Oscar Schmoscar
I've always tried to watch the movies that generate the Oscar buzz, especially the actual Academy Award winners. However, after watching three in a row that just made me utterly, completely miserable, that I would never recommend to anyone despite their Oscar-worthiness or fabulous acting, I've decided that I'm just too sensitive for some films and need to stick to movies that truly appeal to me, no matter what the critics (or the Academy) say. The three that have finally broken me were The Last King of Scotland, with its fabulous acting and horrific scenes of brutality, Babel, with its fabulous acting and heartbreaking stories of bad decisions, tragedy, and injustice, and Pan's Labyrinth, with its beautiful filmwork and horrific scenes of brutality. All three of these made me cry with the horror of what I was seeing and left me unable to fathom why anyone would want to see stories like these.
I know that something in me has changed over time. I remember loving Friday the 13th when I was a little girl. Horror movies didn't bother me until I was pregnant with my first child. After that, I couldn't watch "hack and slash" type horror movies, but psychological thrillers like The Blair Witch Project and any of M Night Shyamalan's movies (eg The Sixth Sense) were fine. I was profoundly touched and disturbed by Braveheart in 1995 and Gangs of New York in 2002. Both of these, based at least in part on actual events, left me feeling hurt and angry that people could be so cruel, and encouraged me to keep my head buried in the sand, as I pretty much do today, to avoid feeling too deeply things that I can do nothing about. I know I would draw the criticism of some who would disapprove of my unfamiliarity with current events, my avoidance of politics and the news, and my unwillingness to enter into debate about these things.
I'm not sure if it started before I lost the girls or not, but definitely since the loss, if I do watch the news, there will without fail be at least one story that hurts my heart and makes me cry, and there won't be anything I can do to change it or to help anyone because of it, so I just avoid it. I skim headlines when I'm online, which usually only makes me cry once every one or two weeks, which is much better. I've always been a crybaby, I admit this. I've cried at Kleenex commercials, Goodyear tire commercials, Kodak commercials ...
Something about human violence and mistreatment of other humans, though, affects me on some deeper level than it ever did as a child, and I'm not able to write it off as just being a movie or to become immune to it as I used to. I'm not sure why this is, but movies with this type of violence leave me shaken, disturbed, and really mad at K for choosing them (they're almost always his idea, although I have to admit that two of the three offenders mentioned in this post were my choice just because of the Oscars.) In any event, my days of taking Oscar's advice are over, and if it doesn't sound like my kind of movie, I'm going to pass on it. I don't think I'll be missing a thing.
I know that something in me has changed over time. I remember loving Friday the 13th when I was a little girl. Horror movies didn't bother me until I was pregnant with my first child. After that, I couldn't watch "hack and slash" type horror movies, but psychological thrillers like The Blair Witch Project and any of M Night Shyamalan's movies (eg The Sixth Sense) were fine. I was profoundly touched and disturbed by Braveheart in 1995 and Gangs of New York in 2002. Both of these, based at least in part on actual events, left me feeling hurt and angry that people could be so cruel, and encouraged me to keep my head buried in the sand, as I pretty much do today, to avoid feeling too deeply things that I can do nothing about. I know I would draw the criticism of some who would disapprove of my unfamiliarity with current events, my avoidance of politics and the news, and my unwillingness to enter into debate about these things.
I'm not sure if it started before I lost the girls or not, but definitely since the loss, if I do watch the news, there will without fail be at least one story that hurts my heart and makes me cry, and there won't be anything I can do to change it or to help anyone because of it, so I just avoid it. I skim headlines when I'm online, which usually only makes me cry once every one or two weeks, which is much better. I've always been a crybaby, I admit this. I've cried at Kleenex commercials, Goodyear tire commercials, Kodak commercials ...
Something about human violence and mistreatment of other humans, though, affects me on some deeper level than it ever did as a child, and I'm not able to write it off as just being a movie or to become immune to it as I used to. I'm not sure why this is, but movies with this type of violence leave me shaken, disturbed, and really mad at K for choosing them (they're almost always his idea, although I have to admit that two of the three offenders mentioned in this post were my choice just because of the Oscars.) In any event, my days of taking Oscar's advice are over, and if it doesn't sound like my kind of movie, I'm going to pass on it. I don't think I'll be missing a thing.
posted by Nikki | 12:10 AM
1 Comments:
I think that movies have changed over the years... they used to not show quite as much graphic violence, and I don't think the cruelty was as exaggerated or detailed or SOMETHING... I remember thinking at some point, "How can someone even imagine this evil, let alone make a movie about it," or something like that. It's definitely worse than it used to be, and more common, and everywhere. I also remember that they started saying "This is a true story" and making that statement part of the fictional story rather than it actually being a true story! It's just another indication of the deterioration of society: if there are no morals or rules, you can't break them; only if you stand up for such things can you be called a hypocrite when you fail... but at least you had a goal and (hopefully) made an effort at some point, and didn't just smile evilly and say "Anything goes".
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