Oscars

Crunchy Con | Rod Dreher:

“I wish I could think of a single interesting thing to say about the Oscars. ... I kept wondering, 'Was it always this boring?' I'm generally environmentalist in my outlook but all the sanctimony surrounding Al Gore and the global warming issue was hard to take. The highlight (lowlight?) had to have been Leonardo di Caprio earnestly advising viewers to visit the Oscar.com website for hints on how they could help save the planet. It's not the cause that puts me off -- in fact, the advice given on the Oscar site is reasonable -- but rather Hollywood itself. What a wonderful world it would be if they would just shut up and entertain.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

First, on the charge of the telecast being boring, I have just one word to say: TiVo. With TiVo, the production was tight, fast-paced and flew by. First time in years I saw every award, every song and dance and comedy bit, all in well less than four hours.

Second, on the charge of sanctimony, guilty as charged, I guess, but so what? If Hollywood ignored social causes, it would be guilty of getting rich off the public and returning nothing. There are people who want businesses to focus only on providing a good product at a good price. Maybe Mr Dreher would be fine with that, but others want businesses to be good corporate citizens as well. For Hollywood, using their awards ceremony to promote environmentalism is one way they choose to do this. If they can make it entertaining as well, so much the better, and the bit with Al Gore's announcement about running for President being drowned out by a rising orchestral fanfare was funny.

This year's Oscar ceremony will be remembered for having a former Vice President in the audience, Al Gore having been nominated for a documentary movie on global warming. There's not a producer on Earth that would pass up an opportunity to showcase that. Rod Dreher claims it made him nauseous, but he's talking about it. The theater audience reacted, not with nausea, but with enthusiasm. The home audience probably reacted with the same mixture of strong red and blue emotions. Out of such controversy comes entertainment, which ironically is just what Mr Dreher said he wished for. Score one for the Oscars.