comment #1

thevisceral says ...

One hopes Scorsese is at a point in his life where he doesn't need the validation of the nitwit Academy.

comment #2

breadlymoore says ...

Jesus, why pick on Costner? There are far more troubling best director Oscar winners to take a shit on.

Oh, I dunno...Peter Jackson comes to mind.

comment #3

MathewM says ...

Peter Jackson deserved the win for the LOTR films--whether you like them or not. I think it's Scorsese's year, just a gut feeling.

comment #4

bipedalist says ...

I have the same feeling but I also agree with thevisceral. To hell with 'em. They don't deserve him.

And yeah, poor Costner - he will always be the guy who beat Goodfellas.

comment #5

alynch says ...

You know, I'd be much quicker to pick on Robert Redford for beating Scorsese than I am for Costner for one simple reason: Raging Bull is a better movie than Goodfellas and Dances With Wolves is a better movie than Ordinary People. There's a greater difference between the 1980 pictures.

comment #6

Todd says ...

Scorsese's better picture of recent was The Aviator. He may win because of sentiment, but I think Eastwood deserves it this time for his Iwo Jima double header. That being said forget who get's the award and talk to me in five to ten years to see what movies stand out from this year. Some how I can't believe The Departed will be considered with high praise. It's just a blood fest of a movie. I think Apocalypto does blood fest better but due to Mel's drucken meltdown both he and the movie lost it this year.

comment #7

Todd says ...

Oh and don't forget those DreamGirls. LOL

comment #8

Josh Massey says ...

Well, good - I came in here to defend Costner, and am pleasantly surprised to see I'm not the first. As I've said before, "Dances With Wolves" is unfairly maligned because it happened to be the film that beat "Goodfellas." It is actually an excellent film that would have deserved the Best Picture Oscar in most years.

comment #9

Undercover Brother says ...

At this stage in the game, when so many films have pretty much wiped out, except "Dreamgirls", what's really standing in the way of Marty and his Oscar? Are they really going to feel that obliged to reward Condon for making a big, obvious, flashy, rise and fall of a music star movie? Maybe "Dreamgirls" really is all that jazz but this is Scorsese and I don't see a lot to stand in his way this time. There's some last minute admiration going on for Eastwood and his second Iwo Jima movie, I guess we forget the first one was an overrated flop. Regardless, he's won it twice now. He's got matching bookends. He's good.

Scorsese's movie has prestige, it has success, the Academy can give it to him mostly for the work and not feel like their giving him a bogus trophy. At this point it can't help but feel a little like a 'Sorry we took so long' award, but "The Departed" was solid through and through.

If we all know one thing it's that many Oscars are quasi lifetime achievement awards. Or maybe more like 'You've had a strong run which culminated in this good movie and we'll give you the award because we didn't give it to you for the all those other movies which were the real deal' type things.

I'm sure Scorsese really doesn't care all that much at this point, but you know he'd like to stand up in front of that audience and get that award just once. And Hell, the look on Nicholson's face would be more than worth it.

comment #10

corey3rd says ...

Marty does care about winning a real Oscar. But there are a lot of people In LA that also care about shutting him out. he's still that vile violent little new yawker to certain old guard voters.

The biggest problem in Marty 2007 is that The Departed is a remake of the most popular, award winning film in Hong Kong history. What's the challenge as a director except "don't mess it up."

Do you think anyone at the Academy can't sleep because they never gave the trophy to Gordon Willis (let alone nominate him for The Godfather I or II and Manhattan)?

comment #11

MAGGA says ...

So you take a modern classic and add a needless extra hour, then use your old dusty bag of LPs as the soundtrack whenever possible, somehow forget that you were once great at framing and moving the camera so as to film everything in a very obvious way, light it like it was a TV show and use the most horrible blur screen backgrounds in a "realistic" film in recent years and get an Oscar?

I liked the departed for its twisty last act, great dialogue and incredible cast, but giving Scorcese an Oscar for this is a joke on the level of... well, not giving it to him for Goodfellas or Raging Bull or Taxi Driver or Casino or Mean Streets or Last Temptation...

comment #12

Josh Massey says ...

"The Departed" was a better film than "Mean Streets."

comment #13

Argen says ...

There need to be strict rules about the application of the term "classic". Seriously.

comment #14

The Movie Man says ...

A few ramblings that are only passably relevant to the thread:

I think I'm still mad at Clint for making the mediocre film that stole thunder from the wonderful "Sideways" which time will be much kinder to than M$B. M$B's win wasn't as insulting as Forrest Gump's in 1994 (a year that included the incalculably superior Ed Wood and Pulp Fiction) but it was still a little rough.

I'm kind of over both Clint and Martin, even though they've both had extraordinary highs (more so with Marty), they are now the old guard robbing the new guys of attention (Alexander Payne, Paul Thomas Anderson, pick your favorite) and awards, they, my friends, are the "man" now.

Argen-agreed, "classic" and "masterpiece" and thrown around like confetti by even respected critics. I go to the theatre quite often, and see many DVDs, and I have yet to see a classic or a masterpiece that was released for the first time in 2006. (I haven't seen Children of Men or Pan or Inland Empire, however.)

The Departed better than Mean Streets? No way.

comment #15

Edward says ...

Time will only tell what the "new masterpieces" are. And I have to agree with Movie Man that I haven't seen a masterpiece in some time. I'd love to get some opinions from everyone on what you consider to be masterpieces from the last 10 or 20 years.

comment #16

The Movie Man says ...

Edward-I think "Sideways" and "About Schmidt", Alexander Payne's last two pictures, are very nearly masterpieces. Moving, funny, deceptively simple and lacking in the sort of directorial ego that leads to bloated running times and indulgent camera moves, I've found myself returning to these films again and again. A few more off the top of my head: Goodfellas, Mullholland Dr., Blue Velvet, The Limey, L.A. Confidential, Boogie Nights, The Last Temptation of Christ, King of the Hill