In a 3.8 Variety essay, Brent Lang attempts to draw parallels between the forthcoming Oscar tragedy happening in four days and the 1970 Oscar telecast (4.7.70), which honored the finest achievements in films released in ’69.

Bob Hope, 66, was the emcee that night, and Lang characterizes his crackerjack quips in a negative or even somewhat pathetic light — Hope as a snooty, sneering oldster who despised what was happening culturally (acid, hippiedom, Woodstock, antiwar demonstrations) as well as creatively within the Hollywood realm.

“This is really a night to remember,” Hope says around the 15-minute mark. “It’s such a novelty seeing actors and actresses with their clothes on.” Lang doesn’t mention that the mostly older audience, apparently not all that taken with liberated late ’60s lifestyles and choices, not only laughed but applauded.

“This will go down in history as the cinema season that proved that crime doesn’t pay,” Hope went on, “but there’s a fortune in adultery, incest and homosexuality.”

Lang’s point is that Everything Everywhere All At Once haters (i.e., pretty much anyone burdened with a sense of classic taste) are as out of it as Hope was 53 years ago.

For sure Hope was no longer in the swing of things (his 20-year movie star reign had spanned from the early ’40s to early ’60s), but his critique wasn’t about the quality of movies per se. Indeed Hollywood was launching its greatest creative period ever at the time. Hope’s ire was directed, rather, at the cultural changes that the Oscar-nominated films reflected.

Today’s beef (okay, my own) isn’t that the Best Picture nominees suck eggs (although some do) as much as the fact that woke Stalinist guilt-trippers are running the narrative and ready to pounce on anyone who trashes EEAAO by inferring racism. (The real racists of 2023 are accusing non-wokesters of same.) Academy members, no fools, are ducking their heads and going along, hence Sasha Stone‘s recent essay about “mass formation.”

But if you actually watch the Hope monologue, which doesn’t even begin until the 12-minute mark, it’s just his usual smart-ass routine — a crack here, a crack there, he’s never won an Oscar and never will, etc.

And yet, continuing with his “what’s happening to America?” pearl-clutching, Hope offers acidic commentary about the Best Actor nominees: “That’s what we’re honoring tonight…a sadistic king, a consumptive drifter, a male hustler, a school teacher dropout and a one-eyed sheriff.”

Or, in more descriptive terms, Richard Burton‘s King Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days, Dustin Hoffman‘s Ratzo Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, Jon Voight‘s Joe Buck in same, Peter O’Toole‘s beloved educator in Goodbye Mr. Chips and John Wayne‘s Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.

What were the two biggest standouts that night? Fred Astaire dancing and the life achievenment Oscar given to Cary Grant. Key Grant excerpt: “I think there’s an even more glorious area right around the corner.”

The great Gene Hackman retired 19 years ago at age 74. Obviously he’s a recipient of rugged genes and has taken good care of himself. (Still driving, still shuffling around town.). We all understand that fat-asses and french-fry eaters don’t last into their 90s as a rule, but Hackman is reminding us anyway. That said, I’ll be ordering a Greek salad + french fries later today. (Not kidding.)

“We can observe a clear-cut trend in the early 21st Century. Before then [strong] box-office and critical acclaim moved concurrently. But around 2005 there was a Great Divorce. Critical acclaim and box-office grew further and further apart with each passing year. 2005 is also the year when Crash came out.

“So are Best Picture winners getting worse? As far as the general population is concerned, yes. There was once a time when the industry produced Best Picture winners that also drew audiences to theatres and received rave reviews, but it appears that that time has passed.

“Audiences have lost the kind of movie designed to appeal to cinephiles and consumers alike while the Oscars have turned into a navel-gazing contest with no relevance to an average audience. Because in the wake of the Great Divorce, what’s the alternative? Giving a Best Picture Oscar to Black Adam because it made a lot of money? Or withholding a Best Picture Oscar from Tar because Uncle Rico’s never heard of it?” — posted yesterday by “By The Numbers” and Fandom Entertainment. Based on a 12.5.22 post by Daniel Parris.

I was all set to revel and luxuriate in the attitude of a nice Daniels-hating contrarian or at least a skeptic of some kind, but no…THR’s Scott Feinberg throws a chickenshit Daniels lover at me…a nerd from the short films and animation branch…just what we needed, Scott! Keep it coming!

Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty is an immensely satisfying real-world, fact-based thriller and easily one of the greatest films of the 21st Century…a touchstone that everyone has to see and re-see and think about often.

I’ve seen it a good six or seven times, and I could easily watch it again tonight with pleasure. I admire it so much that a part of me wants to purchase the 4K version, even though I know it’s not that much of a bump from the 1080p Bluray.

And I really get infuriated when I run into people who bring up the torture content as something that undermines the basic quality of the film (it doesn’t in the slightest) or who say they found it somehow boring or uninvolving.

From Todd McCarthy‘s Hollywood Reporter enthusiastic review: “Whether you call it well informed speculative history, docu-drama recreation or very stripped down suspense filmmaking, Zero Dark Thirty matches form and content to pretty terrific ends.

“And yet [pic] will be tough for some viewers to take, not only for its early scenes of torture, including water boarding but due to its denial of conventional emotionalism and non-gung ho approach to cathartic revenge-taking.

McCarthy’s suspicion is that ZDT‘s “rigorous, unsparing approach will inspire genuine enthusiasm among the serious, hardcore film crowd more than with the wider public.”

“Even though it runs more than two-and-a-half hours, Zero Dark Thirty is so pared to essentials that even politics are eliminated,” McCarthy goes on. “There’s essentially no Bush or Cheney, no Iraq War, no Obama announcing the success of the May 2, 2011 raid on Bin Laden’s in-plain-sight Pakistani compound. [And yet] the film’s power steadily and relentlessly builds over its long course, to a point that is terrifically imposing and unshakable.”