Scorsese loses again

[David Coscina 3]

America's greatest living director loses to marginally talented actor Eastwood and the overrated Million Dollar Baby.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Clint is cool!

[bondo 33]

He's cool, but he also already had several oscars (deservedly, but still)

[David Coscina 3]

Clint is cool but if you knew anything about the mechanics of directing, you'd know Scorsese is a master. Eastwood is a hack comparitively. Mystic River was the biggest piece of shit I've seen. An overrated pile of detritous. Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, even Mean Streets and Last Temptation of Christ are significantly superior directorial works.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Well it seems the Academy disagrees with you.

[David Coscina 3]

Stef, that's not really a solid argument. that's like siding with the music community back in 1900 when they declared an Austrian conductor's music to be long and overwrought. 50 years later, Mahler's music would be regarded as the pivotal bridge between Romanticism and Modernism.

[bondo 33]

seems the Academy disagrees with almost everyone not a star

censored

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Stef, that's not really a solid argument.  that's like siding with the music community back in 1900 when they declared an Austrian conductor's music to be long and overwrought.  50 years later, Mahler's music would be regarded as the pivotal bridge between Romanticism and Modernism.

Call me Steef!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Stef, that's not really a solid argument.  that's like siding with the music community back in 1900 when they declared an Austrian conductor's music to be long and overwrought.  50 years later, Mahler's music would be regarded as the pivotal bridge between Romanticism and Modernism.

So Scorcese has to die before he's considered a genius by the Academy?

[David Coscina 3]

Sorry...Steef. And yes, it appears that Scorsese will have to die to be recognized by that particular institution. Which is sad because I don't feel that an Oscar represents the high water mark of the craft any longer. So, I'm not upset that Williams didn't win for his score. Nor James Newton Howard. Their music is too good to be appreciated by the tone deaf voters. Same case applies to Scorcese. It is indeed a sad statement when people like James Cameron, Kevin Costner, Robert Redford, Sam Mendes and co. have best director statuettes when Scorcese, P.T. Anderson, have none....oh well.

[hoby12 0]

Scorcese is great - Clint is all class and a gentlemen when i met him.

[bondo 33]

I dunno about the others you mentioned, but Cameron and Redford earned theirs

[David Coscina 3]

Don't have anything against Eastwood as a person. And I really like Unforgiven. But I wouldn't say it was technically a masterpiece. Goodfellas was. (I know, not the same year).

[Kevin McCallister 0]

Eastwood last year criticized RETURN OF THE KING as being about ?nothing but effects.?

I don't care how good Million Dollar Baby is. The man is not the god of film the Academy seems to think he is.

[benefactor 3]

Eastwood is talented and Unforgiven was great direction. I haven't seen Million Dollar Baby but I've seen The Aviator and it isn't Scorsese best work imho.

He should make real masterpiece or get a Life Achievement Award which he honestly deserve.

[David Coscina 3]

Bondo, I must disagree. Ordinary People was a "t.v. movie of the week". Redford basically placed the camera in front of the actors and that's it. Could have been a stage play. it doesn't take much to direct a film like that. At least from the production standpoint, Costner had some big obstacles to overcome with Dances with Wolves. But still, it wasn't Raging Bull or Goodfellas.

[David Coscina 3]

I think they gave Jackson the Best Director award for the entire trilogy, and for that, he deserved it.

[Sandor 459]

Clint is a very cool guy, but I don't know if he deserved it for THIS film. It would be the same as Spielberg winning for A.I. Spielberg is also a very cool guy, but there a certain films that should not win. Million Dollar Baby is like that, although superior to the mentioned A.I., it was no Aviator.

[bondo 33]

we can still agree that Scorcese should have won at least once at this point in his career

[Eplicon 23]

I had hoped the Oscars would divvy up and let Scorsese take the Best Directing (even though I felt The Aviator was far from his best work) and Eastwood et al. for Best Film. Eastwood is still an excellent director, so kudos to him.

Sometimes it's more prestigious not to win -- which is why so many still highly regard Scorsese (and other directors) despite the fact. Maybe he'll get a lifetime achievement some day; it would be more symbolic when they play classic scenes from all his great films when that happens.

[David Coscina 3]

Clint is a very cool guy, but I don't know if he deserved it for THIS film. It would be the same as Spielberg winning for A.I. Spielberg is also a very cool guy, but there a certain films that should not win. Million Dollar Baby is like that, although superior to the mentioned A.I.,  it was no Aviator.

You clearly didn't understand A.I. It was brilliant.

[David Coscina 3]

I had hoped the Oscars would divvy up and let Scorsese take the Best Directing (even though I felt The Aviator was far from his best work) and Eastwood et al. for Best Film.  Eastwood is still an excellent director, so kudos to him.

Sometimes it's more prestigious not to win -- which is why so many still highly regard Scorsese (and other directors) despite the fact.  Maybe he'll get a lifetime achievement some day; it would be more symbolic when they play classic scenes from all his great films when that happens.

Well put. Scorcese should take comfort in the fact that his films are taught in university film classes throughout North america and I suspect, the world. Redford and Costner's efforts aren't.

[benefactor 3]

Clint Eastwood is just amazing! He can direct many Holy Crap movies, Absolute Power or even The Rookie comes to mind and then? boom, great movie and after years another one! It looks like there are two Eastwoods one shoots Firefox, The Rookie, Sudden Impact and another directs Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Bird and Million Dollar Baby and he also composes his scores, don?t forget! He amaze when nobody expected, that is why he wins.

As for Scorsese ? his masterpieces are all in the past (yet I hope). With those recent movies I always feel like hum? ok? or good, very interesting but? not breathtaking. There is always some disappointing aspect with all of his last movies. That is why he loose, I think.

Anyway, I still have high hopes for Martin Scorsese .

[AC1 3,565]

I love Eastwood. I don't understand all this negativity towards Clint. I'm greatful he's around still making 'movies'. And Mystic River was one of the best (American) movies of that year. It was also a critic's favorite (of course, how could it not be?!). I'm sorry to say this but the real piles of sh*t were all the others.

Long live Clint - may he direct more and compose less.

----------------

Alex Cremers

[AC1 3,565]

As for Scorsese ? his masterpieces are all in the past (yet I hope). With those recent movies I always feel like hum? ok? or good, very interesting but? not breathtaking.  There is always some disappointing aspect with all of his last movies. That is why he loose, I think.

Exactly (especially, Gangs of New York was a fakie - I thought I was watching Titanic).

[QMM 4]

Scorsese not getting the oscar was the biggest outrage of the night for me, he's now been denied 5 times so now he's in league with Hitchcock, who also lost five times

[Johnnyecks 33]

I agree. Even though I enjoyed Clint's movies (those that I've seen... Unforgiven, A Perfect World, and Mystic River), and I have enjoyed Scorsese's filmes, the ones that I've seen (except "Gangs..."), it is an outrage that he didn't win. I have a sinking sensation that the "academy" (I won't even capitalize the "a"), had voted for Clint to win just so they can say that he is the oldest director to win in both the "Best Director" and the "Best Picture" categories. Damn academy being so 'PC' anymore.... and this years was the most PC Oscars to date. It was way to obvious and blatant and was the worst, and most boring telecast that I've ever seen.

Sorry to go off on a rant....... and not to sound bigoted (because I am not at all) but for a moment there, I thought I was watching the WB's Oscars...... and then a french version.... then a spanish version......

I understand that they want to include everyone, to be as politically correct as possible, but they went WAY over the top. From Chris Rock hosting, to the camera focusing on Morgan Freeman....then Oprah..... then Freeman.....then Oprah.....then Freeman...etc........ (since when did Oprah have so much to do with the movies?!?) Then every so often, we would get a glimpse of Taylor Hackford, and the other white nominees just to "even" things out.

.... I think for the first time since I remember watching this show, we didn't see Nicholson in his "sunglasses". Perhaps he wasn't there.....

Anyhow, rant over. I just thought this show was so ridiculous. I have dis-liked the oscars more and more ever year. This one hammered it's polically correctness "include everyone" into my face way to hard.

Don't think I'll even bother watching next years.

[ChrisAfonso 159]

Here's hoping they'll employ the same "One last installment oscar for the entire series" LotR procedure and give John Williams the Award for the completed Star Wars Saga next year. (Though I'm expecting the RotS score to be oscar worthy on its own, same as RotK).

[Justin 2]

I think it's funny that John Logan lost. That was the biggest surprise. Seemed like Aviator was sucking up all those kinds of awards.

Justin

[pixie_twinkle 44]

we can still agree that Scorcese should have won at least once at this point in his career

He should have won 3 times. For Raging Bull in 1980, for Goodfellas in 90, and for Kundun in 1997. I also think Aviator was an amazing film. I haven't seen Million Dollar Baby yet, but it will have to be pretty amazing to be better than Aviator IMO. Clint's films are all very good. He does "sincerity" very well. He's great at getting very sincere performances out of his cast, and I think that's the kind of thing the academy notices and respects. I think the majority of the academy is actors/ex-actors. The more technically-minded people will notice the genius in Scorsese's work, but I don't think they have the main voice in the voting.

[David Coscina 3]

Let's clear something up here- Eastwood is a good director. Movies like Unforgiven and Bridges of Madison County were directed by a sure hand. Eastwood's directorial approach isn't as flamboyant as Scorcese's, that we can all agree on. And honestly, Eastwood probably had the better film this year. I was just hoping that the Oscars would follow suit from previous years and award a remarkable filmmaker for past misgivings. But apparently not.

however, I still contend that Mystic River was an atypical Eastwood film. Emotionally manipulative, overwrought and incoherent at times. To me, it's the most overrated film in recent history. But of course, most of that is just my opinion.

I was happy that Morgan Freeman finally got his due. And Brad Bird's Incredibles picked up a couple awards. Jamie Foxx's speech was a tad melodramatic and Hillary Swank's was just embarressing. But the night unfolded fairly conservatively.

[Hlao-roo 388]

I'm frankly a little tired of people beating up on Ordinary People because the Academy chose to recognize it over Raging Bull. Is it in the same league as Scorsese's masterpiece? Probably not. Did the Academy foul up? So what else is new? Does that make Ordinary People any less an excellent film? No.

So it had a flat, stagey, made-for-TV look. Give me a break. I wonder how many people jumped on Sidney Lumet like that when he made the screen adapation of 12 Angry Men.

[AC1 3,565]

Emotionally manipulative, overwrought and incoherent at times.

Emotionally manipulative? Where? Are we talking about the same movie? The things that were manipulative were done on purpose to keep the viewer in the dark a little about who to believe. Otherwise, this was just plain "old-fashioned" film making, bringing the audience a story with almost no manipulative tools but the actors.

When I was watching Mystic River I honestly didn't know Clint had directed it. I just presumed it was some newcomer (as always these days). But after a few minutes in the movie I was so impressed by what I already saw that I wanted very much to know this talented newcomer's name. I thought: "Now here's a director with balls!" The slow pace, the distant shots of the actors, all very unusual in this MTV day and age of the MTV/Playstation generation.

----------------

Alex Cremers

[David Coscina 3]

I'm not a fan of MTV styled editing either Alex. My heroes are guys like Kurosawa who could hold a shot forever and have characters and events unfolding within the frame. But that is the difference between Eastwood and Kurosawa- Eastwood's shots are just static. He also had an editing problem in Unforgiven which I largely like save for the rampant cutaways. He's a better director than actor, for certain. And his films are quiet which is a nice break from the overstimulation from every other film out there. But I still maintain Mystic River is a weak effort from him,. And several film director friends of mine agree.

[Lurker 5]

I still maintain Mystic River is a weak effort from him,.  And several film director friends of mine agree.

Well if that's what film director's think, who are we to have differing opinions?

Neil

[AC1 3,565]

But I still maintain Mystic River is a weak effort from him,.  And several film director friends of mine agree.

David, tell your director friends, with my compliments and those of almost every critic alive, that Clint's weaker efforts are the movies he made in between Unforgiven and Mystic River, most notably:

Blood Work (2002)

Space Cowboys (2000)

True Crime (1999)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

Absolute Power (1997)

----------------

Alex Cremers

[David Coscina 3]

Neil and Alex, you are as entitled to your opinions as I am mine. I know quite a few people, film and non-film folks who simply couldn't understand what all the fuss was over Mystic River. And I saw the film twice just to see if I was missing something. I normally like Eastwood's films. It took balls for an action icon to direct something as moving and gentle as Bridges of Madison County. and I still think Pale Rider is an underrated film (good score too by Neihuas).

I don't think Aviator was Scorcese's finest film. That I'll admit. In one of the firsts in Academy Award history, they awarded the right film at the right time. But I was hoping they'd do what they normally do- award Scorcese the director award and give Best Picture to Million Dollar Baby much like they did with Saving Private Ryan/Shakespeare in Love back in 1999 (for 1998 films). I think they also did that with Oliver Stone for BOT4OJ and Driving Ms. Daisy if I'm not mistaken. But I guess they just don't like Scorcese enough. Pity. It's like turning away Eisenstein or Kurosawa or Goddard etc. etc.

[Hlao-roo 388]

But I guess they just don't like Scorcese enough.  Pity.

I guess you don't, either, because you're consistently misspelling his name.

[David Coscina 3]

sigh.

Why couldn't you just point out my mistake rather than make some sarcastic remark? I guess that would involve some maturity on your part.

[Hlao-roo 388]

I guess that would involve some maturity on your part.

Yeah, unfortunately we don't do that too well down here in Texas.

[John Crichton 4]

Speak for yourself.

John- mature Texan.

[Lurker 5]

sigh.

Why couldn't you just point out my mistake rather than make some sarcastic remark?  I guess that would involve some maturity on your part.

It's in his nature.

Neil

[David Coscina 3]

Ah...pity.

[pixie_twinkle 44]

It was pity that stayed his hand...

[Morlock 9]

America's greatest living director loses to marginally talented actor Eastwood and the overrated Million Dollar Baby.

Eastwood's acting in the movie was superb, IMO far more impressive than his oscar winning co-stars. His directing was faulty.

Clint is a very cool guy, but I don't know if he deserved it for THIS film. It would be the same as Spielberg winning for A.I. Spielberg is also a very cool guy, but there a certain films that should not win. Million Dollar Baby is like that, although superior to the mentioned A.I.,  it was no Aviator.

You clearly didn't understand A.I. It was brilliant.

"Well, when you're right you're right. And you? you're always right!"

[John McClane 1]

Long live Clint - may he direct more and compose less.

..."Arrogant as always"!

[JoeinAR 1,759]

America's greatest living director loses to marginally talented actor Eastwood and the overrated Million Dollar Baby.

for the second time today, I must post a response to your total bull$h!t post. America's greatest living director is Steven Spielberg, and Million Dollar Baby is a better film than the typically bloated Scorsese project.

[John McClane 1]

America's greatest living director is Steven Spielberg, and Million Dollar Baby is a better film than the typically bloated Scorsese project.

I agree, a part the fact I consider Spielber the greatest living director, American or not.

It's the second time I agree with Joe today. The world is changing.

[Morn 7]

The Aviator was a great movie. As for someone like me interested in aviation, Howard Hughs seems almost like a hero. His 'Hercules' is bigger than a 747...

[David Coscina 3]

Typically bloated Scorsese project? Joe, you haven't seen much Scorsese then. His early films were small, inexpensive productions. Mean Streets, Boxcar Bertha, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, After Hours, all were not big-budgeted films. I would say that even Goodfellas was made on a modest budget. Aside from The Aviator and maybe Casino, he hasn't done too many spectacles. I think New York New York was a big production in its day. But then Scorsese followed it with After Hours. And even something as epic as Last Temptation of Christ wasn't filmed on a super budget.