And the Oscar goes to…..

This article is mainly for all those who unanimously think Oscars are the ultimate prize for movie perfection.

Let’s start with a trivia…..


Q: Best Film ever?

A: Citizen Kane
(Selected by BFI Critics Poll and Directors Poll which include most of the great directors and critics of the world.)

Citizen Kane lost Oscar for Best Picture in 1941.
(The film’s director Orson Welles also never won an Oscar for best director and regarded widely as one of the greatest movie directors ever.)


Q: Who is the best movie director of all time?
(Just think of English films, otherwise my argument becomes brutally strong even in the beginning of this article and I would like to keep suspense till the end as a movie dharma.)

A: Most probable answer is Alfred Hitchcock.
Never won an Oscar for the best director... great isn’t it
The interesting fact is that none of Hitchcock’s films except Rebecca won a Best Picture Oscar and the classics like Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho never got best picture awards.

Q: Best Acting Performance?

A: Peter O’Toole as T.E Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia
(Selected by Premiere Magazine and also widely regarded as the greatest.)

Unfortunately Peter O’Toole not only lost Oscar competition for best actor for this iconic role but he also lost all the eight times he was nominated.


I can go on the trivia for so long (courtesy of the great Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)
Instead I am pointing out some more stats..
• Stanley Kubrick never won best director Oscar.
• Martin Scorsese had to wait for that achievement for 30 years of his illustrious career.
• John Ford won best director Oscar the most number of times, but for second rated films he made. The films he made which is widely considered as classics were thrown away by the academy.
• In Sight and Sound top ten film lists (one by directors and one by critics), only three films won Academy’s approval. Godfather I and II and Lawrence of Arabia were those won best picture Oscar out of the entire shack of English films in these lists.
• Only five movies out of the illustrious list of top 50 movies by ‘They shoot pictures, don’t they?’ had won Best Picture Oscar.


In a nutshell, we can say that the most of the greatest movies ever filmed in English, weren’t able to win Best Picture Oscars. May be, Godfather I and II and Casablanca were the only American ultra classics that got Oscars. This is a list of American classics that failed to win Best Picture Academy Award.

• Citizen Kane
• Vertigo
• Psycho
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Dr. Strangelove
• The Searchers
• Singing in the Rain
• Raging Bull
• Touch of Evil
• Some like it Hot
• City Lights
• Gold Rush
• Taxi Driver
• The General
• Third Man
• Sunset Blvd.
• Apocalypse Now
• Chinatown* (no offence- lost to Godfather II)
• To kill a Mocking Bird* (no offence- lost to Lawrence of Arabia)
• Rear Window
• Goodfellas
• It’s a wonderful life
• King Kong

These are unarguably the greatest American classics. I have selected these films from the list of ’They shoot pictures: don’t they’ which is a compilation of all credible great movie lists in the world. I think all movie buffs around the globe will be pretty univocal about quality of these movies and only Godfathers or Casablanca can match them.
Why all these great movies snubbed by the Academy?

Swindle of Foreign Movie Category

Until now I haven’t said a word about non English films and the numerous classics. These non English films and auters like Kurosawa, Bergman, Fellini, Renoir, Lang, Eisenstein, De Sica, Godard, Ray, Truoffaut and many others contributed majestically to global film field. It was great, when Academy invented this foreign film category.
But the fact is that there is no language restriction for best picture category. That means, the Academy stated for years that English films are better than non English movies.
This according to me is an absolute movie crime.

Oscars and now…

Screwing and snubbing continues royally. Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption
lost to Forest Gump. Memento and Dark Knight didn’t even got nominations. Fargo lost, so does Saving Private Ryan. They snubbed Brokeback Mountain for homosexual content and the story goes on and on and on…

And the Oscar goes to…

It is no one but the great Academy of Motion Picture of Arts and Sciences that fabricate Oscars as the final word of cinema. Don’t get fooled that Oscars prefer commercially successful to artistic movies. May be Titanic got awards in that standard but King Kong was snubbed denying even a technical achievement award. Oscars are based on just one thing - prejudice.

What Oscars really is not the greatest film recognition but the greatest promo for the studio driven Hollywood Industry. It is evident from the Academy’s attitude towards independent movies. Oscars is just a 3 hour trailer of Hollywood. It is entertaining, attractive and glamorous.
Millions enjoy the show and me too. Even this year, I am thrilled to watch it. I love the speculations, predictions and every entertaining bit behind it. But I will not be deceived by the notion that it is the ultimate prize.

Be there on March 7th and remember this:-

“Just enjoy the sip and don’t ask the price”

Hurt Locker- a war classic? You are kidding… right

End of the decade witnessed yet another Iraq war movie…
It was just similar to the earlier Iraq war movies like the Valley of Elah, Redacted etc. It was made of a small budget, it almost bombed in box office, and it only got $16m from theatres.
But there are couple of differences that Hurt Locker has from the above movies…
1. It portrays US troops in Iraq as heroic and it never asks the question why they are in Iraq.
2. It was critically lauded and thus became one of the most overrated films of 21st century.


The film starts with a quote “War is a drug”. Gripping… isn’t it? But the whole journey till the end credits of this movie isn’t that gripping. This war movie directed by Katherine Bigelow is a good war movie, but never ever in any standards, is a war classic.

Let us see what makes Hurt Locker a good (or may be an okay) movie….

The best part is that the movie is backed by wonderful acting by a comparatively unknown cast led by Jeremy Renner. Support cast including Anthony Mackie and Bryan Geraghty has also done a fabulous job. Film was well shot, using the shaky cam technique effectively. There was surely a thrill element in the movie though the script failed to retain that until the end due to repetitive bomb diffusion scenes. But Bigelow knew the art of thrillers by framing shots not longer than 2 or 3 secs.
Hurt Locker tried to induce some depth to characterization… and made a good visual feel with that low budget.

Now see why Hurt Locker is not a great movie….

Plot… that’s the main fault of this movie. Movie squanders around the so called ‘real’ emotional spectrum of the characters but it never answers the age old question of credibility of war and it deliberately avoids any politics. It never asks why US troops are there in Iraq, for some this is the best part of the movie but in reality it is the worst.

“The film opens with a quote from Chris Hedges saying that war is a drug. ... The film makes that quite clear, but I am not sure it says a whole lot more than that”
-Mark R Leeper (Film Critic)

“Beautifully shot, well acted, and completely unfocused to the point of, well, what was the point? ... don't be fooled.”
-Kevin Ranson (Film Critic)

The lack of point of the movie in the above mentioned reviews is commendable. It just portrays some intense shots and and never search for the real story of war.

Then, Hurt Locker is really unidimensional. Lets face it, its never real, just a perception. Even the tagline says it. Every Iraqi is a potential enemy and every object in Iraq a weapon…. that’s what the movie says. The main characters of the movie are bomb diffusers, so they will get enough sympathy and they don’t have to kill people. For God’s sake, don’t say that, this is what war is. It is just one irrelevant side or one perception of the deepest and most complex phenomenon of Human History- War.
And as a film, Hurt Locker never put forward any new narrative styles, Shaky camera was well used in Bourne series, thriller genre or war genre got nothing new from this overrated flick.

War Classic.. That’s sacrilege

What is a real war classic? Apocalypse Now… that’s my choice. Let us add a couple more.
Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket are wonderful war films full of artistic essence. How could any movie buff possibly think about naming Hurt Locker along with these classics? There is a shack full of good war movies like Saving Private Ryan, Thin Red Line, Letters from Iwo Jima etc. I am just naming a few. I strongly feel, Hurt Locker as a war movie doesn’t fit even in this league.
May be Hurt Locker deserves an Oscar because not a single one of these above mentioned movies got best picture Oscar and it is a tradition that great classics will never get an Oscar.
And Hurt Locker is nowhere near a classic.

Hurt Locker – The front Runner for Oscars.

It’s natural. Hurt Locker portrays US troops as heroic and in Avatar they are the bad guys. And about Inglorious Basterds, the academy doesn’t have the movie maturity to accept a tarantinoesque flick… Whatever the outcome I just has only one thing to say:- IDGC
“I don’t give a crap”

CELLULOID STORY OF THE DECADE………..

Past decade wasn’t ultra significant to the world of movies.
But there was indeed one major significant factor – birth of
The New Gen Cyber Cinephiles.
They aren’t as intense as movie buffs of New wave era.
But they are large in number and they are the market for the resurrected classics (the so called cult classics) which led to a need for preservation of films. The internet era has undoubtedly popularized old classics, making path for online movie discussions and access to movie related data. Thanks to great effort of the sites like imdb, rotten tomatoes etc. So I am presenting my favorite movies and notes of some relevant movies of the decade for this Cyber Cinephile Community.


Critics’ Favorites

Many movies of the last decade were lauded by critics. A complete list of critics, choices will be tedious. So I mention some of the most critically acclaimed movies of the decade.


Mulholland Dr
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Class
No Country for Old Men
Brock back Mountain
The Pianist
The Hurt Locker
Lives of Others
No Man’s Land
Synecdoche, New York


Besides this top ten list I would like to add something else as an
honorable mention. These are City of God, Departures, Kill Bill Volumes, Crash, The Wrestler, the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Adaptation, Yi Yi, White Ribbon, The Departed, Children of Men.


Personal Picks

These movies were my favorites of the decade. As Roger Ebert says, these are the movies that gave me an emotional elevation or an intellectual depth. Here is my top ten…

1. Waking Life



I am a fan of Richard Linklater and love his ‘One Day’ movies.
And waking life was a movie with great depth. No movie on philosophy was so much involving as this one and dream sequences and rotoscopy used, made it an absolute gem of an art house film.


2. Me, you and everyone we know



Miranda July’s debut project about human connections was really impressive, fresh with a magical touch of romanticism.

3. City of God



Taut and fast paced, yet realistic and rich, Cidade de Deus is the absolute slum movie. It unveils the life in third world dwellings by depicting slums of Rio with a pace (still engaging as Salaam Bombay)
and without melodrama (yet entertaining as Slum Dog Millionaire)

4. Before Sunset



Linklater’s second film on the list. It is the beautiful sequel to the 90’s romantic drama ‘Before Sunrise’. Elevated with charming performances by Hawk and Delpy, the characters and movie grown with the actors and that makes this movie a great mature love story compared to its prequel, which was a great youthful love story.

5. Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind



Remarkable performances by Carrey and Kate Winslet, elegant scripting by Kauffman and in depth analysis of human memory and relationships made this movie a complex yet emotional experience.

6. Pan’s Labyrinth



Absolutely hysterical, woven by unforgettable visuals and a heartfelt tragic story, definitely a great adult fantasy movie.

7. Lives of Others



Power, regime, human spirit, relations, freedom, redemption, all great human concepts portrayed beautifully in one movie.

8. Big Fish



Definitive fantasy movie. Tim Burton at his best.

9. A Prophet



Mesmerizing movie making by Audiard, the best gangster film of the decade, just like the Coppola-Scorsese golden age.

10. Almost Famous


Cameroon Crowe’s best film till date, a coming of age movie with some real charm of the romantic rock era, even though being ‘mercilessly honest and realistically uncool’.

Honorable Mentions: Donnie Darko,Memento, Requiem for a Dream, Run Lola Run, Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring, Little Miss Sunshine, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and some from the above critics’ list which are also not included here just to avoid repetition.

Apart from these two lists, I am also mentioning a list regarding genre bests. This list, besides one or two genres, is based on general popular reception.

Best of Genres….

Action: - Bourne Ultimatum
Teen Movie: - Juno
Crime: - The Departed
Raunchy Comedy: - The Hangover
Superhero Movie: - The Dark Knight
Fantasy: - LOTR
Thriller: - Memento
Western: - There will be Blood
Animation: - Up
War: - The Pianist
Post Modern: - Kill Bill Vol I
Romance: - Amelie
Horror: - Let the Right One
Musical: - Lagaan
Epic: - Gladiator
Blockbuster: - Avatar