The Oscars are a huge time for celebration in the entertainment industry. In years past, amazing movies like The Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Titanic swept the Oscars. Undoubtedly, critics and fans alike knew that these movies would go down as legendary motion pictures. The problem with the Oscars today is that we just do not have many of this type of movie up for nomination. This may be attributed to the fact that with so many movies coming out it is harder for writers and directors to put their hearts into their films. When production companies only have dollar signs in mind, the making a movie that will stand the test of time is not really the main goal. Production companies are much more concerned with how many people will come to see the movie in theaters than its artistic content.
The Nominees are:
- LaLa Land-budget 30 million
- Lion-budget 12 million
- Hidden Figures-budget 25 million
- Manchester by the Sea-budget 8.5 million
- Arrival-budget 85 million
- Hacksaw Ridge-budget 40 million
- Moonlight-budget 5 million
- Fences-24 million
- Hell or High Water-budget 12 million
This is a fairly new phenomenon in the movie industry. Even just a few short years ago we had movies at the Oscars like The Artist which were much more focused on art and less on flash. If we take a look at this year’s Oscars, we can see movies like La La Land sweeping the ceremony. With a film like this, we can see that more emphasis is placed on style, flashy dream sequences, and less on a substantial story that captivates audiences and makes them engage their intellect. What ever happened to movies that really made you think, like Good Will Hunting for example?
When the nominees for the 89th Annual Oscars were announced, many critics and fans alike were underwhelmed by the films up for awards. For instance, I question Hacksaw Ridge for being in the running as it seemed to be just another attempt by Mel Gibson to portray as much violence in a film as possible, and to pass Hacksaw off as historical accuracy.
One reason why the Oscars this year will most likely be disappointing is the predictably of it all. When a film is nominated for multiple Oscars, the award ceremony is most likely going to be a sweep. Denzel Washington recently won the SAG award for best actor, and with five of the six past SAG winners for best actor went on to also win the Oscar: Eddie Redmayne, Matthew McConaughey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jean Dujardin, and Colin Firth. While this is annoying with movies that aren’t very captivating like La La Land, it was extremely exciting to see sweeps for groundbreaking films like Titanic and Lord of The Rings.
To be perfectly frank, I think most of the movies up for Oscars this year just plain suck. Hollywood has had a hard time lately because it seems as though writers are either getting lazy or are being pressured by production companies to present scripts that will put butts in the seats and dollars in the register. In any creative endeavor, when money becomes the number one goal, things start to suffer. It is sad to see an Oscar lineup that isn’t very exciting, but I can only hope that in years to come filmmakers revert to stronger story lines instead of flashy tricks to merely get people into the theaters. Will the movie industry redeem itself? Only time will tell.