Martin Scorcese didn’t win an Oscar for direction until last year. Think of all the times he was nominated in the past and what he was nominated for – Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, to name a few. He finally won his Oscar last year for The Departed. I never saw The Departed, and I don’t think I could name one movie from all of last year that was nominated for major awards, but this had to have been the most anti-climactic honor in the history of the Oscars. The only other case I can think of that comes close to this is when Bob Dylan won his Grammy for Modern Times. You’re going to sit here and tell me that Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks weren’t worthy of awards? Apparently the Grammy’s thought so. You’re going to sit here and tell me Crash was a better movie than The Aviator and that Scorcese needed to wait until The Departed to win his Oscar? You’re out of your mind.
Joel and Ethan Coen finally won a directing Oscar tonight for No Country For Old Men, taking home Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the same time. I have written plenty in this blog and at myspace about my opinion of No Country For Old Men, so I will continue here by saying, to me, this feels more like an achievement award than anything else. No Country For Old Men is the most overrated movie I have seen in a long time. It had me. Believe me. It had me for well over two hours. It was brilliantly directed, brilliantly performed (Javier Bardem deserved his award), and the speed of the movie was like chocolate syrup – so sweet and slow you can’t wait for more. All of that said, you can’t introduce characters who are supposedly essential to the plot, not explain who these characters are, and then kill these characters off as though their deaths directly affect the outcome of the plot. On top of that, you can’t just end the movie. I want to rip my hair out every time I think of how that movie ended. I’m not looking for something clichéd or Hollywood. I’m not looking for a happy ending. I’m looking for something relevant. We didn’t even get relevant. We got the introduction of another character from out of the blue who disappears without a trace. Tommy Lee Jones waxed poetic about a dream. Then the screen went black and the credits rolled. It wasn’t complete. For a movie to grab me the way it did, to end the way it did is infuriating. I’m not complaining because it’s not what I expected. I’m complaining because it misfired. It’s like you’re having sex and it blows its load just a moment too soon. It’s still early enough to ruin the experience.
There Will Be Blood did everything right that No Country For Old Men did wrong, but that’s the subject of another previous blog. Obviously, I believe There Will Be Blood should have won and Paul Thomas Anderson should have won the direction Oscar. This year felt more like Martin Scorcese and Bob Dylan. We’ll award two artists who are very deserving of this honor, but we’ll award them for work that doesn’t measure up. This is why I don’t take awards ceremonies seriously. They’re more of a lifetime achievement honor than a fair assessment of the material on hand.
Maybe I should have expected this. 2007 was the year for overrating and extreme hype. Boxer, by the National, is a boring record, but everyone picked it as album of the year. Like with No Country For Old Men, I’m left pulling out my hair wondering why.
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