Can Oscar Heal Hollywood?
Caitlin Carter
March 12, 2010
Filed under A & E, Opinions and Views
The Academy Awards exist to honor the best in work in Hollywood. In the memorial portion of last Sunday night’s 82nd Academy Award ceremony, the presenter said, “This is a time for celebration,” in spite of the several deaths of actors this past year. Despite this proclamation of the allegedly joyous nature of the night, the tone of the broadcast felt oddly tense.
Laughter was sparse. Individual presenters awkwardly chuckled at their own jokes. Hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin resorted to continually referencing their (fictitious) relationship to garner a reaction, though the famous faces of the audience remained glum and dispassionate.
The unspoken tension was either exacerbated or simply referenced in Mo’Nique’s acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress, in which she applauded the Academy for judging the category “based on performance, not politics”—ostensibly both a reference to the fact that her film, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, is lesser-known and an acknowledgement of her own lack of previous critical acclaim in dramatic roles. This, paired with Mo’Nique’s comedic background in stark contrast with the more serious acting careers of most nominees that night, suggests that there is a temptation to award based on name recognition and established careers. (For the uninformed: the Oscars work like the Pulitzer Prize, not the Nobel—meaning that it recognizes one work in a career, not an entire body of work.) This mention of “politics” is far from the image of a glittery Hollywood apart from the rest of the world’s problems. However, despite the unfortunate disappointing aspect of the statement, it is likely not far from the truth.
Firstly, Meryl Streep, the most nominated actor of all time with sixteen nods, is an example of that establishment. Early on in the night, the hosts jested the Academy’s voting process concludes with, “nominating Meryl Streep no matter what.” Although it was simply a joke, it does on some level reflect the feelings of less commercially popular films and actors who are ignored in favor of the same regularly-successful people.
Secondly, the mention of “politics” is not applicable only to nomination and victory in the acting categories. A divide among Hollywood was implied throughout the night. It all leads to the question, “Do the people in this room even like each other?” Given the fact that the purpose of the award show is supposedly to honor all of Hollywood, this leads to another question: Is the Oscars’ attempt at bringing these filmmakers together a truly unifying force or simply a pretense for the watchers at home in Middle America?
Another gulf between filmmakers is shown clearly in the Oscars’ style. The award for Best Picture is presented at the ceremony’s end. Traditionally, the winner is a serious dramatic film, and comedy and genre flicks (including fantasy and horror) stand little chance at nomination and an even smaller one at an actual win.
This appeared to be acknkowledged in the horror film montage near the halfway point of the show. The young presenters of the video clip, Twilight stars Taylor Lautner and Kristin Stewart, introduced it by saying that films with supernatural elements receive a disproportionate amount of recognition. However, the montage ultimately proved to be superficial and ultimately insufficient. Unrelated through widely-known clips were juxtaposed to little purpose. The lack of connection between the clips suggested that there was no intended purpose beyond exclaiming, “Remember this? This was scary!” The fact that these films were not given any semblance of individuality is further emphasized by the abject lack of recognition of horror films in actual award categories. Furthermore, genre films are already reduced to “jump” moments that serve only to scare the audience; showing only these moments without the context of the film to provide theme reinforces this. The fact that the Academy constructed a tribute video does not compensate for this and in fact only draws attention to its own flaws in ignoring a large part of the film industry.
Another divisive aspect of the awards is the treatment of short films and technical aspects like sound editing. As in the horror film mention, the announcement of the winner was prefaced with a video that allegedly demonstrated the category’s importance. However, the fact that these awards were presented in quick succession with nary a change in presenters is less a demonstration of the categories’ significance and more of an attempt at concealing the apathy of the audience.
A possible cause of said apathy is the formal nature of the show. Long regarded as paramount among award shows, the Oscars have attempted to cling to a semblance of pomp and circumstance in an age where entertainment comes quick and cheap.
It is no surprise, then, that the casual aspects of the show were also the most refreshing. The acceptance speeches for the Best Actor and Best Actress categories are among these moments. Jeff Bridges, winner for his performance in Crazy Heart, peppered his speech with slang like “show biz” and ended his sentences by irreverently saying, “man.” Sandra Bullock also decreased formal tension by self-deprecatingly stating, “I’ve worn ya’ll down!” as an explanation for the win. The enjoyable nature of viewing a more casual approach to the night suggests that it is a quality that the rest of the show could benefit from emulating.
However, there are also those that believe the ceremony is perfect as is. North Augusta student Chase Pardue is among this group. He rejects the notion that the Academy “grades” by politics, claiming that, “the Academy judges based on what all 60,000 members enjoyed. Mo’Nique meant that the Academy judges by the performance of the actor, not by the name or who the nominee is outside of the film.” He also defended the multiple nominations of Meryl Streep, stating that, “She is nominated because she is simply the best. The Academy may like her, but the nods are due to the fact that nobody else can top her talent.”
The Academy Awards may be in need of a revamp in some ways, but do not expect a complete change in style anytime soon. Last weekend’s show garnered the highest ratings in five years. The Oscars may not be able to heal or even effectively conceal the divisive nature of the film industry, but its ratings victory demonstrates that Hollywood is far from dead.
