*** Official Oscar Nominations and Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Steve Y]

I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain nor do I have anything "invested" in its success, and yet I too was disappointed in the Crash win. So Roger Ebert's "explanation" of the backlash only explains one side of the equation.

If I watch it again I'll keep an open mind, but when I first saw Crash theatrically -- and yes, I'm an intelligent cinemaphile who paid very close attention and stayed through the end credits -- I felt very bothered by something I couldn't quite pinpoint. I felt the effect of the swelling music and the performances but they seemed a great ado floating above... what, exactly? More people here and elsewhere have since put this opinion into words far better than I could.

And yet the win was no surprise. I mean, people shutting down databases and complaining about the "homophobic" academy? Given the history of the Oscars, is this win really surprising to anyone out there? Crash was a crowd-pleasing film that dealt with important issues! So why wouldn't it win?

I predict time will not treat Crash as kindly, but it hit a nerve right now, and the Oscars are nothing if not a time capsule for the current pulse of the filmgoing public.

"Brokeback" fans: think of it this way. If you loved B.M. or one of the other actors or films that didn't make the cut, feel blessed that the film that you love won't be cheapened in the post-oscar overhype blurbs.

 

[Holadem]

The fact that homosexuality is as big and controversial an issue as racism nullifies this argument.

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H

 

[PaulP]

I thought the performances were perfect throughout the cast. This is why the film didn't have more acting nominations - apart from the fact that there were so many characters, none of them main. And if your only problem with the film is its score, that isn't a very big problem, is it? For the record, I thought Crash was robbed a score nomination and Oscar - what an amazing piece of music. I'll have to rewatch Crash and pay closer attention to it within the film, but on its own I have been playing the score over and over. And never did it have the swelling this-is-a-sad-part-you-can-cry-now strings, either.

 

[DanielCo]

Lots of great discussion here. I won't belabor any points here.

Two things I want to add though. First, in addition to the other drawbacks of the theaters, the one that no one mentioned is 30 minutes of previews and commercials I can't fast-forward through.

Regarding the Oscar ceremony, I get more and more annoyed each year that the speeches are so belittled and minimized while they have time for 2 or 3 montages and various other extraneous items that have no relationship to the year at hand. Please keep these to the AFI shows and that would cut down the length of the show and still allow the only thing at the show remotely spontaneous.

I am continually amazed that they feel the need to rush winners through their moment. As time goes by and people think back to previous Oscar ceremonies, the thing people remember are "You like me, you really like me," not the great montage from whatever show. Give the winners their time!

 

[Steve Christou]

You have a point there Daniel, some of the most memorable moments in Oscars history has been the speeches, the long and the short. Now everyone is quickly rushing thru them forgetting names and practically dragged off the stage, meanwhile the presenters are allowed to drone on and on. It's almost as if the Oscar winner is disturbing the flow of the show, ok you got your prize hurry up get off, ok now lets have another 5 minutes of Ben Stiller flapping his arms and being painfully unfunny instead.

 

[FredK]

All 3 losing composers were robbed - BBM was a 13 minute guitar piece.

JW likely split his own vote, even though he put his press time into Geisha I truly believe Munich is a better (and less "self-derivative") score.

 

[mattCR]

I think John Stewart was also in "The Faculty"

 

[Carlo_M]

May have missed it in the 6+ pages I've just tried to catch up on, but Ebert/Roeper were on a late night talk show and they mentioned that the light music playing over the speeches *was indeed live and during the show* and not just overdubbed for the TV audience.

They (at least Ebert who was talking about it) did not like it, either.

Sorry if I'm being redundant.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I thought the music was live and heard on stage by how obvious it was that the winners were stumbling and rushing through their acknowledgements. The music during the speeches needs to go. It was a horrible idea.

 

[David (C)]

Out of Africa 1985: Oscar should’ve went to The Color Purple.
Braveheart 1995: Oscar should’ve went to Babe.
Crash 2005: Oscar should’ve went to any of the other nominees!

 

[Carlo_M]

BTW - if anyone knows where to get clips of the show, my girlfriend missed the first 2 hours because she was working and yes, we don't have TIVO, I'd appreciate it if you could PM me (if it's not kosher to post links about that stuff).

I've been Googling for the last hour + with no luck.

I'd like to show her:
1. The opening montage w/ the past hosts
2. The attack ads

Thanks!

 

[ZacharyTait]

You got PM, Carlo!

 

[PaulP]

I'd like a PM too

 

[Sam Davatchi]

PM!

 

[Steve Y]

I wrote:


You must consider both of the points in my argument. Brokeback Mountain, for all its integrity, is hardly "crowd-pleasing". It's a rough ride. The various elements of Crash, for better or worse, all fall neatly into place.

Besides, I would argue that race is a "safer" issue than homosexuality, both to the Academy and the country. But as I don't want to violate forum rules I'll not get into that here.

~s

 

[ZacharyTait]

Man, did I word that wrong!

 

[Holadem]

You were right. :frowning:

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H

 

[Haggai]

I looked up the data to see if there was any precedent for any movie winning both the Producers Guild and Directors Guild, but losing the best picture Oscar, as Brokeback did. The Producers Guild award has only been around since 1990 (DGA goes back to '48), but it did happen once before: in 1995, Apollo 13 won both the Producers and Directors Guild awards, but lost to Braveheart for the best picture Oscar.

In the midst of that, I ran into the most bizarre guild/Oscar mis-alignment that I've ever heard of, up to this point: Ron Howard WON the '95 Directors Guild award for Apollo 13, but he wasn't even NOMINATED for the best director Oscar! Wow! It's almost impossible to imagine a disconnect between the DGA and the directors wing of the Academy being that wide, but apparently it happened.

 

[Ray H]

Haggai, didn't the same thing happen to Steven Spielberg for the Color Purple? The DGA gave it to him and the Academy didn't even nominate him.

 

[Haggai]

Yeah, you're right about that, Ray. I had only been looking back to 1990, as far back as the Producers Guild awards have been around.

The DGA has probably been the most reliable Oscar predictor of all the guild awards, in terms of predicting that same Oscar category: since 1948, the DGA winner has gone on to win the best director Oscar all but 7 times, a total of 51 out of 58 matches. Among those 7 who didn't win, Spielberg in '85 and Howard in '95 have the bafflingly dubious distinction of being the only ones to win the DGA but not even get nominated for the Oscar.