Posted on 02/28/2011 7:41:48 AM PST by SeekAndFind
One of the wire services reported that the Oscars show Sunday night was aiming to be younger and hipper. The producers succeeded - which was what made the Oscars stink. Actually, "younger and hipper" has been arresting the Oscars for more than a few years - just as it's been retarding American popular culture since the 1960s.
Watching last night's Oscars, one is reminded a bit of Anthony Burgess' classical novel, A Clockwork Orange. It begs the question: "Where have all the adults gone?"
Viewers were treated to a long train of twenty-something and thirty-something actors and actresses making sophomoric jokes, using some profanity, and - predictably - making political points to pander to liberal causes or unions, which seemed to be last night's cause célèbre.Sex was also standard fare, which one would expect adolescents to want. That none of these young and hip performers snapped gum on stage was a little surprising.
Once upon a time, Hollywood was populated by actors and actresses of stature. Men like Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, John Wayne, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen. Women like Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert, and Faye Dunaway.
Don't know who these performers are? Checkout Turner Classic Movies. It's a good place to start. Take a look at Hollywood before Zeke and Luther came to town and took over things.
Viewers did get to see 94-year-old Kirk Douglas ogle Anne Hathaway for yucks. So much for having a Hollywood legend treated with respect. But, then, aren't leering old men cool?
Will adults ever take back American popular culture? Good question. Don't know. At least "The King's Speech" won for Best Picture, along with three other Oscars. So, maybe, there's hope after all. Maybe there are adults crying to be freed from Hollywood's adolescent prison.
Grownups taking back American culture - high and low - would be a very healthy thing for the nation.
This reminds me of the movie “Idiocracy” which I am beginning to think is more of a documentary than a comedy
I guess I should be sorry I miss a young girl speaking like a marine to his buddies in a foxhole.
NOT! Can’t stand watching idiots act like idiots!
There are pockets of real culture that can be found, but what we call "pop culture" -- the stuff that generates millions and millions of dollars -- is crap and will emain crap. Perhaps it was not always true, but for today, this is a very true statement: "Crap sells".
With the internet getting ever more bandwith available, Hollywood is starting to become a relic. They’re like an old has-been actor who still thinks he’s far more important than he is.
In the meantime, more than half the voters are over 50. The young and hip are in for a surprise.
ping
The American Thinker also observes that even the Oscars are not an ‘Obama-free zone’.
Barack Obama made an Oscar cameo appearance at the Academy Awards.
The president appeared in a montage of man-on-the-street interviews, during which participants were asked to name some of their most memorable songs from movies.
Obama appeared in the montage to say that his favorite was “As Time Goes By,” the song sung by actor Dooley Wilson in the classic “Casablanca.”
This was symbolic on several levels.
Lest we forget, Barack Obama never tires of seeing himself as the world’s biggest celebrity so why not show up on one of the most-watched TV shows around the world. In a sense, he scored a second time within a month because he also was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly before the Super Bowl — also one of the most watched broadcasts on the planet. He truly is the world’s biggest celebrity, as the old McCain ads put it in a deservedly mocking way.
He has been the toast of Tinsel Town for years now, always happy to accept millions of dollars and free publicity from Hollywood. He had a direct pipeline to mega agent Ari Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel, his former Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago.
The entertainment industry has adored Barack Obama. Remember, among all the awards he has pocketed was a Grammy merely for talking!
Obama is the political manifestation of Hollywood’s talent and skills at their best. Hollywood celebrities — and Barack Obama — rose to stardom using the same types of tools and craft: artifice, a willing media, high-technology , public relation machines, posters, teleprompters (or cue cards for stars with short-circuited short-term memories) and the willingness of people to suspend disbelief. Hollywood excels in myth-making, after all.
Poor Kirk Douglas - he overcomes all of his physical problems, his advanced years & still manages to be funny and entertaining while bringing a little greatness of Hollywood’s past - and then some nobody reminds us why most of America considers Hollywood a pigstye by dropping the F bomb.
I actually DVRd the Oscars so I could later zoom thru the commercials, so when I got to Kirk Douglas’s appearance, I had NO IDEA who he was. So I rewound and rewound and rewound and had to go back to when he was introduced to find out who he was. Kinda’ like watching Dick Clark’s madness on New Years Eve. Altho I completely agree with his swooning over Ann Hathaway (incredible eyes, etc), I felt bad that he was fumbling and stumbling through his lines.
Other than that, I really didn’t pay much attention except to pause to stare at Amy Adams who exudes tons of beauty and class . . . dittos to Portman.
The rest of them? It’s Prom Nite at the local High School where parents are not invited.
“The King’s Speech” wiped the floor with “The Social Network”. That’s an indication that the adults haven’t totally given up.
I posted this on another thread — Anne Hathaway tried her darn best and in fact, was trying hard... but clearly, she needs more hosting (and life) experience.
Seeing the impromptu naughtiness of 94 year old Kirk Douglas and then the appearance of Billy Crystal just reminds us what the word “adult” means.
The contrast between Billy Crystal and last night’s hosts cannot be more startling.
There was one fleeting moment of interest: when Bob Hope materialized behind a lecturn as a holographic image.
Here’s an idea -— about giving up the Oscar shows entirely to holographic presenters? If Watson can take over Jeopardy, when can’t computers and technology take over the Oscars?
It would be fascinating, and I’d really like to see what would happen if somehow, there was a power surge !!
Then it would be only a little more vacuous than last night’s event.
The youth culture will eventually throw todays stars to the curb for a younger bunch..
So few movies I want to see are made today ... I actually like the Disney animations.. how sad is that ??
probably will NOT ping the lists for these as we all discussed the same issues on the live thread that went on last night. I didnt see one point in either this article or the other one that did not get mentioned by our group
I don’t want to over ping our list. THere must have been a dozen or more threads on THe Kings Speech prior to Oscars.. I only pinged 2,
At present they have done all they can to push the culture envelope. Same sex stories, denigrating christians, dumbing down the white male. The next step is the seemless merging of porn into the mainstream cinema.
That's interesting. He has obviously made a name for himself over the past several decades, but when I actually thought about it, I best know him as Michael Douglas' dad/Cathryn Zeta-Jones' father-in-law. I do remember seeing broadcasts of Spartacus and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but I don't recall seeing any other movies he has done.
What does the means of distribution (the Net) have to do with the producers of content (Hollywood)?
‘Top Gun’ (and its imitators) is one of the chief cultprits of the decline of American movies for adults.
“I actually like the Disney animations.. how sad is that ??”
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Old sitcoms, cartoons and movies, particularly those with a family orientation(before 1970, there were VERY few movies produced which could not be watched by an entire family), are about all I watch, aside from some sports and EWTN.
Even the “educational” channels are often full of leftist propaganda.
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