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February 28, 2005

Tom Hall: Marty Got A Raw Deal

Poor Martin Scorcese, spurned once again by an Academy that favors actor-directors. While his film took most of the behind the scenes movie awards (cinematography, etc.), he lost out to Clint Eastwood in the ones that count (i.e. are remembered). And this isn't the first time it happened. Tom Hall of Indiewire's The Back Row Manifesto explains:

In 1980, Scorsese was nominated as Best Director for his magnum opus Raging Bull (not just the best picture of 1980, but probably the finest film of the entire decade.) The Academy chose Robert Redford’s fine Ordinary People as that year’s Best Picture and Redford as Best Director. Another decade, another injustice: In 1990, Scorsese was up again for Best Director and Best Picture for his seminal Goodfellas. This time, the Academy chose another actor-turned-director, Kevin Costner, and Dances With Wolves for the sweep. Sunday night, Scorsese’s The Aviator, a film of startling virtuosity and dazzling direction, is topped by Clint Eastwood’s boxing tearjerker Million Dollar Baby.

Hall blames The Aviator snub on an Americans not wanting to see the lives of the rich and the famous. I would proffer something simpler—that the Academy prefers its larger-than-life movie stars (the anti-Jude Laws, as Chris Rock would call them) over its talented life-long craftsmen. They prefer the glitz to what goes on behind the scenes to make the glitz. That's why they put their stars on the stage and their cinematographers on the carpet. But history will be kind to Marty. Kevin Costner, on the other hand,...

Posted by timothompson at February 28, 2005 07:40 PM