Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

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Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/5/10 at 6:39pm

I've seen six of the ten movies nominated (Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Up, Up in the Air, District 9, and The Hurt Locker), and HL was my LEAST favorite of those six. I thought it was repetitive, a little trite (especially the story of the missing boy), and not nearly as tense as IB (especially the cream scene) or District 9.

Although it was love by critics, the film pulled in a whopping 12 million dollars at the box office. If it hadn't been fast tracked for awards, it would be forgotten by now.

Still, Bigelow and the movie are front runners. My question is, was the movie praised and now being showered with awards because Bigelow is a woman who directed this type of movie, or because critics genuinely think it is the best movie of the year? I think people will SAY it's the quality of the movie - but I'm not so sure about that...

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/5/10 at 7:11pm

They genuinely think it's a terrific film.

I love a handful of the nominees more than HL, but I can understand why it's getting its praise. It's the first Iraq War film to work according to many of these people.

It IS interesting that a (considered to be) great war film was made by a woman and it's terrific that she'll make history on Sunday night. But that's not the majority reason she and the film will win.

johnraymondbarker.com

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/5/10 at 7:22pm

I think you are in the minority about THL. Personally it was a breath of fresh air to the war film genre because it captured so much of what is not even detailed in other war films. It was well-acted, well-executed, and of course it would be repetitive- the main character is a specialist who has done the job thousands of times. A 60 Minutes report showed a screening with Bigelow present with former specialists in the job, and they thought the film perfectly captured scenes in both the job and civilian life. I enjoyed District 9 and Inglorious Basterds but you know going in these films are fiction and never happened. The Hurt Locker is based on a reporter embedded in these circumstances with troops.

It is a critical darling and that is what these awards are about- not box office. Bigelow's been in the business for years (Point Break, Strange Days, Near Dark) so it is not like out of the blue she is just some up and comer getting noticed. Her biggest film influence was The Wild Bunch, her filmography and this film especially show that is her style. Only four women nominated for Best Director (Jane Campion, Lina Wertmuller, Sofia Coppola, and Bigelow). A woman would have won by now or a woman would have been nominated more than four times just because- if that were the case.

The Hurt Locker has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Bigelow has done movies centered around men since ever, and all Bigelow ever wanted in this film was to convey 'for war is a drug' and make her audience feel like they were right there. To me she succeeded.

The Hurt Locker's whole pathology to the Oscars is not unusual. Slumdog Millionaire was close to going straight to DVD, Million Dollar Baby was rejected by several studios, and so many other films with that story. Yes, it will be the lowest grossing film to ever win Best Picture if it does win but people do not pay to see a movie after they have seen it and Michael Bay thanks his lucky stars for that.

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/5/10 at 10:27pm

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

And would she care?

"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 9:45am

She should win because she's the best choice of the nominated five.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 9:48am

It seems like only yesterday that everyone said that Barbra Streisand didn't get nominated because she was a woman.

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:24am

AC - I agree 100% that's why she SHOULD win - but if she does win, will that be the reason?

I'm just honestly asking how much sexism and politics play into the award choices. The other two real contenders (IB and Avatar) were helmed by people considered, from what I've read, to be huge egomaniacs and not all that well liked by those who vote. I actually really thought Up in the Air would be a bigger contender than it is seeing how good it is, but it seems to have fallen off everyone's radar.

The biggest factor to me, though, is the box office. The movie made 12 million dollars. Nearly any movie that makes such a pitifully low number, no matter HOW well received it is (and I'm sure there are MANY movies like this) is usually forgotten by now - EXCEPT by critics. Then, it gets the nominations filling those slots about which the public always complains, "I've never even HEARD of those movies." All the talk in recent years about films getting nominated no one has seen -- here's another one.

What made THIS film a front-runner whereas the others were always the filler films? I'll say it again: had a man directed it, I do not think it would be nearly as serious a contender as it is now.

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:24am

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:28am

I agree with Joe. You can twist this gender prejudice thing any way you want to. It's totally pointless. And it's unanswerable, too.

If she wins, you'll say it's because she's a woman. If she doesn't win (and she is the favorite to win the award), people will say she lost because she's a woman.

Personally, I think she's going to win it this year. Because she deserves it.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#10

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:37am

And when Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep win, will that be because they are "a woman"? Oh ... wait ...... hmmmmm

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#11

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:54am

All right, let me rephrase my question.

Did the movie get plucked from obscurity because she's a director? Best - you know this stuff better than anyone - how many movies in the past that have earned so little, been seen by so few people before awards time, but gotten so much critical praise, have become the favorite to win?

Of course, whether one movie is better than another is personal opinion, but the path this movie took to get here is just odd.

I guess I'm curious simply because I didn't enjoy the movie as much as others that were nominated, and am trying to understand how it became the favorite - if it's really about the movie, or if there's something more.

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#12

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 11:05am

Jason, to answer your question, I don't think so at all. I think the film found praise and an audience because it's a well-made, well-acted film that presents this war in a way no other contemporary film has. I don't think it has anything to do with the gender of the director. At least that's what I'd like to think.

#13

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 11:11am

You might as well ask: Will Cameron win because AVATAR made so much money?

There's always a bias.

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Salve, Salve Regina
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#14

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 12:13pm

I agree there's always a bias.

It also seems that in many years there has been a critical darling that isn't a box office smash (or sometimes is barely seen outside of Hollywood) up against a box office giant that got fairly good or even mixed reviews from critics. It's happened a lot, actually. I'm not sure why. And the end results vary.

Forrest Gump vs. Pulp Fiction
Titanic vs. L.A. Confidential
E.T. vs. Gandhi
Star Wars vs. Annie Hall

Either way, people complain. They say the movie only won because the critics adored it, or it won because it was a box office smash.

That's the nature of the game, I guess. It's a fact that a movie wins an award, but it's only a collective opinion that it was the "best."

I think this year will split. Bigelow will get the director's award, but Avatar will take Best Picture. I think Bigelow is a shoe-in either way. But Best Pic could go to either Avatar or The Hurt Locker.

I do think there are others who are seeing Hurt Locker now (late in the game), and they're feeling the way you do. It was built up too much for them by overzealous, self-important critics, and it's causing an adverse reaction with people, some of them Academy voters. I think those voters will choose Avatar, in that case.

Avatar has two big handicaps (and being a huge hit film with mixed reviews isn't one of them): 1) it's a fantasy, and only one other fantasy has ever won Best Picture -- Lord of the Rings. 2) It's Sci-Fi ... and no Science Fiction movie has ever won Best Picture. I still think it could break that trend this year. And I'm one of those people who thought it was just "okay." Beautiful visually, but otherwise just big and dumb. A cliche plot and dialogue. Cardboard characters taken from any number of previous movies. And a paint-by-numbers, lackluster ending.

Just like The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Great Ziegfeld, Wings, and Cavalcade.

All of them won Best Picture.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

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#15

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 12:20pm

I agree with you Best - visually great, not the best story or characters by any stretch.

I preferred Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air myself.

You may be right that the reason I just wasn't so impressed with The Hurt Locker was all the hype. I finished it and thought, "It's OK, but not nearly as good as everyone is saying." I've heard that a lot from people seeing it recently.

I'm hoping Avatar and Hurt Locker split and one of those sneak in under the new voting system.

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#16

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 12:21pm

besty, do you think HURT LOCKER's idiot producer (who wrote that pleading e-mail to Academy voters) could have ruined HL's chances, since Best Picture is awarded to the producer? It happened nearly a week before the deadline, but do most people wait until the last minute to vote?

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia

#17

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 12:48pm

The real wild card here is the new voting system. I think it's the stupidest thing I've heard of in a long while from the Academy. I've read the explanation of how it works, and it doesn't sound remotely fair to me. Or even logical. AT ALL.

It even beats our antiquated "electoral college" system for electing the president.

How about "the one with the most votes wins?" I know that's hard for some people to grasp. Especially when so much politics and money are at stake. So lets invent a system that nobody understands, and to further cloud the issue, let's nominate ten films, most of which don't deserve it, just to really confuse 'em! Then we'll whittle away at the choices by percentages, until the one with the most percentages, divided by the square root of ten, with the highest number of number-two votes is the one who wins! Yes!

Let the "games" begin! Never more true than this year. You would have to go back to the beginning of the Academy Awards to find a more convoluted mess. Like the very first year, when Rin Tin Tin won Best Actor on the first ballot, and they had to re-vote.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 3/6/10 at 12:48 PM

#18

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 12:51pm

SM2---I think very few voters wait until the last week to see the front-runners like Hurt Locker. The majority of the voters would have already seen the film and very likely mailed in their ballots by that point, making sure they met the deadline.

There would definitely have been some stragglers, and people who either FedEx or hand-deliver their ballots on the last day, etc., but they're a small minority. So I don't think it would have had much effect on the voting.

But when it's a close race ... and every vote counts? Who knows? Especially with the stupid new "counting" rules this year.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#19

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 12:58pm

While I realize that we all want to believe that the members of the voting academy are scrupulous and vote for the best as opposed to their favorite (or whatever), why do people every year act like the Academy Awards (or any awards, really) are some big objective thing? Or, for that matter, why does no one accept that even though the however many "best" movies (actors, etc) are nominated, it's at total crapshoot? And, beyond that, why does that upset people so much? I much prefer watching a night with surprises, when the movies and people that were "supposed" to win don't.

#20

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:03pm

"Marissa Tomei!"

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#21

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:04pm

Crash!

#22

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:13pm

"Shakespeare In Love!"

"Chariots of Fire!"

"Mary Pickford!" Okay, nobody here was around for that one, but the audience supposedly BOOed when her name was announced. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall ...

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#23

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 2:48pm

Ugh, Crash.

How about "Marcia Gay Harden!"? That was a shock...nice one though. And who can ever forget Lauren Bacall's face when Juliette Binoche's name was announced instead of hers?

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#24

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 4:00pm

It was similar to Raul Espraza's face when HIS name wasn't called!

Will some people vote for Bigleow because she's a woman? Yes. Will some people NOT vote for Bigelow because she's a woman? Yes.

It's like saying Halle Berry won the Oscar because she was black. I don't think it can be that simple as that.

#25

Will Bigelow win because she's a woman?

Posted: 3/6/10 at 6:34pm

She will win because she directed a stunning film.

Edited to add: That is, if she wins.

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

Updated On: 3/6/10 at 06:34 PM

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