Margarita Salt

[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Now that is a crime. It's a wonderful Life is the best, how could it lose? Where is the justice?

[ 03-02-2004: Message edited Margarita Salt ]

BrokenButterfly

The "we" being the LOTR "family" in general [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] He was still part of movie-making history, regardless. Anyone who contributed to the film feels like its their success as well. And that probably includes all of NZ, as well [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

*snicker* I'm holding back, baby. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

And thats a scary thought. Have you see the EE credits that list the official fan club members? I'd be scared, if I were you [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] (And no, I'm not on that list! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )

No..thats true. Throw in a King and a wizard...yeah..maybe.. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Actually, to be perfectly honest, for me, LOTR (and I'm counting all 3 as one) is tied for my favourite picture. No matter what other movies I see, The Crow is still up there on that list. (Just to show you we're not all like "LOTR is the best movie ever" [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )

And hey, you guys are right. The hype will eventually die down...to be replaced by hype for the release of the new HP movie.. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Fun times...fun times..

And why shouldn't it be placed in the Best Picture category with the others? Because it would be unfair for the other films to have to compete with LOTR? How would not placing it in the category be fair to LOTR?

I echo that statement [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ 03-02-2004: Message edited *Catherine* ]

StellaSlight

Jess [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] I liked The best years of our lives too, but no way it's better than It's a wonderful life. Proof? 60 years later, TBYOOL is remembered as the movie that won best picture for 1946, while IAWL is remembered as IAWL, one of the greatest movies of all time. Of course, I'm biased cause I'm a Capra nuts [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
Oh bother. The hell with It's a wonderful life and The best years of our lives, the movie that should have been nominated and won the Oscar was Hitchcock's Notorious. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Oh, and I HATED that Shakespeare in love won over anything else, and Pulp Fiction was just unlucky cause it was nominated for best picture 1994, one of the BEST years in cinematography. The others nominees were The Shawshenk redemption, Forrest Gump, 4 weddings and a funeral and Quizz Show. Eh. Being nominee among those was almost like winning.

The thing is that everyone knew that LOTR wouldn't get all the main Oscars until the very last movie. It was predictable and everyone made that prediction way before the Oscar ceremony two years ago. The Academy refrained from giving too many Oscars to LOTR the previous years, and now that it's the end, I suppose that they kinda have to give LOTR the Oscars they didn't either for FOTR or TTT (*cough*cough*best adapted screenplplay [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]). That's what I understood by 'pressure'.

~*Johanna*~

I know the awards already happened but I thought I'd say what and who my favorites were. Some, of course, did win, others didn't. Not that I wasn't happy for who really won, cuz all the acting was great and all the movies were wonderful! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Still, here are my faves!

Best film: The Lord of the Rings; Return of the King
Best Actor: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean
Best Actress: Kisha Castle-Hughs, Whale Rider
Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou, In America
Supporting Actress: Renne Zellwegger, Cold Mountain
Animated Film: Finding Nemo
Costumes: ROTK hands down. That took so many types!
Cinematography: Master and Commander
Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean (I thought it was very interesting, how they made the skeletons!)
Original Song: "You Will Be My Ain True Love" Cold Mountain, by Sting
Original Score: ROTK or Big Fish

And, I'd give something to Seabiscuit, too. Don't know exactly what, but that was a wonderful movie, it deserved something!

Timeo

Dude, you can't have a Best Special Effects Feature Film category. That's as asinine as saying that there should be a Best Feature Film Set in San Francisco or Best Movie with a main character having a mullet. If it's a film, then let it be nominated along side with everything else. Don't like it? Tough.

PS, Shakespeare in Love REALLY shouldn't have won.

ROCKSTAR

[img]smilies/rotfl.gif[/img] [img]smilies/rotfl.gif[/img] Go Joe Dirt!

Alexander

I agree...but if that was the case SW Episode III would win that category and easy the pain for us SW fans who still don't like the '77 denial by the academy [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Who did "Shakespeare in Love" beat out for the oscar in '98 is it?

'lex

Margarita Salt

I liked that Scarlett Tide song from Cold Mountain better.

[ 03-03-2004: Message edited Margarita Salt ]

Dorian_Gray

While I do not deny that the LOTR trilogy is a great undertaking with high production values, I would never be inclined to believe it deserved all of this year’s wins. I just don’t understand why LOTR fans falsely cling to the notion that they deserved it because they had been left out of The Oscars when history proves otherwise.

FOTR Wins
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Best Cinematography
Best Makeup
Best Music, Original Score
Other nominations
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Ian McKellen
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Costume Design
Best Music, Song
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Best Sound
Best Picture<-- see
And mind you both "A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge" were better films than FOTR

TTT Wins
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Other nominations
Best Achievement in Art Direction
Best Achievement in Editing
Best Achievement in Sound
Best Picture<-- yes, here too
Likewise "Chicago", "The Hours", and "The Pianist" were all better films than TTT

Then this year ROTK comes up lacking against more deserving films like "Mystic River" or "Lost in Translation"

So the way I see it this year...

Best Motion Picture
Should have been Mystic River or Lost in Translation

Best Director
Should have been Clint Eastwood for Mystic River

Best Adapted Screenplay
Should have been American Splendor or Seabiscuit

Best Achievement in Makeup
Should have been Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Best Original Score
Should have been Cold Mountain/ Gabriel Yared

Best Original Song
Should have been Cold Mountain ("You Will Be My Ain True Love")

Best Sound
Should have been Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World


BTW Strifer

"Shakespere in Love" was up against "Elizabeth", "Saving Private Ryan", "The Thin Red Line", and "La Vita è bella"

J@NeY

Saving Private Ryan should have won [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

As for LOTR's I am like blah. My friend's and I were laughing at something someone wrote on here in reply to my comment and I realized that I am fighting with someone over a movie which I dont' even like. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] And with someone that I don't even know. I can argue all day and all night I am a hot blooded lady that takes no crap but getting worked up over a movie that isn't that great please. I am once again happy that Sean and Tim won. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Fantastic acting.

Margarita Salt

The one thing we agree on. Shakespere in Love - Ew. Gwyneth got Best Actress and that was fine, but giving it Best Picture was just taking it a little to far cause it wasn't that great. Saving Private Ryan was so much better. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ 03-03-2004: Message edited Margarita Salt ]

dcismyfav

I don't understand why City of God is not even nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscar, when they are nominated, even won, at some other Filam Awards.

City of God even competes with other major films at this year's Oscar in some major categories such as Best Cinematography, Best Directing, Best Film Editing, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), and yet that doesn't even translate into at least a nomination in a Best Foreign Language Film. What a dissapointment....

BrokenButterfly

A Beautiful Mind, IMHO opinion, should not have won best picture. And I'm not even a big fan of Moulin Rouge, but I think it was better than ABM..and I wouldn't have been "upset" if it had won the oscar.

But whatever.

[ 03-04-2004: Message edited *Catherine* ]

UnsilentMajorty

The whole LOTRs debate has too many variables that can't accurately be accounted for.

Such as...

Did they give Best Picture to ROTK... Or the entire trilogy?

Are the films, in their own right, good works of fictional storytelling regardless if the books were recieved well or not?

In other words, is the core story(ies) anything special without the special effects?

Etc, etc.

I've said it before and I will say it again: I think the main reason ROTK won (as well as the popularity pf the triology) is because psychologically, these films came out at the right time and people desperately NEEDED an escape of this scope and magnitude.

First we had 9-11 and now War in Iraq, not to mention the general deteriroration of what's going on in this country from a political and socialeconomic perspective. That's a "perfect" formula for a fantasy trilogy to have when it's released in theaters.

Does that mean if none of these things happened that LOTRs series would be a flop?

No... BUT, I seriously have to ask LOTRs fans if the world was more "cheery" would the films have as much impact as they did/do now given the CONTEXT of what's going on in the real world?

You can argue either way, but I personally don't think the trilogy would have been latched onto by so many AS MUCH as they have because people are still desperate to escape what's really going on "out there" and these films provide an extra degree of escape that normally wouldn't have been added in times of prosperity.

The fact is the stories also mirror what's going on in the real world to a certain degree (the corrpution of power) and again, I think people subconsciously respond to that because a film is a "safe" thing where you can leave all the "bad guys" in the theater when you go home whereas when you turn on the nightly news not only is it IN your home -- literally -- but in your real, everyday lives as well.

And to be honest, I hated FOTR and liked TT and ROTK much better because these had more structure to them...

Which brings us to the whole adaptation debate.

TT and ROTK adhere to classic three act movie structure moreso than FOTR for the simple fact that FOTR is a long, meanadering introduction and again, I think, subconsciously, even if you don't study film... People respond to these things -- tighter structure that keeps the flow and pace moving FORWARD -- even if they don't know it.

This is relevant to the adaptation debate because the books are all written with classic three act structure, but FOTR (the film) is not which is why I and others probably found it to be the most boring of the three and perfer TT and ROTK best of all.

If you haven't noticed, I am a "neutral" LOTRs fan.

I don't hate the series and actually like two of the three films... But I also don't think they are the greatest series ever to be put on celluloid either.

RE: Past Oscar Snubs...

Should Saving Private Ryan REALLY have won?

Again, take away all the blood and gore -- Shock value stuff -- And the story is just another cliched war drama complete with stereotypical characters (the Brooklyn guy; the Jewish guy; the Tough-Guy; The grizzled commander; etc.) that really isn't anything special.

However, in the CONTEXT of being put along side Shakespeare in Love, it does deserve to win because it tackled a subject that few films did up until that point and that was portray WWII as a real war and not the romanticized version most everyone -- even our parents generation -- Had in their minds.

A Beautiful Mind probably shouldn't have won either on its own merits... But again, put it in the CONTEXT of the other films it was up against and like SPR, you can see why it won overall (theme and execution of the subject matter).

Basically, for Oscars past and present, I think the big thing that people need to understand is that HW has a double standard in what they produce and how works are judged.

HW loves to produce the big, summer blockbuster multimillion dollar movies like Independence Day and uses the profits to fund more "artsy, high class" films like "The Hours".

This is the system in the nutshell.

Fantasy and action films do NOT get the respect they deserve... BUT again, on the other hand, a lot of the fantasy films are nothing BUT escapist fair that DON'T deserve the big awards -- Do you really think ID4 should win BP? BA for Will Smith? Hell no, but that doesn't validate LOTRs either because the same argument can be made -- So we have a Catch22 going on here. Once you understand that, you can put the Oscars into perspective.

dcismyfav

Great post, as usual, UnSilent Majority , but I wonder if the voters really vote according to what you say, or by 1) the movie they really like or 2) the movie who they think would have won (I mean voting according to a politically correct choice).

Btw, I just don't think that, people watch and like LOTR or any blockbuster movie, as a form of escapism. This is just my opinion, and this is how I see myself on why or why not I like some movies, especially the blockbuster one - so don't take this seriously. I think they like the movie simply because they like the movie...it's kind of a feel-good and pure entertainment type of thing. That being said, regardless of the quality of the blockbuster movie, people will 1) watch the movie - and then feel bad about it after watching it (in contrats with some othe rmovies in which audience don't even dare to venture into watching the movies, until they are convince it suppose to be good, or being convinced by some other influence) OR 2) feel good about the movie hence, producing some kind of fondness towards anything related to the movie with a no-matter-what attitude, because that's the intended purpose of the blockbuster movie.

Regardless of the events surrounding the last few years, I still believe people will watch and love the trilogy no matter what, as evidence by the support of the movies in the countries that is remotely affected by the tragic events in the past few years. Not that it's a really great movie...it's a blockbuster movie whose underlying intention is to create fondness with the movie in the first place.

[ 03-05-2004: Message edited dcismyfav ]