Best Picture poll: Your chance to vote

[eplovejoy]

The poll is for which movie you think will win the Best Picture Oscar in March. The rest of the thread is for your reasoning.

Please feel free to make your argument for the picture you think should win, even if your pick wasn't nominated.

[Grouch]

I've seen all the nominees except Gosford Park, and while I enjoyed all of them, I think LOTR has the edge for a variety of reasons:

1. It takes risks--it's long, it's potentially confusing for those unfamiliar with Tolkien, it has a huge cast, it has a couple of different climaxes, it doesn't "end."

2. All of its production values were absolutely perfect. I can't think of a single moment or image that I didn't think was beautiful.

3. It's not another "little man triumphs over adversity and learns Big Life Lessons along the way" movie (see Shine, As Good as it Gets, My Left Foot, A Beautiful Mind, et al)

4. It had a good blend of all genre elements: adventure, humor, epic spectacle

5. Of all the nominees, it's the only one I wanted to see again immediately after leaving the theater.

[kurt_messick]

I'm amazed at the number of films I haven't seen this year.

[MrsNormanMaine[$]]

Lord of the Rings should win but I think that A Beautiful Mind will win. LotR was made far away from the Hollywood system, even if New Line financed it while ABM is a prestige studio picture. It also has all those noble themes that the academy loves to honor, whether they're worth it or not.

MNM

[vania]

I think Beautiful Mind will probably win (which I haven't seen and really don't want to).

However, I think that Moulin Rouge and Lord of the Rings are far less conventional and more risky pictures, so... as far as the concept of BEST PICTURE (and sheer ingenuity) goes, I would vote for either of those before any of the others.

[dijinn]

Originally posted by MrsNormanMaine
LotR was made far away from the Hollywood system, even if New Line financed it while ABM is a prestige studio picture.

Everyone is budgeting for their films in Hollywood to either be made in Canada or other foreign locales now adays. This won't be the killer for LotR - rather the reason it will lose will be exactly the formula buster that demigod-Grouch hailed as the reason why LotR should win.

And that is - It doesn't follow the shake-n-bake discovery movie formula Hollywood insiders love to love. My Left Foot etc etc etc. I am SURE LotR will lose because of this 'development problem'. I think alot of the development is way beyond the reach of a normal audience - and that is why it will LOSE. hehe. Same reason, different conclusion from demigod-Grouch.

Although, I WILL be pulling for LotR & Moulin Rouge big time!
Dij

[ms_n]

I admit I have not seen many movies from this year. However, I can say that LOTR has my vote. I did not want it to end. I could have easily sat through another six hours right then and there. And, I have not felt that way about a movie for a long, long time. sigh.

[Redlass]

Had to vote for the only one I've seen--LOTR. I wouldn't call it a perfect movie, but it was breathtaking and I'd like to see it several more times.

[Psychovant]

I suspect it should go to Lord of the Rings as well ... I want it to go to Moulin Rouge. Seems though, as if it will go to A Beautiful Mind.

And hey, where's Memento? Grrrr!

Shannon ...

[arianej]

Originally posted by ms_n
I admit I have not seen many movies from this year. However, I can say that LOTR has my vote. I did not want it to end. I could have easily sat through another six hours right then and there. And, I have not felt that way about a movie for a long, long time. sigh.

Ditto the above, and also ditto what Grouch said about wanting to see it again as soon as he'd left the theatre. I'm not usually the kind of person who sees movies multiple times (in the theatre, anyway), but I was tempted. Still am.

It was such a breath-taking movie, and I felt a keen sense of disappointment when it ended! I haven't seen the other pictures nominated, but I can't imagine how I could possibly enjoy them more than I did LOTR.

Ariane

[shadow8]

Gotta agree with Shannon. Where's Memento?! We want Memento!

On another note, I hope that Lord of the Rings wins the coveted Oscar. It's easily one of the most memorable films ever made with stellar performances and a simple yet captivating story. Words cannot describe the breathtaking experience...

MEMENTO was more than just a screenplay or a clean edit. Memento was an all-around innovative masterpiece.

The movie should be up there. Joe Pants and Guy Pearce should be up there.

But then, I don't give a rat's ass about golden naked man-statues or who gives them.

[CurtisEdmonds]

I've seen all but In the Bedroom. Memento and Black Hawk Down deserved more love than they got.

[realtraveller]

Lord of the Rings will win.

A Beautiful Mind has gotten a lot of bad publicity lately just in time to affect the Oscar ballots. Apparently, in the book, John Nash made quite a few anti-Semitic statements, statements which were scrubbed out of the movie. But now Oscar voters are questioning whether to give Oscar to a movie which glamourizes an anti-Semite and which sugar-coated a marriage which broke up and in which the man engaged in homosexual affairs. If this is movie bio, why did they bother choosing a real character. They seem to have left little of the real John Nash in the film.

Moulin Rouge won't win because it's a musical. When was the last time a musical won? "Oliver?" Back in the 60's.

Gosford Park and In The Bedroom are "little" movies.

Therefore in the tradition of Titanic, LOTR will take home the big bald guy this year.

[wokelstein]

I haven't seen Beautiful Mind or Gosford Park. But I can't imagine them being any better then In the Bedroom. This is the third Russel Crowe film nominated for an Oscar and the third time Russell Crowe has been nominated for an Oscar IN A ROW!! It seems that he is playing the Academy for no other reason then to gratify his enormous ego.

He was very badly miscast in the moronic Gladiator. It seems that Beautiful Mind is getting close to meeting his talents.

But i dunno.

[Redlass]

Just recently saw Moulin Rouge for the first time. Wow! They really pulled every cinematic trick in the book, didn't they?

I'm still going to stick with my pick of LOTR for best movie, but if it isn't them, MR would certainly be worthy of an Oscar.

[wokelstein]

Moulin Rouge was certainly interesting. But it bends over backwards to be artificial and meaningless. Its pure movie, plain and simple. One can't even really be entertained by it because it is so purposely contrived, and thus hateful to its format.

You can't get off on the music, melodrama, and farce because you know that those aspects only exist to excentuate the film's movieness.

In the post-Moulin Rouge age, one is grateful all over again for something like In The Bedroom.

[dijinn]

Originally posted by wokelstein
In the post-Moulin Rouge age, one is grateful all over again for something like In The Bedroom.

Of ALL the musicals ever written, which one of them ISN'T contrived? That is the nature of the beast. You like In the Bedroom that is great... but to say Moulin is hateful to its format is a little much. It is by far the most complex storyline in a musical I know I've ever personally seen. Not to mention the fact that it is high in passion - and extremely hip (I believe you call it artificial?)... which musicals have not been for years. Just the fact that it went against the bad kharma tide of musicals all these years says something.

Best movie - obviously not. But to pan it with such disdain seems a bit much.

Dijinn

[wokelstein]

Since it has an unusual amount of energy and is unusually original, I would gladly place Moulin Rouge several places above the usual dreck. I would rather people see and experience this then something like Tomb Raider, Pearl Harbor, American Pie 2, or A Knight's Tale. (I'm sure there were more films then that that I saw this year that I liked less then Moulin Rouge).

But its EXTREMELY phony. You could argue that the whole film is a reaction to the phonyness of the film format itself. John Lequizamo's horrible performance, the maestro conducting the orchestra in front of the curtains in the beginning and the end, the play within the film that closely follows the film's plot, not to mention all the visual gags (gun bouncing off the Eiffel Tower was it), all of these things are included in the film in order to further make it a movie and thus removed from the human realm.

I occasionally responded to it emotionally, but only in a very superficial way. (Gee, isn't sweet how he sings to her).

I'm not on the Moulin Rouge bandwagon, but I did feel that it was an interesting intellectual curiosity; and in spite of itself sometimes entertaining vulgarity.

Needless to say, I don't much like musicals. I've only seen three that I would say I really love: the first two, Pennies from Heaven and Showgirls are very much reviled but I think are effective as a reaction to Top Hat and 42nd Street respectively. They take those films' attempted rapes and turn them into actual rapes for one thing; and generally deal with the implications of the musical's simple-minded optimism (Top Hat vs. Pennies From Heaven) and the musical's cheerfully vulgar excess (42nd Street vs. Showgirls).

The third musical I love is Everyone Says I Love You. This is a pure guilty pleasure and I'm not sure I can adequately defend (or even evaluate) it's content. Perhaps its simply set up where unlike Moulin Rouge, Top Hat, or 42nd Street, I'm not tempted to find anything else then people singing because they are happy and having stupid and petty little problems.

So take that for whatever it's worth.