Why the Oscars are Meaningless

Every year the Hollywood hype machine goes into overdrive to promote films to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the people who vote on who'll win the Academy Awards. The Academy consists of over six thousand "industry professionals", that is, people who work within the Hollywood mainstream. The mainstream nature of the films that seem to win should therefore not come as much of a surprise.

Taking a look at the winners and nominees of the last couple of years, all are from just a few major studios who have the connections and financial resources to convince the Academy to vote for them. Anyone who thinks the winner of the Oscar for best picture will actually be the best film made this year would be sorely mistaken.

For more evidence of this, let's take a look at some of the winners of previous years.

2007 - The Departed

After watching Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's first film, the exploitation pic "Boxcar Bertha", John CassavetesJohn Cassavetes told Scorsese that while the film was well made, he had wasted a year of his life making "a piece of shit" and urged him to do something more personal. Scorsese's next film was "Mean Streets", which is maybe his best work. Thirty years later and he's back to making exploitation pictures again, only this time instead of Cassavetes telling him how he's wasting his talent, he's rewarded by the Hollywood establishment for falling into line.

2006 - Crash

Easily one of the worst films made in 2006, Crash is a textbook lesson in the way Hollywood simplifys and preaches in a way that's truly offensive, all in order to "tell a story". Undoubtedly winning Best Picture due to it's "important message" (racism is bad), it was ironic that many in the Academy refused to vote for Brokeback Mountain due to the way it brought gay themes to the ever-so-manly Western. The triumph of Crash over Brokeback Mountain was the triumph of homophobia over racism.

2001 - A Beautiful Mind

As Crash did with racism, A Beautiful mind simplified schizophrenia until the actual real-world problems of the issue were ignored in service of "telling a story". Rather than showing us in any realistic way what it is like to live with schizophrenia, Ron HowardRon Howard instead chose to make Russel Crowe have arguments with the man inside his head, played for some reason by Paul BettanyPaul Bettany.

1997 Titanic

Yeah, Titanic. Remember when someone could say they liked it without being embarrassed?

I could go on (Forrest Gump, Driving Miss Daisy, Braveheart, The English Patient) but this is starting to depress me. My pick for this year is "Slumdog Millionarre", another feel-good simplistic film.

This year, avoid the hype. Don't watch the Oscar's and look for some films outside the mainstream to get a chance to see the really great films of the past year.