..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

2 WEEKS TO GO
Looking For Purpose
In The Oscar World

It's looking like The Bookend Oscars this year... tune into see who gets Best Supporting Actor, take a 3 hour nap, then wake up to check out Best Picture. Nothing else seems terribly interesting... with due respect to the many whose hearts will be leaping out of their chests all day on Oscar day, regardless of how locked in many of the winners seem to be.

The odd thing that is occurring to me lately is that the reality of Oscar is slowly reverting back to the good old days, where there was more diversity, where campaigns mattered less (at least after the field was set), and it really was a bit of a bore for the non-industry audience. With due respect, Reese and Joaquin are not Jack and Diane. The political power of a Crash cannot begin to compete with the political movies of the 70s and early 80s. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is one of the great actors of his generation... but don't expect any Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino or Marlon Brando moments from him on Oscar night. Jesus... we don't even have Michael Moore to kick around anymore.

Meanwhile, as the Academy brings itself in line, the media is going out of its goddamned mind with coverage. At MCN, we have had no fewer than a dozen requests to link to Oscar contests, video of awards photo shoots, and internet chats... and that is just from major outlets that write in hope of expanding a audience that really doesn't exist for this stuff. We did an Oscar contest ourselves and though the response was great, it was not many hundreds of thousands. And that is what mass media needs to float these boats.

This same phenomenon has occurred in the last two years at Sundance, where coverage continues to grow, and content continues to get more simplistic, not less, while the powers at Sundance try to find a way to get not just the festival, but the perception of the festival back on track. Even in this internet age, the media seems forever a year or two out of step.

But there are fewer and fewer events that get real penetration in the media and even as entertainment niche plays give us a chance to successfully target our audiences. Sundance (barely), Super Bowl, Olympics, Oscars, Summer Movie Season (and the hits within it), Toronto Film Festival (barely), World Series, the launch of Oscar Season, Christmas/Year End. And it just keeps getting worse.

In the greatest irony, as movie costs get further out of control and people start talking about trying to pay less for stars, real stars are more valuable than ever. And not just movies stars. You can see it in the Olympic push, as there is a desperate effort to make the next celebrity happen. Is there a cross over basketball star left? A baseball star who everyone loves? Football? Boxing? And of course, what about the movies? As they would have said in The Godfather, could they have gotten to Tom Cruise like this a few years ago?

Passions are deeper than ever, it seems. But fewer people are getting the zeal for each bit of entertainment. The effect of endless access is endless choices, which means a lot fewer chances to sell anything to all four demographic quadrants.

But that brings us around to a surprisingly dispassionate Oscar season... if you aren't in it.

I'm not sure what prospect is scarier to me, Brokeback Mountain winning Best Picture and watching a wave of journalists foolishly pronounce the climate for Gay America via Hollywood to be greatly improved or to see it lose to Crash and to listen to the same people whine about homophobia in Hollywood... even though whatever happens on Oscar night, the film industry will remain the industry with the most wide open gateway to the gay community (at least behind the camera and in closeted reality in front of the camera) outside of the fashion world. (Gays are very close to catching up with Jews as the most powerful unseen minority in the industry, I would surmise.)

And if Crash does win, what does that represent, aside from a few more DVD sales? I don't mean that as a slam on Crash, but it is a movie that doesn't offer a target that calls people to action. It says, to its credit, "Do unto others..." But I don't think it's going to get a lot of people to really embrace that credo by winning an Oscar.

That brings up the real question, which is, "Does it matter anyway?" Or, "Has everyone lost their got damned minds?!?!?!"

The prayer, of course, is that Amy Adams and Bennett Miller and Josh Olsen and Terrence Howard and even vets like Rachel Weisz and Phil Hoffman make great hay out of this opportunity... that the next time they all get nominated that the ratings will be through the roof because they are Redford and Streisand and Dunaway and Hoffman and Pacino and Coppola. That is why this horse race is still worth watching.

So perhaps it is more than The Bookends this year. Perhaps it is like sitting front and center in the world's most lustrous bird sanctuary, taking the chance and the joy of discovering the new and beautiful and heart stopping talent of the new generation. Most of them will not win shiny awards. But hey, being nominated is better than some buckshot in the side of your neck.

In the great North Dallas Forty, a coach gets on a player for not being serious enough and he responds in passionate, muscular words, (that I paraphrase), "When I say it's a business, you say it's a game. And when I say it's a game, you say it's a business!"

The Oscars is, first and last, a business. But for the new generation, it still must feel a bit like a game. I, for one, will try to embrace that innocence as the next few weeks float by, a tonic to squelch my cynicism.

This Week's Oscar Chart

The Nominations Special
6 Weeks To Oscar
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2004 Oscar Columns

- Email David Poland