The 2004 Oscar Race--give us your opinion

Eastwood, the target.

The following is an article written by Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles on February 23, 2005.

I have excerpted it because the complete text discloses the ending of Million Dollar Baby. (couzz)

EXCERTS:
Clint Eastwood's multi-nominated boxing film Million Dollar Baby, which struck most critics as being seeped in old-fashioned American values - rugged individualism, achieving success against the odds, even going to church and wrestling with big moral dilemmas - has unleashed a torrent of rage from Rush Limbaugh and the author Michael Medved.

For the past couple of weeks, the naysayers have been working up a head of steam about something the critics barely mentioned in their reviews because it concerns the unflinchingly downbeat ending, which they felt dutybound not to reveal. Ted Baehr, head of the Christian Film and Television Commission, called it "very anti-Catholic and anti-Christian".

The Academy voters are being deluged with protest e-mails in the hope of deterring them from voting for the film or its participants. Some kind of protest outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday night seems almost inevitable. So, too, does the revival of a long-standing grievance against Eastwood held by disabled groups since an elderly woman in a wheelchair sued him five years ago for failing to provide adequate toilet facilities at a hotel he owns in Carmel on the central California coast. (Ms Roth accused Mr Eastwood of continuing a "disability vendetta".)

What makes many of the attacks puzzling is that Eastwood is hardly your stereotypical flaming Hollywood liberal. He is, in fact, a Republican, served as the Republican mayor of Carmel and was appointed years ago to the National Council on the Arts by Richard Nixon. To the extent that it has been faulted at all by professional critics, Million Dollar Baby has, if anything, been deemed too conservative in its view of race relations, in its unflattering portrayal of all women except for Swank's character, and in its swipes at hillbillies and welfare cheats.

Newspaper columnists have suggested that what Medved and Limbaugh have sought to do is destroy Million Dollar Baby's box-office chances by giving away the ending. For that reason, some of them suspect the attacks will generate only indignation among Academy voters.

Note from couzz:
Will this hurt Million Dollar Baby's chances or will it produce a surge in votes for the Eastwood film therefore lowering Aviator to the second spot for best film at the Academy Awards on Sunday night?

I could backfire but that would be a consideration of the objectivity of each Academy voter. They could just as easily be accused of not voting for the movie because of Eastwood's conservative ties. However, I would say Eastwood is a moderate Republican not too far from the mold used to make Arnold Schwartzenegger. They both pretty much reject the religious right dogmas. Let Limbaugh and Medved (the industry's most churlish reviewer) have their rave session and roil up the pot. They could always paste ads over the billboards congratulating Hollywood for getting Bush elected, an example of gloating churlishness itself.

Oh I don't think that will hurt Eastwood's chances. I think it's a great point to bring up, but... Plus I think The Aviator will win Best Picture regardless and Best Director...IMHO...

dancingnancy:

I hope you are right that AVIATOR will win best picture. It was not my favorite film this year but I would like Scrosese to receive a major award.

With Eastwood getting the DGA (best director) award I believe Eastwood has a very good chance to take the best director Oscar.

Well...three days to go...

Academy voters other than directors could easily turn the award over the Scorcese. Eastwood has more great films in his resovoir of ideas. He has had his hits and misses but he is the consumate auteur. Even his misses are much better than the mediocrity cranked out of the Hollywood machine.

Like an athelete, great directors have their personal best.

Academy Award Predictions as of: 2/27/05-- 5:15pm EST

With all the current buzz on Million Dollar Baby, I said to myself what film has won the most awards so far? Well, I decided to take 20 minutes and check on it today. The results surprised me--Million Dollar Baby with 25. Second place was Sideways (20) and third place was Aviator (14).

I usually do not consider all previous awards because many of those who voted for them are not Academy members. But part of these voters are in the Academy so it is a barometer of sorts. One thing is discloses, Aviator is in trouble. It will probably not take both best film and director. According the current opinion, it looks as though Blanchett will win the supporting actress award. The other categories Aviator could possibly take: cinematography, film editing, art direction and possibly costume design although the CDG gave it's award for costume design to Lemony Snicket.

Million Dollar Baby will most likely win best film plus two acting awards: Swank and Freeman. If Scrosese does not get director, Mr. Eastwood will win the director award.

So what happened to our 2nd place all over award winner with 20--Sideways? Right now it is posed to take best adapted screenplay plus a chance win for Virginia Madsen for supporting actress. Thomas Haden Church has an outside chance to take supporting actor away from Morgan Freeman (MDB) but it's not likely he can do it.


For you ballot markers the ACADEMY VOTING INFO:The Academy actors branch is the largest (1,321 voting members), followed by producers (465), executives (433) writers (404), members at large (402), sound (420), public relations (365) and directors (372).

These are my picks for tonight:
Film: Million Dollar Baby
Director: Scorsese
Acting categories: Fox, Swank, Freeman & Blanchett (Remember there is generally an upset in the acting or supporting acting categories.)
Animated film: The Incredibles
Writing: Eternal Sunshine & Sideways
Cinematography, editing, art direction: Aviator
Visual effects & sound editing: Spider-Man 2
Costumes: Aviator or Lemony Snicket
Made-up: Lemony Snicket
Sound mixing: Ray
Music: (Song) Shrek2, (Score) Finding Neverland
Foreign Language Film: The Sea Inside
Docu Feature: Born into Brothels
Docu Short: Autism Is A world
Short film/Animated: Gopher Broke
Short film/Live Action: Little Terrorist

My prediction is that Swank and Fox will get best actor award and Million Dollar Baby will win seven oscars. Just a guess.

Very good, couzz -- I did a list of predictions on another thread and also did pretty good. I did really believe they would give "The Aviator" the big prize but Clint won for both director and best picture.

I hope noone took my postdiction seriously.

I was not THAT impressed by Blanchett's ACTING performance (even though she IS a great actor); I hope she did not win the award because of her IMPRESSION of Kathryn Hepburn or that Fox (I have not seen "Ray") won because of his impression of Charles. If their impressions won them their Oscars, I'll bet Rich Little is preparing to become an "actor."

77th annual Academy Award Winners
2-27-05

Picture: "Million Dollar Baby."

Actor: Jamie Foxx, "Ray."

Actress: Hilary Swank, "Million Dollar Baby."

Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman, "Million Dollar Baby."

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "The Aviator."

Director: Clint Eastwood, "Million Dollar Baby."

Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, "Sideways."

Original Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Art Direction: "The Aviator."

Cinematography: "The Aviator."

Film Editing: "The Aviator."

Visual Effects: "Spider-Man 2."

Sound Mixing: "Ray."

Sound Editing: "The Incredibles."

Original Score: "Finding Neverland."

Original Song: "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries."

Costume: "The Aviator."

Makeup: "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Foreign Film: "The Sea Inside" (Spain).

Animated Feature: "The Incredibles."

Animated Short: "Ryan."

Documentary Feature: "Born Into Brothels."

Documentary Short: "Mighty Times: The Children's March."

Live Action Short: "Wasp."

I guess Scorsese is following in the footsteps of Alfred Hitchcock, no Oscar.

Hollywood and Eastwood are in a lock and I don't mean the big studios love him. The actors and his fellow directors respect him plus most in the industry know he will make a good old fashioned product for a reasonable budget from his digs in Malpaso, CA.

A native Californian, Eastwood has come a long way since his start in the mid-fifties in "Francis the Talking Mule". After a successful run playing Rowdy Yates in TV's "Rawhide", he was off to Spain and starred in a trilogy of spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone. And as they say, the rest is history

It's a traditional fight film with what has become a controversial ending with the religious right. Maybe, like a lot of cartoon characters, they think Clint is gay. Again, that ending seperates him from the entrenched conservative camp.

"The Aviator" should have won but that could again be the splitting of votes with at least two other films.

What was censored at the Oscars
Robin Williams song pulled

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- At the Oscar awards, what was not said was probably more interesting than what was.

Hollywood's big night Sunday was beamed to the world with a five-second time delay, and broadcaster ABC ordered some controversial quips cut before the show, sparking debate about how far political correctness should go and freedom of speech controlled.

Comedian Robin Williams said it all when he walked on stage with a piece of white tape over his mouth.

Williams was to have performed a song lampooning conservative critic James C. Dobson, whose group had criticized cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video it branded "pro-homosexual."

He was going to do it by concentrating on the dark underside of other cartoon characters, asking, for example whether Casper the Friendly Ghost wore that white sheet as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Marc Shaiman, who wrote Williams' original routine, said he decided to withdraw the material after ABC raised objections that would have led to him re-writing 11 of 36 lines. ABC declined to comment.

"It's ironic because I feel the song is silly and the situation is silly and yet on the other hand it's extremely serious," Shaiman told Reuters from New York. "This is the most blatant, immature censorship that I've ever come across."

Williams did eventually develop an act questioning cartoon characters' sexuality. But it was a pale imitation of some of the lines originally planned and he looked pained performing it.

"The show lost what would have been the best minute-and-a-half they would have had last night," said Shaiman, before adding: "Where does the buck stop?"

Chris Rock, the edgy black comedian called in to host the show, and, some say, to boost flagging ratings, was also in trouble long before the Oscars got under way.

He previously joked that straight, black men did not watch the Oscars, drawing an angry response from commentators like Jake Lamar, an African American who called Rock's comments "a massive generalization" and "depressing."

Then Oscar producer Gil Cates weighed in, calling ABC's decision to introduce a time delay in transmitting from Kodak Theatre a "terrible idea" and a concession to political correctness.

For the complete article go to:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/01/oscars.censorship.reut/index.html

Wow - I had no idea about Robin Williams being censored. I wondered what was up with the tape on his mouth..