92nd Oscar Nominations Announcement

[Big Magilla]

I've seen countless young actors who have spoken fondly of old movies and have cited films that I would never have expected them to see as influences. I would hope that a lot of people in Hollywood are familiar with older movies, including black and white films. I really do think we should expect more from a member of the Academy than this. It's usually the willfully ignorant who don't believe in certain aspects of history, including the Holocaust. These are the same kinds of people who vote for Trump.

The voter appears to be someone who was an Academy member before the recent influx of diversity but who has never been in military service, so someone between the ages of 30 and 50, old enough to have seen all the films he or she wanted to. The rub is that he or she may not have wanted to see anything made before 1970 by which time black-and-white films had all but become extinct. Beyond that, not to be aware of the horrors of war except from what they've seen in a movie suggests that this person is deaf, dumb and blind to watching the news, reading a book or magazine or taking an interest in anything outside their own bubble. Maybe not the kind of person who voted for Trump but one with just as short an attention span as our fearless leader.

[Sabin]

Sonic Youth wrote
Do you have a link to this? I've read a variation of this sort of article on a yearly basis since... I don't know, the late '80s? The number has never been THAT high.

Okay, I went searching for it. The survey isn’t about whether or not they’ve heard of the Holocaust but rather whether or not they knew how many Jews were killed. The approx number.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... rch-center

“From multiple choice answers, 12% selected about 3 million, and 2% selected less than 1 million. Another 12% said more than 12 million Jews died in the Holocaust. One in three people (29%) said they were not sure or did not answer.”

And 45% correctly guessed 6 million. This is... not huge cause for alarm. I say this as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.

[Sonic Youth]

And in further defence of the interviewee about an hour ago I saw an article headline in The Guardian that 45% of Americans (and I would imagine that figure is much the same through much of the world's population) have never heard of the holocaust.

Do you have a link to this? I've read a variation of this sort of article on a yearly basis since... I don't know, the late '80s? The number has never been THAT high.

OTOH, if it's a new article it'll probably show up on my Facebook feed over 20 times before the day is out.

[Precious Doll]

They are very valid points.

After all back in 1992 when Melanie Griffith was promoting Shinning Through a journalist mentioned the holocaust to her. She didn't know what it meant and it was explained to her that during WW2 six million people (mainly Jews) were systematically exterminated by the Nazis. Her response was 'That's a lot of people'.

In Melanie Griffiths case it was probably pure ignorance and complete indifference to history and what is going on in her own world outside her own little bubble.

[OscarGuy]

I've seen countless young actors who have spoken fondly of old movies and have cited films that I would never have expected them to see as influences. I would hope that a lot of people in Hollywood are familiar with older movies, including black and white films. I really do think we should expect more from a member of the Academy than this. It's usually the willfully ignorant who don't believe in certain aspects of history, including the Holocaust. These are the same kinds of people who vote for Trump.

[Precious Doll]

I suspect most people on the planet have any interest in WW1. Personally the major occurrence of that era that holds any real interest to me personally was the Spanish Flu.

As Magilla stated in another thread there haven't been that many films about WW1 and that includes from France. 1917 is probably the most prominent film about WW1 since All Quiet in the Western Front for English language audiences.

With all due respect to the interviewee who like most people probably has very little to zero knowledge of the horrors of WW1 I can see where they are coming from. Must say that the most informative film I've ever seen on WW1 was a Turkish documentary from 2005 called Gallipoli. It's based on letters written by soldiers from Turkey, New Zealand, England and Australia to loved ones from that particular battleground and the descriptions of what they had witnessed rocked me to the core. As a result what I saw in 1917 felt like mere child's play but to really depict a war zone is probably near to impossible.

And in further defence of the interviewee about an hour ago I saw an article headline in The Guardian that 45% of Americans (and I would imagine that figure is much the same through much of the world's population) have never heard of the holocaust. Most people are more preoccupied with the present and probably worried about the future that a war that finished over 100 years that mankind learned nothing from.

[OscarGuy]

All Quiet on the Western Front won Best Picture...is this voter 12?

[Sabin]

Michael Musto interviews an Anonymous Oscar Voter.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/an-anonym ... -overblown

MUSTO: Do you see it as an anti-war film?

AOV: I saw it more as a realization of how horrific WWI actually was. There have been so many films done on WWII and very few comparatively done on WWI, even though they say more people died in that war. To make 1917 as horrific as it was, with all the bodies that were treated like refuse, it was the first time it shone a light on how bad that war was. It made me understand even more about how horrific present war must be—actually even more than Hurt Locker.

ME: Aw, that's cute.

[Mister Tee]

It looks like Gravity, with seven, will be the film to win the most Oscars this decade. This will be the first full decade in Academy history whore no film has won more than seven awards. Although, this does count a special-non-competitive award given to Harold Russell for The Best Years Of Our Lives in 1946.

Not saying it's going to happen, but 1917 could conceivably sweep film, director cinematography, production design, sound mixing, sound editing, score and visual effects (the last largely because the category has no especially appealing candidate). So, let's not count chickens just yet.

[Greg]

It looks like Gravity, with seven, will be the film to win the most Oscars this decade. This will be the first full decade in Academy history whore no film has won more than seven awards. Although, this does count a special-non-competitive award given to Harold Russell for The Best Years Of Our Lives in 1946.

[taki15]

Watch JJ Abrams movies to understand what a real copycat/ripoff director looks like.He's the only director I know who doesn't have his own style and lens flare does not count as a style.

The fact that Abrams is the king of rip-offs isn't an excuse for what Philips did with Joker. You can argue whether he stole more from Taxi Driver or King of Comedy but I don't believe there is a doubt he xeroxed Scorsese's style from the 70s. And my problem isn't the copying per se but the fact that he did just that and added nothing new or interesting, not even a personal touch.

[OscarGuy]

Watch JJ Abrams movies to understand what a real copycat/ripoff director looks like.He's the only director I know who doesn't have his own style and lens flare does not count as a style.

[Sabin]

Oh, let’s calm down. It’s an homage. He took inspiration from it. And who even cares? These movies are between twenty-five and thirty-five years old. I really don’t understand anyone waving *that* flag anymore than I understand someone railing against Tarantino.

Joker is not a seminal masterpiece. It’s not saying anything special. And it certainly doesn’t deserve 11 Oscar nomination, but it’s not a ripoff.

[taki15]

Okay, I’ll bite: How is Joker a “knock-off” of Taxi Driver when not one of the plot points of the latter appears in the former?

Do you know what the word “homage” means? Did you think Us was a rip-off of The Shining? Your position is a tad simplistic and you’re not backing it up with any specifics.

Mentally unbalanced incel lives in a big city in the grips of urban decay, is convinced that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and decides to make a statement by murdering a public figure.
But other than that totally different movies.

[flipp525]

Okay, I’ll bite: How is Joker a “knock-off” of Taxi Driver when not one of the plot points of the latter appears in the former?

Do you know what the word “homage” means? Did you think Us was a rip-off of The Shining? Your position is a tad simplistic and you’re not backing it up with any specifics.