I was not in fact trying to sound like Andrew Sarris while tweeting this last night.
I am in fact, not pissy at all this year that Departures beat Waltz With Bashir and The Class, as I've seen none of these movies so far.
However, when The Lives of Others beat Pan's Labyrinth, in Best Foreign Filim back in '07, I was down on it, because the Academy had snubbed the Pan, a deserved Best Pic nom.
I got over it when I saw The Lives of Others. It's a tremendous, brilliant film.
This is one of the few categories in which I'm very tempted to completely trust the voters' judgment (all categories, except for Best Picture, I believe, are limited to a specialized, narrow group of voters). I think they know people are going to see Waltz and The Class, just like they knew people were already embracing Pan's Labyrinth.
Nope, not being pedantic here, either.
4 comments:
I'm confused, do you still feel Pan was slighted after seeing The Lives of Other? I haven't seen the former, so I am not weighing in with an opinion, just trying to understand how you feel. I thought that Waltz With Bashir must be a lock, but haven't seen enough to be upset about its loss.
One other thing, I understand the tendency of academy voters to validate pictures that should be exposed to a wider audience, but I hope they are not doing so. Call me an idealist, but I think the best nominee should win. If that's Titanic (which it wasn't) so be it, if that's The Dark Knight, so be it.
"I got over it when I saw The Lives of Others. It's a tremendous, brilliant film."
I also think Pan's Labyrinth was really snubbed by not being nominated for best pic. Also, when aliens get here long after we're dead, they'll be watching Pan's Labyrinth and speaking in hushed tones to how advanced we were as a species (and how murderous we were).
There's nobody out there that can categorically decide either individually or by committee, what the absolute best film of a year or a decade was. It's a sham and a way to sell JC Penney clothes.
That being said, if you hadn't heard of Slumdog Millionaire before, you have now.
of course, there is no way to decide absolutely. However, I hope that the average academy voter is honestly trying to vote for the one that is the best, not the one that is deserving of wider exposure.
Based on the response to Pan's Labyrinth, I suppose you might be right about it being snubbed in the top category.
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