The Big Whatsit

As well as being the name of my son, the Oscars are awards doled out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to supposedly the best films of the year. Whether the best films actually get them is a matter of contention with each passing ceremony. In the run up to ‘Oscar Night,’ studios with a vested interest in getting their baby on to the podium go on a kind of sucking up campaign, offering freebies, parties and indeed just about any commodity at their disposal to the Academy and media, all in an effort to increase their product’s profile and ultimately to be the winner. As such, the ‘best film’ isn’t necessarily the finest thing you’ll see from a particular year, rather it’s the best marketed. Another factor for the Academy is the politics of Hollywood. Has someone who’s been previously overlooked for an Oscar produced a movie that might make them worth a shout this time around? Is it so and so’s turn to get their name in lights? Academy Awards are often given on the strength of the winner’s previous body of work as much as they are for the current nomination. A very good example of this is the most recent victor, The Departed, which isn’t Martin Scorsese’s defining moment by anyone’s stretch of the imagination, yet he’d been ignored when the essential likes of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas were doing the rounds, and for that very reason was seen to deserve the acclaim this time around.

The ‘Oscar Files’ are all about cutting the crap. Freed from diplomacy, dogma, and never in any danger of receiving freebie bribes, this site will take a look at the ‘Best Picture’ from any year out of the 79 times the Academy has met to lavish praise on one special movie. I’ll be asking the essential question - was it really that good? It’s easy, of course, to watch something that won awards ten years ago, with all the hype surrounding it long faded, and judge it purely on its merits as a piece of art. But then, the point is to see who might have deserved the award instead. Numerous injustices have been cited over the long history of the Academy Awards, films that clearly should have won, others that have little business proudly declaring ‘Winner of Best Picture Oscar’ on their DVD covers. Hell, perhaps now and then the Academy got it exactly right, and I’ll agree with their verdict.

Written in a Passnotes style, the effort is to construct a year-by-year exploration of the finest flicks, whilst having a bit of fun at the same time. See what you think. Comments are always welcome, and I’d love to hear what your choices are as we move through the ages of Oscar…