The Oscars - Best Picture - My Say

First, I've only seen three of the nominees. One of them, The King's Speech, is supposedly a shoo-in for the award. Well, OK, but truth to tell, when it was over the audience dutifully applauded as if they were impressed but I just felt like I had watched a pleasantly overstuffed but not overly compelling Masterpiece Theater production.

I did not see Black Swan because all of the hype and advertising made it look like one of those Ken Russell indulgences that are always about a famous artist going mad and acting out in some lurid, sexually lewd way. They are like really bad nightmares you wake up exhausted from and none of it looks like any fun at all.

I did not see Social Network or The Fighter either or 127 Hours for that matter. I'm sure they are all worthy but my interest was nil. I don't like fight movies, watching some guy work his way up to cutting off his own leg is not my idea of either entertainment or enlightenment and twenty-something males stabbing each other in the back is, well, just boring to this sixty something female.

As for Inception, honestly, I just haven't gotten around to it. On Toy Story 3 I'm still trying to figure out why a movie that most critics judged as the lesser of the Toy Story series got nominated at all this year especially with so much competition. And, as for The Kids are All Right, I'll check it out sometime...probably. Domestic drama is not one of my faves either.

Which leaves the other two that I did see, Winter's Bone and True Grit. These two movies I talked about in my previous post, Movies for the Soul, and I would be happy if either got the Oscar. But according to the prevailing wisdom out in Oscarland, they won't.

I think it interesting that both are basically hero quests by young women who have as guides and mentors, rough hewn men of questionable moral caliber. I could spend a lot of time delving into all the Jungian implications and connections to mythology and fairy tale lore. That would be loads of fun...for me, but probably not for you. So, I'll stop now.

As for the awards themselves, they will be what they will be. But now, at least, I've had my say.