Is the White Guilt Oscar in Jeopardy?
The academy must be scrambling right now.
A few months ago they were just planning on giving this movie the Oscar.
Now with the controversy and low box office what will they do now?
The Academy doesn't choose based on controversy or box office results.
sharebox office results no
controversy yes
Examples?
shareHere's a list of some controversial Best Picture nominees that lost to safer, sometimes forgettable Hollywood fare:
Bonnie & Clyde (In the Heat of the Night)
Pulp Fiction (Forest Gump)
Taxi Driver, Network, All the Presidents Men (Rocky)
Apocalypse Now. (Kramer vs Kramer)
MASH , Five Easy Pieces (Patton)
A Clockwork Orange (French Connection)
The Exorcist (The Sting)
Mississippi Burning (Rain Man)
Born on the 4th of July (Driving Miss Daisy)
Goodfellas (Dancing with Wolves)
Fargo (English Patient)
Brokeback Mountain (Crash)
Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty (Argo)
American Sniper (Birdman)
The Academy, for the most part, picks the safer less controversial film.
Hey let me know if there is any other way I can enlighten you.
;)
Those movies were controversial because of their content, not because of something that happened to the director's life. While THE PIANIST didn't win Best Picture, Roman Polanski won Best Director.
Also, some of those winners are still considered to be the best choice. Being violent doesn't automatically mean a movie better than another.
French Connection
Crash
Birdman
Those movies were safe?
MASH , Five Easy Pieces (Patton)
Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty (Argo)
American Sniper (Birdman)
This is the first time I've read someone saying those nominees deserved to win instead. share
Controversy is controversy. Whether it is for its content (violence, subject matter) or for its behind the scenes situations. controversial is usually considered too controversial for the Academy.
I am not commenting on what should or shouldn't have one (usually the controversial movie lost to a safer one). Usually the controversial is better and lost.
Most people, including myself, would not consider Crash a better movie than Brokeback. Most people consider Crash to be the worst movie to be awarded Best Picture. Do you really think the French Connection is better than A Clockwork Orange?
Yes, all of these movies are safe:
Patton - a pro American war film
Argo - Hollywood producers helping rescue hostages
Birdman - another movie about hollywood (the academy's favorite subject)
Anything else?
My reply to each quote was below, not above. Please, re-read the post.
Do you really think the French Connection is better than A Clockwork Orange?
I personally don't, but I've seen more or less the same amount of people who prefer one of them. Therefore, you could say they're both equally adored.
Birdman - another movie about hollywood (the academy's favorite subject)
I'm sorry, did you even see it? share
Yes, they are both universally acclaimed movies. But Orange was very controversial when it was released, it still is. Did the controversy cost it the award? Who knows, probably.
I am talking about controversial movies being overlooked by the academy because they typically shy away controversy.
Did I see Birdman? lol yes I've seen it. It's about a washed up Hollywood actor who is looking for redemption. Did you find that movie controversial? I didn't, Hollywood did not either, hence the award. Was American Sniper a better movie? Who knows? Was it controversial? You bet it was!
;)
But BIRDMAN isn't really about Hollywood. It's much more about theatre. It wasn't controversial, but it was far from safe (or generic). It was quite original (the Academy has also been wrongly accused of overlooking that kind of film). AMERICAN SNIPER's controvery wasn't that big. Not that it matters anyway, since the movie has always been considered to be the weakest of the 2014 nominees.
shareYou're splitting hairs with the Hollywood/theatre distinction. BIRDMAN is about actors, and actors adore movies about their profession.
share1) But there is a distinction between movies and theatre. Also, Renton007 didn't say that movies about Hollywood always win for being specifically about actors.
2) Actors aren't the only ones that vote for Best Picture. Also, BIRDMAN didn't any acting category.
If that's the case, then why did the big studios not make any more movies like the infamous 1966 flop The Oscar? Why was Birdman the first one in years to get an Oscar?
shareThe majority of the films you picked there, are classics and far from forgettable. Crash, the English Patient or Patton are indeed safer, and forgettable. However, American Sniper had nothing on Birdman, which by all accounts was a far better film than that propaganda film. Django Unchained was a great film, until Waltz's character dies. From then on it turns into a cartoonish and idiotic film. Argo was by far the superior choice. The others are all classics that lost to other classics. Pulp Fiction is great and lost to another great film, Forrest Gump. Comparing The Birth of a Nation to these films is a disgrace. This film is the same like American Sniper. They both glorify psychos who were absolutely far from what the films paint them out to be. Black people like The Birth of a Nation because it's about a black man who dared to fight back. That's fine and I'm all for it. However, the man had no honor and was a delusional psycho who killed innocents for no reason and who posed him no threat. American Sniper glorified a psychotic and ignorant redneck who had crazy views and made up things that were characteristic of a psychopath. Who boasts about shooting looters, in the middle of a hurricane? It's not that he made up things, it's what he made up and proudly boasted about. No one in their sane mind would lie and boast about such things.
shareBirdman was a pretentious, insufferable bore.
Whiplash was the best film of that year.
And this year they will not choose based on vote counts either.
shareI'm sure they'll find another black movie to give it too because you know diversity not quality.
shareI'm sure they'll find another black movie to give it too because you know diversity not quality.
you assume that no movie with black actors in it is worthy of an oscar, just like the rest of the academy voters.
"Please disabuse yourself of the notion that my purpose on earth is to tuck ignorance in at night." share
I hope they give tons of awards to Moonlight, a movie about a gay black kid. That would really stick it to homophobe/rapist Parker.
I was born sickshare
But I love it
I'm sure they'll find another black movie to give it too because you know diversity not quality.
you assume that no movie with black actors in it is worthy of an oscar, just like the rest of the academy voters.
You assume that a movie doesn't get an award because it has black actors in it. share
Why do you say that?
share"The Academy doesn't choose based on controversy or box office results."
The reason I posted this thread was not to condemn the movie. I have not seen it yet. The reason I started this thread is because you know that after #OscarsSoWhite the academy got together and decided hey we need to nominate more black films next year.
hey look at this movie coming out, it's about slavery! Perfect! Let's get the campaign going to push this into awards season. This will shut everyone up.
I don't get it myself, 12 Years a Slave just won a few years ago. Just pick the best film of the year. But it's always political, whether you believe it or not. It's usually paid for anyway, Shakespeare in Love proved that in 1998.
I looked at a recent article in Entertainment Weekly a few weeks ago. This sums up my feelings regarding the academy's push for the film:
"...When the Birth of a Nation debuted at the Sundance Film Festival...it received a standing ovation BEFORE the movie began."
That pretty much sums it all up for me. Again I am not ANTI this movie. I hope it's good. I just don't appreciate the condescending, pandering attitude the Academy has for pushing this movie to make it appear more politically correct.
The Academy would have loved to give this movie all the awards. Especially, since Parker was director, producer, writer and lead actor. Think Mel Gibson with Braveheart, or Kevin Costner with Dances with Wolves. Plus a response to the Oscars So White slam. He would have been the new "it" person. But he cucked it all up.
I was born sickshare
But I love it
The Academy was critized because of the 2015 nominations. What happened during the 2016 ceremony? The Academy still nominated only white actors... and I'm OK with that. It means that they actually are objective and don't vote based on what others expect from them. Therefore, whether this movie gets nominated or not, it'll have nothing to do with race or Nate's arrest.
It's usually paid for anyway, Shakespeare in Love proved that in 1998.
How so? share
It's usually paid for anyway, Shakespeare in Love proved that in 1998.
I'm a little surprised you aren't already aware of this.
Google it. It's widely known and reported that the Weinsteins' have been paying for noms and wins for years.