Oscar Night 2008
On Monday night, the film industry patted itself on the back with the 80th Annual Academy Awards. The host was none other than Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central. This was his second hosting gig for the event, and many hoped that it would be better than the first. To be honest, I don’t remember the first time, so I can’t compare. But let us look at the facts. You have a liberal host telling liberal jokes in front of
Since the Oscars, I have heard news people and commentators and the like talking about how there were no uplifting films that got awards. And this is for a good reason; there were no good up lifting films in the past year. Also, it is often said that the art of the time reflects the mood of the time. With economic troubles, house foreclosures, a lingering war, and an unstable political climate, there aren’t many up lifting things to make films about.
The best picture award went to "No Country for Old Men". Now I thought that this was a great film, and I can’t explain why. My co-workers didn’t like it all and can’t understand why or how it won. My simple explanation is that it was different. It wasn’t uplifting, there was no clear winner, and there really was no clear who was right and who was wrong. Aside from that, it was also brilliantly shot and edited. To me, it had all the workings of a great film, and I am glad that it won best picture.
Now I am not going to review every winner and who should of won. These are all great films and great actors to just be nominated for this award. And if you didn’t see the Oscars, you can read all the winners at oscar.com. What I would like to do is go back to the beginning of my article and talk a little more on the entertainment value of the award show. I think that over the years, we expect a certain level of entertainment from these award shows. And in our head, it makes sense. We have the most talented actors, directors, writers, producers, and so on all under one roof. Clearly this should be a good night. The formula is to get a comedic host, some well-spoken presenters, and mix in some musical numbers and victory speeches and this should be great. Sorry, that’s not what ends up happening.
In recent award show history, the combination of talented people does not equal an entertaining night. Many times the host is out of his or her element. Sure, on their own show or platform they are great, but in front of a new crowd of people, this doesn’t always translate. Remember that they are great on their shows because they in front of like-minded people. Get a mixed crowd together, and we have trouble. And the performances this year for the best song category were just blah. Really, they were blah. I wish I had a better way to describe it, but the crowd at the Oscars is not sitting there to listen to a musical number, they just want to know if they won or not.
My final break down about the entertainment value of the awards show is that it has more in common with reality TV than thoughtful entertainment. At its core, it is just an awards dinner. Most of us have been to such an event in our lives, whether it be for a sports teams, Scouts, school, or anything else. To those of us that are involved, that might get an award, it is exciting. We might win something, and be declared better than someone else. But what vested interest do we have in the Academy Awards? We don’t win anything; we didn’t have anything to do with the creation of any of those films. The most we have to gain or lose is if our opinion will win out over our friends. So was the awards show entertaining? It all depends on who you are and how vested you are in it.
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