Return of the King: critics choice for best picture

[barsoomcore]

HHey, the trivia note... isn't that parenthetic comment kinda superfluous? Or am I missing something?

You mean this:

The first movie, and the only silent movie (in the 20th century), to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

?

I guess they're covering their behinds -- you never know, a silent film might win in the 21st century.

I can think of a few I wish WERE silent...

 

[Hypersmurf]

You never know, a silent film might win in the 21st century.

... yeah, okay

Does something like Baraka count as a silent film?

There's no dialogue, but there's music and occasionally some sound effects.

-Hyp.

 

[barsoomcore]

Sure, as long as the music is John Cage's 4' 33" and the sound effects are of a single snowflake falling onto a down pillow.

 

[Endur]

My prediction: ROTK wins the Oscar for Best Picture.

I'm fairly comfortable with that prediction.

Pirates was a good comedy adventure for young kids, but it was not in the same ballpark as Return of the King.

As far as the Fellowship of the Ring vs. Return of the King comparison goes, I thought Fellowship was fantastic and the closest movie to the book of the trilogy of movies. But, Return was just plain awesome and they deserve the oscar for best picture.

 

[reapersaurus]

uh, barsoom?
I'm really interested in how you justify claiming that PotC had "silly contrivances of the plot" when you readily admit that you didn't pay attention?

Are you now saying that it's the screenwriter's responsibility to watch the film for the viewer?

 

[Mistwell]

Well, the screener copy DVD issue got cleared up a couple of months ago. A federal judge ruled the Academy couldn't prevent the studios from sending them out. And they are sending them out.

No, seriously, many people did not get a full stack of screener copies.

This isn't second or third hand info, it's direct from the source. I know a nominator, and he didn't get them all, and he knows several more who didn't get them all.

That's why the LA Film Critics released their award winners a month late this year. They originally weren't going to give any awards this year, after the Academy announced it wouldn't allow studios to send out screener copies of potential nominees. Then, after the judge ruled the DVDs could be sent, the LA Film Critics decided to give out their awards.

But everything I've read says most people in Hollywood believe RotK is the closest thing to a lock to being nominated for best picture, and Jackson for best director. It's sort of like the year Titanic came out -- it's nomination was a foregone conclusion, everyone just discussed what else was going to be nominated.

If you look at all of the various guild awards within the motion picture industry, RotK has been nominated in those. And many of those same people also are members of the Academy. The guild award nominations are usually a pretty accurate barometer as to what will be nominated for the Oscars.

I'm just telling you what the movie folk around me are saying. I really hope they are wrong. The LA airwaves are a fury of nomination-pimping commercials on TV and Radio, not to mention billboards and even friggen trucks driving around with mobile billboards. Those things have an effect. Jackson doesn't buy into that stuff, so he isn't promoting his movie right now. He wouldn't be the first to lose out for lack of playing the game.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Well, they can download their missing screener copies from the Internet.
I read a story today where a screener copy of "Something's Gotta Give" turned up on the Internet.

Are these people you know members of the Academy? Not all people in the movie industry are. There are less than 6,000 (or is it 7,000) members of the Academy, and you have to be invited to join. This year, the screeners were only supposed to go to Academy members.

 

[Mistwell]

Well, they can download their missing screener copies from the Internet.
I read a story today where a screener copy of "Something's Gotta Give" turned up on the Internet.

Are these people you know members of the Academy? Not all people in the movie industry are. There are less than 6,000 (or is it 7,000) members of the Academy, and you have to be invited to join. This year, the screeners were only supposed to go to Academy members.

The one direct person I know is a member of the Academy, and was invited to be a nominator. He did get screeners, just not ALL of them. Perhaps it was a VHS vs. DVD issue, I didn't ask.

The screener copy that got out on the internet was actually coded with that nominators ID code...so they know who did it:

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that visible and hidden markings on the videocassette copy on the Internet identify it as the one sent to Carmine Caridi, a film and television actor who appeared in the "The Godfather: Part II" and television's "NYPD Blue."

 

[Ranger REG]

Thanks, REG. I was starting feel awfully alone.

I just thought Pirates stank. I mean, it wasn't Cutthroat Island, to be sure, but I just don't get why people liked it.

I mean, did I get this right?

Well, I wouldn't go so far to call it stank. I just think that pirate film is nowhere near as great as LOTR. I hate to say this, but Pirates of the Caribbean is on the same equal footing as Geena(sp?) Davis' pirate film, Cutthroat Island, but that was bombed.

"Captain Jack Sparrow." To me, he's always that babyface narc on 21 Jumpstreet.

 

[barsoomcore]

uh, barsoom?
I'm really interested in how you justify claiming that PotC had "silly contrivances of the plot" when you readily admit that you didn't pay attention?

I saw two guys sail what looked like a schooner or a brigantine. I saw somebody take seriously the suggestion that throwing out the anchor was a clever tactic in naval combat.

I may have been mistaken.

Are you now saying that it's the screenwriter's responsibility to watch the film for the viewer?

There was a screenwriter? Oh, wait. There were four. THAT'S always a good sign.

But yeah, why DIDN'T those guys watch it for me? Artists these days, no dedication to the craft. In MY day...