Well, the Oscars are over. I’ll have a few notes on the ceremony later tonight (or possibly tomorrow) but for now, here’s a new Academy Award related poll for you.
Clearly, I’m focusing on movies from the last twenty years or so. Please vote on the actual nominees in the poll, but feel free to mention other Big Picture travesties in the comments section. I’m sure there are some of you who are still nursing Citizen Kane’s defeat from over sixty years ago.
This poll will self-destruct on March 5th. Results will be posted later that day.
My Geek Blasphemy 
The fact that Shakespeare in Love won anything at all is all the proof I need that the human race is doomed.
The Shawshank Redemption is a very good movie, but for it to be the #1 ranked movie on IMDB and in so many people’s list of favorite movies baffles me. Pulp Fiction also came out that year. That’s what should’ve won Best Picture. I think 1994 was a strong year for movies, though. Forrest Gump receives a lot of backlash, but I’ve always enjoyed it. My first name is Forrest, so I’ve been tied to that movie ever since it came out. Someone has yelled “Run, Forrest, Run!” in every P.E. class I’ve ever been in. I bet I’ve heard more bad Forrest Gump impressions than anyone not named Tom Hanks.
Browsing through the list of past winners and nominees, I’m shocked that Raging Bull lost to Ordinary People. I’ve never seen Ordinary People, but Raging Bull is consistently ranked as one of the greatest films of all time. Apocalypse Now lost to Kramer vs. Kramer. I like Kramer vs. Kramer, but c’mon. Rocky beat three more deserving nominees: Taxi Driver, Network, and All the President’s Men.
There are three choices there where I’d feel it was a travesty if the decision was the other way around. I also think that giving the award to fugitive from the US would be kinda questionable, so that explains a fourth choice. (I loved “The Hurt Locker” and “The King’s Speech” and disliked their opponents in that list. I was also not very impressed by “Goodfellas”, whereas I actually remember really enjoying “Dances With Wolves”.)
I haven’t even seen “Brokeback Mountain”, but it can’t be worse than “Crash”. Just as the “inter-linking stories” format was becoming especially tired we have this misguidedly preachy anti-racism piece. Crash involves a horrific womaniser whose actions are absolutely deplorable being suddenly praised as a hero later on because he saves someone from a burning car. Considering that all of this is fake and contrived anyway, why the hell is the audience subjected to all this? There’s also the two black guys pondering about the way racist assumptions work before concluding, in a practically-winking-at-the-camera “gotcha” moment, with the phrase “but we’ve got guns”. Actually characters pondering about racism happens quite often because nearly every character talks like they are a sociology student.
The Hurt Locker – pretentious, and obvious Oscar Bait.
The King’s Speech – grossly inaccurate.