BRAVEHEART winning for BEST MAKEUP? huh?

I agree. Julianne should have won for Boogie Nights, and Robin did him "smiling sadly" schtick in yet another movie.

Here's other movies that have been robbed:

"Jaws", "Close Encounters" and "ET" for best picture. Were any of them even nominated? Speilburg always got the shaft...until "Schindler's List". The Holocaust always wins.

"Forrest Gump" beating out "Pulp Fiction". Don't get me wrong, they're both great movies, but... which one do people still talk about? Which one chnged how movies were made for years?

The 2000 Oscars were a total sham. I think "American Beauty" is extremely overrated and downright offensive anti-American crap. Russell Crowe was robbed for "The Insider". Jude Law was robbed for "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (surely one of the more distinctive supporting performances in a long time). Catherine Keener was ripped off for "Being John Malkovich".

2001 wasn't much better. "Gladiator" as best picture? WTF? CTHD was much better, I think. Julia ****ing Roberts for "Erin Brockovich"? Terrible choice. Benicio Del Toro was the only really good choice of the night.

That's a new one for me. Heard a lot of people bitch and whine about American Beauty winning, but never heard it called "anti-American." Care to explain further, because I think I might have missed something?

Yeah, I'd like to hear that explanation too.

Anybody think Jack Nickelson gets nominated too much for nothing performances?

I know that the 1980's were a low point for Hollywood films, but there's still no way that Ordinary People, Terms of Endearment, Out of Africa & Driving Miss Daisy should have won best picture Oscars.

Sure, happy to. Of course, this is only my opinion, so I could absolutely be wrong, but...
The movie is yet another in the of "The Truth Behind The American Suburbs" series of movies including "The Ice Storm" and "Blue Velvet (both of which are superior movies to this moral sledgehammer). In terms of movie making quality, this movie is a simplistic preacher with paper-thin characters, incredible pretention and absolutely no subtlety. That is why it bothers me that it won the Oscar for best picture.

On a more personal level, this is one of the few films to ever actually make me angry. It seeks to protray awful, amoral, spiritual black holes (and I'm not talking about simply a lack of religon) both sympathetically and as typical Americans. That's the problem I have with this movie: these people are supposed to be "us". The filmakers are pretending that they're holding up a mirror to American suburbia and showing the "seething resentment just below the surface".

Lester and co. are consumed by materialism, homophobia, self-hatred and suburban ennui. They're childish backstabbers who would sell out their own family for a dime. They have the sexual desires and self control of your average ape. They have the depth of character of Maxwell House coffee (meaning no depth). This in and of itself is not a problem, many movies are about awful people (take Todd Soldanz for one). But, in "American Beauty", they are portrayed in such a way that I get the feeling that the filmakers want us to nod sagely at the screen and say: "There's just so much truth here" or "Yes, this is the typical American family".

I call ********. I'm an American suburbanite. I'm happy and satisfied with my life. I love my family. I don't know anyone who is this morally bankrupt, and I'm sure most American would have trouble naming someone who is. This movie seems to wants me to believe that I'm living a lie, and I resent it for that. I find it patronizing and filled with hatred.

To me, the movie has an Agenda with a capital "A". Read some of the comments on IMDB some time about it. Every person not from America (and a few who are) seems to think that this movie shows what life is truly like in America. Taken in that light, the film is like a European (or Hollywood) liberal's wet dream. Admittedly, taking what a few internet kooks write in silly comments on some site and extrapolating to an entire continent is ridiculous. Also, maybe I'm just a little too sensitive because of the current state of the world. But, I've heard this opinion from many, many people all over the internet and it never fails to piss me off.

Hey, it's fine and well that you are so morally upright, but from my experiences, the movie actually fell short of portraying some of the darker aspects of suburbia. And just because it portrays suburbia that way doesn't say that everybody is that way, just this particular group of people. And I still don't get from your explanation how it is "anti-American." But oh well, each to their own I guess.

You might be surprised who around you is "morally bankrupt" but does a great job of hiding it. Just remember that not everybody is what they seem and not everybody is like you. I live in suburbia and know several people that have had affairs, are homophobic or racist, and have less than ideal morals. Some of them are even good church-going people. But my point is nobody is perfect and any movie can't be said to speak for an entire group of people so I don't know why people think American Beauty tries to. I think it's too much analysis if you ask me.

The film is made by liberals. And by definition, liberals are anti-American.

I hope this post isn't considered off-topic amidst the current discussion, but here are some of my opinions of unjust Oscars...

Jaws should have won over One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Taxi Driver should have won over Rocky.
Star Wars should have won over Annie Hall.
Apocalypse Now should have won over Kramer vs. Kramer.
Goodfellas (or anything for that matter) should have won over Dances with Wolves.
Shawshank Redemption (or Quiz Show) should have won over Forrest Gump.
Apollo 13 should have won over Braveheart.
L.A. Confidential or Good Will Hunting should have won over Titanic.
Traffic should have won over Gladiator.
Tom Hanks (Cast Away) should have won over Russel Crowe (Gladiator).
Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story) should have won over Kevin Spacey.

Melvyn Douglas winning Best Supporting Actor in 1979 for "Being There."

The Oscar should have gone to young Justin Henry from "Kramer Vs Kramer" (the kid).

I don't think any have been undeserved... Undeserved would be if Kangaroo Jack won this year for Best Picture. Maybe one movie appealed to someone else a bit more, but I think most selections would wind up in many top ten lists...or even top 5.

I find it interesting that so many people have a problem with the acceptance speeches. I like them to show a bit of emotion. That's what we remember..."you like me, you really like me"...etc. Perhaps many would be pleased if more folks adopted acceptance speeches similar to the one Hitchcock used when he got his Lifetime achievement award.

Oh yeah...IMHO

Well, why didn't he just say so in the first place. In the same theme, I hate Goodfellas because it portrays every Italian-American as a member of the mob.

I think American Beauty is Americana, for better or worse. Some truths:

1) Kevin Spacey before he liberated himself - that is, before he met his new neighbor's son - was a zombie going through life. Listless, unmotivated, lethargic (sleeping in the car on the ride to work).

2) Suburbian Pot smoking exists, sorry to say. It isn't going to go away.

3) Military/non-military homophobes who are closeted gays (Chris Cooper).

4) Couples going through their marriage hardly speaking to one another (cheating is included in that).

5) Older married men lusting after young girls (while it is immoral and I do not condone it, that doesn't mean that it does not exist. I do not live in a fantasy world).

6) Murder. The death of Kevin Spacey at the end is a shocker to say the least, but murder does happen. It's not made up just for Hollywood sake.

7) Reflection/Possible Redemption. Kevin Spacey admiring the photograph in the kitchen of himself and his family that was taken awhile back -- had he lived, he may have tried to put things back to rights.

I still having a hard time with Ron Howard winning Best Director for A Beautiful Mind. I was okay with Jennifer Connelly winning, and while I don't think the script was all that great, I can swallow Akiva Goldsmith winning. But the direction of the movie was quite ordinary in my opinion. To me, there was little that showed me what a Best Director should be. Peter Jackson or Baz Luhrmann should have won for having such grand visions and pulling them off with style and grace. Beautiful Mind ended up feeling like a Hallmark movie to me. In fact, I retract the earlier statement, the screenwriter shouldn't have won either. Argh.

As for Russell Crowe, he was robbed for the Insider, he was robbed for L.A. Confidential, and he was given an Oscar for one of his weaker movies, Gladitator, so who cares if he was robbed for A Beautiful Mind.

Here's one I'm still not sure about either: Michael Caine over Tom Cruise. Caine's Dr. Larch was a fine performance in The Cider House Rules, but Cruise as Frank TJ Mackey was a revelation in Magnolia. His delivery of the motivational speeches was impeccable, and I thought his quiet moments were utterly convincing. Heck, he even sings.

Anyway, my jury is still out on that one. Any comments one way or the other? I don't remember who else was nominated that year.

stoolie

I agree with that. "A Beautiful Mind" was just an ordinary movie, and on the grand scale of things, didn't deserve Best Picture honors. Good points above on LotR and Moulin Rouge directors.

Here's one I'm still not sure about either: Michael Caine over Tom Cruise. Caine's Dr. Larch was a fine performance in The Cider House Rules, but Cruise as Frank TJ Mackey was a revelation in Magnolia. His delivery of the motivational speeches was impeccable, and I thought his quiet moments were utterly convincing. Heck, he even sings.

Anyway, my jury is still out on that one. Any comments one way or the other? I don't remember who else was nominated that year. [/QUOTE]

Agreed. Michael Caine's performance was okay (nothing over the top, nothing memorable) while Cruise's character had real depth. You saw arrogance, victory, anger, defeat, and sadness.

is there a website where i can see a list of all winners AND who they were up against?

i know oscar.com has the winners...

-NiCK

I don't know, i'm very conservative and I loved American Beauty. Though i remember a film nazi friend of mine said it was the most overrated p.o.s he ever saw. Then again he said Magnolia and Happiness were the best films he ever saw. Grain of salt i guess.
I think this is the first year that i will be happy with whatever wins. I'm hoping for the Hours, but all five were great films. Though i would have pick Adaptation over Chicago or Gangs to be nominated, but hey nobodys perfect.

Eminem........PERIOD!!!!!!!!

I could name a few from tonite.
Did anyone else find someone's acceptance speach inappropriate.

Michael Moore's? hehe

Throw in Roman Polanski and Adrien Brody. I wasn't crazy about Gangs of New York, but Scorsese and Daniel Day-Lewis got robbed...big time.

Yeah. It'll be a long road in Hollywood for that bastard from now on.

Scorsese has gotten the shaft pretty well every time he has been nominated. I figured they would "give" him the award tonight to make up for all the other times they screwed up.

I was wrong