Baggin on the Oscars is easy (espcially since the year Titanic won a slew) But once one realizes that it is the movie industries way of recognizing it's own most of the percived injustices become understandable. Certinally very good and even great films get missed while lessr works get recognized, but why should Hollywood recognize filmmakers who are not part of Hollywood? The oscars is NOT a film festival, it is recognition for SUCCESSFULL films and a 3-5 hour advertisment for the Hollywood film industry. So when actors who rarely do big budget films get a shot like David Stratharin last year, who can blame the Hollywood crowd for recognizing a guy like Philip Seymour Hoffman who has been paying his dues in mainstream fillms for years AND who turnd in a dam good performance in Capote?
Politics IS part of the Oscars BECEAUSE the industry is so sensitive to public perception. It's allways good to remember that Citizen Kane did not win best picture in 1941 loosing to How Green Was My Valley. The influence of WRH on Hollywood was only partly to blame, the fact that the young Mr. Wells was percived as an outsider had even more to due with this decision of the Academy.
My point is it is not only futile, but dam near childish to look to the Oscars as some sort of yard stick of "BEST WORK" or too expect "Justice" in the little envelopes. It's just a show. Hollywood film fans love it and it is after all thier show. No one is required to watch or even pay attention.
Politics IS part of the Oscars BECEAUSE the industry is so sensitive to public perception. It's allways good to remember that Citizen Kane did not win best picture in 1941 loosing to How Green Was My Valley. The influence of WRH on Hollywood was only partly to blame, the fact that the young Mr. Wells was percived as an outsider had even more to due with this decision of the Academy.
My point is it is not only futile, but dam near childish to look to the Oscars as some sort of yard stick of "BEST WORK" or too expect "Justice" in the little envelopes. It's just a show. Hollywood film fans love it and it is after all thier show. No one is required to watch or even pay attention.
But I still LOVE watching the Oscars every year, and I still LOVE bitching about how wrong they got it.