80th ACADEMY AWARDS horrorspective
February 26th 2008 01:10
2007 was a year of high calibre contenders, which made the awards ceremony all the more interesting. I made my selections with John Doe, our filmic tastes are very similar as were our decisions at playing the Academy game. As it turned out we got a large number of them wrong.
We thought it might have been Paul Thomas Anderson’s year, but it turned out that the Academy voted for our favourite film of the year, a movie I’ve been championing as a post-modern horror; a psychological, yet utterly palpable – and at times graphic - study of violence. I’m talking about the Coen brothers No Country for Old Men (2007). My other favourite film from last year – and another study of violence and its immediate effect on surrounding people - The Dead Girl (2006) wasn't even considered (probably because it's initial limited release was December '06), but then the Academy Awards have always been about contradiction and oversight (the “In Memoriam” section forgot Roy Schieder and Brad Renfro … go figure).
Movie violence maestro Martin Scorsese (right) awards the Coen brothers Best Director(s)
It’s the Best Picture award which is most interesting, since there hasn’t been a film which deals so openly with violence winning this award since Jonathon Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) was certainly a film which dealt with the theme of violence, but it was much more restrained in its actual depiction. Demme’s movie, on the other hand, is the only horror movie ever to win Best Picture, and that gives it a unique edge (of course, some people don’t like to call it a horror and instead refer to it as a psychological thriller, but that’s just being pedantic).
No Country for Old Men is the closest thing to a horror movie since The Silence of the Lambs. It even ends Halloween-style with the killer still on the loose. But maybe I’m clutching at straws here.
Also of note amongst the Oscar nominees was Viggo Mortensen for his role as a suave bodyguard in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, yet another movie dealing with the spectre and execution of ultra-violence, and Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, America’s first R-rated (and macabre) musical since The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
And then there was P. T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, a sprawling, old-fashioned tale of … implicit (for the most part) violence and greed; the American Dream turned sour. It was fairly obvious Daniel Day Lewis’s commanding performance as an oil tycoon would take Best Actor, however it seems Mr. Anderson will have to wait it out a little longer for that director nod. Who knows, he could become the next Martin Scorsese and have to wait until he’s in his 60s before the Academy realise his talent needs recognising.
So, hats off to the Academy this year for awarding No Country for Old Men the top honours. Man, it damn well deserved them!
Damn straight!
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