Oscar Flashback: Seems Like Old Times

The British have taken over the Oscars.  Before we get to how everything old is new again, here is a first look at Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher:

Oscars 2010 feels like a step backwards in time for so many reasons.

1. The British rule once again. After Obama’s State of the Union speech where he talked about our “Sputnik moment” and how America needs to support American industries and American talent, it is ironic that Oscar’s Best Picture is going to go to a British film made by a British production company about a British monarch. ¬†Surely Oscar historians will take note. ¬†All nine of the Best Picture nominees except the one that’s going to win are American stories, essentially – some about our past, some about our present – gay parents, meth in the backwoods, social networks, our collective childhoods, the western – our confusing identity in the modern world. ¬†The one that isn’t is not only the frontrunner to win, but was funded by the UK Film Council. ¬†In a year when the studio system here in America backed risky, uncompromising projects like Inception, The Social Network, Shutter Island — the Academy will go a different way.
2. The kids are all white. There are no people of color. ¬†The luncheon photo looks like a snapshot of the first class passengers on the Titanic only without the waitstaff. ¬†It isn’t necessarily the Academy’s fault. ¬†Last year after Geoffrey Fletcher became the first African American screenwriter to win, and Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win I joked that the Academy would figure they paid their affirmative action dues and “now can we get back to awarding white men?” And that’s exactly what’s happened. ¬†Well, then again, there are two films directed by women in both the Picture and the Writing category. ¬†Surely that’s something. ¬†But the rest? ¬†The five best directors, after such diversity last year, are once again white males.

3. Harvey Weinstein: The Return of the Oscar Whisperer – Oscar has always loved a comeback. ¬†He hasn’t had a Best Picture winner in a while. ¬†He found a horse that could run. ¬†He has proved once again that he can bypass the critics and head straight to the hearts of voters. ¬†It’s kind of amazing, actually. ¬†The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, The Reader…he’s got their number, he’s got their number.
4. The return of the sweepie. Even Slumdog seemed to come out of nowhere, a scrappy movie and an unlikely Oscar winner (no big stars). ¬†It’s been a while since a movie came along and swept that was a traditional Big Oscar Movie. ¬†We had to all abandon our theories about Oscar being a group that has a “type.” ¬†They always have had a type, mostly. ¬†They like movies that are good but not too good, somewhere between critics and the public Academy lies, movies that don’t insult their intelligence but don’t particularly challenge it either. ¬†The sweepie is a weepie that will sweep. ¬†And the King’s Speech has it all. It’s now down to not whether it will win but just how ¬†many Oscars will it win.
5. Critics out, public in. The public can be welcomed in the fold once more. ¬†For a while there, the Academy were making such daring choices for Best Picture that their ratings were at an all time low. ¬†They couldn’t embrace films like The Dark Knight and Avatar for Best Picture, even though the public liked those, because they alienated older folks, for one thing. ¬†The King’s Speech is that “soft lob down the middle,” as Anne Thompson called it, and that will drawn back in all of those who simply haven’t gotten their choices lately. ¬†The critics? ¬†They have been rendered irrelevant once again – and so we’re back to the great divide, which is how it was when I started watching them back in 1999. ¬†The film is usually well reviewed, just not the one the critics liked best.

One Constant that Remains Intact for 2010: Heroes still rule

If you look back at the Oscar winners for Best Picture going all the way back to their beginnings, you will find scant few that weren’t headed up by a heroic, likable character. ¬†It is really shocking to look at the list, in fact. ¬†Even in The Hurt Locker and The Departed you found heroes. ¬†Maybe they were heroes who did not succeed but we were with them the whole way through. ¬†They were underdog heroes. ¬†And that is how Oscar rolls. ¬†Anti-heroes? ¬†Not so much their thing, as Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, Goodfellas bears out. ¬†They have to like the main character and admire them on top of that.

There are exceptions, of course. ¬†In those cases, we have to hurt for the protagonist. ¬†Here is a list of the few films that have won where the hero wasn’t “good.”

1. Gone with the Wind – yes, people loved Scarlett but when I watch Gone with the Wind all I can think of is what an unlikable person she is. ¬†I love that about the movie, actually, and it is the only thing I do love. ¬†You couldn’t walk past that movie if you tried. ¬†There was no way it could lose, even with its complex female lead. ¬†The movie has an edge – Scarlett represents the South and she gets her comeuppance.
2. The Lost Weekend – how this movie ever won the Oscar is beyond me. ¬†But all I can think is that it was such an important thing to look at, alcoholism — that it struck people as a brilliant film. ¬†The character isn’t particularly unlikable but you can’t really see him as heroic either.
3. All About Eve – Eve, little miss evil. ¬†There isn’t really a single heroic character in the film, although an argument could be made for Margot. ¬†This is the closest you get to a Social Network kind of win – dark humor, witty, profound insight about humanity.
4. Midnight Cowboy – again, it’s a wonder this movie even won, considering. ¬†But this begins their best decade on record for honoring films that really do not only stand the test of time but have emerged as great films, not just “great Oscar films.”
5. The French Connection – bad-ass cop, and a somewhat baffling Oscar win. ¬†There are times when they don’t have to be coddled by a film in order to appreciate it and this was one of those times. It was up against A Clockwork Orange, and the best film of that year which should have won, The Last Picture Show.
6. The Godfather – there are some good characters in the film but overall, the thrust of the thing is that, underneath it all, these people are cold blooded killers. What gnaws at the soul of The Godfather was director Francis Ford Coppola’s desire to not make Italian Americans look bad. ¬†So you have a push-me, pull-you kind of thing happening. ¬†This was the Academy’s crowning achievement, in my opinion, honoring this film, which is one of the best films ever made.
7. The Godfather Part II Рmuch darker, with Michael Corleone many times less likable.  Great films, both.  Great moment in Academy history.  It never got better.  Not until the 2000s.
8. The Silence of the Lambs and Unforgiven are sort of debatable.  Both featured very strong dark characters but also good characters to counter them.  Not sure we can count these.
9. Chicago Рit is really the only sort of modern movie to feature anti-heroins.  No one is particularly likable in Chicago, yet everyone is likable.  Somehow it works out that way.  I happen to think this is so of The Social Network but no one else seems to agree.
10. The Departed – Leonardo Dicaprio’s character is mostly heroic in that he tries to do the right thing. ¬†But the film is really driven by anti-heroes too and they win out by the end.

The rest of the 83 years, though? Heroic, admirable characters, leaders, saviors — the best humanity has to offer.

It is worth noting that almost all of the films in the Best Picture ten this year DO feature heroic, likable characters.  Only one does not: The Social Network.