By Noah Redfield
Last year looked like a turning point for the Academy Awards after the telecast was greeted with the worst ratings in its 55 years of broadcasting. After all, how can an organization based on rewarding so-called “quality” films stay relevant if the masses are no longer paying attention? But when two summer blockbusters, “WALL-E” and “The Dark Knight,” captured the hearts and minds of critics and audiences alike, it seemed a sure thing that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) would capitalize on their successes and reclaim their significance with a vengeance.
They did not.
While both films received ample support on the nominations list (six for “WALL-E” and eight for ‘Dark Knight’), neither was able to snag a slot in the Best Picture category. Instead, the nominees mostly consist of a “business as usual” line-up: safe and marketable pieces of Oscar-bait melodrama that we’ve all seen before, from the biopics “Milk” and “Frost/Nixon” to “The Reader,” a coming-of-age tale involving Nazis and Kate Winslet.
Adding a little color to the proceedings are the populist parable “Slumdog Millionaire” and the ambitious epic romance, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Those two films aside, the line-up hasn’t made too many happy, in particular the countless moviegoers who have taken “The Dark Knight’s” shut-out as a reason not to tune in next Sunday.
To put this in perspective, the most-watched Oscar ceremonies in the last two decades were the years of “Titanic” (57 million viewers) and “Braveheart” (44 million viewers).
In an ideal world, a discussion on the commercial appeal of the Oscars would be just as meaningful as discussing the aesthetic merits of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but it’s hard to take the Academy’s grand-standing about high art seriously when even AMPAS President Sid Ganis is bitching about viewership. “Who wants to be the lowest rated Oscar show ever?” he rhetorically asked in a recent interview with columnist Sharon Waxman. “We are rejiggering the show. Rethinking it. Re-marketing it.” Of course, he has no real choice in the matter.
The Oscars is nothing if not a three-hour-plus advertisement for a handful of movies the establishment thinks the rest of us will love just because they say so. It is a business like any other; they depend on constant customers to survive. So how does the AMPAS intend to reclaim their audience?
Perhaps their smartest move was to hire Hugh Jackman as the host, a break from their hit-and-miss streak of offering the job to comedians. Jackman has hosted the Tony Awards three times and is beloved not just as a celebrity but also as a song-and-dance man; they’ve already announced a musical number to kick off the proceedings to be directed by “Moulin Rouge” maestro Baz Luhrmann.
In addition, current king of American comedy Judd Apatow will be contributing one of many montages as well as other humorous bits designed to cure the collective insomnia. Look everyone: Will Ferrell is naked and Jack Black is yelling things!
Sadly there are plenty of bone-headed plays to puncture, and this particular award goes to the AMPAS for refusing to release the list of presenters. If there’s anything to draw a crowd these days, it’s a guest list of A-list eye candy whose complicated job it is to read off a teleprompter and look better than the rest of us. But for all we know, the presenters will be made up of Bud Cort, Crispin Glover, that guy who played Jaws in the James Bond films, the ghost of Jack Nance and the surviving members of the Baseball Furies gang in the cult classic “The Warriors.” Those names don’t mean anything to anyone else? Exactly.
This year’s ceremony will undoubtedly be more successful than last year’s but that’s not saying much, especially without the support that can be brought only by films as popular and respected as “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E.” And “Twilight.” The future of the Oscars is uncertain and unless the AMPAS can come to terms with what it is and what it wants to do, the institution we all know as the Academy Awards will likely be sucked into a black hole and spat out an unattainable other end. Next week I will offer up my predictions for the winners but because I’m such a wonderful man, here is one of the earth-shattering conclusions I have arrived at:
Heath Ledger is going to win.