It’s the Red State/Blue State rumble that never happened.
Supporters of both The Passion of the Christ and
Fahrenheit 9/11 are both crying foul at their respective
films lack of acknowledgment by Academy voters. Apparently,
People’s Choice awards for both films (Best Drama and Best Picture,
respectively) were not enough to sate appetites for recognition.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, Andrew Sullivan
decided to weigh in with his personal “kudos” to the Academy “for
ignoring the execrable Fahrenheit 9/11 and the
pornographic Passion.” I’m sure members of the Academy are
eminently relieved. That and $12.00 will get you one of Sullivan’s
books.
A better question for fans of both movies — and, indeed, for
every film critic who throws a tizzy this time every year as well
— might be, “Who cares what the Academy voters think?” It is all
completely arbitrary and subjective. They are, after all, just
human beings with opinions like everyone else. There is no reason
to believe their opinion is any better than anyone else’s. More to
the point, there’s significant evidence to the contrary.
Is this not, after all, the same Academy that bestowed a Best
Picture award five years ago on the intellectually stunted faux
epic, Gladiator, never mind the Best Actor nod Russell
Crowe got for the same film? What was that award based on? Great
hair? Looks good in a metal skirt? This is the same Academy that
gave Halle Berry Best Actress for saying, “My man loved him some
Jack Daniel’s” before tearing all her clothes off and rolling
around on the floor naked with Billy Bob Thornton? (Okay, there was
something more than rolling going on there, but this is a family
publication.) Does anyone believe there really wasn’t a better film
made in 1997 than the “Let’s turn a tragedy into a sappy love
story” Titanic.
Of course, occasionally the Academy honors a worthwhile
performance or film. How could they not? But when an award does
happen to cross paths with my tastes — say, Frances McDormand in
Fargo or Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny — I
understand that it is totally coincidental.
There were more than 250 films in wide release or semi-wide
release in 2004. Five were nominated for Best Picture. Those aren’t
good odds for anyone. Personally, my favorite films of the year
were the Dawn of the Dead remake (another resurrection
flick), The Life Aquatic, and Collateral.
Some Kind of Monster was certainly Best Documentary of the
year. None of these films was nominated.
I must also add that I don’t believe any of the 2004 nominees —
The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million
Dollar Baby, Ray, or Sideways — is
particularly unworthy of nomination. (If anything, I hope
Million Dollar Baby leads a few folks to the late F.X.
Toole’s brilliant short story collection, Rope Burns, from
which the film is drawn.)
AS MUCH AS I APPRECIATE the grassroots efforts to get Mel Gibson’s
and Michael Moore’s films nominated — including a petition by
TAS contributor Pat Hynes
that gathered over 25,000 signatures in favor of The
Passion — the fact is that the real value of these two vastly
different films is not diminished any by the lack of serious
Academy recognition. The subversive nature of what they have
carried into the marketplace has already upset a lot of apple carts
and damaged the conventional wisdom in Hollywood irrevocably.
Demanding approval from the Academy Awards only serves to
perpetuate the myth that there is something worthwhile, and even
necessary, about its acknowledgment, which is what Ayn Rand might
have called mysticism of the first order. It seems to me, in fact,
more appropriate to celebrate the lack of a nomination.
There is the danger of overreach as well. In an interview with
Beliefnet, the head of the Christian Film and
Television Commission, Ted Baehr, suggested the Academy Awards was
“speeding its own demise by continually ignoring the well-informed
opinion of the movie-going public.” This is just silly. First,
let’s not give the “movie going public” too much credit. If you
have a problem with Hollywood, you have a serious problem with “the
movie going public” because it is the one paying Hollywood’s
bills.
Further, politicizing The Passion or attempting to turn
those associated with it into conservative heroes is likely to make
future religious films less, not more, likely. No one in Hollywood
wants to go through what Gibson went through, and no one there
wants an audience made up entirely of religious conservatives,
either. Look at what happened at the People’s Choice Awards after
parties, when both Moore and Gibson attempted to close ranks and
play down their differences. Michael Moore called The
Passion, “a powerful piece of filmmaking” and gushed that he
had seen it twice. For his part, Mel Gibson seemed eager to
distance himself from Bush and the Red Staters.
“I feel a strange kinship with Michael,” Gibson said. “They’re
trying to pit us against each other in the press, but it’s a
hologram. They really have got nothing to do with one another. It’s
just some kind of device, some left-right. He makes some salient
points. There was some very expert, elliptical editing going on.
However, what the hell are we doing in Iraq? No one can explain to
me in a reasonable manner that I can accept why we’re there, why we
went there, and why we’re still there.”
This should hardly be a surprise to anyone. Gibson, after all,
seriously considered financing Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. So
be careful of what you wish for. I’m fairly certain most of those
who want The Passion recognized are social conservatives
who might not be thrilled to see Mel Gibson give an acceptance
speech more anti-Bush than Moore’s last year. Do you think Gibson
wants to spend the next 20 years talking about The
Passion? Or do you think he wants to have career opportunities
outside of the church set again?
THE TRUTH IS, NEXT YEAR there won’t be any Passion, but
there will still be an Academy. Movie fans will still nonsensically
fall all over themselves over which five films it chooses to
nominate. What was lasting and interesting about The
Passion was that it brought many, many people out who hadn’t
been to the movies in many years. It was an exceptional moment in
film history, as was Fahrenheit 9/11’s super wide release
was for documentary filmmaking.
But, frankly, it was just a moment. Neither side should sully it
by dreaming about it becoming the status quo. If they were to make
ten sequels to The Passion most of these people would not
come out again for many years. Does anyone really believe the
excitement around this movie — churches buying out theaters,
people wailing in the aisles — can be replicated again anytime
soon? Many Catholics came out in 1973 to face the devil and see a
heroic portrayal of priests in The Exorcist. It was a cultural phenomenon that
was not replicated four years later when Exorcist II: The
Heretic was released. The same goes for Fahrenheit
9/11. Michael Moore can never hope for such antipathy against
a single person to ever come together with vast disposable income
and a bitter election season again, not in his lifetime anyway. He
can aim for Bowling for Columbine heights again,
obviously, but this era is finished.
Here’s, as John Kerry might say, the real deal: Each year all of
us have the power to determine what Hollywood does the next year.
They are, after all, thankfully, in it for the money. If you want
to see a certain genre rise, make sure to get to the theater on
opening night and bring a friend. That’s called voting with your
dollars and it works. Dislike the Academy Awards if you like, but
obsessing over what the Academy chooses to nominate only feeds its
reputation as the arbiter of film standards.
More than half a billion dollars in worldwide gross speaks
volumes more than a gold statue.
