Academy Awards in retrospect

[CaptainCanada]

With the Academy Awards for 2009 being handed out tomorrow, part of the debate over who should win always revolves around which films will be remembered in the long-term (with accusations that others will age badly). There are indeed consenus opinions formed about some films as being unworthy winners. Here, defend past winners you think are now unfairly maligned.

For my part:

Shakespeare in Love - this was an upset winner over Saving Private Ryan, and the complaints started pretty much as soon as it won. But personally, I would have voted for it. SPR is a tremendous technical achievement, particularly the opening (which revolutionized depictions of combat on film), but I never found its story especially involving. Shakespeare in Love's got a much more interesting screenplay. Plus, it's nice to see a comedy win, which is rare enough.​

 

[Kegg]

I see Chicago frequently name-dropped as a rather unworthy winner of the award, but in all honesty, that's one of the best and most entertaining musicals I've seen. It's a delight from start to finish; with a dozen show-stopping tunes and deliciously black comedy - not to mention strong performances, excellent period details, and buckets of that old razzle dazzle.

Maybe I should go watch it again.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Yeah, Chicago's another of my favourites; it drew a lot of fire in some circles for beating LOTR, but so long as that trilogy got Best Picture once (and it did), I don't see any reason not to spread the wealth around.

 

[Emher]

People hate on "Forrest Gump", but far as I'm concerned it's a worthy winner. Yes there where several fantastic movies that year, but "Forrest Gump" is my favorite movie of all time and it's a damned well made movie that I keep discovering new stuff in.

 

[Harvey]

What films beat Citizen Kane and Do the Right Thing? Because those ones would make my list.

 

[NileQT87]

Amadeus (8-Oscar sweep), Boys Town, The Sound of Music and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (Supporting Actor and Juvenile) are my favorite Oscar winners.

I'm not a huge fan of Oscar-bait movies. And the recent ones have only proven how irrelevant and stuffy the Academy is. It's almost a recurring joke that practically nobody in the general populace has ever seen any of the nominees.

And despite the fact that F. Murray Abraham did give an amazing performance as the old Salieri (especially that famous rant), I still prefer Tom Hulce's performance and think he completely steals the end of the movie with his dramatic performance. By the end of the movie, it's Mozart who is the star. It's kind of part of the irony of Mozart getting the last laugh when the entire first part of the movie focused on Salieri's point of view. By the end, the main character/protagonist of the film has very nearly switched from what it was at the beginning. The audience's empathy also takes a dramatic shift as the point of view changes. And well, the last third of the movie is what makes the movie--and it's Tom Hulce's performance that stands out in that section. Hulce is the end of that movie. It's him that carries the Requiem scene.

The problem was that you had two actors from the same film both nominated for Best Actor. Some people have posited that Tom Hulce should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor so that both performances could win.

Dick Smith's old Salieri makeup still holds up as one of the best makeup jobs in cinematic history to this day.

 

[Kegg]

What films beat Citizen Kane and Do the Right Thing? Because those ones would make my list.

How Green Was My Valley is actually a very nice film. Welsh miners, John Ford, it's not Citizen Kane but it's worth watching.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

What films beat Citizen Kane and Do the Right Thing? Because those ones would make my list.

No only wasn't Do the Right Thing nominated in the Best Picture category in 1990, which is already insane, but the winner that year was Driving Miss Daisy, which is borderline criminal.

 

[Deckerd]

A Beautiful Mind. That one was a bit baffling.

 

[Emher]

Oh oh, realized I could voice my favorite Oscar peeve. Zodiac wasn't nominated for a single Oscar the other year, when it was easily a Best Supporting Actor nom for Mark Ruffalo in that and in my opinion Best Picture of 2007.

 

[Roger Wilco]

If any movie except Inglorious Basterds wins this year's Best Picture Oscar it will be a travesty imo, especially if it's the fucking Hurt Locker of Precious.

 

[tomalak301]

I know the Academy Awards are full of flaws (Crash anyone?) but the worst Academy Awards was when Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won all the awards that one year. Yeah I know I'm in a minority in terms of not liking the movies as much as others do, but the Academy Awards pretty much said "Let's screw over everything else that came out in this individual year so we can honor three movies that came out in a 3 year span." That's all well and good, but if you're going to do that, then have a special honorary award. Peter Jackson's epic was huge, and it deserved recognition, but sweeping the awards made that show a joke in my opinion because no other movie in that year had a chance.

As for tonight's show, I hope it keeps moving and I really wish the academy would not wait till the end to give out all the big awards. Intersperse them. Isn't that what they usually did in the 90s? Do best Actor/Actress early in the show, and just when the show start's getting boring, do another big award. It keeps people watching an interested, instead of waiting till midnight (Or in my case 9:00, which isn't bad) till the stuff they actually care about is one.

As for Best Picture, I hope Avatar or District 9 doesn't win. I would love to see one of these three movies win: Inglorious Bastards, Up in the Air, or The Hurt Locker.

 

[CaptainCanada]

As for tonight's show, I hope it keeps moving and I really wish the academy would not wait till the end to give out all the big awards. Intersperse them. Isn't that what they usually did in the 90s? Do best Actor/Actress early in the show, and just when the show start's getting boring, do another big award. It keeps people watching an interested, instead of waiting till midnight (Or in my case 9:00, which isn't bad) till the stuff they actually care about is one.

They do intersperse them, for the most part; the supporting awards and Best Actress are spread out at intervals, and then Actor, Director, and Picture traditionally close it out.

 

[Kira's Mom]

As much as I loved Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I thought Master and Commander was the much better film that year.

Crash beating Brokeback Mountain was a disgrace.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

As much as I loved Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I thought Master and Commander was the much better film that year.

And in that year - I thought Mystic River was one of the best.

But looking at Best Picture winners films over the last 30 years, my favourites would be American Beauty and LOTR - Return of the King. There are only 3 best pictures I own on DVD (other is No Country for Old Men). There are many I need to see again.

 

[Docbrown777]

What was that movie a few years back where Sean Penn was always yelling? You know, because he played a retarded guy and apparently retarded people can't control their feelings or something. I thought that movie was unamazing and annoying.

I don't know. I find Sean Penn annoying in general.

 

[Deckerd]

He's considered a Great Actor, you know. (Sean Penn) I don't get that.

 

[Tom]

So did anyone else notice how they messed up the timing of the show again. The Academy awards always run overtime, thats nothing new, but a couple things struck me.

The best Actor and Actress presentation was way to long and draw out by having 5 people tell stories of the nominated actors. So the show was already running late when they occured. They then had Tom Hanks (who is the Academy Governer BTW,) almost run out on stage and very quickly blurt out the winning film after ironicaly commenting on how there has not been 10 film nominated since 1943. I think his 'rushed' presentation of best film was disgraceful.

I know they wanted to get to there respective post-award parties, but jeesh, what a huge contrast between best Actor and Actress and best picture presentation.

 

[Caligula]

I felt the awards last night all went out to deserving people and films. I LOVED the John Hughes tribute. Couldn't stand the robot dancing that acccompanied the excerpts from the Best Original Score nominees (which BTW I was surprised, yet happy to see go to Michael Giacchino for Up).

And Star Trek even got one! I can't remember, and I figure this is the most appropriate place to ask.... has any other Trek film won an Oscar of any kind? I know there have been nominees in the past, such as First Contact (for either makeup or visual effects, I forget which).

 

[Captain Shaw]

I felt the awards last night all went out to deserving people and films. I LOVED the John Hughes tribute. Couldn't stand the robot dancing that acccompanied the excerpts from the Best Original Score nominees (which BTW I was surprised, yet happy to see go to Michael Giacchino for Up).

And Star Trek even got one! I can't remember, and I figure this is the most appropriate place to ask.... has any other Trek film won an Oscar of any kind? I know there have been nominees in the past, such as First Contact (for either makeup or visual effects, I forget which).

I thought STTMP got one