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The Incredibly Shrinking Oscars. Will adults ever take back American popular culture?
American Thinker ^ | 02/28/2011 | J. Robert Smith

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. 



TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: oscars; popularculture
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To: ClearCase_guy

Hollywood is attempting to sexual-ize and politicize everything. It marginalizes everything else. Calling good evil and evil good.

Charlie Sheen will probably become Hollywood’s patron saint, if he lives long enough.

God help us.


61 posted on 02/28/2011 9:39:21 AM PST by stansblugrassgrl (PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!!! YEEEEEHAW!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Waste of time to watch a bunch of self-absorbed idiot elitists pat each other on the back. Besides, I can never think about the Oscars the same after seeing the “Porn Awards” scenes in “Boogie Nights”, which so ironically nailed the patheticness of the Oscars.


62 posted on 02/28/2011 9:41:11 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Made from the right stuff!)
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To: catnipman

Only four of the Oscars go to actors. The rest go to craftsmen (editors, desginers) that don’t get patted on the back for the rest of the year.


63 posted on 02/28/2011 9:44:38 AM PST by Borges
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To: ClearCase_guy

Many homeschoolers are growing up to be different than the general (abased) culture. :)


64 posted on 02/28/2011 9:45:42 AM PST by Shimmer1 (If my body dies, then let it die, but let my country live.)
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To: stansblugrassgrl

Have you seen any of the nominated films? The King’s Speech, True Grit, Inception? The Social Network?


65 posted on 02/28/2011 9:46:53 AM PST by Borges
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To: longtermmemmory

“anne hathaway, from the stills on the news, should never have been allowed anywhere near the kodak center.”

Not sure what you mean . . . She has occassional stills where she isn’t too pretty, but overall, she’s quite beautiful . . .


66 posted on 02/28/2011 10:05:58 AM PST by laweeks
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To: Borges

No. We don’t go to movies very often. I’ve heard True Grit was very good, as was The King’s Speech. We’ll rent the movies we want to see, but honestly, I have a hard time paying dearly to be in a darkened room with strangers (who are usually talking) listening to a constant stream of profanity (in the theater and on screen) while watching gratuitous sex and violence that has little or nothing to do with the plot, if there even IS a plot. I think Ironman was the last movie I saw in a theater. Before that, Serenity (or maybe it was the other way around, I don’t remember).

We try our best not to support actors and actresses who are anti-every value we hold. If you’re a movie buff, you’re going to argue with me that I should see the movies before I make any decisions about them, that the actors politics shouldn’t make a difference - it does, though. It is our small way of making a statement to Hollywood. If more people would do it, they might get the message.

Besides, I’d rather read a book. So much of the story is lost in the movies.


67 posted on 02/28/2011 10:09:36 AM PST by stansblugrassgrl (PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!!! YEEEEEHAW!)
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To: stansblugrassgrl
It's a hugely variegated industry now so you aren't really making a statement to some monolithic factory like it was in the 1940s.
68 posted on 02/28/2011 10:11:42 AM PST by Borges
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To: Borges

An example was given in the previous post- to recap, the tv show discussing an actor’s experience while filming a movie and questioning the character’s anatomy to the actor’s anatomy. It is not likely that such a question would have come up if the interview was about The Big Red One or Saving Private Ryan (well, maybe Saving Ryan’s Privates).

Earlier in the thread I picked a few movies off the top of my head as example, but evidence of porn merging with mainstream entertainment abounds. From hot, scantly clad babes in movies about shape shifting robots to critics’ frame by frame analysis of subliminal clouds of dust or questioning the intent of the animator when positioning the characters a certain way. Of course your mileage may vary.

All that said, I don’t know if you are taking my observation of porn merging with mainstream entertainment as a challenge for you to defend porn or hollywood, both, or whatever. If so, please do not mistake my noting this as being offended by it. Were I offended, I could just as easily ignore it rather than pay it any attention.


69 posted on 02/28/2011 10:16:58 AM PST by new cruelty
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To: Borges

I saw The Social Network (really liked it) and Inception (really, really liked it). After seeing clips last night, I’ll likely rent The King’s Speech.


70 posted on 02/28/2011 10:24:43 AM PST by new cruelty
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To: new cruelty

No interest in defending porn (or in porn in general) just took slight exception to the idea that a film like Boogie Nights signified pornographic strains in popular entertainment. I love that film and it is not pornographic.


71 posted on 02/28/2011 11:29:49 AM PST by Borges
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To: Borges

There are exceptions out there. I’m looking forward to the Atlas Shrugged movie. If it is true to the book, we will see it in the theater. However, I will continue to encourage people to read the book!!!

So much of what is produced is so far to the left, or the subject matter is not interest to us. Often, the language is a factor, as I have a hard enough time keeping my language clean. I don’t need to pay to hear it.

Movie buffs seem to take our non-participation of most movies as an offense. At our age, we’ve seen enough movies to make an educated determination of how we want to spend our entertainment dollars. I’d rather buy ammo and go shooting.


72 posted on 02/28/2011 11:33:28 AM PST by stansblugrassgrl (PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!!! YEEEEEHAW!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Kirk Douglas’s autobiography is very good. But don’t think stars back then had more class. They just didn’t have TMZ. Kirk slept with every leading lady he could get, and it might have been all of them.


73 posted on 02/28/2011 11:56:11 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: SeekAndFind
Just now I also thought he was also a buccaneer in The Crimson Pirate

A role he could well have played, but didn't (I always get those two guys confused)


74 posted on 02/28/2011 1:26:44 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it -Voltaire)
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To: SeekAndFind
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.”

Oh, no. That's my favorite movie ever.

75 posted on 02/28/2011 1:36:10 PM PST by Colonel_Flagg ("It's hard to take the president seriously." - Jim DeMint)
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To: Brother Cracker

Not exactly a “one-hit wonder”;))


76 posted on 02/28/2011 2:11:23 PM PST by Frank_2001
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To: DollyCali; Perdogg

No problem. When I ping you, I’m only calling your attention to the article. I don’t expect you to automatically ping the list. I know from personal experience that if you over ping the list, people will ask to be removed from it. :)


77 posted on 02/28/2011 2:52:29 PM PST by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: Borges; soupbone1
Well, you see, it was filled with profanity!

≤}B^)

78 posted on 02/28/2011 3:15:42 PM PST by Erasmus (Personal goal: Have a bigger carbon footprint than Tony Robbins.)
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To: EveningStar

exactly and many of the movie people just don’t like to go to the threads where everyone is trashing their interest


79 posted on 02/28/2011 3:23:00 PM PST by DollyCali (Don't tell God how big your storm is... tell your storm how BIG your God is!)
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To: LoneConservative
Just for that, I'm going to throw on my Blu-Ray of The Prestige tonight.

Interestingly, it was released at the same time as another fascinating movie about turn-of-the-century European magic, The Illusionist.

You've got Christian Bale, Huge Ackman :), Michael Caine, David Bowie, and Scarlett ("Hot Lips") Johansson in the one; and Ed Norton, Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell, and Jessica Biel in the other.

80 posted on 02/28/2011 3:30:43 PM PST by Erasmus (Personal goal: Have a bigger carbon footprint than Tony Robbins.)
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