Can you imagine Obama in this picture?
Why is a very popular movie, about a very popular historical figure, ineligible for a Best Picture Oscar?
See, they’ve got these Diversity requirements–“Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” (has the French Revolution been here lately?). A movie has to hit a certain number of squares on the Diversity Bingo Board in order to be eligible for an Oscar.
This is more asinine than I can say. Like, who cares about plot or character or action–what really matters is the percentage of Cherished Minorities in the cast. “Well, the plot made no sense, the actors stumbled over their lines, even the popcorn was bad–but by cracky, all the scenes included the required number of Minorities!”
There is something very wrong with anyone who thinks that way.
And something wrong with any movies they might make.
It isn’t “thinking.” It’s programmed reaction. I’d compare it to Pavlov’s dogs, except the dogs took longer to train. (Pardon my cynicism. I’m exhausted.)
The bad guys aren’t going to go quietly.
So, if someone made a movie about something that happened in Sweden, and there wasn’t one non Swedish person in the story and in order to cast it accurately, I used nothing by Swedish people, that movie would not be eligible for an Academy Award? I remember that there was criticism of the movie Apollo 13, because there were no female flight controllers. At the time of the actual events, there were very few women in the space program, so the movie was simply portraying the way things were, at the time.
I own a copy of Reagan, and whether or not it receives an Oscar is of no consequence to my opinion of the movie. Nor do I care about the results of the Academy’s decisions on any recent film. It wasn’t all that long ago that there was a physical assault made, quite publicly, at the award ceremony. I don’t watch TV wrestling, because I don’t take it seriously. The same could be said for the Academy Awards Ceremony. If I want to see grandstanding for the camera and cheap violence, I can watch wrestling, just as easily and it’s probably a lot more entertaining, because the wrestlers don’t take themselves all that seriously. 🙂
Bottom line, I don’t give a rat’s rump about the Academy Awards, and I doubt that many people do, these days.
Pro wrestling vs. Academy Awards–not even close!
The ridiculous spectacle it has become sickens me. Marlon Brando’s publicity stunt, way back in ‘71, sickened me, even at the time. Now it’s become an orgy of attention seeking and virtue signaling.
Kanye West’s wife, Bianca Censori, appeared at the Grammys, essentially nude. Sounds like publicity seeking. Attendees of the Academy Awards Ceremony resort to ever more extreme costumes, every year, so I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. How do we outdo Bianca Censori? Maybe a full body MRI, colorized to reveal every internal organ? 🙂 it’s just stupid.
When I was a kid, someone gave my father tickets to a pro wrestling event which was broadcast from the local TV station. I actually physically bumped into Mad Dog Vachon and his brother, coming back from the rest room. I bet you didn’t know that I hung around in such elevated circles. 🙂
Even at that young age, I knew better than to take anything I saw in the wrestling exhibition seriously. It was vaudeville, at best. Neither my father or I would have gone, except for the fact that the tickets were a gift. It was fun, and gives me a chuckle to this day, but it’s a big nothing burger, as regards true significance.
The Academy Awards are making a beeline for that same level of significance, along with the Grammys and the ridiculous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The only value these awards and institutions possess, is the value we collectively assign them, as a society. I, personally, assign them zero significance in my life. Zero! I don’t care who wins an Oscar, a Grammy or who gets in the stupid Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
All of it has become a political thing, and an unrestrained orgy of attention seeking and virtue signaling. It is of no more significance to me that a couple of kindergarten kids calling one another a meanie. Actually, the kindergarten kids are more important to me than the bodies giving out the awards, because the children might grow up, someday, and be worth something. IMHO, the film academy, and these other award bodies are very unlikely to ever become worthwhile.
Things pass, over time. I remember when the Miss America pageant was a big deal. I’m sure it still is run, every year, but I’m equally certain that no one cares, beyond a relative handful of people who follow it, mostly out of habit.
Media is changing. I watch few Hollywood movies and virtually no TV. I watch YouTube videos, which I find many times more informative than anything produced by the traditional sources of news and entertainment. How much longer will the major studios be viable as businesses? I suspect that their fortunes will slip away to nothing, over the next few years. BTW, one area doing quite well are movies directed towards a Christian audience.
Ticket prices at theaters are through the ceiling; and then you go in and see there’s hardly anybody there.
The last time I went to a movie theater was for an IT industry event, where Cisco Systems treated us to a movie, Get Smart, some popcorn and root beer, after we sat through a presentation on their products. The presentation was actually useful, and a whole theater full of network engineers got a few hours off of work, on Cisco’s nickel.
The last movie I paid to see was probably in 2004 or earlier. All I remember was being in an audience which included some dodgy looking characters and there were innumerable interruptions from ringing mobile phones. When I went out into the parking lot, I felt less than safe and was relieved that my (then) nearly new vehicle was unmolested.
This was in an OK neighborhood, not rich, but not rough, but it was a less than pleasant experience. I miss going to movie theaters, but most of my (relatively) recent visits have been less than enjoyable, because of the behavior of some in the audience.
Beyond that, most new releases do not impress me, all that much. I have no interest in Marvel Comics based Superhero movies, and I’ve had more than my fill of woke content, even in its more subtle guises. I don’t want a message, just tell me the story and I’ll draw my own conclusions as to the moral lessons.
Much has changed in our day, and I don’t like all of the change, but in some cases, it’s inevitable. When Reagan came out, I was eager to see it, but a 50 mile trip to the closest theater in a truly good neighborhood, the price of tickets, the Highway Robbery of popcorn and beverages cannot compete with waiting a few months and clicking the “Buy” button at Amazon and retrieving the BluRay from my mailbox, two days later. For refreshment, how about some Triscuits and one shot of single malt scotch, and because I’m not going to be driving anywhere, having a drink is not a problem.
Don’t Triscuits make you crazy? Or am I thinking of something else?
I’ve been posting here nearly nine years now, and never once have I so much as hinted at the notion that I am not crazy. Now, I’d you’ll excuse me, I need to dispatch some troops to Waterloo. It should be a cakewalk. 🙂
Autocorrect strikes again. Not I’d you’ll excuse me, but IF you’ll excuse me. 🙂
*Sigh*