Pardon our nostalgic musings for a sec........come on, it's one the reasons we started this blog to begin with.......
Once upon a time, as we grew up, the Academy Awards were a joint celebration between the Motion Picture Academy and millions of avid moviegoers who thrilled, cried and laughed to the best of what the major studios offered them........
The biggest most popular films in the country (and world ) were nominated and honored, movies that most of us had lined up to see the previous year. A global audience assembled in front of their televisions sat riveted, filled with anticipation and suspense as to which of their favorites would take home the Golden statuettes.......
Yeah....we know. Nothing stays the same. Everything evolves.
This gap got progressively worse.......and took a new wrinkle with the arrival of the Blockbuster Kids, Spielberg, Lucas and others........who could not only craft Big Tent attractions that sucked in everybody, but make them artistically worthy as well.....
The ancient mariners who ran the Academy, however, weren't havin' any of that new-fangled kid stuff, no matter how many people bought tickets. As an alternative, they turned their loving gaze toward 'Coffee Table' movies........exquisitely crafted, high toned films that were the cinematic equivalent of those 75 dollar, 10 pound books of sunset photos you bought to lay on your coffee table for guests to absently flip through.
Coffee Table movies possessed all the necessary requirements for awards gathering......even if most of them were pretty much unwatchable and instantly forgettable. Best example of this....."Gandhi" triumphing over "E.T.", Anybody ever feel a burning desire to re-watch "Gandhi" lately? Or "Chariots Of Fire"?
And soon we arrived at the most insidious turn of events of all time......the rise of Harvey Weinstein's Miramax and the Independent coffee table movie........low budget little items that celebrated the human spirit, played in a smattering of 200 seat art house theaters to audiences of duly appreciative culture vultures and snatched Academy Awards away from any big budget crowd pleasers.
And Harvey, when he wasn't parading his shriveled penis and bloated body in front of the actresses who worked for him, waged superb, Machiavellian war on behalf of his coffee table movies.......collecting countless Oscars for movies that could put you to sleep in 2 minutes or less.....
Complete topsy-turvy now existed.....the Academy judged the most popular films as proletariat junk unworthy of recognition......(cue the entrance of the MTV movie awards to lavish praise and 'Moon Men' statues for such movies)
With extremely rare exceptions such as "Titanic", the Academy Awards functions at an almost complete disconnect from the thousands of folks who still line up at the MultiPlex to buy exorbitantly priced tickets and robber-baron priced popcorn. Other than "Get Out" and maybe "Dunkirk", the chances that they saw any of this year's nominated films are slim to none. And that's the way it's been for a while.....
We'll still gather 'round the TV.......not to celebrate the movies anymore, but for the embarrassing reality show circus of watching celebs shamelessly kiss their own pampered asses for 3 hours plus.........the gaffes, the garish ugly gowns, the gushing egotism, the off-the-cuff political rants.....and hilarious errors like last year's accidental awarding of Best Picture to the wrong movie.
The chances we'll have seen the Best Picture winner at this year's ceremony? You gotta be kiddin'.........
One more random thought before we head off down the beach........
And yet Bill Cosby, with over 60 accusers, remains an Academy member in good standing.......which means piles and piles of Academy screener DVDs and Blu-Rays were sent to a guy who's a way more ambitiously prolific, predatory sleaze than Harvey Weinstein....and legally blind. (Although with some of these film, watching them legally blind might improve them.....)
Go figure. Hooray for Hollywood. See you at the Awards........
No comments:
Post a Comment