The Return of the King was, of course, a very good film. But was it really that good? Be honest. Was it really the best film of last year in eleven separate categories? And can you even remember the song that it won an Oscar for? I know I can’t.
It’s hard to see this as anything other than the Academy over-compensating for the fact that they hadn’t recognised either of the previous films.
Academy Awards have always been a bit of a lottery but it recent years they seem to have lost all relationship with reality. The best example of this is, of course, that one of the most decorated films of all time (equal with this year’s whitewash and, previously, Ben Hur) is Titanic – which is actually just about the most appalling thing ever committed to celluloid.
Possibly one of the most amusing things surrounding the Oscars was when I was listening to the news on the Radio – they said “Lord of the rings won 11 Oscars (the American equivalent of the BAFTAs) last night…”How many people know what the Oscars are, and how many know what the BAFTAs are? Since when did the most popular example of something have to be qualified by a less popular example?:D Very bizarre…