Friday, February 23, 2007
John Patterson is fast becoming my Guardian worst. I'm unconvinced he exists: I may be entering into dialogue with a spambot. Surely a real person wouldn't be paid for this selection of undergraduate received wisdom?
"1976 was... a year with a stunning line-up for the best picture nod. It seemed for once as if geriatric Hollywood (ie, the fools who vote) had recognised the new breed and finally understood."
Yawn. Banging on about '70s films is so 1999.
Look at those nominees: Alan J Pakula's one masterpiece, All the President's Men, which changed America's political language forever; Network, which predicted, almost to the letter, the very media-industrial complex now strangling America's national discourse; Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory, a proper leftie movie from a major studio; and Taxi Driver, the most shocking and kinetic movie of the decade, by its greatest new film-maker. And what actually won? Rocky, of course.
Yes, Rocky. The best choice, and a brave one. Rocky is a much more personal and satisfying piece of work than Taxi Driver (was there ever a worse "great film" than Taxi Driver? Oh yeah, the Godfather), or Network. It doesn't make up for picking One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest instead of Jaws in '75, but still, well done Academy.
Also:
That Dances with Wolves, eh? Who'd believe that won an Oscar!!!11!1!
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"1976 was... a year with a stunning line-up for the best picture nod. It seemed for once as if geriatric Hollywood (ie, the fools who vote) had recognised the new breed and finally understood."
Yawn. Banging on about '70s films is so 1999.
Look at those nominees: Alan J Pakula's one masterpiece, All the President's Men, which changed America's political language forever; Network, which predicted, almost to the letter, the very media-industrial complex now strangling America's national discourse; Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory, a proper leftie movie from a major studio; and Taxi Driver, the most shocking and kinetic movie of the decade, by its greatest new film-maker. And what actually won? Rocky, of course.
Yes, Rocky. The best choice, and a brave one. Rocky is a much more personal and satisfying piece of work than Taxi Driver (was there ever a worse "great film" than Taxi Driver? Oh yeah, the Godfather), or Network. It doesn't make up for picking One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest instead of Jaws in '75, but still, well done Academy.
Also:
That Dances with Wolves, eh? Who'd believe that won an Oscar!!!11!1!
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