The Golden Globes were handed out last night in a ceremony that isn’t shown on British television. And, as Empire [EDIT: broken link] (the greatest film magazine in the world) rightly states, they haven’t exactly gone with any particular film, throwing them out to quite a handful of different nominees.
I’ve never known quite why the Globes were such an indicator for the Oscars (apart from looking at the results from year-to-year, obviously) and I do realise that all these award ceremonies are complete nonsense anyway, especially the Oscars, but I do enjoy them, if only for the fact that they celebrate movies as a whole, even if they don’t get it right.
The reason for specific mention is that The Aviator won best film but Martin Scorcese didn’t win best director (that went to Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby). Now, as a film fan, I enjoy the work of both these fellas, but I really want Marty to finally get his overdue Oscar. Clint has his, so there’s always room for more people to get some, and the Academy is very good at giving Oscars to people for not-so-deserving roles the year after they should have for a more deserving role, but didn’t because they got it wrong the first time (e.g. Judi Dench for her cameo in Shakespeare in Love, instead of the year before for Mrs. Brown, where they gave it to Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets, which is so undeserving, I’m not going to link to it).
I have yet to see either The Aviator or Million Dollar Baby (I aim to rectify the former this evening with the free ticket offer from the Evening Standard, which is the only time you’ll see me mention that rag, and the only time I would pay for it, which is deservedly in financial trouble, according to this item from londonist.com) so cannot pass judgement on them yet, but I just want to let the world know that it’s time to give Marty the Oscar, get it out of the way, so you don’t have to be giving him one of those lifetime achievement runner-up prizes that they had to give to Hitchcock, for God’s sake.
Anyway, for those of us in the UK who couldn’t see the Globes ceremony, Tom the Dog posted a minute-by-minute review of the show. Thanks, Tom.
You’re welcome!
You’re right about the Oscars going to undeserving roles to make up for earlier mistakes. Denzel Washington won for Training Day, when he should’ve won for Malcolm X. Who did he lose to that year? Al Pacino, who won for “Hoo-ah!!!” Scent of a Woman, when he should’ve won for, oh, anything else. One of my favorite Oscar moments is when Jeremy Irons won for Reversal of Fortune, and pointedly thanked David Cronenberg in his acceptance speech — meaning, he (and me, and everyone else) believed he should have won for Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers the year before. And of course there’s Russell Crowe, who won for a horrible movie (Gladiator) in between two movies he really should have won for (The Insider and A Beautiful Mind — and who did he lose to for Beautiful Mind? Denzel, of course).
You can see I think about this stuff too much. But it sounds like you do, too. I look forward to reading your blog!
Oh, don’t get me started on the Oscar Consolation Prize Syndrome, I’ll be here all day. And, you’re right; I do think too much about these things.
Thanks for the comment – I’ve broken my Comment Cherry 🙂