“As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”
― Ernest Hemingway
The theme of the 86th Oscars is Heroes. That might come to be regarded ironically when all is said and done on the evening of March 2.
Two of the strongest films in the race aren’t about heroes at all, but rather “Heroes.” Remember in Citizen Kane when Charles Foster Kane tries to take the quotes off “singer”?
Heroes are such a vital part of cinema. They fulfill our need to ratify our goodness. What we do to promote that ideal is to make movies, give the moviemakers statues, and go home satisfied that yes, we really are good underneath it all. Spend enough time online reading the awful comments and tweets that spill out of the bowels of humanity and you’ll wonder whether we’re just kidding ourselves.
There is a brilliant scene at the end of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street when the camera turns to Kyle Chandler as FBI Agent Patrick Denham, who is looking around at ordinary life on the subway and we hear the lyrics, “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” That scene sums up what life is like in the 2010s, or at least the godless world Jordan Belfort was able to worm his way into. How easy to take advantage of a culture that operates like a fluffer, keeping the greed machine humming along — where the only requirement is that you make lots and lots of money. Winning is everything. If you lose, tough luck. It’s a nasty portrait of a nasty culture, a climate of greed. The point of The Wolf of Wall Street is that, to those who strive to thrive in that culture, Jordan Belfort is a “hero.”
But he’s juxtaposed this year by heroes without the quotes. Ersatz “heroes” are many; genuine heroes are few. The second showcase of “heroes” would be David O. Russell’s American Hustle. There isn’t a true hero to be found anywhere in that film because it is about a bunch of bumblers who don’t seem to know where they’re going. It’s the keystone cops version of Goodfellas. There is no high crime here, no real threat, just a handful of clowns. That makes it great, but it also makes hard to really root for any of the characters. You don’t really root for Jordan Belfort either. You kind of root against him. You want him to pay for his crimes. Trouble is, he keeps getting away with it. DiCaprio’s likability makes it even more conflicting — how do you not like a guy you can’t really like? That is, if you walk into the theater with your morality intact. If you don’t, well, you’re what the movie is about. On the flip side, the only way to understand how victims get conned by charmers is when we see how how charming the con-men can be.
But this year’s Oscar race is also about straight up heroes, no quotes.mjkn7 , Chief among them, Solomon Northup, both a real life hero in American history and a cinematic hero, a man who endured 12 years of demeaning torture and came out the other side to tell the tale. What makes Northup a hero is that he told his story. That might be the part about 12 Years a Slave that’s easy to miss, despite how many times we see his family and meet his living descendents. His life after slavery is as important as his years lost as a slave. The film is his memoir but a whole other movie could be made about how he became an abolitionist two decades before the Civil War. And how his death and disappearance remains a mystery. Some said he was kidnapped and returned to being a slave. Others say he was murdered. There is no doubt, though, that he used his experience to make the world a better place. This is why when people complain that 12 Years a Slave wraps things up too neatly because he leaves behind all of those slaves. For starters, the film makes his leaving them, and the pain it caused, a mixed blessing. But secondly, the last thing Northup did was go home and live out his days looking after his own personal welfare. He advocated for others, and helped to start the war that would end slavery.
That, my friends, is a hero.
But there are others. Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club is one such hero. The whole film is made up of them. Craig Borten spent twenty years trying to get the film to the big screen. The film is about a dying man who set up one of many buyers clubs to help AIDS patients get live-extending, life-preserving, life-saving medication that was being blocked by the FDA. The film exposes the panic and ignorance prevalent at a time when patients were dying by the thousands, much of that was because they were taking toxic doses of AZT. In the film, Woodruff stands in for the people who figured out early AZT, in those large doses, was killing people. This is an important part of our history as well, even if the film doesn’t tell the whole truth about Woodruff himself. That’s really not the point. It’s about the story of the AIDS crisis, and how Big Pharma and the FDA dragged their bureaucratic feet instead of fast-tracking new treatment options.
To complain about Woodruff’s sexuality not being fully explained or explored in the film is to miss everything that the film does offer. Both 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club reveal important, and often ignored, stories in American history where the heroes were reluctant, thrust into life threatening conditions that forced them to see life from another perspective. Might Solomon Northup have lived his life as a free man without ever becoming an abolitionist had he not lived those 12 years as a slave? Would Ron Woodruff have ever become an advocate for the black market which saved countless lives had he not contracted AIDS? True, the gay community was much more active and vital than one straight homophobe in the south (see the movie How to Survive a Plague) but both of these films are fish out of water stories, the kind that audiences respond to best. They become universal when they are about people who aren’t normally inclined towards advocacy. That’s what makes them heroes. Or as Mark Twain would define them:
“Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”
The key to the heroism in 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club — and we might as well include Philomena and Captain Phillips — is that these people are coming from one world into another. If Ron Woodruff had been replaced by a gay activist, or if he wasn’t coming from the opposite end of the spectrum, the film would lose a good deal of conflict. Lucky for us, the documentary How to Survive a Plague tells the more thorough story of those who really should get the most credit for progress during the AIDS epidemic. But that doesn’t mean Dallas Buyers Club doesn’t tell a story of its own that is universal enough to reach a broad audience, not just one inclined towards “the truth.”
That was always the true gift James Schamus gace us with the films he pushed forward into the Oscar race during his reign at Focus Features, and he leaves this legacy behind: given the opportunity, he helped to “normalize” LGBT characters into the mainstream and he did this quite deceptively and sneakily — The Kids Are All Right, still one of the only films about gay parents to really hit the mainstream. Milk, with Sean Penn as Harvey Milk telling such an important story in American history that had been all but ignored, or marginalized.
What a shame to see Schamus go. Talk about your heroes.
The real Philomena Lee and the real Captain Richard Phillips might be the only surviving heroes still alive represented in this year’s Oscar race and their presence should not be discounted. Hit early with a really awful accusation that he deliberately disobeyed orders that put his crew in harm’s way, Phillips is the very definition of hero, no quotes. Hanks portrayal of Philips delineates that transformation in the film’s final minutes. What he did that day, how he survived, how he saved his crew had to do with an inner resolve and courage to put his own life on the line to save many others. Meanwhile, facing games of knee-jerk political wiffle ball attempted by touchy conservative critics, the real Philomena Lee stood up and spoke out to defend the veracity and integrity of that film. Instead of allowing others to brand her as “anti-Catholic” she wrote an elegant open letter to set the record straight: “The story the movie tells has resonated with people not because it’s some mockery of ideas or institutions that they’re in disagreement with. This is not a rally cry against the church or politics. In fact, despite some of the troubles that befell me as a young girl, I have always maintained a very strong hold on my faith.”
Speaking of heroes, major props yet again to Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Co for being the only studios with big enough balls to back not just Fruitvale Station and The Butler, but August: Osage County and Philomena. Yes, we’re still talking about stories old white guys have to like — and old white guys still ain’t going to like them unless they are “cool.” Philomena was the only one to make it through on their extraordinary slate this year. When we look back on this era we will marvel at that selection, I promise you: how in this year of all years the Academy could ONLY abide Philomena out of all of them. I will make sure people remember that, especially when there are so many complaints about the lack of films featuring strong women, or the lack of diversity in the Oscar race. Well, one studio gave it their best shot. The Academy closed those doors.
Heroes are everywhere in the Oscar race this year. Sandra Bullock plays one such reluctant hero in Gravity. Alfonso Cuaron was a hero for casting her, for defying the norm that tells us audiences only respond to films with a central male character (for the most part, that’s the ugly truth). But he stuck to his guns and being a powerful director with a lot of box office clout behind him he was able to achieve his goal. Bullock finds the will to live after being stranded in space and none of it depends on a man saving her (sure, George Clooney plants himself in her head and tells her if she can think like a man she can win like a man — but he is also her superior, so it makes sense. Furthermore, it’s her head, her memory, her own ability to process her own relationships to find her own reservoir of her own resolve).
Disney put out its first film featuring a princess whose own magic powers were the subject of the film — usually the powerful one is the evil queen but here the superpowers are given to a woman who has trouble controlling them. It’s astonishing that in 2014 we have to point that out — but yet there it is. The economics of film drive the politics of film. Frozen and Gravity are two of the highest grossing films of the season, mopping the floor with the comparable films starring men. You can add Catching Fire to that pile and you have something to celebrate.
While Spike Jonze’s Her and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska don’t really fall into the notion of “traditional hero,” there is heroism in what their characters overcome throughout those two films. It is a quiet heroism, relatable, certainly, to anyone watching the film. Do we see ourselves as heroes of our own lives? Pulling ourselves out of isolation, putting our hearts on the line, taking a risk to cash in big on a false promise for millions? Any time someone steps outside their comfort zone to take a big risk they immediately become heroic.
The ballots are being sent out today. The Academy will have to make tough choices and they won’t do it out of obligation. They don’t vote that way. They vote with their hearts. Some will only have been moved by the heroes this year. Others will have found more relief, more satisfaction and more entertainment with the “heroes.” A vote is usually an act of love — it is also how we define who we are. Which kind of hero are you?
Preliminary Predictions
Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Best Director: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Best Orignal Screenplay: David O. Russell, American Hustle or Spike Jonze Her (haven’t decided)
Best Adapted Screenplay: John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave
Best Editing: Captain Phillips
Art Direction: Gravity
Cinematography: Gravity
Best Score: Gravity
Best Song: Let it Go, Frozen
Best Visual Effects: Gravity
Sound: Gravity
Sound Editing: Gravity
Costumes: The Great Gatsby
Makeup: Dallas Buyers Club
Documentary: The Act of Killing
Foreign Language: The Broken Circle Breakdown
Animated Feature: Frozen
Live Action Short: The Voorman Problem
Ani short: Get a Horse
Doc short: unclear at this point
“And what’s wrong with trash collectors, anyway?”
That’s what I was thinking!
“When you start dragging people’s physical appearance into a discussion in order to insult or discredit them, it’s a pretty clear sign you’ve lost that particular argument, because if that’s the best you can do… *rolls eyes*”
Indeed…
…And what’s wrong with trash collectors, anyway? It may be literally dirty work, but they play an extremely important role in maintaining the public health–wait until the next time there’s a trash collectors’ strike in a major city, and you’ll see just how important they are. (I could probably keep trying to stretch that metaphor re: directors in general and Steve McQueen in particular providing similar services for the public mental health, but I dare say it would eventually snap back and pop me in the face…) I think I can safely say, since I come from a working-class background, that there’s nothing shameful in doing that particular job; I’d much rather be compared to a trash collector than certain other professions I won’t name here. (I’m sure you can all think of some, though.) Besides, as others before me have pointed out, directors and behind-the-scenes people in general tend to be on the scruffy side, and there’s nothing wrong with that. When you start dragging people’s physical appearance into a discussion in order to insult or discredit them, it’s a pretty clear sign you’ve lost that particular argument, because if that’s the best you can do… *rolls eyes*
Just found a copy of the Feb. 11 issue of Variety.
On the cover is a full-color ad for ”American Hustle.” Inside:
* 2-page ad spread for ”Gravity” and its 10 Oscar nominations
* 2 full-page ads for ”Dallas”; one for McConaughey, one for Leto
* 1 full-page ad for ”Great Gatsby” for Production and Costumes
* 1 full-page ad for screenwriter Billy Phillips (”Capt. Phillips”)
* 1 full-page ad for makeup artist Stephen Prouty (”Bad Grandpa”)
* 2-page ad spread for Joel Harlow & Gloria Pasqua-Casny for their makeup and hairstyling work on ”The Lone Ranger”
Editorial-wise, there’s a cover story of Leonardo DiCaprio, and it runs 6 six pages. Plus, Variety also runs a full-page 1994 Oscar ad from its archives, featuring Leo at age 19 for ”Gilbert Grape.”
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/leonardo-dicaprio-tackles-roles-that-push-the-envelope-1201096254/
Buford, you are nothing more than a cartoon character. A troll. A stirrer of the pot and it’s getting old. The fact you agree with Armond White shows you are purposely trying to start shit.
^^ THIS could be Armond White 🙂
Have you ever wondered why native Americans were never enslaved ? ..it’s because , generally speaking , they have a different temperament than black folks and lived a primitive wild ,nomadic lifestyle that was not at all conducive to captivity and submission ; they would , quite frankly ,rather die than suffer such indignities …they suffered on the Resevations , but that was not slavery as such
^^ Well, some Indians in Florida were enslaved. But, the other reason is because Indians had WEAPONS.
I wish the headline were Heroes vs. Villains.
It would make a whole lot more sense to me.
“Does nobody else want to discuss this foul obnoxious statement with Buford? I don’t want to scoop up all his offensive oafish remarks for myself.”
Ryan–first of all, you dismantle them so well yourself, adding anything else seems unnecessary :).
Second, my general rule with Internet trolling and racism is to ignore. Leave their views confined to the dustbin of history, which is where they belong. To take them out and slap them down again seems pointless to me.
That said, I’m making this post because I do not want those racist a*holes to think for one second that you’re the only one who sees them for what they are. On the contrary.
I’ve learned in the years of arguing with strangers on the Internet that silence is not necessarily acquiescence…on the contrary, some people just don’t want to argue anymore specially not with such 18th Century views.
Yesterday I stupidly spent almost 3 hours arguing on another site about whether Frozen was unnecessarily sexual and wrongly taught young girls that they should find empowerment in their sexuality. Not to steal the thunder of this post, but I have found in my experience that sexism is more widespread in that people hold subconsciously sexist and denigrating views of women–they just don’t even realize it, it’s that ingrained. Racism is different, racism tends to be overt and hateful, but I think it is confined to a (vocal, but) decided minority of losers.
In any case–thanks for taking the time to smack them down.
“If Solomon Northrup is not the definition of a hero, than I am not sure there are any true heroes.”
Says it all, Alec.
If Solomon Northrup is not the definition of a hero, than I am not sure there are any true heroes. This man bravely and strongly endured twelve years in captivity after living 35 years or so as a free man. He survived an extremely hostile environment and enriched the lives of multiple people along the way(if only for brief moments). Upon returning to his family, he found the courage to tell his story at a time when that was a very dangerous thing to do(even in the North). We will never know the true effect his book had on people in that time period, but if it helped shape one abolitionist, then that would be enough.
In my mind, it is very heroic to survive something as horrible as being enslaved. Imagine living a good part of your life free and then being kidnapped and turned into a slave overnight. How many of us would have been able to survive? To those who said he should have fought back, he did early in his enslavement and almost got hung for it. To admonish him for being smarter than everyone else and waiting for the right moment to reveal he was free is to miss the point entirely. I am pretty sure he was a hero to his family, for whom he fought so hard to return to. I am also sure his descendants are proud to count him as an ancestor. Solomon Northrup is definitely a hero.
Also, I am not sure why McQueen is getting called a trashman or what that is supposed to mean. It seems to demean an honest and hardworking profession. McQueen is a great director who made a film that I believe will be shown in schools across America from now on when the history lesson turns to slavery. It is as important a film for American as any I have seen in my lifetime.
”Who sees the print versions of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter?”
Ryan, I wasn’t actually asking about who reads it, in general. That was directed at anyone who comes to this site, and had noticed which movies were taking out the most For Your Consideration ads in those trade publications.
WW, That’s a good question. My guess would be that all the top 5 or 6 major contenders with the most nominations might try to match each other’s FYC exposure without any of them going too far overboard or underplaying their hand.
There would be a point when oversaturation might give off an air of desperation or arrogance and begin to be detrimental and couterproductive. The campaign teams are savvy about those things.
So when it comes to making the best impression it’s possible that effectiveness is measured less by number of pages purchased and more about the design and classiness of the overall approach, don’t you think? Which ads have you seen that made the more memorable impression on you?
If we’re going by real heroes there kind of weren’t any at all in my opinion. I think a real hero has to save someone else or sacrifice themselves. I may have rooted for some of these characters, but I’m not sure if it’s the same thing. The only time I remember thinking any of them was trying to be heroic was when Christian Bale had to rework his con to get the best outcome for everyone in AH. There were loads of heroes in 2013 movies, they’re just not “Oscar worthy” I suppose. Mud, Fruitvale Station, The Hobbit, Prisoners, The Butler, etc.
p.s. Most movie directors look schlubby. Peter Jackson hardly ever wears shoes. So I think McQueen looks like a movie director.
Should its Oscar campaign be called the ”Dallas” Ad Buyers Club?
I visited the following websites and they all prominently feature ads for ”The Dallas Buyers Club” on their home page: AwardsDaily, Deadline Hollywood, Gold Derby, Hit Fix and Hollywood-Elsewhere.
In other arenas, I’ve been seeing more TV & radio ads for ”Gravity.”
Who sees the print versions of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter?
Which movies seem to be taking out the most ads there?
Who sees the print versions of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter?
Studio employees. Every single desk-stop on the mail-room rounds.
Actually, PHS was not so short. But you can’t ‘act short’.
‘After all, PSH didn’t shorten his legs to play Capote, he “played” short. In DBC, I only saw the same McConaughy, only skinnier – same drawl, same gestures…’
Steve,
And one of the things most might miss, if you’re not from Texas, or the South in general: MMC was using a very blue-collar dialect…apt for a man who didn’t make it to 8th grade. It was also a regional dialect: like when he says ‘I could of kilt ya’. Like the difference between a South London or East London accent or dialect – if you’re not from there, it may sound the same. But that’s one of the sublties, and realness I loved about his portrayal.
The weight thing is what it is: the character was dying. If MMC had played him fully fit, tanned etc…it would have been a joke. Actors inhabit their characters, and part of that is getting the physical down. That’s important – it creates a sense of self, the character’s self. It was all in the eyes anyway. That scene where he’s diagnosed: so many different things going on: shock, denial, fear and defiance and denial again….that was more than ‘skinny’.
*PSH was already short.
If gays can’t support our straight allies, and honor their journeys, we might as well give up.
There’s only two options to deal with trash like this, and since beating the living lights out it is not possible, all we can do is ignore it.
Yeah, Ryan needs no help from us.
Ron Woodruff was a hero, of sorts in that N American kind of way in that he found a solution to a desparate situation, shared it (as an enterprise – very American) and took on the FDA. That much of the film I have no problem with, just like Norma Rae, Erin Brockovitch, et al. Whether or not he started out as a homophobe or where he really really dipped his wick were not issues, for me anyway.
Two things really bothered me, though. One is that the two main supporting characters did not exist. Given the impact they have on the main character one wonders why, if they are composites, at least a couple of the real people who shared Ron’s journey didn’t deserve a shout-out. And I did not find Leto’s character to be just a sad drag queen, but probably the strongest character in the piece. If the intention was to simplify the narrative so as not bore or confuse the audience, I think it’s a cheat.
Second – and this one is startingh to really annoy – is drastic weight change becoming the new performance- enhancing drug for actors? It’s just as dangerous to one’s health as steroids or growth hormones. I guess we have DeNiro to blame in the modern era with Raging Bull and The Untouchables. Bale, Damon, McC, et al drop a dangerous amount of weight for roles. I don’t think it should be factored into judging the performance and certainly should not be a reason for awarding an Oscar. After all, PSH didn’t shorten his legs to play Capote, he “played” short. In DBC, I only saw the same McConaughy, only skinnier – same drawl, same gestures.
OT, but why does the Academy wait so long to send out ballots? I understand a short lag after nomination day, but it’s been long enough for the guilds to lose their impact and for other films and winners to suffer from fatigue. No wonder there is such overlap with the BAFTA, more than any other precursor in recent years.
Buford, you are nothing more than a cartoon character. A troll. A stirrer of the pot and it’s getting old. The fact you agree with Armond White shows you are purposely trying to start shit.
Tyler, you only viewed Dallas Buyers Club in black and white. “People are who they are and there’s no changing them,” is that how you see things? That’s the wrong way to view that movie. In fact the entire theme in the movie is “fair chance”. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and a fair second chance. Ron had his.
Ryan, talking about heroes, you’re one of mine. Keep on keepin’ on, brother!
Hey, Ryan — take a breath, sit down and relax.
Or go see Endless Love.
Hey, “Randy” “Brian” “Tyler”
How about man up and decide on ONE ID instead of pretending to be a gang of 3 different grumblers.
As a gay man, something I liked about Dallas Buyer’s Club WAS the fact that he was pretty homophobic, and driven primarily by making money. That’s the conflict. The suffering patients are getting their medicine, but at the cost of one douchey homophobe making a profit.
Is everyone forgetting that the point of narrative storytelling is to create tension and show the conflicts of the characters?
If Ron was depicted as some gay-friendly advocate would it be “easier to stomach” or “less offensive”? Jeez gimme a break. There are people in the world that have seedy motives and aren’t perfect angels. Heaven forbid a movie depict one from time to time.
I reckoned you’d handle it Ryan. Great job.
Dallas Buyers Club is one individual movie about one singular man’s experiences in combatting the Aids virus and how in the process he saved and prolonged a numerous of lives. It is not a movie about the homosexuals of ACT UP or politically correct gay men. Drag queens exist now and then and some of them are sad.
Thank you Ryan,
You’re a badass!
Bertolt Brecht was right: “Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes”.
You are obsessed with heroes. I don’t like heroes, I don’t trust them. That’s another reason for which I love Gravity: no heroes, just a woman who tries to carry on her life.
My mom thinks gays should have their own valentines on another day
I’m sorry to deflate your politically correct views on American History and on human nature in general , but Native Americans were defeated militarily and corralled onto Reservations with limited freedom ; they were NEVER forced onto plantations because they simply refused to work
Furthermore , there was nothing ”Djangoistic fantasies of gory , impossible heroics ” about the historical scenarios that I mentioned ; they actually happened with Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion.
they actually happened with Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion.
Here’s what Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion accomplished for Nat Turner: Speedy Capture and Messy Execution. Ask Nat Turner’s hundreds of descendants how much they appreciate his efforts. If you can locate any children he survived to father or brothers he helped to save, which you won’t.
Nat Turner was both brave and delusional. Nat Turners bravery was bolstered by superstitious signs he saw in the weather and heavenly visions in which he imagined God told him to rise up and fight. To rebel like Jesus Christ rebelled. Nat Turner overlooked the fact that God had no intention of resurrecting him as anybody’s Savior. Nat Turner saved nobody, least of all himself.
Nat Turner’s story is indeed a remarkable chapter of American history, and that story has been told (rarely very artfully) the same as lots of tragic stories about fools who rush in where angels have the good sense of self-preservation not to tread.
There are all kinds of heroes. Nat Turner’s inspirational heroism was different than Solomon Northup’s demonstrational heroism.
Here’s how Nat Turner helped. Nat Turner helped two dozen black men get hanged to death. Nat Turner helped several white women and white children be murdered, because yeah, snuffing out the lives of women and children helped a whole lot in winning over white hearts and white minds.
I’m sure hundreds of slaves were not treated even MORE severely and their lives didn’t become even MORE hellish after word spread throughout the South about the heroic black men who slaughtered white kids.
*(NOTE: I’m actually pretty sure Nat Turned caused immeasurable inconceivable torment to be inflicted on thousands of black people who weren’t lucky enough to be executed along with him and his other God-envisioning murderous heroes). Murdering a child is still murdering a child, “Buford,” no matter whether you think I’m being politically correct or not.
You should go watch a movie about Nat Turner if you prefer the sort of heroics where all the black guys end up dead.
Better yet, why don’t you come down off your little throne in the UK and visit America to flaunt your expertise on American behavior.
Pick a contentious issue you care deeply about and go pick a fight with some well-armed Southern redneck in Florida. Be sure to come completely ill-prepared to have you prissy ass kicked and your brains splattered in the mud while you’re showing us the true meaning of bravery and heroism.
Let me know when you’re coming so I can watch the nightly news for the results of your heroic experiment.
Speaking of ”How to Survive a Plague,” the acclaimed and Oscar-nominated AIDS documentary, its director, David France, has issues with ”The Dallas Buyers Club.” He calls it a ”problematic re-writing of history” and finds its ”straight-washing” of that era ”frustrating.” He says it plays on tropes, like ”you need to see a straight man’s journey in order to understand gay people.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/dallas-buyers-club-gay-problems_n_4738088.html
and he finds its ”straight-washing” of that era ”frustrating.”
and I for one find it equally frustrating that a guy who’s obviously very smart isn’t smart enough to know that when straight people starting dying of AIDS it finally made the world wake up, get on the ball, and decide to do something about it. As long as the virus could be regarded as a problem of the gay ghetto, the world at large regarded it as “so sad, but not really my problem.”
To me the far sadder thing is to see gay people trying to cling to AIDS possessively as “our story!” How dare any movie make an honorable effort to show the fact: the AIDS virus is oblivious to gender or sexual identity.
I would suggest if David France wants to see a narrative feature film about AIDS from a strictly gay point of view then he could try writing and directing a narrative feature film of his own instead of making a documentary.
Then we can all watch how David France figures out a way to have a movie about AIDS that’s only populated with gay people. I’m sure it would be great. But again, it would only be one facet of the story — AS ALL MOVIES ARE.
”you need to see a straight man’s journey in order to understand gay people.”
again, wtf movie did David France see or expect to see? Does anyone with half a brain think Dallas Buyers Club was made with the goal of helping audiences “understand gay people”?
I also believe that Chiwetel’s performance and role both get clearly overshadowed by the supporting roles and performances of Lupita, Fassbender and Paulson.
^^ I agree that Patsey is ALSO a hero. I cannot think of another actor to play Solomon except Chiwetel’s. I kept imagining the young black actors — Terence Howard, Jamie Foxx (NO!!!!), etc. etc. and no one came to mind except Chiwetel. He owned that part.
Sasha,
I actually interpreted the subway scene in Wolf a bit differently. Remember the boat scene and when Leo tells the FBI agent – good luck on your subway ride home to your miserable wifes. At the end when the FBI agent only gets a brief mention in the newspaper regarding his “epic” takedown of Jordan Belfort – he realizes this – that his life is and will continue to be miserable.
He could have taken the money and be rich but he chose to be morally good and look at what that got him – a tiny paragraph on page 6 and nothing else – his miserable life is still the same. I thought that was brilliant.
I.E. You can be rich and bad or poor and good. There is hardly any way to be both moral and rich. It just doesn’t work that way…
I don’t think heroism is really an overarching theme in any of the Top 3 contenders. 12YAS, Gravity, and American Hustle are about individual SURVIVING, doing what you can do to get out of your shitty situation.
Ryan — whether or not AZT was effective (and many claim it was), aren’t
you a little ashamed as a gay man to defend a movie that glorifies a
homophobe as the one true hero of the AIDS underground and denies
the far more active and relevant role of ACT UP… a movie that barely even acknowledges the presence of gay men, other than standing in a line
or giving us another tired, dated, stereotyped cliche of the sad, pathetic drag queen?
I’m not ashamed. Firstly, what movie did you see that “DENIED” the relevant role of ACT UP? I saw a movie that didn’t happen to be about ACT UP. I saw a movie that told another facet of what was happening for real in 1985.
I wasn’t expecting a movie set in 1985 to focus on ACT UP — which didn’t even exist in 1985.
Secondly, I saw a movie about a man who was once (maybe, purportedly) a homophobe, who soon became a more compassionate defender and advocate of gay people. Speaking for myself, I like stories about people who can change and become better men when they open their narrow minds.
Thirdly, I didn’t see a movie with a pathetic drag queen. I saw a movie about a troubled transgender individual.
Maybe it’s YOU who needs to be ashamed about labeling a transgender person as a “sad drag queen” — because THAT’s the cliche, and by using those words you’re just perpetuating the stereotype. I saw a movie that blew the simpleminded stereotype to smithereens.
Can I ask you what part of Dallas Buyers Club convinced you that Ron Woodruff was a “homophobe”? Was it the part of the movie where he denied being gay? Was it the part of the movie where he let a gay man know that there was no point trying to flirt with him because he wasn’t interested in gay sex that day? wow, that really reeks of homophobia. Or maybe it’s just a guy who’s not gay letting other people know that he’s not gay.
Good fucking grief, Tyler. Where the hell were you when we needed to hear complaints about Oscar Schindler being the “ONE TRUE HERO” of WWII?
Does any movie need to cover the entire of History of Western Civilization in order to tell part of the life story of one man? Don’t try to answer that. I’ll help you out: No, it does not.
Harriet Tubman was a formidable Heroine , as too was Nat Turner , John Brown and Medgar Evers , but Solomon Northup ?…he became a submissive slave for 12 years , dutifully carrying out his Master’s wishes , including whipping other slaves , before being freed by a Lawyer after some very , very fortunate coincidences …he could hardly be called a ”HEROE” anymore than some unfortunate Jew who was incarcerated in Auschwitz and forced to work in the Gas Chambers …those guys were no heroes , just victims and forced accessories to crimes against humanity .Some folks would rather die than endure that and would rather die than be used like that ; the real Heroes were the MEN who rebelled , killed some of the Nazis and blew up the Crematorium …naturally , it cost them their lives , but their lives were well spent
Calling Northup and Woodruf Heroes both cheapens and dilutes the term
You should never judge a book by it’s cover , but to be brutaly honest , Armond White was correct insomuch that Mcqueen really does look like a lumpen doorman or a garbage collector and I can understand how certain black folk don’t much like the look of him ..This kind of reminds me of the dilemma in the movie ”A Soldier’s Story ” , surely one of the greatest movies of the black experience in America
On a different note ,Northup was no Hero ; he was kidnapped , enslaved for 12 years and then was very , very fortunate to be freed by a Lawyer ; there was no dramatic escape , otherwise he would have lived out the rest of his life as a SUBMISSIVE slave , occasionly carrying out whippings for his master
Have you ever wondered why native Americans were never enslaved ? ..it’s because , generally speaking , they have a different temperament than black folks and lived a primitive wild ,nomadic lifestyle that was not at all conducive to captivity and submission ; they would , quite frankly ,rather die than suffer such indignities …they suffered on the Resevations , but that was not slavery as such
White folk in the 18th -19th C lived in abject fear of slave rebellions ,and with good reason ,as living in close proximity to their slaves they could be literally killed in their beds …sobering thoughts indeed !…however ,there were very few slave uprisings and the few there were were quickly stamped out like a bush fire
Getting to my point , if Northup had been a real Hombre he wouldn’t of allowed himself to be used like that and to suffer those kind of indignities , instead of whipping ”Patsey” he could of turned on his abusers and had himself some rough justice ; he could of ‘taken himself an axe and gave those creeps 40 whacks ”..he could , in the dark of night , crept into his master’s house with a cane cutting machette and cut up both Epps and his gruesome wife, and what a surprise that would be for them ! But he didn’t , he prefered to suffer cowardly as a slave …naturally , in a situation like that there could of been no escape for poor Northup and if he had been taken alive those Rednecks would surely of made a painful example of him ; he could of taken one of Epps’s pistols and fought it out with them and then saved the last bullet for himself to escape their unholy rengence
But he didn’t , he remained a SLAVE and would surely of died a slave if not for some very, very fortunate coincidences
Buford T Justice, hard to say what’s more repulsive — your absurd Djangoistic fantasies of gory impossible heroics, your lack of any semblance of sensitive humanity, your sick insulting attitude about the strength of great men, or your dependably clumsy ignorance about what it takes to be such a man.
Do you not understand the most basic difference between well-armed Native American warriors and people being held in captivity?
Do you not get the meaning of FREEDOM? Look it up, smart guy.
Your comments have become of parody of trolling. You’re barely worth the effort to slap around.
You should never judge a book by it’s cover , but to be brutaly honest , Armond White was correct insomuch that Mcqueen really does look like a lumpen doorman or a garbage collector and I can understand how certain black folk don’t much like the look of him ..
Does nobody else want to discuss this foul obnoxious statement with Buford? I don’t want to scoop up all his offensive oafish remarks for myself.
Speak up. Can we not show this prick what American respect and integrity sounds like?
Ahh, if only the voters would select based on the actor’s performance, not the character being portrayed.
You’d think they would get it by now, but judging by who got left out of the nominations and those performances that are almost sure to lose, it’s obviously too much to expect.
@Brian Well said. Just going by the movie and not the real-life Woodroof, great performances in the movie, but too bad the screenplay and direction slacks off. The movie did not convince me he was a hero but rather a deeply conflicted human being.
Brian as much as I did not care for DBC I disagree that Woodruff was homophobic. From the stories I have heard he was not nearly as homophobic as the film,portrayed him to be, and,in fact may have been,bisexual. I think the film is schlocky and overly sentimental (especially considering a lot of it had been fabricated and / or embellished) but I do believe we should at least be honest about the person it portrays.
Great piece. You’ve talked before about how they love that hero for Best Actor, too, the flawed person that finds redemption. He has a speech impediment and then leads a nation or he can’t talk at all but manages to survive in talkie movies. He’s weird and crazy but finds love and is a brilliant mathematician.
The anti heroes, the Hannibal Lecter’s and the cop from training day, those are raaaare exceptions to the win.
So, this year, to those of you (including myself) hoping for a Leo upset at best actor/ don’t count on it. One guy plays a flawed person, a homophobe, who redeems himself. The other plays someone beyond redemption.
I saw WoWS for the third time yesterday, at the Ziegfeld cinema screening in NYC.
The number of people- particularly women- who walked out at various points, was both staggering and depressing.
This is what our society has come to– we are too impatient to sit through a 3 hour movie- surely that text message cannot wait to be sent. And we are too sensitive to be shown the truth about what goes on in our country, on Wall Street, today.
A sad indictment not of the films or the filmmakers, but of the audience.
And the Oscars, by celebrating the “heroes”, are a clear reflection on the problem. I don’t blame the Oscars. But it is clear that they are tapping into this undercurrent of our society- we want a clear cut, unambiguous hero. Anything else is too complex to grasp.
We can’t stand our hero being flawed if there’s no redemption. Prozac nation indeed
Please stop calling Woodruff a hero. He wasn’t. He was a hateful, homophobic, money-grubbing scumbag who was only out to make a fast buck, and he did so off the suffering of gay men and the exploitation of their doom. The TRUE heroes of the underground AIDS movement were the gay men of ACT UP, who this fraud of a movie doesn’t even acknowledge. And the AZT issue was NOT the poison the movie manipulates us into believing it was – in fact it helped prolong the lives of many people. The movie is a shameful distortion of the truth,
whose shame is being perpetuated by the ignorance of those who
buy into it.
Please stop calling Woodruff a hero. He wasn’t. He was a hateful, homophobic, money-grubbing scumbag who was only out to make a fast buck, and he did so off the suffering of gay men and the exploitation of their doom
Ask the gay men who lined up to buy lifesaving drugs from Woodruff if they believe he was heroic for risking arrest so that they could live longer.
You’d be able to ask some of those gay men, face to face. Because what Woodruff did kept hundreds of gay men alive long enough so that they were still alive when better legal drugs came along.
If not for Ron Woodruff hundreds of those men would be dead. So ask them if they’re grateful for what Ron Woodruff did for them — ask them if they give a fuck if Ron Woodruff make a buck off of making their treatment available.
Do you question the morals of every American solider who fought in WWII? Do they all have to be perfect specimens of selfless philanthropy in order for you to appreciate the soldiers who risk their lives, sometimes dying, to do their job?
Do you think there are no doctors treating HIV patients who don’t especially care for the gay lifestyle? You would be wrong. Do you think there are doctors and nurses who treat HIV patients free of charge and don’t get any money out of it? You would be wrong.
AZT was poison. That’s why nobody takes it anymore. AZT did slow down the virus, but it also created a huge number of lethal side-effects that killed people with severe anemia and other unexpected consequences before its adverse effects were fully understood.
I have know people who took AZT and they could not even walk across the room unassisted. I’ve see it up close, first hand. Friends of mine who were wasting away with their RBC count destroyed by AZT in the damaging doses they were being given.
As soon as the first alternative to AZT came along, any HIV doctor with any sense took their patients off AZT immediately.
So trust me. I saw this with my own eyes. I knew a guy who was at death’s door who snapped back from the brink literally OVERNIGHT as soon as he stopped taking AZT — OVERNIGHT.
One day he was in a wheelchair. His family was told to help him get his affairs in order. He was being written off as a goner. AZT was knocking the viral load down — and it was also killing him. So he got a new doctor and that doctor took him off AZT.
His new smarter doctor swapped AZT for a new drug, Epivir. The new doctor forbid him from ever taking another dose of AZT. The very next morning this guy was running up and down the halls of the hospital reinvigorated, revitalized. That guy’s family was making funeral arrangements back then. Today? He’s ALIVE.
So here’s the the truth, here’s the fact: You do not know what you’re talking about.
Heroes you say? I bet Oscar night will be be full of clips of Iron Man, Thor, Superman, Captain Kirk, Bilbo, Katniss, Wolverine & the Lone Ranger!
It’s only now that I realize that Ryan Stone is a mashup of Ryan Adams & Sasha Stone, how nice!
I can empathize the torments endured by Solomon Northup but not Chiwetel’s Northup.
If I picked a hero from 12 YEARS A SLAVE I’d pick Lupita’s character Patsy, a strong willed, striving and courageous character which really made me feel for her. The strong intrinsic desire in her eyes to live freely disturbed me the most in the film.
Solomon on the other hand fails to impress me, on my third viewing of the film I don’t know why but I felt the same. no matter how hard Chiwetel tries to act, he just doesn’t stir my emotions.
I also believe that Chiwetel’s performance and role both get clearly overshadowed by the supporting roles and performances of Lupita, Fassbender and Paulson.
Sally posted:
“Nice writeup. To me, Solomon is the REAL hero and I’m glad that we found him again. Out of all the anti-slavery names his never showed up, but he’s in the history books NOW.”
wish I had. well said Sally, and well said Sasha.
Nice writeup. To me, Solomon is the REAL hero and I’m glad that we found him again. Out of all the anti-slavery names his never showed up, but he’s in the history books NOW.
But this part you wrote: The real Captain Phillips might be the only real living hero in this year’s Oscar race and his presence should not be discounted….I’ve been reading accounts by his crew that he was the WORST captain. This may be a campaign against the movie, but there is buzz building about the REAL heroism of Captain Phillips (Plus, I found the movie very boring).
Lovely.
Dr. Ryan Stone truly embodies the best humanity has to offer. It’s why GRAVITY has so deeply touched so many critics, audiences, and industry folk.
Nice writeup! Gravity’s not taking Production Design. If you think 12 Years is going to win BP AND BD(!) that would indicate strong support…it’d probably then pick up a few below the line awards too, like Production Design and Costumes.
The song race still really interests me. “Happy” and “Ordinary Love” are very much in this.
Foreign Film: now that the entire Academy is voting, wouldn’t it go to The Great Beauty? This used to be incredibly hard to pick when it was decided by voters at the screening, but now it might be more basic.
Documentary: I’d LOVE to see Act of Killing win. But I wouldn’t bet against the Weinstein Co and 20 Feet from Stardom. This is going to be like the boxing doc they had a few years ago, Unbeatable.
Woodruff made a difference here in Alabama – his impact was national – but the fact that he did it in Texas meant that pharma couldn’t take southerners for granted – that it wasn’t just a bunch of New York Act Up activists. His work forced them to cede a lot of ground here even before we started talking to them. He was on everyone’s minds at a crucial stage.
*******
I’m picking Karama Has No Walls to win.