My Thoughts On The Oscars

The Oscars over and hopefully so is the endless chatter about Brokeback Mountain. Don't get me wrong, Brokeback Mountain is a good film. The film looked good and the acting was fine. However, Crash is a great film and certainly was the most important movie of the year. I'm very glad it won. This is the second year in a row that Paul Hagis wrote the best film of the year, he was responsible for last year's winner Million Dollar Baby.

Congratulations to Eric Simonson for his Best Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar. Eric was my acting ensemble teacher at Columbia College. I know an Oscar winner, how about that!

I thought it was interesting that Sid Ganis (President of the Academy) and Jake Gyllenhaal made comments that movies were meant to be seen on the big screen. Do they believe that home theaters are the reason why the box office receipts are down this year? Heaven forbid Hollywood should make better movies.

When Hard Out Here for a Pimp won for Best Song I couldn't help but think of Kristi Hoening, who was died last week after her pimp collected $120 from the man who would later kill her. The pimp is sitting in jail after he failed to make his $5 million dollar bond. After honoring a song like that is it any surprise to hear people say Hollywood is out of touch?

Well apparently being out of touch fits George Clooney just fine. Clooney claims that an out of touch Hollywood brings attention to important social problems, such as AIDS awareness. Clooney didn't realize that it was nearly 10 years after AIDS came to the forefront of public conscientiousness that a major film released from Hollywood finally addressed the AIDS issue (Philadelphia-1993). If Clooney considers this a good response time then we can all thank goodness he isn't running FEMA.

Clooney spoke with pride when he mentioned Hattie McDaniel's Oscar award winning performance as an example of Hollywood's help in advancing the civil rights movement. You have to wonder if Clooney has ever seen Gone With the Wind. I would hardly call McDaniel's "Mammy" the role that broke racial barriers, just the opposite, it probably did more to reinforced stereotypes. Maybe someone should tell George that it was 33 years before the next black woman was nominated for a best actress award (Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues) and 62 years before a black woman won the Oscar again (Halle Berry - Monster's Ball). George Clooney, you’re not out of touch. You're out of your mind!