Oscars and Social Relevance

[pat]

Let's look at the movies nominated for Best Picture:

Crash
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
Goodnight and Good Luck
Capote.

The first four of those were "social relevance pictures", albeit about different issues. So what? The Academy doesn't vote for "Most Important Picture" -- it votes for "Best Picture." What was the best movie as a movie.

(Every once in a while the Academy gets mixed up and doesn't vote for the best picture, instead going for the "Important" picture. Moulin Rouge was a better movie than A Beautiful Mind, for instance, although the latter won "Best Picture".)

I didn't see Crash. I haven't yet seen Brokeback Mountain, although I intend to. Or Munich, although I have seen Good Night and Good Luck and Capote. * I have no way of second guessing the Academy's choice here, nor does anyone who hasn't seen Crash, at least.

Just because someone has something important to say does not mean their movie is necessarily better than everybody else's.


*Of the two I did see, I would have to give the narrow edge to Good Night and Good Luck. Capote was an impressive movie, but somehow a very cold movie; Good Night and Good Luck engaged the heart as well as the mind. That said, I was delighted that Philip Seymour Hoffman won for his portrayal of Truman Capote. It was a tour de force.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Capote, in my opinion, was ultimately about the rise and fall of one man without any impact on the rest of the world. Good Night, and Good Luck, on the other hand, was about the rise and fall of one man, with a rather interesting impact on the U.S., if not the rest of the world.

I saw Crash. I was not impressed. I thing Good Night, and Good Luck was a better movie, *and* it was more important. But that's just me.

For the record, I have not seen Brokeback Mountain. I haven't been able to work up the will to see it. I'm very familiar with the short story. That's probably why :).

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

i didn't any of 'em, actually, though i want to. as for Moulin Rouge, i never saw A Beautiful Mind, but i DID see Moulin Rouge, and i can't imagine it being a better movie than anything. i'm sorry, but i found it to be pretty eye-candy, and substandard on everything else.

n.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Actually, double checking the nominees that year, either Gosford Park or LOTR: Return of the King should have won. Heck, any of 'em were better movies than A Beautiful Mind, which was good, but sort of heavy handed.

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

Really? Moulin Rouge?

I never really saw what people saw in it.

[cheshyre]

It works very well if you drink absinthe while watching.
Especially during Jim Broadbent's Madonna number...

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

Nah. Rent "Les Girls," Gene Kelly's attempt to combine vaudeville, parody Jerome Robbins ballet, spiky modern dance and Bob Fosse body jerks into a musical remake of Rashomon set in Paris (with, god help you, Mitzi Gaynor). Moulin Rouge doesn't begin to approach it.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

A musical remake of Rashomon? That makes my brain hurts just thinking about it.

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

The opening number is an aggressively multi-racial "nightclub act" that appears to take place in a converted hangar

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Well, if not Moulin ROuge, then Gosford Park or LOTR: Return of the KIng. A Beautiful Mind was just so... unsubtle.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I actually liked Capote better then Good Night, And Good Luck, although I enjoyed both. I felt that Capote felt like it had more substance. Good Night, And Good Luck felt surprisingly small, like I would have liked them to have included more of the war and less of the skirmish.