The Oscars (Yawn)

Last Sunday all of the celebrities walked down the red carpet on the most important night of the year in Hollywood. Dozens of screaming fans along with reporters from all the TV channels lined the red carpet as the stars arrived in their limousines. Everyone walked down, strutting, trying to make his or her best impression possible. However, in this display of glitz and glamour all of the events were mundane, boring and repetitive.

I do not see the reason behind the buzz that is created by Oscar. One of the first reasons is that all of the attention it receives seems to be unfair. Why does E! not send all of its top reporters to the Nobel, or Pulitzer prizes? Why do television companies not bid millions for the right to broadcast award shows in various other fields? Why is there such hype surrounding only one field, not all?

Television coverage of the Oscars has only highlighted to me how little substance it actually has. Every year the same faces, the same awards, the same boring comments. For example, our family has made a ritual of watching the E! pre-show every Oscar Sunday and there seems to be no new comments for people to make, neither the host nor the actor/actress. "You look wonderful tonight" is the standard greeting and "Good luck" or "Have fun" is the farewell message. This applies not only to E! but to any channel that is covering the Oscars. I frankly do not realize how we have tolerated this type of coverage for 72 years!

Another thing is that Oscars seem to be scheduled too late in the year. Before the Oscars there are dozen award shows that honor movies and actors/actresses and the winners, there are more or less likely the ones that win at the Oscars. This makes Oscar one of the most predictable award shows in the world. Two weeks before the Oscars, we knew that American Beauty was going to win best picture and that Kevin Spacey would capture best actor. This year, thanks to the Wall Street Journal, we knew that Hillary Swank would be the best actress, and all of the other winners. It is almost reflex for me to say "Well, duh!" after the winner of the Oscar is announced. This predictability just adds to the boring aspect of the Oscars. If we wish to make Oscars more interesting, we must make an effort to make it the first award show in the year, thus making all of the winners less predictable than they currently are.

An article about the Oscars cannot be complete without mentioning acceptance speeches. This year ABC gave 35 seconds to each person along with the threat of being carried off stage by the escorts if they did not complete their speech in time. This made the speeches a little shorter, but people did not leave without using their entire 35 seconds. I do not understand why speeches need to be so long. Homer could recite the Iliad before an acceptance speech is completed. It seems that stars thank everyone they have ever had contact with in their entire life. They are the main cause for boredom at the Oscars.

I am not saying that other award shows would not be boring at all. In fact, my criticism holds true for all award shows, but the spotlight on the Oscars only draws more attention to its flaws. If the Oscars were treated like any other award show, its meaning would not depreciate to the people that win the award. The award is important to the film industry and would have been known as a prestigious award to the actors and filmmakers if not to the public. It is like the Nobel Prize, it still holds great value to the scientist(s) and certainly determines how much funding he/she gets, but the award does not mean as much to the layman. No television coverage ahs certainly not undermined the value of the Nobel.