Oscar rant for 2020

Ok. Now it's time for another rant. This time about the Oscars. I watched the whole show yesterday and mixed emotions as usual. There were things I thought were good, but there were lots of terrible moments.

First, the opening number. I like the performer who sang in it but this whole number reminded me of 60s-80s era kitsch, the kind that were nixed when Billy Crystal hosted (he's always poke fun of those numbers). Apparently some Academy programmer felt the need to bring it back I guess, but it didn't work for me.

What they should have done is opened with that montage of the musical moments from movies and Eminem's performance. That would have made sense. Also someone should have emphasized musical moments from the last 30-40 years, since that montage included nothing from classic Hollywood, not even a Judy Garland movie.

In future years, they should do something different with In Memoriam. Maybe make it longer, 5-6 minutes. Who is really looking at their watch during that segment besides commercial advertisers?

This year, the montage-makers started a new trend by including two people on the same screen to speed things up. But come on, is that needed? I saw Katherine Burns on the screen with Terry Jones. I think it's nice that someone remembered her; she had one significant supporting role in the mostly-forgotten 1969 film Last Summer and was nominated for Supporting Actress. However,  she was in virtually nothing since then and hardly anyone knows who she is or that film credit. On the other hand Terry Jones had more prolific credits. What they need to do is honor one person and show a clip of their film and/or a title/logo of the movie with it so people know what movie they were associated with. The Oscars used to do this years ago and it was a good practice.

I think it's time to admit that most people watching the Oscars In Memoriam have no idea who half the people are. That's why you need to include more movie clips with the person's picture, and not just 1 second of them. Show the title and logo too. People - especially groups of people watching at a viewing party - like to go "ooh" and "ahh" and have their memories jarred with movies when they watch these clips.

And as far as who was left out..... Someone needs a talking to. Not honoring Michael J. Pollard or Valentina Cortese seems really brainless. Sure, they didn't have many prolific credits but they were  Oscar nominees at least. How Katherine Burns was left in while those two - as well as Luke Perry who was in the Tarantino movie - were left out is a mystery to me.

Maybe in future years, just eliminate that segment - is it really needed?

I don't know. I don't think it's necessary, but it is nice to be reminded of movie history a little. When else during the ceremony do you see clips from older movies? Or even veteran stars? It was great that Jane Fonda, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks made appearances, but what about some other movie legends?

Were Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig there to plug a movie? If so, someone should have said so. Same with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis Dreyfus (they are appearing in one opening soon). Without an announcer or presenter/host we're left in the dark as to why some of those people - TV stars mainly - are there.

I liked seeing Shia LaBeouf and his costar from The Peanut Butter Falcon, the young actor with Down Syndrome. But please, plug the movie at least. It's a good movie. Someone should have been there to champion it and say, "And here are the two stars of one of last year's pleasant surprises, etc"

I could go on but I think that's it for now. Rant over....haha

On Golden Pond (1981)

On Golden Pond is a film that I never thought I would enjoy watching because as a young person, I never thought I could identify with the characters or story. But in recent months I've been seeking out films dealing with reconnecting with one's parents, as I've been faced with reuniting with my own birth-father after many years of estrangement (this may likely be a topic of another blog post or two in the future...). My reunion experience has been difficult for me to discuss with other family members; it was a very emotional experience. I have an older relative who has expressed disagreement with me reconnecting with my birth-father because of his abandonment of my mother and I. The difficulty I've had with communicating with certain family members has made me feel as if there's something wrong with me, and that I'm the only one who has trouble communicating with family members; this personal experience has affected me so much that I've even had to take some time off from blogging for a long time as well.

I knew of some of the main themes of On Golden Pond, including reconnecting with your elderly parents/relatives, but it's only been in recent days that I felt ready to watch the film.

The main character, Norman Thayer, played by Henry Fonda, has a cranky, stubborn, and blunt personality that rubs people the wrong way; that becomes clear as we see him interact with several characters at the start of the film. For many of us, if we meet someone like that, we might likely not want to be friends with them. However, one person who loves him dearly is his devoted wife of over 40 years played by Katherine Hepburn. Her character is very interesting and ultimately inspiring because she demonstrates by example how to have to patience with him, and we understand through her character that the Fonda character has flaws, and is not perfect. He's having memory problems, and is slowing down, and at one point almost accidentally burns their New England summer cottage down, their cottage on the lake "Golden Pond". I have relatives that live near a lake in suburban Chicago, and it's not too unlike Golden Pond, so I could imagine what life is like for the characters.

The other characters in the film all have to deal with Norman in their own way, including his daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda), who is very busy with her career in Los Angeles yet finds the time to come to visit her parents at the cottage after many years. After she arrives, Norman, always an overbearing father, makes her feel like a child again. I've felt the same way when I visit older relatives. I have a relative who is 87 and can say some embarrassing and hurtful things, and can make me feel like a child at holiday gatherings.

There's a poignant scene in the film where Chelsea has a heart-to-heart talk with her mom, saying how she wishes to be friends with her father, and wishes they could be more compatible. But her mom reminds her that Norman is a man of 80 years old, and that we need to accept him as who he is and tries to encourage her to not be so disagreeable with her past. "Life goes on", she says. "Get on with it."  It's a reminder to me when I relate to my own older family members, as their personalities are theirs and will not change.

There's also a great sequence in the film where Norman takes Chelesa's soon-to-be-stepson out on the lake to go fishing, and they have a great time trying to catch a legendary elusive fish. Norman isn't really such a bad guy after all; he's really a hero to the members of his family.

I was really amazed to learn that the film (and the play it was based on) was written by a young man (Ernest Thompson) who was in his 20s at the time. That's fascinating to me because the characters are much older, and complex.

All of the characters in On Golden Pond are ones I could either identify with or are ones that remind me of real people in my own life, and after watching the film I now feel as if I'm not alone in my familial plight. For these reasons, I consider the film to be a very inspirational one to me personally, and I hope you have a chance to enjoy it sometime too if you haven't seen it.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

The title of this disturbing film is taken directly from the 1935 novel; Jane Fonda's character Gloria, is a young, jobless, depression-era woman who at times just wants to be shot and put out of her misery.

Her character travels to Hollywood, leaving behind a miserable life and hoping to become an actress.

Struggling for work, she ends up entering a dance marathon with her new friend Robert, who is also struggling to find work in Hollywood.

I didn't know this, but during the depression, dance marathons were a craze, where people would dance hour-after-hour for a cash reward.

The marathon portrayed in the film is a fictional one, and goes on for several weeks. Every night there is an elimination race in which the couples speed-walk around a track, and the last-place couple is eliminated. The ruthless promoters generate sleazy publicity stunts as the contestants become increasingly exhausted physically and emotionally. People die in this movie that you don't want to see die.

Fonda's desperate character is one you want to root for, but she becomes increasingly disenchanted as she's trapped with the others in the claustrophobic dance hall.

This was Fonda's first breakthrough movie, and she was nominated for her first Oscar. Gig Young won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the sadistic master of ceremonies, which in my opinion is one of the most heartless and cruel characters ever.

Depressing ending.

Directed by Sydney Pollack. Co-starring Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, and Red Buttons, who is great and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

Read Roderick's great post on this movie.

The China Syndrome (1979)

While doing a series of reports on alternative energy sources, an opportunistic reporter (Jane Fonda) witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant. She's determined to publicize the incident but soon finds herself entangled in a sinister conspiracy to keep the full impact of the incident a secret. With Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, and Wilford Brimley. A pretty good thriller, which was released a few days before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania.