I'm not going to watch the Academy Awards and I don't care who wins. A quick glance at the nominations shows that the potential winners have no claim to the awards for great film-making but rather the right Hollywood message. I read something about how the films nominated this year had the lowest cumulative attendance going as far back as they have good records. Another article had a spot-on assessment of the praise these films are receiving: directing that crap doesn't require any more courage than chewing gum. Courageous journalists are literally being marked for assassinations in Europe and the Middle East. Theodore van Gogh was literally murdered for his art. Brokeback Mountain, Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, etc. utterly fail at changing anyone's views not because of censorship or bigotry but because they're so predictable.
The awards may be a sham, but I am interested in how accurately the market can predict the results of a secret ballot. Intrade.com called (or rather, investors using intrade) how every single state would turn out in the 2004 elections. This market predicted that Ratzinger would become pope, that SCOTUS nominee Miers would withdraw and Alito would be nominated in her place.
Here are the predictions for the Oscars:
Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain
Best Director: Ang Lee
Best Actor: Phillip Hoffman
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz
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I watched part of it (mrs. radar was interested) and I was amazed to see the self-glorification the actors and producers padded themselves with... It's always been amazing to me this idea that "good" movies don't win, "important" ones do.
I'm still bitter about American Beauty winning over The Matrix a few years back. (Does anyone remember a movie more revolutionary, let alone entertaining?!?) Underlying statements are heralded as artistic and political "genious" and take away from the point of movies altogether. It's hard to consider a film "Best" Picture when 2/3 of the American populace either refuse to see it or are offended by its content (BB Mountain).
Oh, and Slowpitch, I think I saw the comparison that the box office revenues for all five nominated films combined drew in just over $200,000 while The Chronicles of Narnia made $268,000 alone. Oh well, I suppose this is why they don't allow the public to vote.
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