Sean Nelson brings us the Worst. Oscars. Ever. Who is this guy and did he actually see the films he’s commenting on?
- Titanic, Crash, Dances With Wolves — “films that stormed the gates with their mediocre (at best!) melodrama and mealymouthed liberal guilt only to be rewarded with all the gold their producers could carry.”
Crash definitely won for this reason and certainly Dances With Wolves is tainted by it. However, there doesn’t seem to be any liberal guilt in Titanic, and both Titanic and Dances With Wolves were visually stunning and cinematically excellent productions, despite rather formulaic acting and storylines.
Furthermore, a modern-day Western about How the West Was Won really can’t skirt around the issue of the broken promises and heinous crimes committed against American Indians, unless one ignores the Indians altogether in the movie ala “Broken Trail.”
- A Beautiful Mind — “‘A Beautiful Mind’ was one of the more successful of those, so give him a Best Director Oscar, even if Howard fudged the facts and the film was kind of dumb and insulting, right?”
- “An exercise in mocking the mentally ill by pretending their illness is a kind of wonderful magic (plus, dumb and boring).”
He’s right that Howard didn’t deserve the Oscar when Robert Altman’s Gosford Park was also nominated (although I have to say I didn’t care for Gosford Park, but then I can’t say I’ve ever really cared for Altman’s movies.) That being said, how is the movie dumb and insulting? How does the movie mock the mentally ill? If anything, it shows the debilitating effects of schizophrenia. And to think that the man conquers his illness not through medication, but through an extraordinary mental control that I doubt Mr. Nelson even is capable of exercising, let alone 99.9% of the rest of us. I never found it dumb and insulting. On the contrary, it is a highly uplifting story, even if you have already read the book.
- Forrest Gump — “‘Forrest Gump’ is far worse: a Republican fantasia that says promiscuous women deserve AIDS, political involvement leads to death and dismemberment, and the best strategy for happiness in life is never to think deeply about anything ever.
What?!?! That came of right field! I’m a Republican and I’ve never considered it a “Republican fantasia.” This tripe about the lessons of the movie being people deserving AIDS, political involvement (by which, I assume, he means Vietnam) leading to death and dismemberment is pure hogwash. I mean, honestly, sir: Were you watching the same movie I was?
Forrest Gump is an honest reflection of the many issues that ravaged this country during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Check your history. It is a fact that up until even a decade ago in some places, mentally deficient children were segregated from the general school population. The AIDS epidemic in America was a phenomenon that swept through many of the communities that were part of the 1960s protest movement. Certainly, I never saw the movie even hint that those with AIDS somehow deserved it. Mr. Nelson is wrong on every level here.
- Braveheart – “Homophobic, bloodthirsty excrement.”
Homophobic?!?! Where’d that come from? The only even remotely homophobic scene is when the Scots moon the English prior to charging into battle. That is how it happened in the 11th century. They’re not making it up as they go. As for the movie being bloodthirsty, I can only say, “Well, duh?” They’re using broadswords, axes, maces, and cleavers. Exactly what did you expect to have happen? A nice round hole with a little trickle of blood?
- American Beauty — “Bourgeois moon howling with delusions of grandeur.”
Wow! What a perfect description of the suburbs. WHICH IS WHAT THE MOVIE WAS ABOUT!!! Again, cinematically beautiful and I can see why it got the Oscar.
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