OSCAR TRIBUTE????

[THE WINGS]

I sincerely hope there will be at least some sort of tribute to Heath at this year's Oscars (if there is a show).
Of course, this is totally 'pie-in-the-sky' thinking on my part, but maybe even a post-humous Oscar for his work in Brokeback Mountain.  (We can all dream, can't we?)  That will be probably the only reason I would watch the show.  Anyone with any thoughts?

THE WINGS

[souxi]

I sincerely hope there will be at least some sort of tribute to Heath at this year's Oscars (if there is a show).
Of course, this is totally 'pie-in-the-sky' thinking on my part, but maybe even a post-humous Oscar for his work in Brokeback Mountain.  (We can all dream, can't we?)  That will be probably the only reason I would watch the show.  Anyone with any thoughts?

THE WINGS

I totally agree with you. I think he should be awarded the Oscar he should have got for BBM posthumously. He deserves it and it,s the right thing to do. Bless him.

[HerrKaiser]

Unfortunately while tons of people think he unfairly lost to Philip S Hoffman, the academy would never slap Hoffman in the face by now awarding Ledger the award. The best they could do is award him a life time achievement oscar, but those are usually not given to the very young. What we can expect is to see Heath within the annual memorial tribute to all the Hollywood industry folks who passed since the last awards show. This is a montage of photos (some film) of the celebs; each is on the screen for a few seconds. They try to make each person about equal, but the biggest names often have had more than one still and/or a film clip. Given that Heath's death will still be relatively recent and he is more of a peer to the live audience than most of the others who died and he is recently big box office, the director may give him a more notable section. Hope so. I'm sure there will be applause.

[serious crayons]

I think they'll give him an extra-long segment in the "academy members who died in the past year" portion of the show. But I don't think they'll do anything special beyond that, because they really would be opening up a can of worms. What happens when another talented young actor/actress dies? Or one who's a little older? Or one who's middle aged or later, but still working? Where would they draw the line?

[Sheriff Roland]

And then there's always next year's oscar, where he's likely to be nominated and possibly win for his performance as the Joker.

Not that the oscars mean anything to me, anymore.

[nakymaton]

I can think of one subtle but appropriate thing that they could do: use The Wings as music during the In Memorium segment.

I would be very surprised if Heath won posthumously for playing The Joker, unfortunately. Only one person won an Oscar after his death. (And it wasn't James Dean, who was nominated twice after his death.) And on top of that, there's the genre picture issue. Actors have been nominated from genre pictures, but not many have won. And from a superhero movie? The Academy would have to get past a number of different biases to give Heath the award.

[yb]

But with all those drug speculation surrounding Heath, do you think Oscar will honour Heath?  I don't know how Oscar works, but I'm afraid this may affect Oscar's plan on this..

But Sheriff is right, I don't care much for Oscar any more after Heath lost his Best Actor.  

[HerrKaiser]

But with all those drug speculation surrounding Heath, do you think Oscar will honour Heath?  I don't know how Oscar works, but I'm afraid this may affect Oscar's plan on this..

But Sheriff is right, I don't care much for Oscar any more after Heath lost his Best Actor.  

right, after the overt slight two years ago, the oscars are quite reduced in import.

nonetheless, the hollywood group would never overlook a big name for specualation or factual drug use. they never snubbed Belushi, Monroe, etc. Nor will they for Heath.

but, remember...the "academy" is only an elite club of a few of the industry. They try not to play favorites and manage their PR like the queen does her family's. So, there is almost no quesiton Heath will be featured within the segment of those who died in the last year, but don't get your hopes up that he will have a great big huge memorial that outshines the others.

[Brown Eyes]

Not that the oscars mean anything to me, anymore.

Heya Sheriff!

I absolutely agree with this sentiment.  100%.  This is still me on the subject of BBM and the Oscars ----> 

On one hand it would be nice if the Oscars awarded Heath something, posthumously.  But, at this point, I agree that the Oscars have lost credibility (with me at least).  And this goes beyond Brokeback... with the snub of BBM I've learned a lot about the Oscars' dubious track-record of snubbing first class films and people quite frequently.

So, after looking at this thread, I performed my little ritual when I find myself getting all upset about the Oscars.  I went to imdb and did some rather cursory research on other major cinematic figures and films that have been snubbed by Oscar.  Heath and Brokeback are in really good company (and that said, the total number of other non-Oscar wins for BBM is still jaw-droppingly impressive when you compare it to many historic films).

The best example of a ridiculous Oscar snub was Citizen Kane, which of course many people believe is the best film ever made.  So, in this case, history has really proven Oscar wrong.  In 1942 it was nominated for 9 Oscars.  It only won one for Best Screenplay.  It lost in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music/Score, Best Sound, and Best Director.  The fact that it lost in the categories of cinematography and director is really, really laughable... since in almost all standard histories of film, Kane is cited as one of the best/ most innovative examples of both of those categories.

Here are several, somewhat random examples of other towering figures in film history snubbed by Oscar:

Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar.

Cary Grant never won an Oscar.

Lauren Bacall still has never won an Oscar.

I think these 4 examples are shocking. They've all been nominated, but none of these have won.  These examples are reassuring to me because they prove without any doubt that a person or film can have a major, major impact of cinematic history without Oscars' recognition.  And, in some sense, these snubs make Brokeback's 3 wins look very good.

   
I don't mean to be totally and completely negative about the Oscars.  Sometimes they do get it right or make good gestures of recognition.  But, the number of serious "misses" in Oscars' history really makes me wonder about the clout that this one, singular award ceremony holds. 



here's a footnote about Citizen Kane's one Best Screenplay Oscar.  This is a quotation from imdb

Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Herman J. Mankiewicz
Orson Welles
On Friday, July 19th, 2003, Orson Welles' Oscar statuette went on sale at an auction at Christie's, New York, but was voluntarily withdrawn so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences could buy it back for just 1 dollar. The statuette, included in a large selection of Welles-related material, was going to be sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate and was expected to sell at over 300,000 dollars.

[Sandy]

There's an element of me that doesn't want him to be recognised by the Oscars now.  I wanted them to recognise him the first time round and not act sad and guilty that he has passed away. And if they have a problem with the allegations of drug taking, well they really can stick it.  They of all should understand how the media twists things. 

But I know I'm cutting my nose off to spite my face and the Academy and the rest of the world should be recognising his brilliance.