The Oscars: My Thoughts

Before we begin, I must make a confession. What I am about to admit will probably greatly undermine my credibility and change the very perceptions related to this web log. But, I really don't care what you people think, so here goes. I didn't watch the Oscars. I rarely do. What's more, I have seen only three of the movies that were nominated for Academy Awards this year. That's right, of the 57 movies that can call themselves Oscar Nominees, I have seen only three: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Visual Effects, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing), Superman Returns (Visual Effects) and Monster House (Best Animated Feature). As a result, I didn't care who won in many of the categories. I would, however, like to comment on one category: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Forest Whitaker was pretty much a lock for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Critics have praised his performance as one the greatest in film history. Which brings me to my point: Peter O'Toole has the worst luck. This year marked O'Toole's eighth nomination for Best Actor, yet he has never won. Timing is largely to blame. If you look at the eight actors he has lost to (listed below), with perhaps one exception, it is a virtual who's who of legendary performances. 1963: Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird 1965: Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady 1969: Cliff Robertson - Charly 1970: John Wayne - True Grit 1973: Marlon Brando - The Godfather 1981: Robert De Niro - Raging Bull 1983: Ben Kingsley - Ghandi 2007: Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland Had O'Toole's greatest performance, playing the title character in Lawrence of Arabia, been given any other year, he would have won easily. But he ended up going against Peck's Atticus Finch who was named AFI's greatest film hero of all time. O'Toole, despite never winning a competitive Oscar (he was given an honorary award by the Academy in 2003), will go down as one of the greatest actors of all time. In its review of Venus, the movie for which O'Toole was nominated this year, The New York Times said "(The two main characters') unlikely, uneven friendship provides the movie with a thin, wobbly dramatic peg, but it turns out to be just enough for Mr. O’Toole to show the younger guys out there — the Leos and the Brads and, for that matter, the Daniel Craigs — how the thing is done properly." The next point I would like to make is that is that the Academy Awards are, for the most part, a farce. It's little more than Hollywood congratulating itself in an awesome display of grandeur and excess. That is not to say that I discount the importance of the Oscars, specifically in terms of increased popularity and financial return for the films and individuals involved. My biggest complaint, however, is how momentum and politics play too big of a part in the voting process. It doesn't reflect well on the Academy that of last 10 Best Picture winners, as many as seven probably wouldn't win today if the voting were to be redone. And that's just recent history. Go back further and Oscar comes off as only slightly better than randomly picking winners. The often-cited example is 1942 when How Green Was My Valley beat out both Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon. Another is the fact that Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant never won Oscars. The list goes on an on. So as Hollywood recovers from its collective hangover and gets back to actually making movies, I, the non-moviegoer, can get back to watching regularly scheduled TV programs.