The Kenblog: “What’s The Big Deal With The Oscars!”
Howdy folks! It’s The Kendog With An Oscars Edition Of The Kenblog!
So the 2017 Academy Awards are now history and as I take a look at the trades, tweets, and on-line tirades everyone still seems to be up in arms about the mistake made last night in revealing the wrong best picture winner. That they eventually got it right doesn’t seem to matter: the folks behind the Oscars are being crucified for making the mistake in the first place. My question: what’s the big deal?
https://youtu.be/v3RLFhwzUgk
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman even wrote in an article that racist conspiracy theories are sure to raise their ugly heads (of course while writing at the same time that he, OF COURSE, didn’t believe that for one second). Seriously? At what point is a screw-up just a screw-up? The Oscars, especially in recent years, have been at the forefront of so much racial-political crap that it’s easy to forget that this is just a goddamn awards show people! This is a televised ceremony where an entertainment industry claps itself on the back by giving awards to the subjective “best” in the business for the previous year! This isn’t high art! This isn’t about solving the problems of the world in a single night of designer dresses and speeches that are constantly interrupted by orchestrated musical cues!
It’s about subjective entertainment, people!
That said I am not one of those people who believe that people in positions of influence (and let’s face it, movie stars generally have a lot more influence on the public than regular folks) should keep their mouths shut and not express their opinions. It’s a free country: you should be able to say what you wish, but you should also consider all of what the Hollywood elite says as simply opinion. They’re people, just like us, and sometimes what a star says can be well informed and well thought out, but most of the time movie stars are as just as full of shit as the rest of us. They just spread it with a more expensive brush.
This year seems to be the era of Hollywood vs. Trump: The Neverending Movie. It’s like watching a bunch of high-schoolers trade insults in the cafeteria. Between our new federal government and the Hollywood elite, I can’t find anyone willing to have a logical conversation or present a case of civil discourse anywhere.
That said, this years Oscars proved to be a fairly surprising and pleasant broadcast, with La La Land winning big but not to big to prevent some surprises. Yes the show was not without some speedbumps: “Moana” star Auli’i Cravalho getting beaned on the noggin’ by her backup dancers and the mistaken use of a living woman’s photo during the In Memoriam segment (Jan Patterson’s photo with the late Australian costume designer Janet Patterson’s name), along with an initially funny segment by host Jimmy Kimmel in which he brought in a load of tourists who thought they were seeing a Hollywood dress exhibit. Initially funny, but the segment went on a tad too long.
Overall, Kimmel was a pleasant and witty host and for the most part kept things on track. His continuing feud with Matt Damon was one of the highlights of the show as was the use of his own “Mean Tweets” segment that seems more relevant than ever in the social media dominated society. There were some shots at Trump, but let’s face it, the guy doesn’t exactly make himself a difficult target, president or not.
But let’s get back to the finale of the show where everyone online is still loosing their collective minds. In case it escaped everyone’s notice, THE ACADEMY DID GET IT RIGHT! I tend to think of this like a visit to the replay booth in sports. They may have gotten the initial call wrong, but in the end everything was put back to rights and the properly voted film took the top prize. What would have been more shameful was for the Academy to sweep the mistake under the rug, award “La La Land” the best picture Oscar and then only have us find out months down the road that “Moonlight” was the actual winner. Yes, the Academy made a mistake. They also fixed that mistake in a timely and, with the help of the folks behind “La La Land” classy manner. Case closed. No conspiracy, no one shooting from behind the grassy knoll. So can we please, for the love of everything sane, get over this useless crap and get on to more important things like whether or not someone can teach poor Nicole Kidman how to clap!
In all seriousness, the Oscars remain a staple of television viewing because it’s a forum of entertainment, even if sometimes degenerates into a train wreck in the process. We are wasting too much time worrying about this kind of stuff when we should be trying to solve the real-world problems ceremonies like the Oscars claim to care so much about. Let’s concentrate on making the real world a better place so that the make-believe world can follow suit! So Sayeth The Kendog!
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