A week has passed from OSCAR night, 2009, awarding the winners of 2008. Snide emails have requested my opinion about the results;and I can never refuse requests from snide emails.
STAGING-
The 2009 OSCAR show was the best TONYS show I have ever seen,but the musical numbers stunk. My friend Edmund Gaynes produces better musicals OFF Broadway; and if Hugh Jackman and his producers want to learn how to do a real musical with limited resources and unlimited imagination, they should call Ed.
But what REALLY rankles me, is that the OSCARS should be a celebration of film, FILM….so where were the film clips?I love film clips, I love the clip of John Wayne striding through a herd of longhorn steers to kill Montgomery Clift, or the clip of Peter O’Toole prancing on top of a wrecked train as his Arab worshippers cry out, ” LAWRENCE, LAWRENCE, LAWRENCE,” or Marlon Brando telling Rod Steiger “I coulda been a contender.”
As Jimmy Stewart once said, film clips are pieces of our memory. But nary a film clip, we have two stars, Richard Jenkins and Melissa Leo, brilliant talents unknown to the general public, not one minute was given to show their work. They clawed their ways to OSCAR nominations; their work is worth two minutes of time. Instead we get a reality TV testimonial. It is the work that counts, not those living obituaries.
And speaking of obituaries, every morning I read the obituaries, to see and feel the passing parade, to marvel at the lives of people, what they did, what they accomplished, how they did it. Every year I wait for the OSCAR memorial to the talent which has been lost, so I can feel smaller by their loss, and bigger by their accomplishments.
This year’s memorial was a disaster, with Queen Latifah hogging all the spotlight. Four actors who I really admired passed last year, and I did not get a tribute to any of them, not one clip, half the time I could not even see their pictures.
Cyd Charisse had THE GREATEST LEGS in the history of the world; Fred Astaire called her “beautiful dynamite” and writing: “That Cyd! When you’ve danced with her you stay danced.” Every guy who has seen her work knows what he means.
She was in some of the greatest musicals of all times, and not one clip of her dancing. I would rather see her dance than Hugh Jackman.
Richard Widmark, a sturdy actor I really enjoyed his work in the Westerns WARLOCK and BROKEN LANCE. He played THE GREATEST Villain in film history in KISS OF DEATH when he pushed the little old lady in a wheel chair down the flight of stairs and could not stop laughing about it.
NOT ONE FILM CLIP, not one clip from KISS OF DEATH
Widmark with Victor Mature in the trailer for Kiss of Death (1947)
CHARLTON HESTON, let’s not discuss his right wing politics or his Presidency of the National Rifle Association, let’s talk about why the man deserved a tribute on OSCAR night, well if not a tribute then at least some film clips. ”Heston campaigned for Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. When an Oklahoma movie theater premiering his movie El Cid was segregated, he joined a picket line outside. During the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. Following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Heston and actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart issued a statement calling for support of President Johnson’s Gun Control Act of 1968. He opposed the Vietnam War and in 1969 was approached by the Democratic Party to run for the U.S. Senate. He agonized over the decision and ultimately determined he could never give up acting.”
He got Orson Welles a Directing job when no one else would touch him, and they turned out a great film noir, TOUCH OF EVIL. He starred in some of the most beloved films of all time, BEN HUR, EL CID, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, MAJOR DUNDEE,PLANET OF THE APES, SOYLENT GREEN, THE OMEGA MAN.
In 1965, he was elected President of the SCREEN ACTORS GUILD. He served until 1971, the second longest tenure to date in that office.
To borrow a sentiment from Hymie Roth in THE GODFATHER II, ‘ THIS WAS A GREAT MAN,” and there is not one stinking film clip of him in memorial.
And speaking of great men,
PAUL NEWMAN
He gave us HUD, FAST EDDIE, BUTCH CASSIDY,BEN QUICK, HARPER, and some of the best acting ever in THE VERDICT, and a truly wonderful guilty pleasure in THE PRIZE. He rivalled Brando and McQueen; and to top it off gave almost 250 million dollars to CHARITY. And he does not get a film clip? What Katrina did to New Orleans, the producers of the 2009 OSCARS did to our film heroes.
BEST PICTURE- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
A great choice, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is a masterpiece, and will be honored in the future as this generation’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. A wonderful film, and experience.
BEST ACTOR-SEAN PENN
Orson Welles, Kirk Douglas, Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum,Glenn Ford, Montgomery Clift, Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo,Joseph Cotten,Albert Finney,Lillian Gish,Cary Grant,Madeline Kahn,Deborah Kerr,Angela Lansbury,Piper Laurie,James Mason,Agnes Moorehead,Edward G. Robinson,Gena Rowlands,Peter Sellers,Barbara Stanwyck,Marilyn Monroe NEVER won an OSCAR.
Sean Penn has won two, deflation.
BEST FEMALE ACTOR- KATE WINSLET
I date a lot of strong, independent women, I find them funny, it is like dating Lisa Simpson. On one such date, I saw THE READER with Kate Winslet.
As I was watching Kate’s endless nude scenes, my impish date, leaned over to me and whispered, ” This is so empowering.” With popcorn and parking, the whole date cost me $44.00, to watch Kate Winslet empower herself.
As I was watching her play a nude Nazi guard, my mind drifted off to three places,
1- My favorite female Nazi Guard films, ISLA, SHE WOLF OF THE S.S. and HELGA, SHE WOLF OF SPILBERG…. now those were female NAZI Guard movies…..hubba hubba. Those female Nazi movies are empowering to the teenage boy in all of us. So if you have a choice between THE READER and SHE WOLF OF THE SS, opt for SHE WOLF OF THE SS.
2-LENNY BRUCE, the great American comedian and philosopher….they once asked Lenny, who was a radical, a hipster, a doper, an addict…but hip…..if he liked see through blouses on women…….he, the iconoclastic hippie, said no.
The shocked interviewer, who was expecting the hippie to be a fan of see through blouses (They are empowering). Asked why not?
Bruce replied, ” Because the only women who wear them and those women who you don’t want to see through to.”
Amen.
3- John Ruskin’s wedding night, John was a British Victorian poet, who married one of the most beautiful women in England, Euphemia Chalmers Gray. However Ruskin had never seen a naked female body before, except on Greek statues, so when, on their wedding night, he saw his wife’s pubic hair, he was disconcerted, and never consummated. The marriage never was consummated, and six years later she got a divorce. I hope she went off to a stunningly decadent sex life. I thought of Ruskin, as I watched Kate’s empowering performance, and I wished to all the teenage boys of the world, that when they get their first view of female nudity on the screen it will be Bridgette Bardot, some Swedish actress, or Marisa Tomei.
Empowerment should be a private issue, female nudity on the screen should be an aesthetic issue.
But then again I sincerely doubt if ANY teenage boy, anywhere in the world, will ever watch THE READER.
BEST FEMALE SUPPORTING ACTOR- PENELOPE CRUZ
The Academy continues its tradition of giving non descript female talent an OSCAR if they appear in a Woody Allen movie.
Marisa Tomei gave a wonderful performance in THE WRESTLER; she accomplised everything with her body that Kate Winslet attempted, and it is so much better to look at. If fact, Tomei deserved an OSCAR for hottest body on screen in THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD. In fact that was the hottest sex scene ever on screen, kudos to that great Director Sidney Lumet for knowing which body to show off for art’s sake.
BET SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR- the Late HEATH LEDGER
There are rumors, Heath never got over, in his personal life, the role of THE JOKER. Actors can sometimes be fragile insturments of God; to all actors out there, who dive into their roles, all you Method actors, who live their roles, please rent
| A Double Life |
DVD coverDouble Life is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of an actor whose mind becomes affected by the character he portrays. |
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