OSCARS 2011

The King's Speech

For the first time in more than twenty years, I watched the entire Oscar presentation.  Since I am very selective in my films experience, I avoid those with too much painful reality, those stirring up too much angst, and unhappy endings.

Despite my limited taste in movies, I had seen six of those of the many nominated, six more than is usual for me to have seen, but enough to wonder if anyone saw those six as I did.  (Actually that rarely happens).

Those six were:  The King's Speech, The Social Network, Inception, Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3.  The presentation of the Oscars was as well done as I have ever seen.  No one gave insults against the USA, no one made political statements, no one cried, no one refused to get off the stage, and no one thanked even the maid who emptied the chamber pots in the 19C English movies..

Despite lacking the sarcastic and belly jolting comedians of the past, the hosting pair (James Franco and Anne Hathaway) gave a lovely balance and enough laughs to go around.  In all,. the show seemed very well directed, itself, and deserved its own kudos. My habit of not going to bed early was .rewarded with a Jimmy Kimmel satire on the King's Speech, discussing an attempt to make the movie into one more fitting to Americans.  It had Tyson teaching President GW Bush to speak properly.

It left me hoping that Hollywood has once again gotten the message that movies should be entertaining, not heart wrenching.  As a nation, we need to have more laughs, not tears of frustration or pain.