slumdog Millionaire,” while I’ll admit I haven’t seen it yet (probably 99 percent of Americans haven’t, and again, that’s part of the problem), this sounds like a compelling film about an Indian teen who rises above the poverty all around him by winning on at TV game show in India. However I’m much more intrigued by the film “Frost/Nixon,” and its two leads, Frank Lagella, as disgraced former U.S. president Richard M. Nixon, and Michael Sheen, as interviewer David Frost. “Slumdog Millionaire” swept the Oscars, hauling in eight golden guys, including one for Best Director for Irishman Danny Boyle.
Grade: B-
BEST ACTRESS: Kate Winslet for her role in “The Reader.” Again, haven’t seen the film, and probably won’t until it’s edited for TV due to the R-rated sexual content, but I have to say I LOVE Kate Winslet. One of the most talented (and gorgeous) actresses of our day, Britain’s Winslet has been compared to her competitor in this year’s category, Meryl Streep for “Doubt,” for her versatility and for picking challenging roles in quality dramas. Often actors are anointed with an Oscar for their body of work and not necessarily for their current film nomination. And while Winslet’s still relatively young, I think was a cumulative accolade for her.
Grade: A
BEST ACTOR: Sean Penn for his lead role in “Milk,” a biography of slain San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk. I know I’m sounding like a broken record here — haven’t seen it (if you read my previous column about having two small children, you know why). And while I think Penn is a gifted actor, this flick is so totally a political agenda piece thinly disguised as a movie. Not surprisingly, Penn couldn’t resist at lashing out at California voters who approved Proposition 8 banning gay marriage and their “great shame” for opposing something many still believe is inappropriate. Apparently liberals only selectively define choice, tolerance, and diversity of opinion, depending on the subject.
As Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly said earlier this week, gay marriage won an Oscar on Sunday night.
Grade: D
BEST DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle for “Slumdog Millionaire.” Don’t know much about the guy but the film has generated positive buzz over the past several months and sounds like it deserves a watch.
Grade: B
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Ledger for his amazingly creepy portrayal of super villain The Joker in last summer’s blockbuster “The Dark Knight.” No major qualms here. Ledger was a rising star in Hollywood and his role as the The Joker in the box-office smash of the year was probably his best performance yet. But I do think he received tons of sympathy votes because of his untimely death last year caused by prescription drugs. After all, immortalizing celebrities in their prime who die in a sudden fashion is an honored Hollywood marketing tradition.
Grade: A-
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: “WALL-E” bested “Kung Fu Panda” and “Bolt” for the Oscar and deservingly so. Many critics argued the amazing film that featured virtually no dialogue between the lead characters about a lonely robot in the future should have been nominated for Best Picture. A touching love story, this one appealed to adults as much as children.
Grade: A
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Japan’s “Departures.” A best kept-secret from American moviegoers, most foreign language films nominated in this category are genuine cinematic gems. Truth be told, if many of these films were to go head-to-head against Best Picture nominees, the foreign language flicks would win by a mile. Other nominees in the category include Germany’s “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” France’s “The Class,” Austria’s “Revanches,” and Israel’s “Waltz with Bashir.”
Grade: A
∫ Michael is a reporter and editor for a daily newspaper in Provo, Utah.
