The Sound of Approaching Elephants

Before leaving the subject of elephants inside or outside the room....

I suggested that Avatar be in a category of its own. Back in 1929, the Academy agreed sorta.

They didn't know what to make of the Jazz Singer so they gave it an honorary award for "revolutionizing the industry". Yeah, give Cameron that award and keep him out of the other categories. OBTW, he's gonna keep doin' it.

They also gave an honorary award to Charley Chaplin in what amounted to a career award and a symbolic farwell to the past. Now a days, we've repackaged that award and turned it into Best Actor, Actress etc. 

Keep it an honor not an award.

I love the Dude and Brendan and Jamie Lee and Porkchop but let's face it.....

And if you wanna give Speilberg an honor for his career just give it to him and don't nominate him for self-serving crap like The Fablemans at the same time as you're snubbing Buzz Luhrman and James Cameron.

Back in 1929, they split the top prize in two; one for the "most outstanding motion picture production considering all elements that contribute to a picture's greatness ( without a clarifying rubric detailing the elements that went into 'greatness') and the other to be awarded to the "most unique, artistic, worthy, and original production without reference to cost or magnitude".

In other words big-budget blockbusters and small art films. All the Academy Award winners at the inaugural ceremony held on May 16, 1929, were silent movies. The awards were given for films released between August 1, 1927, and July 31, 1928. 

Wings, which was clearly the most expensive movie of its time won Best Picture and Sunrise won most artistic picture.(although any clarifying rubric for 'art' has never been established Thank God) and King Vido always claimed that his film "The Crowd" should have won but he 'got screwed by Mayer' etc.

The 1929 ceremony honored films that were released during the transition period between silent films and sound films, so some of the films nominated and awarded may have had sound elements, such as synchronized music or sound effects, but they were not "talkies" in the modern sense.

All of them were silent.

But the elephant was in the room.

The next year, all of the movies nominated for the Awards were talkies.

Her'e the deal...when you see an elephant in the room that everybody's trying to ignore....get ready for a pacheydrmal stampede from the outside in that will change everything, everywhere, all the time.