Monday, February 23, 2009

Oscar's



I used to watch the Oscar’s and wait up for the announcement of who won for Best Picture. Not anymore, I really don’t care who wins for what and what that award means to their future. I haven’t seen one of this years movies just like I haven’t seen last years. I’ll watch for a bit, can’t miss the red carpet now can we. But it doesn’t mean the same anymore. It’s about a big a waste of time as watching who got beat-up by whom or if Paris is wearing panties and with what outfit. Just a real time waster and I’d rather read a good book.

In my childhood those award meant something, the stars were bigger and the light they cast was much brighter. The roles they assumed were much bigger as well, in real life and at the movies. I was to small to get the roles they played except for John Wayne who was larger than life. But even he was a character in life as surely as he was a character in the movies. But I was impressed with his bravado and simple code of justice. It wasn’t till I was a teen that I saw The Duke in all his drunken glamor and realized that he was just a man and has his demon’s like every other man. It was much later that I realized that his simple code of justice was fatally flawed as well. But he had a presence that made him a movie star none the less.
Today’s movie stars seem vapid by comparison, one dimensional characters too caught up in their own lives. Like singer who are one hit wonders and who continue to sing the same songs with only a slight change in lyrics. Still looking for that magic that eludes them they have no imagination, no creative drive that sustains them. They are content with their one dimensional stick figures and approach each job not as a challenge but as simply a paycheck. There are exceptions of course but not many rise to the level of truly creative artist. Too often we are bathed in gore or treated to special effects to create a wow factor that’s supposed to make up for the lack of talent or script. In this country at least we rely on the celebrities to carry the film and to bring that box office success like it makes up for a film that’s devoid of intelligent characters or plot.

So I’ll sit this one out, I found a good book or two that should provide entertainment for the evening and go to bed at a reasonable time. In the morning I’ll listen to the winner I missed like their movies. In the end I won’t really remember who won or lost or what the best picture was. And I won’t care not an inch. I’ll save my late night for a talk with good friends or stargazing or maybe New Years evening, at least there fireworks to see.
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Esperanza from another time and place. She is my muse and friend who I haven’t seen in a long, long time.

4 comments:

Lin said...

Esperanza is beautiful!

My views on awards are complicated, so I won't go into details here. Suffice to say, kids nowadays love the Oscars as much as we ever did at their age. Maybe they just don't seem that important when we're getting older?

Shadowscapestudio said...

Were the stars bigger and brighter then, or was it that the media didn't report on all the crap they do now?
The crap is what sells now. There inlies the problem.

MichaelV. said...

Right, the amount of crap the media puts out is breath-taking. What's left of the news isn't worth watching and don't even get me started on the programs. Thanks for writing.

unbearable lightness said...

I think Lin is right. Young people are idealistic and think the Oscars actually acknowledge the quality of work produced by people they admire because their work entertains them. In fact, the Oscars aren't about who gave the greatest performance or really who did the finest work as a director or whatever. IMO, they are fixed and always have been.

For example, Marlon Brando did not win the Academy Award for portraying Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire." And that is one of the classic performances of all time. The best actor award that year went to Spencer Tracy for "The African Queen," not because he could touch Brando in talent, but because he was old and needed to be compensated for not getting the Oscar when he did give an Academy Award performance, in "Casablanca." I don't remember who beat him out that year.

The other thing I've learned over the years is that playing a mentally challenged or physically challenged or socially challenged person ups your award chances greatly, independent of how the nominated performances really compare.

I don't watch any more because I don't believe the awards are given for what they say they are. Injustice, inequity, false advertising, call it what you will, but these awards do not necessarily go to the right people. And that makes it crap to me.