HEY, YOU GUYS, LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THIS YEAR'S OSCAR NOMS SUCK!

[bookshop]

*Best Picture 2010 nominations list*
- Avatar <-- racist, imperialist white liberal guilt fantasy (everyone, native peoples, mountains, animals, trees and tree-nerve-endings, get exploited by white people, awesome!!)

- The Blind Side <-- i haven't seen this, but true story notwithstanding the trailer just me cringe. It really, really seemed

Comments

[tangledtale]

No, that makes sense. I can see what you mean about how certain narrative-types that centre on violence and conquest as its mode of conflict do hold more traction for the (largely white, largely male) Academy and maybe the critical community in general. I remember doing a class on sport once where our tutor told us that the reason Raging Bull and boxing has a primordial fascination is because it tells the story of human history - one man against another - which is probably exactly what I should have expected from a class on sport.

I guess what I feel a bit uncomfortable with is the gendered divide that gets enforced between that type of 'action' film and more introspective movies dealing with personal and communal levels of developement and peaceful interaction because yes, I completely agree with you that it exists and is often used unconsciously as a decider on what is 'worthy' and 'artistic' and what is 'lowkey' or has 'mass appeal', but it feels dismissive of women/female perspectives that do choose to engage in and potentially subvert those narratives and mix the two types of approaches a bit. And I get that this is still a method of highlighting the very tropes you're trying to subvert, and therefore all anti-war movies, say, are still in some way adding to the huge production line of fictional and historical war movies. But stating outright that movies like Inglourious Basterds (which I feel has interesting things to say about violence, real and cinematically mediated) are simplistic reproductions of these themes is unfair on the film even if your target was the industry that creates and publicises these films.