Now that the Oscars are over, we all get to look back and defend our choices and continue to bash those that we felt were undeserving. But the truth is, often times when it comes down to an awards show like this, the actual movies and the work that they’re showcasing get overshadowed. Wouldn’t it be spectacular if the Oscars aired every single movie over a couple week period so everyone would be free to watch them and vote however they wanted? Since that’s not really a possibility for most of us, we have to rely on other people who have seen them all, like Daniel Walber did over at Film School Rejects. See how he ranked them all.
Without being able to see all of the competing movies from any year, sometimes it’s up to us to put in the little extra effort to find out what exactly they’re voting on. Quentin Tarantino won for Best Original Screenplay, but have you actually read the screenplay? You can now, plus 29 other screenplays which submitted for the competition.
And finally, the Oscars are quite a spectacle when you’re watching at home, but I’ve never really thought about what goes on behind the scenes. So there aren’t just popcorn and soda machines out in the lobby?
Hey Paul!
Nice thoughts after the awards show. I agree that it would be amazing if we could access all the films up for awards, even if it were like an Oscars Netflix. I’d pay for it, too, if it meant I could avoid the dummies at the theater in San Ramon!
And from what I’ve heard, a lot of members of the academy haven’t even seen most of the movies, and they just kind of vote on feelings or other factors that have nothing to do with the movies.
Oscars suck, for sure…
But can’t you tell that a movie was well written without reading the screenplay? I mean, we don’t actually see a director direct, either.
Not necessarily. There’s a lot of really great screenplays which are directed horribly and vice versa. It’s a strange art. And like they say, the screenplay is the blueprint for the entire film, so it has to be good from the start. Every department needs to be able to pull from the screenplay, which means that it needs to have a great visualization of the entire project from the start, yet it’s generally meant to leave enough space in the interpretation for the director to make his/her own choices. So while you should be able to tell if the movie is well written without reading the screenplay, it all comes back to that.