First and foremost: I'm not even going to begin to apologize for all of the unspeakable things I would do to Anne Hathaway. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let's jump right into last night.
Let us first acknowledge what they got right last night, which is surprisingly quite a bit. The acting categories were a pretty overwhelming success. As much as I wanted to see Annette Bening win, you really couldn't deny Natalie Portman, so I have no issue with that. The only real issue I take with these categories is the snub of Andrew Garfield for supporting actor.
They also, surprisingly, awarded Best Score to The Social Network and Trent Reznor. Yes, that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame. This made me start to think, maybe I was wrong, perhaps the academy is hip enough for The King's Speech not to run away with it.
All of the Best Picture nominees were strong. There were no Blind Sides or Avatars in the group. Would have liked to have seen The Town get nominated over Toy Story 3, but maybe that's just me.
And then things started to go wrong. Best Documentary went to Inside Job and not the absolutely phenomenal Exit Through the Gift Shop. Inside Job is great, but Gift Shop was perhaps my favorite movie of the year and I really wanted to see who or what would have accepted Banksy's Oscar.
Then, Christopher Nolan loses Best Original Screenplay to whoever the geezer was that won for The King's Speech. I mean, really? Try to find another human being that could take the premise for Inception and write something that even remotely makes sense. You can't! Nobody else could have done that, nobody. Yet, there are easily dozens of writers skilled enough to take a well known King's equally well known speech impediment and pen a useful story. Criminal.
Next, Tom Hooper wins Best Director, and in doing so cements The King's Speech as the Best Picture winner (It's very rare for the Best Picture and Best Director winners to not coincide). This continues a trend with the academy of awful decisions in the director category. Probably the category they miss most often. Christopher Nolan has never been nominated. Martin Scorsese didn't win an Oscar until 2007, losing with Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and The Aviator among others. Stanley Kubrick managed a pedestrian 4 nominations and 0 wins. Robert Altman and Alfred Hitchcock also failed to take home the prize. But give them a break, at least Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson took home Best Director wins.
Finally, we get to Best Picture. You may have gotten the impression up to this point that I hate The King's Speech. I think it is a very good movie by any measure and deserved all of it's nominations. You also may have gotten the impression that I feel The Social Network should have won, which is true. Although I really liked it upon my first viewing, it wasn't until I saw it again that I realized how good it is. And it's really quite great. Was it my favorite movie of the year? I'm not sure yet. It's definitely in my top 4 (The Kids are Alright, Winter's Bone, and Exit Through the Gift Shop being the other three). I just feel, much as I did a few years back when There Will Be Blood lost to No Country for Old Men, that history will recognize The Social Network as the crowning achievement of the year, not The King's Speech. That being said, There Will Be Blood lost to a movie that is vastly superior to this years winner, no doubt.
Just like director, this is not unprecedented for the academy. Among the more notable Best Picture snubs are as follows:
Crash over Brokeback Mountain
Million Dollar Baby over Sideways (okay, so maybe this one isn't quite as well-known, but come on! MDB was terrible, I'm going to go drink some merlot)
Chicago over ....any of the other nominees? Lord of the Rings being the most deserving of the other four
Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan
Titanic over Good Will Hunting or LA Confidential
Braveheart over The Usual Suspects (which wasn't even nominated!)
Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction / The Shawshank Redemption
Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas (the worst of them all!)
Kramer vs Kramer over Apocalypse Now
Ordinary People over Raging Bull
Rocky over Taxi Driver
How Green was My Valley over Citizen Kane
And, of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Dark Knight, Hoop Dreams and The Usual Suspects weren't even nominated.
This list begs the question, well gee Alex, if they're this bad all the time why get so worked up over The King's Speech winning? True, but in recent years they've chosen the right movies! Ever since The Departed the winners have been pretty solid. This year is on par with The Queen winning over The Departed five years ago. Remember The Queen? I didn't think so. How about The Reader beating Slumdog Millionaire? Atonement over No Country? Of course nobody wants that. Which is why this is all the more upsetting.
Again, I want to clarify. The King's Speech is very good and you should absolutely see it. But ten years from now you will most likely have forgotten about it, and I doubt you will have forgotten about The Social Network. I would love to hear your thoughts (does anyone actually read this site? Not that you should considering it hasn't been updated in about 5 months) if you agree/disagree.
