My childhood was filled with my thirst for knowledge, more
specifically, useless knowledge that nobody cared to know except myself. This has lead me to be a popular member for
trivia teams as well as the person who gets random text messages with questions
people can’t look up. This was all
fueled by my father. I like to call
myself the ‘King of Useless Knowledge,’ and if that’s held true, then my father
is the ‘Emperor of All Things Useless Knowledge.’^
^ I understand that
King and Emperor are predominantly the same thing, but I think you all are
smart enough to figure out where I’m going with that comparison.
I spent lots of my days in my childhood asking my father
questions. Who has the most homeruns of
all time? 2nd most? 3rd most? Who has thrown the most touchdowns? Who has rushed for the most yards? What was the record of the Kansas City Royals
in 1977? No more than a few seconds
after those questions were uttered, my father was able to provide an answer. As I grew older and he imparted his love for
movies on to me, I began to ask similar questions: what Oscars did this one
win? How many did that one win? While he was able to answer most, some he
wasn’t. I asked my dad where I could
find the answers and where I could get the information that he had. This is where he turned me to ‘The Universal
Almanac.’
This was probably the mid 90’s and the almanac that my
parents had lying around was from 1994.
Wasn’t exactly up-to-date at the time, but that was what I was given.^^ From there I turned to the Oscar index which
is something that I was incredibly fascinated with. This section propelled my enjoyment of movies
to a full on obsession.
^^ Looking back, this
was probably just given to me so my parents could shut me up. I asked quite a few questions as a kid, and
now being an adult, I’m thankful my parents put up with me and fed my thirst
for useless knowledge, as opposed to ignoring me or telling me to stop asking
questions.
I used to look for interesting tidbits I could tell from
just the stats alone. Sometimes I judged
a movie by this and decided I should see it, other times I simply liked having
the interesting information at my disposal that I could tell my friends
about.^^^
^^^ For Instance, did
you know there are only two movies ever to win 3 of 4 acting categories: ‘A
Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Network.’
Pretty cool, huh?
This further mystified the artistry of film for me. Objective and subjective had melded to create
an iron clad way for me to get others to believe I’m right about my movie
choices. “I love ‘The Godfather’ and it
won 3 Oscars! Including Best
Picture!” And so it went.
My obsession combined with my slightly fastidious nature
spiraled this hobby beyond the normal. I
would watch movies constantly, I read every review I could, I bought books,
tried writing my own movies, and I even would keep a log of each movie and the
‘star’ rating they got from my local paper ‘The Kansas City Star.’
Years later, this will be why I start a blog and will
eventually lead to becoming what you are currently reading. Along the way, certain things will be gained
and certain others will be lost.
The more and more I tried to objectify the greatness of
film, the less and less magical they began to feel. The more I read and learned about
cinematography, editing, lens tricks, camera angles, special effects, etc. the
less movies gave me that sense of awe.
***
I can no longer remember what it was like to have not seen
‘Star Wars.’ The unfortunate reality
today is that I can barely remember what it was like for ‘Star Wars’ to just be
the original three movies. When I was
really young, there were no Star Wars figures.
All we had were what was left from our parents. The rest came from imagination.
When I entered the 6th grade, Star Wars figures
began to flood the marketplace again.
New books came out, comic books came out, and eventually the second
trilogy rose to prominence in the Star Wars world. This universe that was seemingly boundless had
just the slightest bit more limitations put on it.
This is more of a problem with oversaturation in our society
than the film industry itself, but does show a disturbing trend to milk
everything to its max and move on. Every
new series that comes out and new marketing ploy they have takes a little bit
more of that original ‘Star Wars’ magic away.^^^^
^^^^Keep in mind, I do
not fault George Lucas for this. I think
Lucas is a visionary, a talented filmmaker, and an incredible businessman. He can milk it all he wants and get whatever
profits he can, I would do the same and it’s made him a billionaire. I take no issue with the business side of
things, simply state my reality that as the profits for Star Wars are inversely
proportional to the magic that made it great in the first place.
Star Wars is just an example of a movie that had me
completely captivated and in awe as a child, but has lost a little bit of that
since (even if I still love Star Wars).
It seems odd when you really sit back and think about
it. I have started this blog site due to
my love of movies and yet the one aspect of films that brought me to this love
is slowly dying. What I’ve discovered in
this whole process though, is that that magic isn’t dying. What I thought was dying was actually my
inability to express what I felt about movies. Each new review or post that I
write I find myself learning more and more about this art form than I ever knew
was there.
In the context of my love for film, this more than 2 years
of blogging has been somewhat of a self-discovery. What I’ve discovered is…I don’t really care
about the Oscars anymore. Whew. There, I said it. That has been a long time coming.
While Hollywood and age has somewhat detracted from the
magic of movies, the art form remains and grows ever stronger. Growing at an even faster rate is my
understanding and appreciation for this art form. I no longer need the Oscars to justify my
tastes, I have the ability and means to determine and validate that all on my
own.
What I once found solace and vindication in, I no longer
enjoy. While the Oscars effectively puts
an objective way to “measure” a films greatness, the arbitrary manner in which
it is handled only leads to lessen the impact the awards have. While winning an Academy Award is an
objective statistic for a film, it’s obtained through subjective means. All too often those subjective means are
easily manipulated by those that know the system.
***
As the years grew on from the late 1920’s, the Oscars
attained a high level of cultural significance.
It really meant something to win one, and the awards were not handed out
lightly. Eventually, once it was
realized how much power Oscars had over the financial gross and popularity of a
film, things began to change. Studios
could “campaign” for their films and actors and as each award was tallied their
dollars went up.
Movies that generally have no business winning, find their
way into the history books. As a
technical achievement ‘Titanic’ was a monumental success. As a film, it was simplistic, one note, and
overvalued. Yet that one note it hit was
good enough for record nominations and wins.
This, of course, was made even worse when there was brilliance up
against it that year with films such as L.A. Confidential. Titanic was a product of good campaigning
coupled with being a pop-culture phenomenon.
Neither should carry weight in these votes.
As I see it, two problems result from this embarrassing
trend. The obvious is that great movies
go unrecognized because they don’t have the money behind them. An example for 2011 would include ‘Martha
Marcy May Marlene’ getting no nominations when it was one of the better films
of the year. The second problem is that
great movies are downgraded with backlash.
***
Movies hit a chord with people that few other art forms are
able to hit. Certain movies strike hotter
with certain people. When those people’s
movies aren’t given due respect, they can at times project their anger at other
movies. Last year provided the perfect
example of this.
2010 had a season long battle going back and forth between
‘The Social Network’ and ‘The King’s Speech.’
This battle was so thick sides were taken by lots of people. You were either team ‘Social Network’ or team
‘King’s Speech.’ With ‘The King’s
Speech’ taking home most major awards, there was only one place for fans of
‘The Social Network’ to throw their vitriol.
‘The King’s Speech’ became a hated film, simply because the
Academy’s misguided sensibilities chose that film over what many thought was
more deserving. This is ignoring the
fact that ‘The King’s Speech’ was, in its own right, a very good movie. Yet, the stigma tha will stick with that
movie for the rest of their lives will be as the one that took awards away from
‘The Social Network.’
There was nothing wrong with ‘The King’s Speech’ as a
film. It simply adhered to the unspoken
guidelines that many Oscar winning movies adhere to. This made it a bastion for hate in the film
world. I joined in this group as I was a
big supporter of ‘The Social Network.’
After a while, I began to question why I hated this film that I had
reviewed as four stars and included on my top 10 movies of 2010 list.
My enjoyment of that film had its knees cut out from under
it because I like a different film more.
What was I doing to myself?
Didn’t I start this very blog because my love for movies was so great
that I had to write about it and share it with everyone who chose to read
it? It was. Now I was letting this semi-objective measure
of greatness get in the way of my true enjoyment.
***
There are too many flaws with the Oscars and the way their
done to put as much stock in them as I once did. Voters are not static, completely objective
beings who only see movies and then sequester themselves to vote on them. They are fluid, ever-changing people whose
opinions can be swayed, manipulated, or they can just plain change their minds
and make mistakes.
There are examples of this abound in 2011. Take George Clooney, it shouldn’t matter that
he won years ago for ‘Syriana,’ if he was the best performance this year, he
should win. Unfortunately, voters don’t
act like that. If somebody already has
an Oscar, that means there is room for somebody else to have one. While this thinking may be “fair” in an
arbitrary sense, it is not logical. Why
reward less than the greatness at the expense of repetition?
If votes can so easily be swayed then they mean
nothing. You wouldn’t go into a
political election and say “this guy’s won before, let’s give somebody else a
chance,” or “enough others will vote for this guy I’ll vote for somebody else
so they make sure and make the ballot.”
Most people would eschew that mentality to vote for who they truly feel
is worthy. Why should this be any
different? After all, both circumstances
are based on merit, just wildly different measures of it.
Fact is, the Oscars have been killing movies for me for
years. I have hated some unjustly that
have won, and not feeling as good about ones I love because they didn’t. The result has led me to not caring about the
Oscars as I once did. I feel as though I
am not alone in this either. The ratings
for the Oscar telecast have been dropping consistently over the years and
people are continually beginning to say that Oscars mean nothing anymore. Many people contend they are not indicative
of who was actually the best and when people feel they have no control over who
wins and can’t even justify it, they lose interest.
To be honest, I’m sure there is a way to fix this
problem. It may be so far out of hand
that it can’t go back. Ultimately, it would
have to start with the voters themselves.
It takes a conscious decision for them to stand up and say they don’t
care how much money it made, how many fruit baskets they get, or who has won
before, any given year is any given year and the best should be rewarded.
It just might be too much to hope that the Universal Almanac
2032 read on somebody’s iPad 23 would actually be indicative of what the film
climate in 2011 was.
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