It’s no secret around the Big Shiny Robot headquarters (Kill-tacular-tron’s unfinished basement) that I am no fan of award shows. The Oscars, the Emmys, Golden Globes, and various music awards – I dislike all of them. I have always thought they were just masturbatory and pretentious. In fact, during the Golden Globes Mr. Simon Pegg pretty much summed up my same feelings via his Twitter account:
And the award for best contortionist goes to the film/television industry for patting itself on the back so frequently and with such vigour.
Now, the context of this tweet may have been tongue in cheek, only Simon Pegg could note his true feelings about this, but none-the-less, this simple tweet rang true for me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love movies and many television shows. I spend a lot of my free time diving into various universes portrayed on screen and becoming completely taken in by them. However, the thought of awards for “Best Picture”, “Actor In a leading role”, etc. being handed out by a group of people who are deemed to be foremost experts in film has always seemed a bit ludicrous and self indulgent to me. Shouldn’t these types of awards be determined by the public for whom these films are made? Why is a specific group of film industry folk telling “us” who is this year’s “Best Actress”? And, yes, I know, some award shows do work this way – but I’m referring to the Oscars, the “Super Bowl” of awards shows, the award everyone strives to take home. To me, this makes the whole idea seem so self-congratulating.
That all being said, I feel a little BSR background is in order here. I am one of “those” geeks who also enjoys sports. It’s a conundrum; growing up I would go to soccer practice then come home and read some comics – thoroughly enjoying both. Now, with my organised sports days behind me I find myself indulging my geeky side a little bit more often than my “jock” (for lack of a better term) side, but you’ll still find me following my favorite NFL, NBA, MLB, and college football teams closely and watching all the big games. For BSR co-founder Swank-mo-tron and I, this leads to a bit of conention. I find the Super Bowl, for example, to be exciting and fun to watch. The teams involved have fought their way to the top to play in the big game – winning games in the regular season, coming up with a solid playbook, and playing their hearts out. In my head, they’ve earned the right to be there and that’s what makes this event so epic and exciting to watch. But Swank’s brain doesn’t work that way. Much in the way that I see awards shows, he finds these events to be pointless and masturbatory. I argue that these guys have trained and practiced hard to get to the top of their game to be professional athletes, but it falls on deaf ears – just like when he tries to explain to me whats so great about the Oscars.
In the interest of full disclosure, Swank and I “got into it” a little bit yesterday. I spent Oscar night poking fun at the event and growing more and more irritated at the fact that three-quarters of my Twitter feed took it upon themselves to live-Tweet the event. As we were hashing things out like gentlemen (only three of four “f-bombs” were used) he said, “The Oscars are like my Super Bowl”. Something clicked and I’ve been thinking about that statement the last few days. Just like professional athletes, actors and actresses hone their craft to be at the top of their game; taking on daring and emotional roles, striving to portray a character on screen that will immerse the audience in that world for 120 minutes and make an emotional impact. Why shouldn’t they be awarded for this? Natalie Portman trained like crazy and lost weight for her role in Black Swan and gave a great performance, should her efforts go unrecognized? I suppose they shouldn’t.
I wouldn’t say at this point I’ve had a complete change of heart, but I think I may be starting to understand. I may never be able to get past the pagentry and self-indulgent overtones of the ceremony itself, but I think I get the intentions and what these awards mean to these professionals in the film industry, and for next year’s Oscars I’m willing to keep an open mind. So, I’d like to issue a challenge to Swank-mo-tron: I invite you, sir, to come watch the Super Bowl with me this year, with an open mind. Good food, good alcohol, and an exciting event that you may just enjoy in the right environment – even if that amount of enjoyment is so small it’s unmeasureable. In turn, I am willing to watch the Oscars with you next year, again with an open mind trying to find the enjoyment that so many people apparently find in this event. After each event, we will provide the good readers of BSR with some commentary on our experiences and any new insights we may stumble across during this experiment – possibly finding some understanding and common ground in the gap between movie buffs who enjoy award shows, and sports fans who enjoy big sporting events.
I await your response.