Well, the Oscars have been awarded, and you can see the winners here. In this latest news-and-comedy bit from “Real Time,” Bill Maher argues that the Oscars have finally succeeded, through both social pressure, appeals to reason, and changes in Academy rules, in making their awards so diverse that one can no longer argue that Oscars are biased towards white people. The Awards last night make that pretty clear, but dissents are welcome in the comments.
Maher’s point is not just the attainment of equity, but also that historically the Oscars have messed up in who or what gets awards. For example, he lists historical cases in which great films have lost to “much more forgettable, trifling sentimental stuff” (an example he gives: “Citizen Kane” lost to “How Green was my Valley”). He also lists directors who never won a directing Oscar, including Bergman, Fellini, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Terantino, Rob Reiner, and Kurosawa. In his diatribe about “wrong” Oscars, Maher also gives examples of actors who were overlooked in great movies and then awarded a “consolation” Oscar for a forgettable movie (example: Al Pacino). Finally, he singles out aspects of movies that bias choices, like characters with handicaps, actors who gain or lose weight, actors who make themselves ugly, actors who play admirable characters (“Gandhi”), and actors who may die before they get another chance (e.g., John Wayne in “True Grit”).
The guests include Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, investor Anthony Scaramucci, and banker Lloyd Blankfein.
I’ve never understood why Citizen Kane is always on the list of the greatest movies of all time. It’s incredibly boring. I saw it when I was in college. Several people walked out of the theater in the middle of the screening. I stayed, hoping it would get better, but it never did.
I suggest reading Roger Ebert’s four-star review from 1998 to see why a famous critic regarded it as a great movie.
Maher saying that actors are sometimes given an Oscar for an undeserved performance because they were overlooked previously reminded me that I once read that Einstein was given the Nobel for the photoelectric effect because the committee was chagrined that they hadn’t already given it to him for the general theory of relativity. I suspect that’s false, I don’t know of any time restriction on making an award following a discovery.
Einstein got his Nobel in 1921 some 16 years after 1905. The committee had another 34 years to give recognition for the special and general relativities. I suspect there were other forces in play for missing out on recognition for those.
Maher’s script writing team doesn’t understand the history of cinema. “All about Eve” and “How green was my Valley” are both great films. But in principle, it is obviously true that an Oscar is not a good indicator of lasting artistic value.