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The
2001 Academy Awards or I Hate Gladiator
By Neil Wright
It is
a shame that only years after the votes have been cast do
we realize what movie was really the best film of the year.
Twenty years down the road no one will remember that Gladiator
won the Best Picture Academy Award. People will wonder why
a joyous entertainment that presented the limitless possibilities
of the imagination did not win the coveted golden statue.
Instead of honoring Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
a third-rate action film took the ultimate prize and succeeded
in confirming my belief that most of the voters for Best Picture
think that if a movie looks and acts enough like an epic it
must be so. It also proves that the Academy only likes war
movies that feature men in kilts or leather skirts. If it
takes place during World War II, a film will lose to a movie
about the Bard trying to get laid, but if the war movie has
lots of clanging swords or decapitations of nasty barbarians
it is a shoo-in for Best Picture. This is good news for The
Rock, who may very well be the next Conan the Barbarian.
The 2001
Academy Awards, presented on March 25th, was a travesty of
volume and violence over imagination and grace. Sure, there
was no single movie that completely swept the ceremony; Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Traffic both walked away
with four awards each while Gladiator took five categories.
That Gladiator won anything, besides an award for its
costume design, is cause for shame. It is hard to imagine
that anyone years from now will look upon this movie with
fondness and say, "Wow, that was one of the best movies ever
made." I will go out on a limb here and say that Gladiator
did not distinguish itself as either a good gladiator film
or even a good movie for that matter. It was a soulless and
dismal exercise of sound and fury. It may very well be the
worst movie to ever take home the Best Picture Oscar. Of course,
there is The Sound of Music to consider as a close
second with The Greatest Show on Earth not far behind.
At least those films had colors other than browns and grays
on their palettes.
What is
it that bothers me the most about Gladiator? Was it
the cut and paste screenplay for which three writers received
credit that seems like something Vince McMahon would put together
for his wrestling mutants on TNN? Perhaps it was the deliberately
jerky editing and camerawork that director Ridley Scott used
throughout the film to give a false sense of urgency to the
battle scenes that only confuse the viewer. Or maybe it was
the Cimmerian cinematography that showed the "glory" of Rome
in drab, muddy colors. No wait, I know what it is: the absolutely
wretched special effects (masked by the overcast cinematography)
that look so transparently fake that I expected toasters with
wings to fly in the background. These were screen saver special
effects that only helped show the flaws in the tapestry of
Gladiator. This was one movie where I couldn't go home
and say, "Well at least the special effects were good." They
were certainly not the equal of the astonishing visuals presented
in The Perfect Storm or Hollow Man which featured
the worst storm in recorded history and a man disappearing
layer by agonizing layer respectively. The Perfect Storm's
relentless 100-foot waves were utterly convincing and tied
me in knots despite my knowledge of how the story would end,
and Hollow Man's special effects were endlessly inventive
even when the story was not. How could these films lose to
speeded-up combat that would embarrass Steven Seagal and shots
of digital tigers rejected from Jumanji?
Even though
the Academy seldom gets it right as far what really deserves
Best Picture, I have always enjoyed watching the Academy Awards.
I know in my heart that whichever movie wins is really about
politics and who has the biggest campaign fund. I know a system
has to be flawed when Citizen Kane does not win Best
Picture and when Martin Scorsese has yet to receive proper
credit for his directing mastery. And yet, year after year,
I keep returning if only to witness a moment when an artist
or film is honored and gets what is deserved. Most of the
time I walk away disappointed and baffled by the films that
win. What kind of a year was it when only two four star movies
(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Traffic)
are nominated for Best Picture while two other marginal movies
(Erin Brockovich and Chocolat) and one terrible
film got the same opportunity for the prize? The same one
that allowed George W. Bush to take the White House I suppose.
Now Gladiator's win has been explained.
For those
who enjoyed Gladiator, I shall follow the lessons proffered
by the movie and watch some of the fallen movies from the
past that deserve more attention and perhaps should retroactively
be awarded the Best Picture Oscar. Some of these include Citizen
Kane, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars, The
Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, and soon Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon. These films have strength and honor,
and we shall honor them. Ooooooh, powerful dialogue. I should
be a shoo-in next year.
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