This movie has to be so ordinary and sober to win an academy. Having said that this movie turned out to be so obvious. I not really oppose for its Academy win only but also its presence the nomination list. Probably im coming out very strong, therefore i need some other perspective on this movie.
shareI lost faith in the Academy Awards back in 1990 when 'Dances with Wolves' was voted best picture over 'Goodfellas', despite the latter having won Best picture at the British BAFTA's. Then again awards are just based on critics personal preference and I often don't agree with their choice.
shareHaven't watch life of PI or Lincoln, but thought Django was so much better.
In fact, just my mere opinion, The Town > Gone Baby > Argo
I like Ben Affleck as director, Argo was just a period film equivalent to Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (though I *beep* like that show), it's so ordinary that I really puzzled with it's winning. This is even worse case than Forrest Gump beat Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction in the 90s.
It won because it was the best film of the year. Definitely better than Flight (Awful last act), Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django (which i really like), Les Mis, Zero Dark Thirty, life of Pi (Awful first 20 mins) and the much overrated Silver Linings playbook (again, last act was atrociously contrived and formulaic).
I have not seen Lincoln or Amour yet, but Argo was easily better than any of the nominees i mentioned earlier, by a mile.
The comparison of this movie with "Barry Lyndon" seems odd. The reason is that "Lydon" was an adaptation of a novel, whereas "Argo" was based on a true historical event. Also, "Lyndon" mostly relied on sumptous visuals, while "Argo" was a tense, plot-driven movie.
shareThe comparison of this movie with "Barry Lyndon" seems odd. The reason is that "Lydon" was an adaptation of a novel, whereas "Argo" was based on a true historical event. Also, "Lyndon" mostly relied on sumptous visuals, while "Argo" was a tense, plot-driven movie.
shareBecause the Academy Awards are American, and Argo is classic American propaganda...plus an actual ex-president gives an epilogue during the credits. What more could a good, patriotic American audience wish for?
I just watched it. It wasn't a movie I was raging to see when it was in theatres, as it had a lot of seemingly superior competition. But having beaten eight other excellent-to-superb movies for Best Film, I thought I'd watch it tonight on TV. I had great expectations.
Well, it was quite a good movie. Probably as good as The Hurt Locker. Certainly not better. I'm not bothered by historical inaccuracies or embellishments, especially if they add to a movie's charm, so these didn't detract from my experience. However, I just cannot see for the life of me why it won Best Film in a year when there was so much competition. At least three of those eight other movies nominated were far, far better. Life of Pi absolutely should have won. Or Lincoln. Even Les Miserables.
Not Argo.
So my conclusion is that it was down to that good old warm and fuzzy 'America the Great' propaganda that won this film its award.
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"this piece of crap was nothing more than rah-rah pro-U.S. propaganda which was as phoney as a three-dollar bill."
Actually, if it's "rah-rah" anything, it's for the Democratic Party. To put it another way, Ben Affleck is an inveterate Democrat who has spent considerable time and money campaigning for Democrats. If this incident had occurred when a Republican was President instead of the Democrat Jimmy Carter, he and his financiers probably would have never made this film. Likewise, if a Republican had been in office at the time of the Academy Awards, the First Lady wouldn't have been presenting the award like Michelle Obama did.
It all came down to reviews, critics and fans loved this film. It was a good movie, not great. I know Lincoln was not popular with many people but I appreciated the substance in Lincoln. I thought Tony Kushner should have definitely won for the Lincoln screenplay. The writing was brilliant.
shareIt had good editing. It was well directed. It had a good script.
Gentleman, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.
The movie was pure Hollywood self-fellation. It's shouldn't be hard to put two and two together here.
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...as opposed to an irrational reason?
Get me a bromide! And put some gin in it!