2016奧斯卡得獎評論 (Coverage of Oscar 2016)

Coverage of Oscar 2016

The Academy Award ceremony took place on 28^th February, 2016. What I find rather interesting is that many of the films that are awarded or nominated this time can be categories into 2 key themes – of course there are exceptions. These themes can be seen as relevant given the cultural and political climate most of us have experienced throughout the last year.   

The first theme is ‘Survival’. Films like ‘The Revenant’, ‘The Martian’ and ‘Mad Max’ have a common theme of lone survival in a harsh and uncompromising situation. This type of film seems to be rather popular and award-worthy in recent years – look at ‘Gravity’, ‘Lone Survivor’, ‘Unbroken’ and ‘All is Lost’ as further examples. When one is in solitude, there are certainly a lot of opportunities to reflect on and give some thoughts about one’s existence, and, like what I have said about in ‘The Wages of Fear’ before, only at the most extreme of circumstances will inspire the truest and most provocative human behaviors. In the cinema, the audience can observe the hero’s ordeal from a safe distance, without getting the bear clutches that DiCarpio’s character is getting – just a joke. Yet, with inspiring messages, the audience will be able to gain something from these films, not of guidelines to survive, but of wisdom to exist.

On a lighter side, some other films involve making grave decisions, and having the courage to be different from the status quo. ‘Brooklyn’, ‘The 100 Year-Old Man’ and ‘Room’ are all about facing problems that require commitment and self-assurance that you can get things right. ‘Carol’, ‘The Danish Girl’, and ‘Straight Outta Compton’ are about doing things that can be seen as revolutionary or even taboo for the characters’ era. The lightest experience of life can be the greatest adventure, and what is common between the two is a confidence to stand firm to what you believe in.

The second theme is ‘Conspiracy’. Many great films in 2015 are about the paranoid feelings that someone is fishy, or about the uncovering of conspiracy. ‘The Hateful Eight’ is the most intense example, and it nicely captures the paranoia, prejudice, and distrust among strangers. ‘Spotlight’ and ‘The Big Short’ are about the dilemma of exposing conspiracy or crisis, when the inevitable result will be devastating to many. 

If you are idealistic and you know you can place bet on justice, the film ‘Sicario’ challenges, then is there really a clear division between black and white? In ‘Joy’, the protagonist works very hard to a status she truly deserves, yet throughout her ascent to the top of the world, the masks of family members and friends are fallen off, and their own motivations are painfully revealed. A comrade today can become a nemesis by the sun rises the next day. To a certain extent, ‘The Revenant’ can also be categorized here. Even ‘Inside Out’ is about getting into someone’s mind!

Paranoia is often associated with the Cold War, and it is rather fascinating to see a number of the films are about the 1950s (which also includes ‘Brooklyn’). ‘The Bridge of Spies’ is the first to come to mind. Indeed, ‘Trumbo’ is the real life story of Dalton Trumbo, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter, who was blacklisted in the 1950s as he was accused of being a Communist sympathizer. At that era, through the rise of McCarthyism, it was all about you were ‘red’ or not. Under this simplistic classification, even the most talented artists could be alienated when they were suspected to be red sympathizer – Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson being nice examples. Another example was the talented filmmaker Jules Dassin, who exiled to France to make the ultimate heist film ‘Rififi’. Indeed, only a number of brave directors, especially Nicholas Ray, Anthony Mann, and Otto Preminger, were willing to make critiques on this undesirable climate for creativity in their work. Their films would eventually inspire the ‘New Wave’ movements around the world in the following years. A film that comes to my mind, which is one I like a lot, is Fred Zinnemann’s ‘High Noon’ – the film which Gary Cooper has to face the bad guys alone, and no one in town is willing to help. The film is famously referenced in the first ‘Die Hard’ film, yet what it represents is an allegory of the political climate of the 1950s. Putting inside an existential framework, the fact that it is so challenging to stand up for one’s own beliefs (even when no one is willing to buy your view), and the desperation for the laymen to avoid censure (the ‘escapist’ cinema of the 1950s), is what makes the Gary Cooper character so heroic and inspiring.

So, lesson learnt – times may be tough, yet the only sensible way to carry on is to be yourself. All the best for the rest of the year, and hope you enjoy the great films to come in 2016!

by Ed Law

1/3/2016  

Film Analysis