Commenter John writes:
You know, I thought it was a fantastic Oscar telecast. Great hosting, great presenters, everyone looked great (well almost). DESERVING winners. Interesting Lifetime Achievement winner. Nice musical performances. The show ended before midnight. Great montages/clips of the past 80 yrs. I could go on …….
THEN, you watch ‘The View’ this morning, and most of them are going on and on about how boring the whole thing was, and that they didn’t know any of the winners (who they were), and the audience all groaned in agreement.
It’s like: Well then go out and watch the nominated movies you fools, or stop complaining about who’s deservedly winning these awards!
History will look more kindly on these winners, though, than the years where the general crowdpleasers were honored. Having said that, I suspect the tide will soon turn with the Oscars leaning more towards the big studio movies and/or the awards-worthy crowdpleasers. The trouble is, the critics murder the Big Oscar Movies and thus, they haven’t a chance in the Oscar race these days and the awards appear to be going to the most worthy rather than the most popular.
On the other hand, for some 75 or 80 years prior, the Oscar winners were also films the public loved – even Chariots of Fire or Ordinary People or Kramer vs. Kramer. You name it, it was a shared experience, a harmonious marriage between “good enough” for the critics and GREAT for “the people.”
According to a friend, though, the big studios don’t much care for winning Oscars and that it’s the mini-studios who deal with that – thus, the movies have been smaller, more Indie Spirit than People’s Choice. The fallout from all of this remains to be seen, but we do know that the Oscar race continues to evolve as tastes evolve. Perhaps the ladies of The View and their ilk will make more of an effort to see the films that are creating all of the buzz. Then again, of the nominated five, only one was really a palatable film for the general public. It’s a conundrum.