The Oscars (and other awards)

I'd have gone with Full Metal Jacket, but again, haven't seen The Last Emperor.

Of course. Dracula is putting Oculus forth as an early Oscar contender.

Drac-bot is malfunctioning.

Full Metal Jacket wasn't nominated. The nominees for Best Picture were:

Broadcast News (James L. Brooks)
Fatal Attraction
Hope & Glory (John Boorman)
The Last Emperor
Moonstruck (Cher / Nicolas Cage)

Of those nominees, the obvious winner is Fatal Attraction. You can make arguments for Broadcast News and Moonstruck, but no other adult movie captured America's imagination quite like Fatal Attraction. That movie was HUGE and launched the erotic thriller genre of the late 1980's and early 1990's. It made a much bigger impact than The Last Emperor, a movie that most people forgot about. 

Great movies are not forgotten. Even when they're ignored upon release they manage to find an audience. See, your problem is that you care too much about artistic integrity. When the Academy thinks like you, that's when movies like The King's Speech and The Artist win. The best movies emotionally connect with an audience, regardless of whether they're artistic or not. You claim that every movie should try to be a masterpiece. Well, every movie that IS a masterpiece cared about its audience feelings. What should they feel in this scene? What should they feel for this character? So for a movie to succeed in bonding with the audience should be rewarded. And when the Academy thinks like me, that's when movies like The Godfather and Rocky win. Fatal Attraction wasn't simply popular. It made an impact. And it wasn't even the best movie of 1987. The better movies, the ones that made a deeper impact, weren't even recognized. Where's The Untouchables? Where's Full Metal Jacket? Heck, where's Lethal Weapon or Robocop? So for Fatal Attraction to actually get recognition is a major victory. And then, for it to get b---h slapped by a movie that no one cared about - except for Doomsday apparently - it is an insult to Fatal Attraction and every movie that wasn't acknowledged.

Don't forget that the Oscar, the actual statuette and award, go to the filmmakers.

Not at all. The King's Speech is an example of the Oscars being too chicken to vote for Toy Story 3 or Inception. Because, you know, they're popular - and if high school taught us anything - popularity means nothing. 

The King's Speech wasn't even in the conversation till after the Golden Globes when Harvey Weinstein's quintessential campaigning went into high gear. Most Oscar voters even admitted that they didn't care about the movie. Weinstein simply slipped a few favors under the table. The Social Network was definitely the movie people wanted to vote for, but even then, they weren't doing it for the right reasons. Inception and Toy Story 3 are, by far, the movies that have resonated the most in the last four years. You're lying to yourself if you say they aren't. Even I, who chose Black Swan, will admit that those two have had a greater lasting impression and I've had to re-evaluate them in recent years. Inception especially, which you may recall, I was a bit harsh on because Christopher Nolan's over-explaining of everything is ridiculous. In hindsight, however, Inception and Toy Story 3 should have been the frontrunners with Inception being the obvious winner. But the Academy would never even dare to consider them because they're not "artistic" enough. Like you, they put "art" over the emotional bond between a movie and an audience. And keep in mind that audiences did not care about The King's Speech. So to even imply that is ludicrous. The same goes with The Artist. Audiences loved Black Swan, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Fighter and The Social Network. And in that order. 

That is categorically untrue. The movie was "in the conversation" before anyone saw it and was considered a front runner as soon as it premiered at Telluride and Toronto and won the Audience choice award.


If they'd wanted to vote for The Social Network they would have done it.  Politics does obviously play a role in the Oscars but to suggest that Harvey Weinstein can make people vote for a movie they actively don't want to is tinfoil hat thinking.

Look, I liked Inception as much as anyone, you can look back at The Golden Stakes from that year and you'll see it was the number one film for me at the time.  I would have been thrilled if the Academy had chosen it.  However, I didn't want them to do that just because it happened to be one of the year's most popular films, I wanted them to do it because I legitimately thought it was an award-worthy achievement and an artistic breakthrough.  


Audiences LOVED The King's Speech... at least audiences of a certain age. It made $138 millions dollars domestic, $414 million worldwide. It outgrossed The Fighter, it outgrossed The Social Netword, it outgrossed Black Swan, and worldwide it outgrossed True Grit. They ate it up it because it's a simplistic heartstring pulling movie that aimed to please audiences and give them what they wanted. In other words, it's everything that you describe as greatness.

Fatal Attraction is good for a teenage wank and not much else.

#10 - LORD OF THE RINGS WINS BEST PICTURE!



A fantasy-adventure film that is very mainstream and a box office sensation almost never wins a "respectable" Academy Award but it happened 10 years ago when Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture. As someone who was online on that night, I can vividly remember the excitement of every geek and nerd on the planet. Even if you didn't give a s--t about LOTR it was still amazing to see the Oscars FINALLY loosen up and reward a crowd-pleasing film. The lone exception to all this was our board moderator, Doomsday, who proclaimed that LOTR had a 0% chance of winning Best Picture and he never heard the end of it till CS! became a Mad Max wasteland.


#9 - THE COPPOLA FAMILY ADDS ANOTHER OSCAR TO THEIR COLLECTION



Francis Ford Coppola has won several Academy Awards. His father, Carmine Coppola, won an Oscar for The Godfather, Part II. His nephew, Nicolas Cage, won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas. And 10 years ago, his daughter Sofia Coppola, won an Oscar for Lost In Translation. Meanwhile, other members of his family have received Academy Award nominations. So if you're part of the Coppola clan and have gotten no Oscar love whatsoever, I feel really bad for you.


#8 - STEVEN SPIELBERG FINALLY WINS AN ACADEMY AWARD!



Throughout the late 1970's and 1980's, Steven Spielberg was disrespected by the Academy Awards on several occasions. He did not receive a Best Director nomination for Jaws, which is insane, and The Color Purple infamously lost in every single category despite getting 11 nominations. So when Schindler's List became a contender 20 years ago, everyone knew it had to win Best Picture and Best Director. Schindler's List is a legitimately great movie and Spielberg was long overdue.


#7 - TOM HANKS WINS HIS FIRST OSCAR FOR PHILADELPHIA



Last year, I had fun comparing and contrasting different Oscar ceremonies and this year is no exception. Especially when you consider the people and movies involved. This year, many people were upset that Tom Hanks didn't receive a Best Actor nomination for Captain Phillips. Meanwhile, the front runner is the category is Matthew McConaughey for playing a gay man with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club. So it is very fascinating to point out that 20 years ago, Tom Hanks won the first of two Oscars in a row for playing a gay man with AIDS in the court room drama, Philadelphia. It's always amusing when history repeats itself. Let's hope McConaughey wins an Oscar next year for playing a mentally handicapped person. Speaking of which...


#6 - DUSTIN HOFFMAN WINS HIS SECOND OSCAR FOR RAIN MAN; BEATS GENE HACKMAN



In the 1950's, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman were classmates in acting school and they were infamously voted least likely to succeed by the other students. Then in 1967, they had the last laugh by receiving Academy Award nominations for The Graduate and Bonnie & Clyde which were two groundbreaking Hollywood films. Fast-forward to 1989, and they're the two frontrunners for Best Actor at the Oscars. Hoffman delivered a brilliant, although cliche performance, in Rain Man while Hackman brought out his inner Popeye Doyle for a very badass performance in Mississippi Burning. Hoffman would, of course, win because the Oscars love rewarding actors that portray mentally handicapped people.


#5 - PIXAR WINS ITS FIRST OSCAR



Before Pixar was the most successful animation studio in the world, it was just a visual effects company that George Lucas sold to Steve Jobs. But the head of the creative department, John Lasseter, believed the company could evolve into a powerhouse in the animation industry and he proved his point in 1988 with Tin Toy. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film and became the first CGI movie to win anything.


#4 - THE OSCARS STREAKER



Has it really been 40 years since a hippie streaked at the Oscars? Has it really been 40 years since David Niven made a penis joke at the Oscars? Man, time flies. At least that's what I assume Ramplate would say. I wasn't even alive in 1974 but it's good to know crazy s--t was happening at the Oscars before I was born. And I'm sure crazy s--t will continue after I'm gone.


#3 - TATUM O'NEAL WINS AN OSCAR!



Whenever a child is nominated for an Oscar, certain people get upset. Now imagine when a child WINS an Academy Award. It happened 20 years ago with Anna Paquin in The Piano but the most noteworthy winner was Tatum O'Neal 40 years ago. Why? Well, because she beat another child who was also nominated that year. I'm, of course, talking about Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Can you imagine two child actors nominated in the same category and they're both the frontrunners? If that happened today, Dracula would literally kill himself.


#2 - STANLEY KUBRICK WINS HIS ONLY OSCAR!



In a year where Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity is a major contender at the Academy Awards, it is important to remember that 45 years ago, Stanley Kubrick won his ONLY Oscar for 2001: A Space Odyssey. And it wasn't for Best Picture, Best Director or even Best Screenplay. He won the award for Best Special Effects. I kid you not. Stanley Kubrick's only Academy Award was for a technical category. Granted, the special effects in 2001 were groundbreaking and he deserved to win but it's amusing that his only recognition by the Academy in a competitive category (meaning no tribute awards) was for his technical skills.


#1 - SIDNEY POITIER WINS HISTORIC OSCAR!



In a year where 12 Years a Slave might win Best Picture, it's important to remember that 50 years ago - half a century ago - Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win Best Actor. Since him, only Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx have won in that category. People have never accused the Oscars of being racially diverse.