This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
"I Will Always Love You"'s inclusion in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is not an example of an Oscar Bait Song. The song had already been recorded and released eight years earlier. It was not eligible for an Oscar when it was included in the movie.
Prfnoff: Cut this bit of Dreamgirls natter:
- It's also pretty "love it or hate it", this editor has not heard a single person say it was "okay"
Jonn: I want to add the following segment, but I don't know where to put it;
- Foreigners often have a high chance of winning, especially if they combine it with one of the other tactics. For example; the five contenders for Best Actress were two white American women playing more or less ordinary women, one British actress playing a woman with Alzheimer's, an Australian actress playing Queen Elizabeth, and an attractive Frenchwoman on her first nomination playing a troubled, homely French singer. This troper all but leapt out of his seat shouting "Just wait a gorram minute!"
Matthew The Raven: Ellen Page is Canadian. Which reminds me, were Juno and Little Miss Sunshine really Oscar Bait? Two examples of "quirky" indie comedies that resemble each other if you squint really isn't a trend...
Ronnie: Wanted to float this before posting, is it just me, or does The Dark Knight seem to be Batman, but with liberal amounts of Oscar Bait tacked on?
Vifetoile: I don't think it's just you. It's not even like all of the bait was intentional - having a posthumously brilliant performance is such Oscar Bait. Sorry, Heath Ledger. I still am not sure how valid it is for the main page - further thoughts, anyone?
Rinny: Looks like the Oscars themselves answered that question for you. No funny costumes and capes for their Best Picture nominees! Never!
Belmont: There's a comment on the main page about how Dark Knight is an Oscar Bait exception, winning the Best Supporting Actor award while still being a comic book movie. I call bullshit! Had Heath Ledger been terminally ill while he was firing bazookas and brandishing knives, yeah, I'd have supported the Oscar. But he died, after filming was done, in his sleep, of accidental pill overdose; he didn't exactly go out like a hero, so why reward him like one with a posthumous Oscar?
Rinny: I have to question the "super-liberal" part of the description because I don't think that's always true. (Also, I don't think Million Dollar Baby existed to be an Author Tract about euthanasia, especially since that's not how Clint Eastwood rolls, but I'll leave that one aside.) The Oscars, if we're thinking that they are awarded based on political messages, are often seen as awarding films with very safe messages. In no year was this more evident than in 2006, when they took a lot of heat for awarding Best Picture to Crash over the frontrunner Brokeback Mountain. When making sense of the upset, many critics pointed to the political content, concluding that "racism is bad" seemed to be a less controversial message than "homophobia is bad"... not to mention the voters who stated that they refused to watch Brokeback because they found it offensive. It's also worth noting that yes, they're still giving it up for films with the oh-so-daring message "the Holocaust was bad," no matter how mediocre those films are generally agreed to be. Finally, in regard to queer roles gaining Oscar glory, this post
is worth checking out, as it details certain unfortunate rules that these characters seem to have to follow. The striking contrast of the Ed Harris role in The Hours (nomination) and the Dennis Quaid role in Far From Heaven (no nomination) in the same year is particularly telling.
- Sad but true. Although Milk won best screenplay (and the openly gay writer got to give a pretty heartwarming acceptance speech) and best actor. Granted, Milk died and it's a biopic, but there was some discussion that those wins were de-facto apologies for snubbing Brokeback; not to mention a show of solidarity after Prop. 8's passing. Or Sean Penn legitimately did give the best performance of the bunch.
- As someone pointed out in the comments of the article, angst/death abounds in many of the nominated straight roles as well, and in many cases it's probably less about the Oscars not approving of gay relationships and happiness, but simply not approving of happy characters. True Art Is Angsty and whatnot.
Very tempted to make the laconic entry "an Oscar-baiting movie is an award-winning movie you don't like."
- Yeah. But this stuff is so fun to be snarky about the article might just be better off labelled as Subjective.
Kaywinnet: I think we should take SlumdogMillionare out. It's hard to see how it could be an award-bait movie when for most of the production it was a teeny tiny movie that would be lucky to even get a theatre release. Also, I find it hard to believe any Oscar Bait movie would be partially in another language, be set in a foreign country, actually be about a resident of that country rather than a visiting white guy, and star an Indian/British cast. Obviously this was a major exception, but the Academy generally seems to vastly prefer American movies.
Arivne: Deleted the spoiler on "Don Ameche in Cocoon" being the only other sci-fi acting Oscar win. This doesn't really need to be spoilered, does it?
