The Oscar ceremony telecast was as revolting as I had expected it to be, with the usual amount of smugness, condescension, leftist politics, and elitism.
My experience of the horror was mollified greatly, however, by the opportunity to comment on the proceedings by way of a live blog during the show at Big Hollywood, the right-of-center website about the entertainment industry. It allowed me the good pleasure of reading rational people’s reactions to the grand nonsense and adding my own (aka, venting).
The most revolting moment of the program for me came during the In Memoriam segment, when images of Hollywood people who died in the past year were flashed on the TV screen and in the theater. The audience applauded dutifully for most of the people shown, and erupted into quite enthusiastic applause for some, such as producer-director-actor Sydney Pollack.
But when Charlton Heston was shown, many people in the auditorium actually stopped applauding.
That sort of bigoted political reaction is utterly contemptible, as I wrote in a message on the Big Hollywood live blog. It took serious courage for Heston to be honest about his political conservatism and fight for sincerely held beliefs, such as his vision of Second Amendment rights, in an enormously hostile Hollywood environment. That certainly merits great praise. And above all, Heston was a superb actor. The classy thing for the audience to do would have been to honor the man’s great acting career with a standing ovation. But Hollywood today almost never does the classy thing.
Also quite putrid was Best Actor winner Sean Penn’s claim that he and his fellow dingdongs involved in Milk and other ludicrous left-wing propaganda films are "courageous." The amount of courage required to make a pro-homosexuality or anti-Bush film in Hollywood is exactly the same as is required to denounce Jack Daniel’s and bikinis in Iran. Once again, Penn showed himself as far stupider than his Spicolli character and arrogant to boot.
Usually I can’t bear to watch the Oscar ceremony, as I mentioned in my recent article about Slumdog Millionaire, and Sunday I certainly would have found something else to do, if not for my Big Hollywood duty. Being able to to read my colleagues’ commonsense reactions while watching the leftwing weirdo elitist jerks made it possible for me to get through the show without throwing up in my mouth too often. That’s a huge accomplishment.
—S. T. Karnick
I’m just glad the Academy didn’t hire some bozo comedian to host the show.
The In Memoriam segment was hamped, for tv viewers, by the roving camera, which should have focused on the images of the departed actors and actresses. I do think that Queen Latifah did a good job singing “I’ll Remember You.”
The highlight of the night for me was seeing Sophia Loren. She looked, well, like what she is, an aging woman; but the way she stood with her hand on her hip was classic. How they lured her to take part in the show I haven’t the slightest idea.
And why did Cuba Gooding, Jr., have to make an ass of himself in talking about Robert Downey, Jr.? Every other actor who talked about a fellow actor turned his talk into a tribute. But Gooding went off on some kind of race thing that made him look ridiculous and out of place.
I think I heard more English accents at this Academy Awards show than I ever have.
I liked Mickey Rourke’s “Wrestler” look but if he keeps dressing like that he’s going to be type-cast. And just how many wrestler roles are there?
I haven’t seen a single one of the nominated film, so for me it was all about the people in the audience and the people on stage. I liked Kate Winslet’s request to her father to whistle so she (and the camera) could pick him out of the crowd. He didn’t disappoint.
I ask you: Who on earth will be able to remember the Oscar-winning song from “Slumdog Millionaire”? Not the kind of tune that sticks in the back of your mind. But then Oscar-winning songs of late have had that effect. The days when composers produced songs the likes of “Moon River” are gone.
Sean Penn’s daddy was a well-known Communist on the Hollywood scene in years gone by. I suspect that Sean would like to continue the tradition, but I don’t believe there are any Commies in show biz any more–even if some folk do slip off every now and then to visit Fidel.
This was the first Academy Award show I’ve seen in years. I don’t know if they’ll be able to lure me back. After all, I could have spent that time reading!
Bob
Very good point, R. J. Heston stood for freedom and was consistent in his beliefs.
It’s a shame that the culture has forgotten that the Civil Rights Act would not have passed without the significant Republican support it got in Congress. Southern Democrats were adamantly opposed to this measure, and although Barry Goldwater and National Review unfortunately joined them, Republicans such as the eminent Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois combined with liberal Democrats to get the landmark bill passed. Without that strong Republican support it would not have made it.
Republicans such as Heston and Dirksen were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement.
Sad that they’ve so quickly forgotten his support of the civil rights movement in the 60s.
Dude marched, folks.