By John H. Foote
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made another bone head move this week. In their attempt to shorten the show, they have decided to not broadcast the awarding of several awards, believing the time cut will help keep the show to a more manageable length. I for one oppose and cannot believe the stupidity of it.
Eight categories will be given earlier and then woven into the show with an announcement and maybe a clip of the winner. This is a travesty especially when the categories include awards that are vital to filmmaking.
- Film Editing?
- Production Design?
- Original Musical score?
- Make-up and Hairstyling?
- Sound?
I can understand cutting the awards for Short Subject, both Documentary and Live Action, but not those so necessary to the creation of a film. Try making a film without a film editor, or a designer, or a sound artist? And score? Imagine Jaws (1975) or Star Wars (1977) without that music.
I understand they have to tighten the show up. So how about this:
- Cut all music numbers and dance numbers.
- Cut the tributes to various genres they have tried.
- Cut the tributes of any kind to all films.
- Do we need to hear from the President of the Academy?
- No performances of the songs nominated for Best Song.
- No interpretive dance numbers by Debbie Allen.
The categories they are threatening to not broadcast is an insult to all the film artists in the Academy, they all deserve to be there. This ranks with the stupidity of opening the Best Picture category from five to up to ten. Dumb beyond reason.
Such a foolish idea …
John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.
