An Open Letter to the Academy
Dear Academy,
I don't have much use for you, and you don't have much use for me. Honestly, the Oscars are increasingly irrelevant to me--and I'm a movie lover. I mean, I still can't get over the fact that you picked Forrest Gump for best picture over movies like Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption--and that was over a decade ago! At this point, all I think the annual ceremony is good for is the fashion show and the creation of future movie trivia questions. But what I think is probably as irrelevant to you as what you think is to me.
So what brings me to write this letter? One thing: Give Scorsese the goddamn Best Director Oscar already. Not only is The Departed is as close to Oscar-worthy as he's been in a while, but he's given us more than his fair share of Oscar-worthy movies. At this point, he's more than earned it. What's he got to do? Beg? Pander to your basest sentiments, the ones that made you give a Hull's worth of statuettes to Titanic as well as not even nominate Waking Life for a Best Animated Feature Oscar? Don't make him do it.
Hell, don't make us do it, either. Who are we? We're the people who actually pay to see movies. We're the ones who can be counted on to regularly plunk down a ten spot for the pleasure of going to the movies. We're the ones who see as many movies as we can afford or get away with, and we have opinions, too. Granted, they're not all great ones--look at the top-ten grossing films at the Box Office for proof of this--but I think we're all behind Scorsese on this one. We want him to win--not because he wants to win really, really bad, but because he's given us so many damn good movies. Goodfellas. Raging Bull. Taxi Driver. Mean Streets. The Last Temptation of Christ. And so on. Plus, he gave us The Departed, the movie he got nominated for this year, so the least you could do is give him a damn Academy Award already. Don't make us make you do it.
Just saying.
Sincerly,
Cinemagirl
PS. Wake me when it's over.
I don't have much use for you, and you don't have much use for me. Honestly, the Oscars are increasingly irrelevant to me--and I'm a movie lover. I mean, I still can't get over the fact that you picked Forrest Gump for best picture over movies like Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption--and that was over a decade ago! At this point, all I think the annual ceremony is good for is the fashion show and the creation of future movie trivia questions. But what I think is probably as irrelevant to you as what you think is to me.
So what brings me to write this letter? One thing: Give Scorsese the goddamn Best Director Oscar already. Not only is The Departed is as close to Oscar-worthy as he's been in a while, but he's given us more than his fair share of Oscar-worthy movies. At this point, he's more than earned it. What's he got to do? Beg? Pander to your basest sentiments, the ones that made you give a Hull's worth of statuettes to Titanic as well as not even nominate Waking Life for a Best Animated Feature Oscar? Don't make him do it.
Hell, don't make us do it, either. Who are we? We're the people who actually pay to see movies. We're the ones who can be counted on to regularly plunk down a ten spot for the pleasure of going to the movies. We're the ones who see as many movies as we can afford or get away with, and we have opinions, too. Granted, they're not all great ones--look at the top-ten grossing films at the Box Office for proof of this--but I think we're all behind Scorsese on this one. We want him to win--not because he wants to win really, really bad, but because he's given us so many damn good movies. Goodfellas. Raging Bull. Taxi Driver. Mean Streets. The Last Temptation of Christ. And so on. Plus, he gave us The Departed, the movie he got nominated for this year, so the least you could do is give him a damn Academy Award already. Don't make us make you do it.
Just saying.
Sincerly,
Cinemagirl
PS. Wake me when it's over.