Opinions Expressed in "Rants," while informed by Catholic doctrine, are merely the opinions of the author.
Why No One Watches the Oscars Anymore
There was a time when people all over the world, BILLIONS of people, would watch the Academy Awards, the Oscars. Do you know why? – because they wanted to see if there favourite movies won.
These were movies like Gone With the Wind, the Sound of Music, West Side Story, Rocky, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Platoon, Braveheart, Dances with Wolves, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur, E.T., Titanic, and Forrest Gump, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator – all of these movies were nominated for best picture – and some of them won.
And EVERYBODY saw them. These were the movies that had people lined up around the block to go see.
I’m sure Slumdog Millionaire was a great movie. But I haven’t seen it yet. Nor any of the other nominees.
And neither has anyone else – which is why they don’t tune in for the Oscars any more.
This last year we saw the release of The Dark Knight and Wall-E. Where were they at the nominations? These are two of the best movies I’ve EVER SEEN – not just this year either – but EVER. Not even nominated.
This is the voice of frustration – not just over the Oscars, but over the entire motion picture industry, which claims to be fighting the onslaught of internet pirating – if it really wants to show us the magic of the movies, in the theatres, as they were meant to be, with the big screen and the popcorn and all that jazz - it needs to put the movies that have had the deepest impact on our whole society at the centre of the highest ceremony honouring it.
That's what I think.