Lame Academy

While I am not surprised that Million Dollar Baby (2004) took Best Directing and Best Picture at the Oscars this year, I can’t conceal my disappointment at Sideways (2004) having to settle for Best Adapted Screenplay, or indeed at Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) having to settle for Best Original Screenplay.

To me, there is no logic behind the Academy’s voting. A screenplay is a blueprint for a film, a set of instructions that, if followed properly, reap the visual reward imagined by the screenwriter. Any director worth his salt – and without exception, all directors who are given millions of dollars to make a Hollywood movie – are capable of using actors, cameras, and editing to execute these instructions, of realising the screenwriter’s vision.

Therefore, for the Best Picture award and the Best Writing award to be won by different movies, the message to the world is that, for better or for worse, the director of either movie did something out of the ordinary with the blueprint. Now, if Best Picture had been won by a film with remarkable special effects, camerawork, and acting beyond the scope of the screenplay, I would be able to follow such a judgement. I would understand, for example, if a Star Wars film ever won Best Picture but failed to win Best Writing. Lucas’s contributions to the visual art of filmmaking are quite astonishing, and should be recognised in this way in spite of his awful dialogue.

But when Best Picture is won by a film that isn’t a spectacular feast for the eyes, where the (admittedly very capable) director was just going through the motions of a character drama, it becomes apparent that logic has escaped the Academy. Of course, Million Dollar Baby is a very good film, but it is no better a specimen of a film than its screenplay is a specimen of a screenplay. It is an insult to Alexander Payne’s ability as a director that Sideways failed to win Best Picture despite having the best blueprint from which to make a picture. It is a huge compliment that Clint Eastwood’s film was considered the better of the two, despite being worked from a blueprint that the Academy considers inferior. Neither the magnitude of Payne’s insult, nor that of Eastwood’s compliment, is logical or deserved.

Add to: | blinklist | del.cio.us | digg | yahoo! | furl | rawsugar | shadows | netvouz