The Curse of the Oscars

Many people seem to be wondering how so many past winners of the acclaimed Oscar-statuette, started floundering once they've reached that ultimate goal of winning it. More recent examples: Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Ron Howard, Ang Lee, Jamie Foxx, Hillary Swank, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Adrien Brody, Sam Mendes, Julia Roberts, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Spacey, James Cameron, Anthony Minghella, Nicolas Cage, Susan Sarandon, Mira Sorvino, Kevin Costner, Robert Zemeckis, Holly Hunter, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Gene Hackman, Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme, the list goes on and on. Of course, many of these should not have won in the first place, at least not for the performance they got the award for.

When Quentin Tarantino went on stage to receive his only Oscar, original screenplay for Pulp Fiction, he immediately started thanking everyone, stating that this would be his only appearance on stage. He of course was very right. And who now still thinks Forrest Gump is the better film? Well I'm sorry, but you are disqualified from entering your ballot. It's just the same deal Orson Welles got on Citizen Kane, isn't it. Receiving just the same reward Tarantino got. And then repeatedly being voted the best film of all time. I wonder how much the Academy is ashamed of a fact like that. A bunch of ingrown powers that be, saying to Welles and Tarantino: "Who the #$%* do you think you are? We'll decide what is quality and what is not. No, it's not just a matter of confirmation, we have the power to put quality on your film, or withhold quality from it."

Of course, someone like Tarantino is way too intelligent to be wanting to win an Oscar. Here's one person who understands that when a prize is deflated, lost its value, you really don't want to win it any longer. How long do you suppose you can give the prize not to the best, but to the most convenient, without the prize losing its value? How arrogant can one institution be? All these actors and directors and writers winning it, but still looking sideways to the person they know was the better one. Are you still amazed at all those people, that start floundering once they've won the Oscar?

The number of examples of Oscar-wrongs is endless: Scorsese winning best director Oscar for a film that doesn't even qualify to be among his five best. Kinda like giving the Oscar to Paul Newman for The color of money. And it's not a new thing, as the before mentioned example of Citizen Kane shows. Still, I think it's a tendency that has grown over the years, so now I even daresay that over 60% of all Oscar-winners really aren't the best achievements around.

Maybe the last film that deservedly won the Oscar was The Godfather (1972). But still, it was too much to also give that arrogant Coppola the best director Oscar, so they gave that to Bob Fosse. The irony then is that Coppola won it, when he did not deserve it (selling out on The Godfather, part 2), when mister Fosse did deserve it (for Lenny). This is all just my opinion then. So it's also for my own pleasure to pit the winners since then, against the films that actually should have won, according to me:

YearWinner My winner

- 1973 The sting The exorcist

- 1974 The godfather, part 2 Lenny/A woman under the influence*

- 1975 One flew over the cuckoos nest Dog day afternoon/ Barry Lyndon

- 1976 Rocky Taxi driver

- 1977 Annie Hall Close encounters of the third kind*

- 1978 The deer hunter Days of heaven*

- 1979 Kramer vs. Kramer Apocalypse now

- 1980 Ordinary people Raging bull

- 1981 Chariots of fire Raiders of the lost ark

- 1982 Ghandi Quest for fire*

- 1983 Terms of endearment The right stuff/Never cry wolf*

- 1984 Amadeus Under the volcano*/Once upon a time in America*
- 1985 Out of Africa Brazil*

- 1986 Platoon Blue velvet*

- 1987 The last emperor The untouchables*

- 1988 Rain man The unbearable lightness of being*/Who framed Roger Rabbit?*

- 1989 Driving miss Daisy Do the right thing*

- 1990 Dances with wolves Good fellas

- 1991 The silence of the lambs The silence of the lambs

- 1992 Unforgiven Unforgiven

Well all right, the last two winners the Academy and I agree on. In twenty years since The godfather won, it's about time. But look at all the films (*) that didn't even get a nomination. In some cases I could think of more than one film that would deserve the Oscar more than the actual winner. And I just kept to the best film category, I wouldn't want to bore anyone by also going into actors, directors or writers. I have to admit: some years it's hard to find a decent winner (1982, 1985, 1987).

In 1933 Frank Capra was dead sure he'd win the Oscar for Lady for a day. When they called: "Frank, come on up here", mister Capra went up to the stage, only to find to his embarrassment that it was Frank Lloyd who had been called upon. The next year mister Capra won all the major Oscars for It happened one night, quite unexpectedly. He then temporarily lost his mojo to make films, since he'd reached his goal: the Oscar, and the name above the title. Only when he realized that there were more important things going on in the world than the Oscar, he refound his gusto.