From the “Best Penmenship in 2nd grade” certificate (which I won, thank you very much) to the “Employee of the Month” parking space outside many office buildings, to our glorious Oscars. Ah, the Oscars. Good grief.The Oscar ceremony is such an overblown, revered annual event that you’d think they were handing out something important, like Nobel Peace Prizes. (When was the last time you stayed up late watching the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony?)
And sometimes, in retrospect, we realize how meaningless these awards are. The esteemed Academy often drops the ball. Citizen Kane, widely regarded as one of the best movies of all time, lost the Best Picture Oscar (just the fact that I capitalized that galls me) to the melodramatic How Green was My Valley. Raging Bull lost to Ordinary People. And I know we all loved Forrest Gump, but was it really a better movie than The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction? And the list of oversights goes on and on.
Hindsight is 20/20. I know. But sometimes, let’s be honest, there are other forces at work. Big time awards mean big time money, which makes them political. Sometimes awards reflect the values of the ruling class. Sometimes they reflect the prevailing snobbery or self-righteousness. Sometimes they're given to make up for previous slights (Scorsese's The Departed Oscar... who knew there would be two awards for "make up" that year?)
You may or may not remember the brouhaha that resulted in 1989. Iron Maiden and Metallica both lost the Best Hard Rock/Metal Album award to…Jethro Tull. Jethro Tull? Okay, maybe you’re not convinced yet. I stumbled upon one recently that nearly took my breath away. Check this out: 1966. The Grammy for Best Contemporary Recording. The Beatles’s “Eleanor Rigby,” The Beach Boys’s “Good Vibrations” and the Mamas and the Papas’s “Monday Monday” all lost …to “Winchester Cathedral” by the New Vaudeville Band. Huh?!
Is it any wonder that some artists use their awards as bookends or sell them on eBay?
Woody Allen rarely attends the Oscar ceremony because he prefers to play his clarinet every Monday night at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel. Woody's a man with his priorities straight.
5 comments:
Nice post. Agreed we are a bit obsessed with this ceremony as a nation. Personally I have only watched the Academy Awards a few times before. Every part of it always seems so rehearsed. Every speech seems so edited. I remember seeing Cuba Gooding Jr's speech for winning best supporting actor and thinking it was the first interesting acceptance speech I remember enjoying. Not sure if he planned it that way but it sure seemed unrehearsed and heartfelt.
Yeah, nice post! I have to say I saw the British BAFTA's in 2006 and was really moved, especially the speeches and lifetime achievement award. Sometimes the awards events do seem really special and authentic, though they do miss the boat sometimes and your points are well taken!! :)
All that said, are you going to watch the Oscars? I don't have TV so I have a good excuse, but I don't need one. I don't really care. I care more about humanitarian events or awards for those these days. The Hollywood stuff is so superficial. It's all about who is wearing what and going with whom and how skinny they are or wrinkle free and how big their lips are.....
Oh, and wouldn't it be great if Angelina Jolie or Penelope Cruz or... shoot I can't remember anybody's name any more... showed up without makeup?
I know the Oscars suck to many but I enjoy the comedian who hosts more than anything else. Gives me a good laugh. So I tend to always watch even though I don't always agree with the selections made. I enjoy most of the songs and don't really care who gets the Oscar.
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