Shame-In: Prologue

For nearly two years I've been gathering notes for a monograph on film in the late 2000s focusing mostly on No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood and how they reflected America under George W. Bush. As clear as this idea is in my head, I've been continually putting off starting the damn thing.

Cut-To: Earlier Tonight. 

I was listening to an interview with writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach in which he discussed a writing group he is part of. They call the group a "Shame-In" since everyone in the group essentially shames the others into working with their mere presence.

Seeing as my work schedule is all over the place, I don't think I could really get together a group of people to do this on a regular basis. But then I thought of you guys, our faithful readers...

What follows is the prologue to my piece which I just wrote in the past couple hours. Hopefully by putting this out there in the ether I will be shamed into continuing to move forward with it. Encouragement is welcome. In the likely event that you think this is crap, please don't tell me, I already agree with you...

Prologue

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" - Bob Dylan

Sunday, February 25th, 2007
The Kodak Theatre was alive with energy as Martin Scorsese left the stage clutching his long overdue Oscar for directing. The glamourous audience had been through a lot and after nearly four hours, the end was in sight, only one award remained. But as Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton made their way to the stage, there was a great amount of uncertainty as to whom would be taking home that last little golden boy.

Normally the film with the most nominations is the shoe-in for Best Picture, yet for the first time in Academy history, the top nominated film wasn’t even in the running. Despite its impressive eight nominations, the long gestating adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Dreamgirls had failed to secure the most important one. Though Babel had the second most nominations with seven, victory seemed unlikely as it had failed to win a single award all night. It was truly anyone’s race. Who would come out on top?

Would it be Clint Eastwood’s year again with his Japanese language WWII film Letters From Iwo Jima? What about The Queen? The Academy does love Brits. Or maybe the feel-good Little Miss Sunshine would follow in the tradition of Marty and Rocky to become the little film that could?

In spite of the three awards it had racked up over the course of the evening (editing, adapted screenplay and director) few saw The Departed as a real contender. It was a genre picture, it was violent and it was cynical. This was the same Academy that had only one year prior singled out the maudlinly hopeful Crash for Oscar glory. Surely they wouldn’t give their highest honor to a film that the director himself later described thusly:

"It has to do with the nature of betrayal. The nature of a morality which, after 2001, has become suspect to me. I'm concerned about the nature of how we live, how we're living in this country and what our values are. This new kind of war is going to continue. Our children are going to inherit it. It's not going to be over with by the time we're dead. It's like a whole worldwide civil war. How does one behave in that context? What's right and what's wrong in that war? On the street level of The Departed, no one can trust one another. Everyone's lying to each other. It fueled me in a way. It got me angry, it got me going."

Going purely off the applause as Diane Keaton read the nominees, it seemed as though Babel might end up walking away the victor. But then again this is the Academy Awards, not Opportunity Knocks. Jack Nicholson didn’t even wait for The Queen's applause to die down before tearing into the envelope. Once it was open, everyone fell silent. Keaton seemed giddy with anticipation. Who would it be? After a moment to examine the contents (and with an oh-so-subtle grin) Nicholson proudly announced the winner - The Departed. And like that, the delusional optimism of Crash was obliterated. The chickens had come home to roost and the rage of The Departed reigned. This was sure to make for a very interesting election season...