Sunday, March 02, 2014

The Oscars

On the first day of Oscar, my true love gave to me
Sandra Bullock defying gravity

Friday on The Neighbors, Jackie-Joyner Kersee (Toks Olagundoye) and Larry Bird (Simon Templeman) sang that as they geared up for the Oscars that air tonight on ABC.





And that led to a discussion among us about some of the great Oscar winners.

But the thing is, there aren't that many.

For instance, Jim thought Steven Soderbergh won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Sex, Lies & Videotape.   He should have.

Instead Tom Schulman won for the ridiculous Dead Poets Society.

Sex, Lies & Videotape was a revolutionary film, one that really made Sundance and kicked started a golden age of film.

Soderbergh went on to direct classics like Magic Mike, Out of Sight, Traffic, Erin Brokovich, Behind the Candelabra, Ocean's 11 and The Underneath.

Winner Schulman?

He followed up his Oscar win by writing Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and such high profile bombs as Second Sight, Medicine Man, Holy Man and 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag.

If the Academy could go back in time, you know they'd redo that award.

Nora Ephron?

No Academy Award for directing or for writing.

Spike Lee?

Also no Academy Award for directing or for writing.

Marilyn Monroe may have won the Golden Globe for Some Like It Hot and been nominated for Bus Stop as well as nominated for a BAFTA for The Seven Year Itch, but she never got nominated for Academy Award.

There have been tremendous slights and oversights over the years.

We looked over a list of winners in various major categories and found only three where we would argue the wins were not just worthy but indisputable:

  • Best Actress
  • Best Original Song

  • Best Original Screenplay



  • Drop a line -- especially if you have a pick of your own -- at thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com.


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