Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Analog Scott (A) on December 20, 2005 at 23:49:35

In Reply to: Re: "cozy arrangement" posted by halfnote on December 20, 2005 at 20:28:01:

"Since the Academy is dominated by actors, directors, and producers who are not beholden to any of these other constituencies, why is it that so many films of obvious merit are passed over, and so many other lesser films are heaped with Oscars."

That question makes an assumption of merit. Merit is, when all is said and done, very subjective. one person's masterpiece is another person's POS. The problem really lies in the numbers. think about it for a moment. What movie, what performance has been so oustanding as to create a concensus amoung critics, academy memebers, press, avid movie fans as can be found here on this forum and the movie going populus? Above you have a very favorable review by Victor of Million Dollar Baby. I would bet that of the nominees for best picture last year he would have voted for that movie. no doubt you will find someone else on this very forum that will tell you that movie was undeserving. With a few exceptions you will be hard pressed to find any movie or any performance in a given year that would take even 50% of the popular vote amoung critics, academy members, fans in general or fans on this forum or others like it. what does that mean? for every Oscar there is likely more than half the interested population that disagrees with it. Inevitably a lot of people will complain no matter who wins. and when there is such a concensus very few complain. we don't pay much attention to those instances we just accept them as obvious.

" Is it just some kind of group think, where everyone is mindful that they should vote for what makes commercial sense for Hollywood itself, since this is the pond they all feed in?"

You will be hard pressed to get any kind of "group think" amoung film makers on any subject. There are exceptions and there are instances of politics and "group think" but IMO and IME they are the exceptions rather than the rule.

" Why didn't Hitchcock and Kubrick ever win best picture?"

Mostly because only one wins each year. The odds are against any individual.

"Or even best director? Just two examples that come to mind."

Good examples. I don't think the reasons were conspiratorial but i think from time to time enough memebers of the academy can get sucked into good PR to make a difference. I rememebr applauding Cuba Gooding Jr at the time. WTF was I thinking! That was some good PR. Some things seem quite good at the time but after further thought.... I remember back in the day thinking ET was ripped off for best picture. Boy was I wrong. If I can be so wrong in a given moment why can't any member of the academy? And then there are times when they are surprisingly right, like last year.