In which the rat symbolises obviousness

Captain's Log: 20 February
Last movie watched: Election
Song currently stuck in head: "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys. Listen to it. Thank me later.

We're down to the penultimate oblog, finishing off the last of the Best Picture winners. Speaking of which, the last awards are those for Best Director and Best Motion Picture. Apparently the latter has changed several times over the years, from Outstanding Picture to Outstanding Motion Picture to Best Picture...ladies and gentlemen, enter the most boring piece of trivia yet. Something that I like, though, is the fact that every so often the Academy discusses new categories to include.

Best Casting (rejected in 1999)
Best Stunt Coordination (rejected in 1999 and 2005)
Best Title Design (rejected in 1999)

Ok, though it says they meet every year it looks as though they only did anything in 1999. Shame. I'd like to see an award for Best Performance by an Inanimate Object (this year's nominees include The Pencil in The Dark Knight, and the Magician's Hat in Presto!). Or Best Performance by a Meal. It'd be great. I do understand the Stunt guys' beef, though, I mean, no one else is lighting themselves on fire or jumping out of windows. Seems the least they could do is give 'em a little gold statue.

Almost forgot to include this, but guess what happened in 2003? Finally, the Oscar Went To the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King! Yay! First Fantasy film EVER to win, and I was stoked. I sort of think the first one deserved it most, but I was happy it was being honoured at all. Plot? Come on, have you not seen it yet? It's the third in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and all hell is breaking loose. The armies of Rohan (hi Rohan!), Gondor and, well, the dead, are bonding together to fight the evil army of Mordor, while several hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, a man and a wizard kick ass in various ways, shapes and forms. Most of all, Frodo, Sam and a brilliantly brought-to-life Gollum destroy the One Ring. If none of this means anything to you, you might as well skip ahead, because it ain't getting any clearer. The effects are amazing, the performances uniformally great, and the script extraordinarily well done. I've spoken to a couple of people involved in this film and they all seem to just love being a part of it, which makes a great deal of difference. The legendary multiple endings were fine with me, I never liked their posters much, because they all ended up being a bit much. They all seemed to have teaser posters, though, which were much simpler and in my opinion more effective. So I've found the teaser poster.

Speaking of things that didn't happen, it's time for the winner* of Best Picture 2005. It's Brokeback Mountain. Now I know what you're saying, popular myth has it that some other movie won, despite the former winning just about EVERY SINGLE OTHER AWARD. But those people are, in the words of Shakespeare, wrongity wrong wrong. It was Brokeback Mountain. The tale of two people who fall in love and are unable to be together. Sure it's usually described as "that gay cowboy movie", but I think the people are right who say that it's really just a love story, and a beautifully-told one, at that. Ang Lee's direction is pretty much pitch perfect, and he makes sure that every shot is important. You just don't see that kind of commitment in many movies these days. It was the first movie I've seen where I was really, REALLY impressed with Heath Ledger's performance -- he's got this angry, jaw-clenching mannerism going through the whole thing, and it's a really great choice. Heh. Apparently he almost broke Jake Gyllenhaal's nose during a kiss. Not too shabby. Jake is also impressive, and incredibly good looking, but that's not the only reason I like this movie. I like it because halfway through you actually are able to see it solely as a love story - it's not about sexuality any more, it's about love and tragedy. And pretty, pretty guys. Ahem.

Apparently the poster was modelled after Titanic's, which is kind of cool.

Right, next it was one of my favourite films of the last few years, 2006's The Departed. It's been mentioned to me that it's a complete copy of Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs, but I haven't seen that, so too bad. I will say this though, the director of the Hong Kong version says: "Of course I think my version is better. But the Hollywood version is pretty good too." Heh. This is also the movie in which the song mentioned above features prominently. I challenge you to find better lyrics. The plot is this: one police school graduate becomes a member of the State Police. He is also a spy for Boston's biggest crime lord, Jack Nicholson. Oh, er, Frank Costello. Another graduate is chosen by the State Police to become an insider in Costello's gang, working for the cops as a spy. One gets promoted, the other gets sent to jail to make his expulsion from the police force look real. Nice. But it becomes about the subject of identity, and the importance of that. Leonardo DiCaprio is just getting better and better, and Mark Wahlberg kicks ass, although I'm impressed they found a scene to show in his Best Supporting Actor nominee clip that didn't include the 'f' word. Jack Nicholson is insane and Alec Baldwin also has one of the best and most telling lines of the film, during a police bugging of an illegal exchange, about how much he loves the Patriot Act.

"The Simpsons" also did a spoof episode of this film called "The De-Barted", and while I love the movie, I have to admit this was pretty genius, and includes a quote from one Ralph Wiggum at the end that'll make sense to anyone who's seen the movie:

"The rat symbolises obviousness!"

Mr Scorsese, I love you, but... Hee.

And at the end, we come to 2007's winner, No Country for Old Men. For me, it's really a movie that's made by the presence of the lovely (but here not so lovely) Javier Bardem. Sporting one of the most famously worst hairstyles of all kind, he's chilling and quietly violent (does that even make sense?) as the bounty hunter who just won't freaking stop. The petrol station coin-tossing scene is legendary for good reason, and his whole sense of calm is what's so unnerving. The whole film, in fact, has VERY little dialogue, or even sound. It's all about the long silences and the vast expanses of wasteland. How far each character has come, how far there is to go. And this is a film made by the same people who made Burn After Reading. Go figure.

There's only one to go, and that's my incredibly LONG blog on final predictions.

Byee.

"Who the fuck are you?"
"I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy."
--- Anthony Estrella, Mark Wahlberg - The Departed ---

*at least in MY Oscars