Yeah. Maybe District 9 is anti-military... but it's more anti-Blackwater than anything else. Same with Avatar. As for SF winning... there just wasn't any good SF that was nominated except for Up. Now if Moon was up for best picture? Different story maybe. I do find it kind of strange that a history will remember the first female director winning the biggest American directing award winning for a relatively bland and unassuming war movie. Who would have imagined?
Next time you complain about liberals you might wanna actually know what you're talking about. These troops liked the movie. Why do these troops hate the troops?
I work for the military. I was in the military. Most the people that I know who are in the military do not like this movie. It sends the wrong message. As for Viet Nam era movies? Most of them came out AFTER the war was over, which is the way it should be done IMO. Very easy for liberal whack jobs, or conservative nut cases (the Green Berets) to write about wars for whatever politcal message they want to send, while living nice and safe in Hollywood with their cocain filled straws. Rob
You clearly haven't actually seen 'The Hurt Locker' if you think it's "dull," "liberal," or "anti-American/anti-military." With the exception of the often very reckless yet extremely good at what he does Sgt. James and the reactions he sometimes provokes, the soldiers did their jobs with nothing but professionalism. Not once did anyone say anything negative about the overall mission in Iraq, the US, or soldiers as a group; criticizing only individuals for their own behavior such as placing the team in danger or showing quite normal reactions of fear or depression. It has inaccuracies, as one would expect from a non-military author and a Hollywood film, but it certainly isn't dull (quite the opposite - the tension was palpable at several points throughout the film) and according to many Iraq vets captures the distrust, anxiousness, and occasional friendship between soldiers and civilians in Iraq extremely well. It sounds like one of these situations where rumors have started about the movie being anti-military or anti-US and taken on a life of its own where people just repeat that without actually seeing the film. Even if it was those things, which it isn't, what does that have to do with whether it was a good movie or not?
ya know, there's a name for a person who takes cheap shots at dead people. yes, I believe it's called A-S-S-H-O-L-E.
It was just so anti-military when Kathryn Bigelow 'blasted' the troops not once but twice... T'Bonz have you actually watched the Oscars?
That would be quite subjective there; if you aren't interested in space opera and prefer romantic comedy/relationship movies, well, that genre has rarely been done better than in Annie Hall.
Chiming in belated, I am glad The Hurt Locker won. I think it was the better-made film. Avatar was considerably more mainstream, but Hurt Locker was an incredibly taut, emotionally resonant suspense thriller. It was very "now", where you could argue Avatar was very... uhm, not? Yes, you can say that Avatar dealt with themes dealing with the environment, but like others have said, The Hurt Locker deals with issues that are very prevalent and relevant in our society today. I had heard somewhere that a majority of the voters who vote for Best Picture are actors, and they felt like Avatar was representative of a horde of new cinema that chooses to replace the traditional actor with computer generated replacements. I hope that didn't factor into their decision-making process, but one can see their point. The Hurt Locker is classic cinema; gritty, emotional, current and entertaining; Avatar was perhaps too technologically progressive for Hollywood's tastes.
It's been suggested that actors aren't receptive to Avatar for that reason, but actors aren't a majority of the Academy (closer to a fifth, I believe, but that's the single-largest voting group). And The Hurt Locker won the Producers Guild Award, which suggests that it's victory was not dependent on actor enmity.
Indeed. But then American culture is so militaristic that anything less than jerking off to the flag qualifies as "anti-military".
I hardly see why that's a risible opinion. It's a masterful film that set the bar for all subsequent romantic comedies in terms of originality.
Thumbs up to all my enlightened cinephiles sticking up for my beloved masterpiece "Annie Hall" over the empty, shallow, overrated spectacle that is "Star Wars". I'll admit that the Academy has often favoured pretentious feel good movies over much smarter and more creative films simply because the latter were more violent or dark (i.e. "Dances with Wolves" over "Goodfellas", "Shakespeare in Love" over "Saving Private Ryan"), but choosing "Annie Hall" over "Star Wars" was one of the times when they made the right decision by choosing the kinder, gentler, 'adult' flick over the one more popular with younger folks.
Supporting Annie Hall isn't to denigrate Star Wars. It's as good an adventure movie as has ever been made, and it would have been a worthy winner as well.