Oscar Must Die?
"Who needs the Oscars, anyway, other than the chosen few nominees and the hangers-on who love them?," writes Newsweek's Marc Peyser in a 1.31 posting. Not to mention the Hollywood websites who depend on Oscar-season advertising...right, Marc?
"The fact is, the Oscar telecast (scheduled for 2.24, assuming some sort of miracle) is the worst three hours and 27 minutes on television, and it has held that distinction for years and years and years," Peyser writes.
Not fully true. There have been exceptions. and more than a few. The moment, for instance, when The Pianist teammates Ronald Harwood and Roman Polanski won the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director Oscar delivered as much emotional voltage as any legendary sports moment. And what about when Dreamgirls' Eddie Murphy lost out to Little Miss Sunshine's Alan Arkin last year for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar? There were cries and shrieks coast-to-coast when that happened. I could mention other highlights. You just need the right perverse attitude to enjoy them.
"Go ahead, try to think of something, anything, memorable from a telecast in the last, say, five years." (Read the last paragraph, Marc!) "The witty host's monologue? The moving acceptance speeches? The outfits? Sure, you can remember that such staples existed, along with a cute joke or moving moment or two. But considering the length of the show, those tidbits don't convert to a very high on-base percentage. And considering the anticipation and hype that precede the show every year, this is one pretty awful excuse for A-list entertainment."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 1, 2008 at 4:49 PM
comment #1
Rich S.
says ...
Great shot of the "Oscars in body bags."
Posted by Rich S.
at February 1, 2008 5:05 PM
comment #2
Breedlove
says ...
Nope. Love watching the Oscars. Love it. One of the great tv nights of the year, on par with 'Lost' season premieres and finales, the World Series, and the Super Bowl (yes, this is a damn good week for television). I'll be extremely bummed if the Oscars aren't on tv.
Posted by Breedlove
at February 1, 2008 5:07 PM
comment #3
jeffmcm
says ...
"There were cries and shrieks coast-to-coast when that happened."
Good thing you have chosen to use these mighty powers for good and not for evil.
Posted by jeffmcm
at February 1, 2008 5:22 PM
comment #4
The Winchester
says ...
"Go ahead, try to think of something, anything, memorable from a telecast in the last, say, five years."
You're right, Scorsese winning his first Oscar last year wasn't memorable at all.
Posted by The Winchester
at February 1, 2008 5:26 PM
comment #5
Luke Y. Thompson
says ...
I'd like to see the Oscars eliminate the awards for short films. Like the tech categories, shorts should have their own ceremony, attended and watched by people who actually saw them.
Plus they always throw off my predictions in the office pool. Unless one of them is about the Holocaust.
Posted by Luke Y. Thompson
at February 1, 2008 5:26 PM
comment #6
JoshE
says ...
Even the Oscars "best" moments are fairly worthless. I guess I don't have the right perverse attitude.
It's too bad that this waste of time is such a deeply rooted ritual that even if they're canceled this year, they'll just come on again and waste more time next year.
Posted by JoshE
at February 1, 2008 5:27 PM
comment #7
oakling
says ...
We should call him Oscar... the Grouch!
Posted by oakling
at February 1, 2008 6:02 PM
comment #8
Chicago48
says ...
It could be shorter. There's no reason for a 3-4 hour televised show. It's not the Grammys which is musical entertainment.
Posted by Chicago48
at February 1, 2008 7:19 PM
comment #9
erniesouchak
says ...
The Oscars also represent a huge waste of local taxpayer dollars when you consider that the city of Los Angeles provides police, traffic control, etc. to the academy totally free of charge. The academy makes a fortune off the Oscars in ad revenues and should be required to pay for such services.
Posted by erniesouchak
at February 1, 2008 7:29 PM
comment #10
Doug Pratt
says ...
The Oscars are a tradition that is hopelessly entwined with loving movies, and the two can never be separated. You begin watching the show when you are a child, when the glamour of Hollywood and movie stars still means something, and as you grow older and more cynical, you let go of those meanings, but the emotions that accompanied them are still embedded within you. The Oscars are boring to jaded entertainment critics that cover Hollywood year in and year out, but for the rest of America, it is that one day in the year where you get to sit elbow to elbow with the stars and soak up the same spectacle they are soaking up, celebrating not just the movies, but the whole, legendary concept of the 'dream factory' and the escape it offers from life during the other 364 days.
Posted by Doug Pratt
at February 1, 2008 7:31 PM
comment #11
AJW
says ...
Much respect for using on-base percentage instead of batting average.
Posted by AJW
at February 1, 2008 7:40 PM
comment #12
Leonardcoenbrothers
says ...
Peyser thinks the Oscars are the worst thing on T.V.? My god, hasn't he ever seen "The Bachelor"?
Posted by Leonardcoenbrothers
at February 1, 2008 7:45 PM
comment #13
BurmaShave
says ...
Not to mention the local artisans, craftsman and laborers who rely on the 150 million dollars of annual business? This guy is a total prick. He's a perfect example of why, in an attempt to be Time's snarky younger brother, Newsweek has become one of the worst magazines in America.
Posted by BurmaShave
at February 1, 2008 8:08 PM
comment #14
le corbeau
says ...
The Oscars are a tradition that is hopelessly entwined with loving movies, and the two can never be separated.
We all know when the music industry died (it killed itself accusing its customers of being thieves), and now we know when the movie industry killed itself too-- when its greedhead owners and artists couldn't even come together to make a halfway decent show out of the greatest free publicity boondoggle ever invented by mankind, the Academy Awards. If they're going to collectively offer a fuck-you like that to their audience, after a year they mainly spent shitting on this country and its troops and making bizarro Scientology videos, may they all wind up begging for change to get enough money to buy coffee at Panera so they can use the free wi-fi to see what America's watching on YouTube. A pox on all their rich, coked-up, thrice-divorced houses.
Posted by le corbeau
at February 1, 2008 9:08 PM
comment #15
Mikey Filmmaker
says ...
I agree with a previous poster, the Oscars are one of the best nights on tv. It ranks up there with the Super Bowl for me. Who cares if there are not "memorable" moments every year? It's about getting together and celebrating movies.
Posted by Mikey Filmmaker
at February 2, 2008 1:33 AM
comment #16
RoyBatty
says ...
Yeah, Scorsese winning for what is arguably one of his weakest, most pedestrian films was pretty memorable.
Two years ago I watched the Indy Spirit Awards and there hasn't been an Oscar telecast in the last 15 years that was more entertaining. Sometimes pee-your-pants funny, sometimes would choke you up; it rarely felt staged or fake.
Oh, and give me a break with the "mainly spent shitting on the troops" bullshit. Give us a list of 5 ways they did this. And if it takes you longer than 2 minutes to come up with it you know its total BS.
Posted by RoyBatty
at February 2, 2008 3:36 AM
comment #17
dawgzilla67
says ...
I relish somewhat the irony that 2007 has proven to be one of the best years for movies in a long time and there will be no Oscars to celebrate this considerable bump up in quality.
Mgmax, while you were having an apparently crappy year watching scientology videos and reading antiwar interviews with certain entertainment figures I was busy getting a serious high from No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Zodiac, Once, The Host, Inland Empire, Eastern Promises, Sunshine, The King of Kong, American Gangster, The Lives of Others (okay, I know you coast dwellers will say this was a 2006 film but to us out here in the midwest it was 2007) and a bunch of other terrific flicks.
Just sayin'.
And Roy ... c'mon, The Departed was far from one of Scorsese's most pedestrian films -- at the very least it's better than The Color of Money and Cape Fear. And it has some terrific acting work, especially from the supporting players.
Posted by dawgzilla67
at February 2, 2008 6:32 AM
comment #18
le corbeau
says ...
Oh, and give me a break with the "mainly spent shitting on the troops" bullshit.
Redacted, Rendition, Lions For Lambs, In The Valley of Elah...
Dawgzilla, I didn;t say it wasn't a very good year for movies, but Hollywood as an institution didn't exactly endear itself to its target audience this year, that seems beyond dispute in a year that featured a 20-year-old going into rehab nearly every week.
Posted by le corbeau
at February 2, 2008 6:54 AM
comment #19
Jay T.
says ...
"when The Pianist teammates Ronald Harwood and Roman Polanski won the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director Oscar delivered as much emotional voltage as any legendary sports moment."
Are you high? I mean, I know you're not a sports fan, but you have GOT to be kidding. Yeah, I'm sure the reactions and emotions were right up there with the Red Sox coming back against the Yankees in 2004...
Posted by Jay T.
at February 2, 2008 9:32 AM
comment #20
le corbeau
says ...
Or like tomorrow's game, with its thrilling matchup of the Whatevers against the Who Gives a Fucks.
Posted by le corbeau
at February 2, 2008 10:27 AM
comment #21
RoyBatty
says ...
Like I thought, another list of bullshit examples where the thought process is the grade school simple logic of "criticism of an aspect of the war" + "presence of troops" = "putting down the troops." And there was something over 250 films that saw wide release last year, did I somehow miss that 200 of them had a FUCK THE TROOPS message in their end credits?
It's like listening to someone do their damnedest to avoid calling waterboarding torture. Or better yet, admit that the invasion of Iraq was a colossal mistake that has produced no benefits for us and done nothing but give aid & comfort to the enemy.
You want to talk about shitting on the troops, let's talk body armor, poorly shielded vehicles, sub-standard veterans care and private contractors making obscene amounts of profit while the mainly economically challenged get put through the meat grinder.
Posted by RoyBatty
at February 2, 2008 11:35 AM
comment #22
Sean
says ...
"Redacted, Rendition, Lions For Lambs, In The Valley of Elah..."
Ah, so four movies which barely got released is how they mainly spent their time? Interesting.
"Hollywood as an institution didn't exactly endear itself to its target audience this year, that seems beyond dispute in a year that featured a 20-year-old going into rehab nearly every week."
Does not follow. They're releasing movies. Instead of judging by how many 20-year-olds went into rehab (which you're exaggerating anyway), why not judge by box office receipts? More movies reached $400 million than ever before, for instance. Since they're goal is to make money, surely how much money they made is a better way to judge their success than how many actors went to rehab?
Posted by Sean
at February 2, 2008 4:33 PM
comment #23
le corbeau
says ...
The very fact that you guys froth at the mouth so over my referencing Hollywood's fetish for America-bashing kinda proves that I (and many others) have a point about that stuff.
Of course, all that other shit you say kinda proves it too. Do we have a Godwin's Law for mentioning waterboarding yet?
Posted by le corbeau
at February 2, 2008 5:19 PM