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Post by Atreides on Feb 3, 2013 11:47:25 GMT -4
I think it's a lock now for Argo to win Best Picture, as guaranteed as DDL winning Best Actor. I'm still going with Spielberg as Best Director, simply because he's the biggest name on the list and the King of Hollywood. I saw Life of Pi a couple days ago and while it's a stunning directorial achievement by Ang Lee, I thought the movie was just okay. If he didn't already have an Oscar, I'd say he'd have a better shot of winning.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 27, 2024 21:19:26 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2013 12:33:37 GMT -4
Yeah I think BD is Spielberg's. And I bet the whole Ben drama (plus Bigelow's snub) will lead to the Academy opening up more slots for BD in the same way they did for BP.
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Post by Mugsy on Feb 6, 2013 10:12:08 GMT -4
Out of curiosity, those who think Affleck is getting all these best pic awards partly because "Hollywood" is ticked that he was snubbed for a best director Oscar - why are those same people not ticked about Bigelow's snub?
Because she just won two years ago? Good work is good work; regardless of how many awards. People have won awards two years in a row, or won multiple Oscars; that reason alone doesn't seem like enough of a reason to ignore Bigelow's snub while rewarding Affleck over and over because of his.
Reviews of Argo and Zero Dark Thirty have been pretty much equal in praise, so it can't be a quality issue.
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Post by Witchie on Feb 6, 2013 10:35:47 GMT -4
I don't think Bigelow's win 2 years ago is the reason she's being snub now. It's all about the torture scenes. No one wants to reward her or ZDT and then be accused of condoning or supporting torture. It's a bullshit reason because the movie clearly showed that torture was an ineffective means of gathering intel.
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thneed
Landed Gentry
Posts: 816
Jun 19, 2006 0:42:40 GMT -4
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Post by thneed on Feb 6, 2013 10:39:53 GMT -4
It could be because Argo makes Hollywood look awesome.
Or because, due to the torture scene in ZD30, in a few years it could be seen as a great movie, or one where the values are so messed up we look back on it years later with shame (like how we do with Dances With Wolves and the gross noble savage-ness). Hollywood is essentially a cautious place. They don't want to risk that.
But I do think apart of it is Bigelow just won. Same reason why no one's mad about Hopper being "snubbed." He won recently.
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Deleted
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Sept 27, 2024 21:19:26 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2013 11:02:53 GMT -4
I think part of it is also because the Academy has a history of snubbing Affleck. I remember way back in the Good Will Hunting days, some folks were surprised that he wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He was also snubbed for Hollywoodland. He won the equivalent of Best Actor for that at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe for it and got all kinds of praise, but at the Oscars? Nada. And with Gone Baby Gone and The Town he was also snubbed and both movies were largely shut out at the Oscars, each only getting one nomination each. Now we have Argo, which gets nominated for a ton of things but still nothing for Affleck's directing. It's just a little ridiculous at this point, almost like they're going out of their way to say "WE DON'T LIKE YOU."
My guess is they'll give him a make good in a few years. Whether or not they'll make him wait as long as they made Scorsese wait, I don't know.
And for the record, I'm personally just as annoyed by Bigelow getting snubbed. My vote would've gone to her over Affleck had both been nominated. As it stands now I'm pulling for Ang Lee.
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Post by GoldenFleece on Feb 6, 2013 23:01:04 GMT -4
Some of the awards Ben/Argo have won were voted on before the Oscar nominations came out, so the support for Argo can't all be a reaction to the snub. Argo making Hollywood look awesome is probably a big factor in its success but I think it also benefits somewhat from Zero Dark Thirty being controversial. It's like how Crash became the alternative to Brokeback Mountain, as opposed to Munich or Good Night and Good Luck. People who were uncomfortable with Brokeback being "too gay" probably still wanted to feel that they were still liberal, despite not supporting the "gay" movie, and there was this other movie saying, "Racism is bad!" plus it was set in LA. So they could vote for it and still pat themselves on the back for being "progressive". This year, if they have an issue with ZDT being pro-torture or grim, they can vote for the other movie where the CIA sneaks into the Middle East and saves the day, and where the LA-based movie industry literally saves lives! And by going with Argo, they also don't have to feel bad about not voting for Lincoln, either, because they're still voting for a movie based on actual history. The dynamics of the 2012 Best Picture race lined up into a perfect storm for Argo (so far. Oscar voting hasn't even begun yet, and maybe the Academy will want to rebel against the groundswell of Argo support). If the frontrunners were, like, Titanic and The Pianist, then an Argo would not be doing nearly as well.
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RunawayShinobi
Guest
Sept 27, 2024 21:19:26 GMT -4
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Post by RunawayShinobi on Feb 7, 2013 9:11:05 GMT -4
Plus, it's fun! And short!
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Post by Binky on Feb 7, 2013 19:30:30 GMT -4
I liked Argo better than ZDT. I think Argo was a lot more freewheeling with the 'based on a true story' bit (which only really harmed it in the over the top ending), whereas ZDT was almost too restrained and uncreative in its effort to stick close to reality, forcing the direction to be very tight and feel kind of incomplete.
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Post by GoldenFleece on Feb 7, 2013 22:12:06 GMT -4
I think Argo is breezier and easier to watch than ZDT, but the Academy doesn't always like to reward that with the Best Picture prize. It's fitting that Argo and ZDT came out the same year because they are the flip sides of the same coin, like The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan back in 1998. I don't think the lighter tone Argo had would have been possible for ZDT without it getting slammed for giving the sitcom treatment to the War on Terror/the bin Laden hunt. It would be neat if somehow we could see the movies that would have resulted if Bigelow and Affleck had switched projects.
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