Oscars: The Parade's Gone By...

The eighty something annual Oscar show is tonight: the movie industry, "Hollywood," handing out little gold bald headed men to the "best." What began as an annual banquet to promote the motion picture business after scandal rocked the burgeoning industry in the nineteen-twenties has become a joke only taken seriously by people making money from it: advertisers, networks, style gurus, Joan and Melissa Rivers. Winning an Oscar, "talent"(artist?) in front or behind the camera can get fifteen minutes of fame and possibly larger pay checks; momentarily the winners are thought of as experts in their fields, but, daresay, does anyone remember any of the winners from three or four years ago? Can you name who won Best Actor in 1996 off the top of your head?

Okay. Not be too dismissive I'll shine light on the early awards ceremonies: the 1920's until the early 1950's. The first decade or so of the Academy's awards were held in hotel ballrooms; black and white photographs detail elegant yet casual affairs with attendees seated at dinner tables adorned with small lamps, vases with flowers, cutlery, and fine china. I love the relaxed atmosphere these old photos convey. In 1942 the AMPAS started handing Oscars in theaters where the awards continue to be held  today. As the forms of media changed so too did the awards ceremonies. Beginning in the Fifties newsreel camera footage showed attendees and nominees arriving at the Pantages theater in L.A.; millions more tuned into the broadcasts on television begun in 1953. The Oscars became an annual event.

By the 90's, marketing, advertising, the fashion industry, People magazine and the 24 television news cycle had descended.

 With the plethora of awards shows today, the Oscars has lost its distinctness. Not since 1940 have winners been announced beforehand, yet because of all the critic citations and other member voted programs devoted to movies, there is no longer any suspense in what actor or movie is going to win. Therefore, tired, overworked Americans, circa 2014, mostly gay men and straight females, just tune in to look at the borrowed dresses and baubles; and, as in the last few years, strained attempts at humor to make the telecast seem interesting. The show has become pure kitsch. I bet half the audience quits watching after the red carpet event shows like on E! channel.

Furthermore, why should we take seriously awards handed out by an organization 94% white, mostly male and over 50? Doesn't AMPAS sound like the G.O.P?

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

D.W. Griffith's landmark movie epic The Birth of a Nation  from 1915 legitimized the movie industry in the United States. Birth was one of the first what we now call "feature" length movies. It ran a little over three hours and was shown as a roadshow engagement instead of the penny arcades where many watched movies in those days. The movie was the first to be shown in the White House - occupied at that time by Woodrow Wilson. Griffith earned the title "Father of film" due to the success and technical achievements of the movie. But the subject matter is seen today as racist and many historians have ambivalent feelings about the movie's huge success. Yes, on one hand Griffith set the standard for innovative film-making in his day; however, one cannot forget the awful caricatures of the African-Americans in the film, played by whites with obvious black face and what we now know and have - or should - a deep shame about: thousands of lynchings against African-Americans for sport during the early 1900's. There is a lynching in the movie. To watch Birth is to admire Griffith laying the ground work in editing, story structure, camera movements, and lighting for future movie makers; conversely it is also a time capsule of an era when the portrayal of the Klu Klux Klan so captured the imagination of certain moviegoers that not long after the terrorist group, for that is what they were, was revitalized, not only in the south but the midwest as well. Birth was a powerful recruiting tool: it fed the imagination of a glorified past when after the civil war southerners had to fight back against the carpetbaggers and Yankees who let African-Americans run wild, i.e., basically let them be the equal of whites. The thought of being molested by a African-American man sends one white woman over the cliff literally in the movie. Of course sexual assault was more prevalent the other way around: white men attacking African-American women. So one has to watch Birth for the art and not the message.

This quote from James Agee: "The most beautiful single shot I have seen in any movie is the battle charge in 'The Birth of a Nation.' I have heard it praised for its realism, but it is also far beyond realism. It seems to me to be a realization of a collective dream of what the Civil War was like..."

Old Movies

Because of my love for movies and Classic Hollywood in general I'm going to start a blog sharing with cyberspace my love and respect and opinions on this twentieth century art form. For the most part, the movies will be free via Hulu or Crackle or Internet Archive.

I've been watching old movies since I was about 14 mainly on Turner Classic Movies then later with free ones online or through bootleg Youtube. By old I mean any movie made from 1900-1990, but I mostly will be watching and writing about flicks from the Classic Hollywood period. I hope to be able to keep up with my posts here because it seems on my older blogs I would lose interest! So if you come across this site don't be afraid of watching the  old movies I link to because - paraphrasing the great Peter Bogdanovich - there is no such thing as "old" movies, they're just ones you haven't seen yet.