*** Official 2004 Academy Awards Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[PeterTHX]

The Salma Hayek Awards.

Presents every award in a different outfit.

"Best Movie about a Latino Communist" is...

 

[Zen Butler]

Seth,

Petitions Online

I'll be the first to sign your petition. She's just too much for my eyes to handle.

 

[PeterTHX]

D'oh!

Keep mixing the two up. They're SO much alike. :b

Either one, "Ryan" was robbed!

 

[Chris]

Yep. Some good examples. Fantasia may have been one of the most daring moments in film; but I've always thought of Snow White as one of those moments where a filmmaker gambled not just the movie, but his entire studio. If Snow White would have went under, it would have taken Disney, Inc. with it. That's a serious gamble.

There are also great gambles which fail, etc. (Cleopatra).

Ambition alone does not a great film make, of course, and while LOTR series was ambitious, it was not necessarily overly so.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I love the fact that the show lasted just over three hours, shortest show in memory.

I thought Fox's speech was very heartfelt and I was estatic that Morgan Freeman finally got an award.

 

[Seth Paxton]

But the problem here is that they didn't "owe" Clint by the Oscar theory as he has already won big for Unforgiven.

If there were such a thing as the "we owe you" vote, Scorese would have won this year. There isn't. There are just general tastes, a certain lack of understanding of the sub-categories, and people that voters like or respect. I think that covers it pretty well. Voters were moved by M$Baby and like Clint.

ROTK was an incredible ride and a deserving film. It didn't just win one or two awards that night, it was strong. Could it beat Schindlers or Titanic, I doubt it. But it handled Mystic River on more than just "we owe you".


I mean where was the "we don't owe you" when relative newcomer Swank won her 2nd?

Maybe its time to believe that on the big categories voters go with their tastes and sometimes friendships, and then on more "technical" categories with films seen as the best/biggest productions.

 

[Zen Butler]

Just when I though I was adult enough not to pull out Dogma and From Dusk til Dawn just for the dance routines...

 

[Holadem]

--
H

 

[Adam_ME]

Innerspace?

 

[Seth Paxton]

That's funny, the people I talked to thought it was Sideways, Finding Neverland or Eternal Sunshine (not including me). I had friends saying that Giamitti was robbed on the nomination because he should have won it all, and these were people that saw all the films.


And my point was that EVERY year people do this. Every MS fan is going to do it and every fan of some other film is likely to do it. Its the "hate the champion/tear down our heros" syndrome.

Ordinary People was an incredible, powerful drama. It wasn't some screwjob. But to hear it talked about now you'd think it was.

IIRC you are an English Patient fan, so you already know where my point is coming from. That film was highly respected yet is considered by many people to be yet another example of the endless failures of the Academy.

 

[Seth Paxton]

What, no Frida?

I figure her awards show would have the random clip from one of her works just thrown in there.

 

[Phil_L]

Was Dustin Hoffman drunk?


I'd much rather have seen the original artists perform the nominated songs. Beyonce is great but if they wanted established music stars to perform, couldn't they have asked three different artists? She and Groban didn't mesh on stage. Two vastly different styles that didn't compliment each other. The Minnie Driver snub was especially harsh.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I've gotta get up for work in three hours so I'm outta here.

From the last thread and this one, I think it was clear that I was pulling for Scorsese to win. However, I don't think THE AVIATOR was one of the five best films of the year and if I were honest, I wouldn't have given Scorsese the Best Director. When I say he should have gotten it, it's because he is due one. Even if M$B wasn't the best film of the year (and it could be) Eastwood was getting paid back for last year.

To me, ETERNAL SUNSHINE, THE DREAMERS and BADDASSSSS! were all better than THE AVIATOR and Mario Van Peebles was the actor/director who was robbed this year. Scorsese's career has been robbed but I'm sure, if looking at this years films, other could say they were robbed.

With that in mind, I do think the voters are jealous of Scorsese, his films and his reputation of being the greatest director. If we're picking winners for 2006, it won't be Scorsese. I would place money on Leo for Actor and Nicholson for S. Actor however.

With Scorsese, I see a Paul Newman type award.

Goodnight folks.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, I really disliked the layout of the show, from the way awards were presented, etc.

As someone who did a lot of competition college/hs/etc. it reminded me of the kind of thing you see at a HS Forensics/Speech/Drama awards rather then the academies.. it seemed very amateur.

 

[ThomasC]

Fockin' around too much. D

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

You know she could have lipsynched it and still have done an excellent job.

~Edwin

 

[Ernest Rister]

So true. It also matters which film is remembered ten years from now and which one has people asking how in the hell did that beat Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver or whatever.

Okay -- let's examine this.

Taxi Driver lost to Rocky.

Rocky was the result of an ACTOR who WROTE the screenplay, worked his ass off to get it made, STARRED in it, and it touched the hearts of millions. Stallone was, in a sense, just like the title hero. Stallone was nominated for Best Actor!

Taxi Driver was a character study. It was violent. It looked at the ugly aspects of the lower echelon of American life i the big cities. The lead hero wanted to assassinate a Presidential nominee. You contrast that with Rocky, who else is going to win?

Now, let's examine Ordinary People vs. Raging Bull.

We're living in a revisionist period, the history is that Ordinary People was *better received* than Raging Bull. Once again, Scorsese was examining a character with unpleasant attributes. Critics respected the artistry, but who in the world repects Jake LaMotta? Ordinary People has received an undue and unjustified bad rap from the intellegentsia in recent years, and yet it remains a powerhouse drama that is far more affecting on an immediate personal level then Raging Bull.

And now, let's get really controversial. Dances With Wolves vs. GoodFellas.

People who came of age in the 90's have no idea what the impact of Heaven's Gate had on American Cinema. This was amplified by other long-format box-office failures. When Kevin Costner decided to make a long-format western, told from the point of view of the indians, with subtitles, with a downer ending, with himself as star and director, everyone wrote him off for dead. "Kevin's Gate", they called it.

James Cameron himself credits Kevin Costner for the long-format renaissance that followed in the wake of the enormous hit that was Dances With Wolves. Costner's achievement with DWW single-hendedly destroyed the post-Heaven's Gate rules against westerns, against films running longer than two hours, against films with subtitles. According to Cameron, without Costner's epic, there would have been no 90's renaissance of long-form epic films. No Short Cuts, no Schindler's List, no JFK, no Titanic. Maybe even no Return of the King in the form we now know it.

GoodFellas is a great film. But it is not a film as important in film history as Dances With Wolves. Fact. Dances - and Costner - deserved the award.

Scorsese is a great artist. That is why he has been nominated so many times. THERE IS NO SLAP IN THE FACE IF YOU ARE NOMINATED. The slap in the face is no nomination at all.

And Scorsese will win in for the films year-ending 2006. It's as sure as the turning of the Earth.

 

[ZacharyTait]

Highlights of the night:

M$B winning their 4 awards. I was kind of worried at the beginning, but I reassured myself that M$B would come through. Morgan's speech showed why he just may be the most respected and loved actor in Hollywood.

Any of the lovely ladies onscreen ,particularly Charlize Theron. Stuart Townsend is the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

In Memoriam - This segment is always sad to watch. I loved how they gave time to Marlon Brando by showing his four best performances.

Chris Rock, I thought was pretty funny. "Welcome to the 77th and last Academy Awards."

Pierce and Edna E. Mode - I thought it was pretty damn good. Better than 2002 with the Animated Feature award.

Jamie Foxx's wonderful acceptance speech.

Lowlights:

Doing some of the awards out in the audience. They need to go back to the old formula.

The hurrying up of the ceremony - If you really want to take your time, move up the start a half-hour to hour earlier.

The songs - If I was the producer trying to save time, this would be the first thing to go.

My ballot - I started out 5 for 7 and ended up 13 for 24. Yikes!

Cate Blanchett over Virginia Madsen- I though CB did a terrific job, but Virginia was by far the best in the category.

 

[Bill J]

CGI does wonderful things doesn't it?



Well anyway, it's time for me to climb back into my hole again. It was nice seeing you all.

 

[Quentin]

Exactly. Which is why THE NOMINATION IS THE THING. We make top 10 lists, and we give awards for "the best", but come on...there is very little to separate Million Dollar Baby from Aviator from Incredibles from ESotSM from Finding Neverland from Sideways. All VERY good films and very different. How does one choose? Why should one have to?

The Oscars are a celebration and I love them and I'm glad to see Clint win because he's cool. But, the nomination is a GREAT honor. It is THE honor.