Sorry to create this thread, but I had to get this out...
This Oscar race is the most terrible in recent memory. I can't believe that a race that should have been about what the better movie and who the better director is, turned into a smear campaign from critics who support either side. People come out and accusing M$B of various things which caused an uproar of right wing activists and diabled groups, which is just sick. What follows is one of - it must be close to 100 now - Roger Ebert's defending pieces of the movie.
Then we have on the other side people attacking Scorsese's epic as being a mess and ironically saying it is destined for Oscar glory to lower its chances. There was even the bi-yearly trashing of William Goldman who wrote a hate piece against the movie before seein it. Plus a perfectly harmless advertising for Amexco by Scorsese is turned into an insult to 9/11-victims.
How far have we come that the race for some golden statue has become dirtier than the last presidential election campaign? So who will win come Oscar night? Frankly, I don't care anymore. This have been a sad few days for the movie industry...

This years race is not very dirty, to tell you the truth. At least in my eyes.

Warner Bros. has a huge stake in both movies. They are the international distributors of The Aviator.

There is no conspiracy to create controversy around Million Dollar Baby, it's just what happened when right-wingers saw it combined with the force of its critical acclaim and Oscar nominations.

I think this year is relatively civil to tell you the truth. None of Dreamwork's "Consider This" ads, no fake-pro Scorsese nonsense... Even Eastwood seems to be on his best behavior.

It may be civil from the studio side, but critics are fighting it out harder than ever. First it was Sideways vs. Million Dollar Baby, now it is Million Dollar Baby vs. Aviator. I now read about 20 different articles which blasted either Million Dollar Baby for being too (fill is what insult you like best) or Aviator (how anyone can call this movie a mess, catastrophy or whatever is beyond me). It seems everyone just stopped painting a non-biased picture of both movies and are campaigning not FOR the movie they like but AGAINST the movie they don't like which I personally find disgusting...

Makes me respect him even more.

Well, at least Eastwood is not making statements like "Fantasy stuff doesn't deserve Oscars" or whatever he said to that extent last year

Shiza.

Just one thing about last year and I'll shut up.

Not only did Eastwood make very public remarks against fantasy and SFX, but the whole marketing campaign was anti-ROTK, instead of being pro-Mystic River. [-X

Well I think Aviator is a mess and from what im seeing, it's the least liked movie in the best picture nominee when it comes to movie-goers.

I think a good argument could be made that Aviator is slightly messy, it definately is not the tightest film that has ever been released. But I don't see how you can say it's the "least liked" among real moviegoers. I don't see evidence for that at all.

Yea, I agree. It's made the most at the Box Office of any besides Ray, and it'll proabably pass Ray's gross.

It has a B at Yahoo.com, the others either have a B+ or A- ( except for Sideways )

At IMDb it has a 7.7, while the other movies have an 8 or above

Yeah, I'm sick of it too.

It's quite clear that The Aviator is the superior film :wink: .


But seriously, what bothers me is not certain critics smear campaigns, but the seemingly out of the blue knocks against The Aviator that have come since the release of Million Dollar Baby. It's like the people who love MDB know that The Aviator is it's greatest competition at the Oscars and therefore are hell bent on comparing the two. I'm also really tired of the sentiment that if Scorsese wins best director this year, that it will be some kind of pity award. If Marty wins this year, it will be based on the artistic merit of his film and will be incredibly well-deserved.

The Aviator could have used another trim.

That said, it contains some sensational scenes (Hell's Angels, Hollywood crash, anything with Cate and Leo) and based on those scenes alone (like Gladiator before it), it may win.

Titanic probably has the lowest rating of its year's nominees as well, but you definitely can't say that it was the least liked. It has become hip to hate Leo DiCaprio...

I like DiCaprio and his performance in Aviator was great, I just didnt care for the movie. The script was a mess.

For NO reason. He's easily one of the most talented actors out there.

I don't think this is a very dirty race this year, but what I do find depressing is the groupthink about the choices. Pretty much most critics and fans of serious movies are in agreement about which are the best few, and I guess I prefer it when there are a wider array of opinions and ideas out there.

I know some people like certain other films but in general it's just a half dozen getting all the attention with little questioning going on as to if they play into a narrow sensibility, reassuring the viewers of perspectives they already have. Like the PC [spoiler removed] message of Million Dollar, or the wine critic in Sideways whose critical approach to life naturally rings a bell with movie critics.

Who the hell cares about Yahoo.com? Yahoo.com is NOT representative of a good cross section of the people seeing these films!

IMDB? I mean... seriously.

I'll give you Yahoo - but IMDb is way accurate imo, there top 250 is very solid.

Yup on both accounts.

Yes it is tiresome isn't it. It's as if some pundits (and fans) can't allow the season to play out and let the chips fall where they may. It's as if they feel the need to "help" their candidate by bashing the film they feel is it biggest rival. The reality is if a film is so "loved" and so "great" it should be able to win on its own merits.