Hey guys, welcome to a column here on YDKS Movies entitled Speech of the Week! For now on, every Monday I will post a new scene from a movie that features a speech of some sort being given. After all, there are a lot of famous scenes in film where characters give an influential speech of some sort. Then again, there are also a lot of scenes where characters give a speech and it just comes off cheesy and lame. In this section, you will see both kinds. That's right, people, I'm giving you the good and bad of film speeches all wrapped up in one great big package. I hope you all enjoy.
First off, sorry that I did not post this on Monday. I've been incredibly busy. That and no one is helping me run this place these days. It's hard to be a full-time student in college and run a movie website in your free time. Still, I'm trying. So thank you for your patience.
Here's the deal- I didn't watch the Oscars this year. This is the first year that I've haven't watched them in quite some time. I was so angry over the nominations that I couldn't bring myself to actually sit down and endure this crap for three hours. I'm happy with my decision. After seeing the winners, I am now convinced that the Academy Awards hold absolutely no weight once so ever.
But before I get into why I was unhappy with the winners, let me explain further why I did not watch, as most of my friends have been confused on this and I think I've come off as a pretentious d-bag when trying to explain it. My main gripe with the Oscars this year is basically over the nomination of The Reader for Best Picture over The Wrestler and The Dark Knight. The Reader was rated at 60% (barely fresh) on Rotten Tomatoes. The biggest complaint by reviewers? It was an emotionally distant piece of Oscar bait. On the other hand, The Dark Knight received a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and The Wrestler received an astounding 98%. So, one may be asking themselves, how did The Reader, a film that received multiple bad reviews and that was not popular among audiences, get nominated for Best Picture? The answer? It's all political.
The fact is that producer (and absolutely soulless prick) Harvey Weinstein had the film rushed to be finished in time for awards season against the wishes of the film's director and other producers. In order to do this, Weinstein stooped to harassing producer Sydney Pollack on his deathbed and harassed the widow of recently deceased producer Anthony Minghella as well. And you know what? The film got released just in time for awards season. After more lobbying, guess what happened? It actually got nominated. After all that bullsh*t and degrading behavior, the movie got nominated. See kids, in Hollywood, it pays to be a horrible, greedy person. It doesn't matter if your movie was actually good or not. You just have to be willing to let go of all your morals and do whatever is necessary to get your movie nominated. Well, screw that. The minute I saw that that this actually worked, I let the Oscars go. They mean nothing.
Still, despite the fact that I didn't watch, I was still hoping that Mickey Rourke would get the award for Best Actor. After all, it was his award. The thing had his name written all over it. I mean, there's a reason why Rourke has basically won every award for Best Actor in other awards ceremonies. The emotional range that he exhibited in The Wrestler was astounding. He was Randy "The Ram." It wasn't just a performance. Many people have said it was like looking in on a therapy session. I have to agree.
So when I heard Sean Penn won, I was so pissed. Don't get me wrong, I liked Milk and I think that Penn did a great job. But Rourke did better. It was Rourke's night, damn it. It was the apex of his amazing comeback. Penn and the rest of liberal Hollywood screwed that up. And I hate them for it. The reason Penn won was completely political and, wouldn't you know it, he even turned his speech into a political message. God, what a joyless prude.
After hearing this news, I was convinced. The Oscars mean nothing to me. If you want to watch a real awards ceremony, watch The Independent Spirit Awards. They give awards to films that truly deserve it and they are much more laid back than the Oscars. The Wrestler well deservedly sweeped the Independent Spirit Awards. As expected, Mickey took home the gold for Best Actor. Also as expected, he delivered an insane, bizarre and hilarious speech as he has done everytime he has won an award this year. Part of me feels like this is why he didn't win at the Oscars. Who knows what he would have said. And who knows just how incredibly brilliant he could have been. I know one thing- he wouldn't have been lame and boring like Sean Penn.
Watch Rourke be amazing below. Be warned- this clip is very NSFW. He curses a lot. And it's kind of awesome.
3 comments:
the oscars suck. sean penn's speech sucked. so liberal. you are right.
Your opinion should be voided by every reader in the movie world. You never made a post about The Reader so I would imagine you never saw it, leaving you no true ability to compare the two films.
Knowing all the things that were behind the making of The Reader, how could I have seen it? Sorry I have morals and I'm willing to take a stand on not letting certain bullsh*t slide. As for comparing the films, I didn't compare them. The only thing I compared were the consensus of the reviews they received. From what I have heard, the film is not that great and definitely no where near as great as films such as The Wrestler and The Dark Knight. However, my main gripe is not necessarily with the quality of this film (although that is important). It is mostly due to the fact that this thing was nominated primarily due to the things Harvey Weinstein did to get it nominated. It was all politics and they were incredibly dirty politics. If you cannot see that, then I'm sorry.
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