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82nd Academy Awards Retrospective

During the week running up to the Academy Awards, from all the buzz by everyone about The Hurt Locker, I predicted it to win Best Picture. Even though I still wanted Up In The Air to win because that was my personal favorite out of the 10 films. My original Academy Award for Best Picture of 2009 prediction…

All the Inglourious Basterds who were Blind Sided by Avatar’s visuals are not A Serious Man and should grow Up and get An Education or should be thrown into The Hurt Locker inside District 9 because the Best Picture of 2009 is still Up In The Air because the honor is very Precious: Based On The Novel Push by Sapphire.

As for the show itself, the 82nd Academy Awards honoring the best films of 2009 was held last night. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin co-hosted the awards. The duo were mainly funny when they roasted celebrates at the start of the show. During last years 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, Tina Fey and Steve Martin presented an award and that is when I wished for the two to host together in the near future. I guess Tina Fey’s 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin is the next best choice. After hosting the last years Emmys and having a dance number on his own show, everyone’s favorite Neil Patrick Harris opened this years Academy Awards with a dance number.

As for the awards themselves, I am very happy of the winners. Everyone won an award that deserved it. Up won for Best Animated Feature. Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds. Like I said in my review, his character is an instant classic and his evilness over shadowed even Hitler. Mo’Nique won for Precious: Based On the Novel Push By Sapphire. Simply one of the most stomach turning roles I have ever watched. Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for Crazy Heart. I have yet to view the film, but his praise for the role and his winning has inspired me to watch it. Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for The Blind Side. It was not my favorite film of the year, but she deserved the award. Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director for The Hurt Locker. And Finally, The Hurt Locker won Best Picture. I think it deserved to win even though it might have not been my top choice for Best Film of the year. I did think it was much stronger than the majority of the 10. I am happy that it beat out Avatar for both Best Director and for Best Picture. Many people thought Avatar might win Best Picture, which I felt was a much weaker film. Avatar ended up only winning three out of its nine nominations. Avatar won the awards it deserved because all three awards were specifically about its visuals, which is the only substance the film has.

I noticed many connections between the 10 Best Picture nominees.

There were many films about war.

• Avatar
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds

Spoiler Alert, two different films featured the exact same twist ending.

• Up In The Air
• An Education

A rarity in Hollywood, there were films that focused on Jewish people.

• Inglourious Basterds
• An Education
• A Serious Man

Two films were about young poor African American children wishing for a better life.

• The Blind Side
• Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire.

There were many films that had elements about Education.

• Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
• The Blind Side
• An Education, blatantly by the title alone.
• Up featured a boy who is trying to get an education by earning merit badges.

Avatar and District 9 were basically the exact same film, hitting many of the same beats.

• They both were about Man versus Aliens.
• The main character is a man that ends up turning into an alien.
• The main character as an alien turns on man because they become evil.
• The final climactic scene features the main character fighting the main villain, with one in a giant robot suit.

All 10 films feature a sex scene.

• Avatar featured the Na’vi aliens having weird pony tail sex.
• The Blind Side featured, well, Sandra Bollock’s character had kids somehow.
• District 9 featured a fake Photoshopped image of the main character have sex with an alien.
• An Education, Spoiler Alert, they have sex.
• The Hurt Locker did not have a sex scene, but featured Evangeline Lilly, who is sexy enough.
• Inglourious Baserds features a two second long sex scene.
• Precious, well, lets just say no one is looking forward to that scene again.
• A Serious Man, featured a dream sequence where the main character has sex.
• Up featured a sad miscarriage at the beginning. The baby had to be created somehow.
• Up In The Air featured Vera Farmiga’s naked body.

All 10 films dealt with xenophobia.

• Once Again Inglourious Basterds, An Education, A Serious Man, all focused on xenophobia of Jewish people.
• Avatar and District 9 focus on Man being xenophobia agents Aliens.
• The Blind Side and Precious had elements of xenophobia of African Americans.
• The Hurt Locker featured elements of xenopobia of Iraqis.
• Up In the Air featured only white people except for a single African American, who of course rapped.
• Up, all old people are of course racist, and it was clear that original the old man was upset that the little fat asian kid joined him on his adventure.

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Inglourious Basterds

In all of Quentin Tarantino’s films, he never likes to tell a story in a plain vanilla style. He normally likes to use a nonlinear story instead. This time around, Inglourious Basterds tells two different linear stories that start off disconnected and jump back and forth between each other, but then the two stories finally come together and dovetails nicely at the very end.

Inglourious Basterds is set in Nazi occupied France during World War II. The first story shown is about a young Jewish girl, played by Diane Kruger, who barley escapes capture by the main Nazi villain, played by Christoph Waltz. The second story is about Brad Pitt‘s character who has gathered a team of Jewish Americans to be his Inglorious Basterds. A team that runs around seeking revenge on Nazis by killing and branding as many as possible, with the ultimate goal to take down Adolf Hitler.

Quentin Tarantino likes to use a strong female lead, like in the films Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. Or instead of a central lead, he will have a strong all male team, like he did in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. With Inglourious Basterds, he was able to have both a strong female story along with a story of a strong all male team. Quentin Tarantino also place his films in two distinct worlds. One is the real world where normal rules apply, featured in his films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. In the other world he uses, which is set in the Hollywood movie world, most rules do not apply. Like Kill Bill, it is often bizarre and over the top. Inglourious Basterds walks a fine line between the two worlds. I feel that the story line about the Jewish girl is set in the real world, with long drawn out realistic moments. Where as the story about the Inglourious Basterds themselves, is set in the movie world, with over the top actions, comedy and even a narrated introduction of the team.

Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker who truly loves films. He shows this off in Inglourious Basterds by having a premiere of a Nazi propaganda film play a central plot. Along with playing a main character in the main film, Eli Roth directed the propaganda film within the film. Like always Quentin Tarantino has to use many long drawn out slow scenes but Inglourious Basterds uses this the best out of all of his films. All of the scenes feature either a group of Jewish people hiding from Nazis, or a group of Jewish people undercover talking with Nazis. They have to be careful because any wrong move will reveal who they actually are or where they are hiding, thus the slow drawn out scene builds tension and work perfectly for this film.

All the characters in Inglourious Basterds are great and will go along well with the collection of already classic and unique characters Quentin Tarantino has created. Brat Pitt plays a guy who is too full of himself and is actually kind of dumb which leads himself into trouble. Eli Roth plays an absolutely crazy Nazi killer, which is very funny and I would like to see him act more, instead of write and direct. And Christoph Waltz plays an manipulative two faced Nazi who is always playing a game with someone. He is such a great character that he over shadows Adolf Hitler in this film. It was also great to see minor roles go to B. J. Novak from The Office and Samm Levine from Freaks And Geeks.

Out of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture of 2009, I will have to say Inglourious Basterds is my second favorite film of the year and possibly my second favorite Quentin Tarantino film. I am not a big fan of guns but I will be first in line when they start selling punch guns. Inglourious Basterds is a comedy and drama, set both in the real world and the Hollywood movie world, and features both a strong female storyline and a strong all male team storyline; Quentin Tarantino for the first time gets to have the best of both worlds.