Scorsese loses Oscar to an actor. Again. Does he even care anymore?
How many times has he lost? Five nominations for directing (“Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Goodfellas,” and “Gangs of New York”), all lost, and half of them to actors, not to mention a lost screenwriting Oscar (“Age of Innocence”), not to mention that all five films of his nominated for Best Picture have also lost (same as directing, except switch “Last Temptation” for “Taxi Driver”). Why does Marty keep losing? A couple reasons spring to mind. First of all, he’s competing with himself as much as the other contenders. Think of how tempting it is to say “The Aviator” “isn’t as good as Scorsese’s earlier movies.” Is there any faster way to seem “knowledgeable” about film? A silly logic, yes, considering that only about 25 movies exist that are as good as Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” and it’s not likely he’s going to make a 26th. Anyone with Marty’s longevity will regularly be crucified for being different in his old age than he was in his youth. How often do you hear “I liked him before he was big” or, the classic example, “I liked the band’s first album.”
Second is that the Oscars have always apologized for the movies in general by most valuing the flicks that try to be novels, plays, short stories, inspired by real-life, or topical. I encountered the following statement regarding the Oscars on the internet recently (okay, at Mr. Cranky, but his ramblings do represent a hefty piece of popular opinion): “If everyone is saying that ‘The Aviator’ is the better film, then it's also the better screenplay...” This implies that a movie is good or bad chiefly because of its writing. However popular this misconception is, movies are not books. The best movie is not necessarily the best “written.” Godard even said “the best scripts don't always make the best movies.” It is a misconception born of the notion that “books are for smart people, movies are for dumb people.” This is an insult to movies. This notion is central to why so many critics hold the movies in contempt and novels in a place of honor.
Yes, “The Aviator” is indeed based on a real person, but with famous inaccuracy, and as fascinating as it is as social criticism and an historical document, its greatest success is in its direction, its “movie-ness.” The “telling” is more important than the “story,” but this is precisely the kind of approach that the Academy Awards always snub. With “2001,” “Barry Lyndon,” and “A Clockwork Orange,” Stanley Kubrick made some of the most self-consciously directed films of all time, and never won an Oscar for directing. Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Brian De Palma, and Michael Mann are in that same boat: directors who revel in framing a good shot, in putting bodies in motion, and in the rhythms of editing, rising voices, and stops, pauses, and rests.
It’s the old argument of “style versus substance,” but my answer is always the same: movies are inspired by more than just novels and stories. Does anyone complain that Jackson Pollack is “style over substance?” Does anyone complain that “The Nutcracker” “might have been good, but it had no plot?” Who complains that Bach’s “Bist du bei mir” has “no story?” The result is that “Million Dollar Baby,” a fine, powerful film that is “about what it is about,” beats “The Aviator,” the movie that is “about HOW it is about” and is at times a study of the movies themselves.
But I digress. Here are the winners.
Adapted Screenplay – Jim Taylor & Alexander Payne
(Best Picture Nominee)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Original Screenplay – Charlie Kaufman et al.
Finding Neverland
Score
(Best Picture Nominee)
The Motorcycle Diaries
Song
Spider-Man 2
Visual Effects
The Sea Inside
Foreign Film
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Makeup
Born Into Brothels
Documentary Feature
Here is a list of all the nominees, as well as the predictions made by the F&SN Critic and His Damned Wife. As in the last few years, she won (12 correct), and he lost (11 correct). Just like The Man With the Eyebrows.
Pfffft.
Best Picture
Director - Clint Eastwood
Actress - Hilary Swank
Supporting Actor – Morgan Freeman
The Aviator (5)
Supporting Actress – Cate Blanchett
Film Editing
Costumes
Art Direction
Cinematography
(Best Picture Nominee)
Ray (2)
Actor – Jamie Foxx
Sound
(Best Picture Nominee)
The Incredibles (2)
Animated Feature
Sound Editing