While you were recovering from the absolute chaos that was Parade Day 2014, I’m sure you, like most Americans, watched (or considered watching) the biggest awards show in Hollywood — the Oscars.
Dozens of the most beautiful men and women you’ve ever seen — the faces you’ve grown up watching on the big screen in movies like “Titanic,” “Forrest Gump,” “The Lord of the Rings” and such — lit up the red carpet with their screaming, adoring fans behind them as they answered questions that only Ryan Seacrest would think to ask.
When I was younger, I looked forward to awards season like I anticipated a holiday, which in Hollywood you would think it was.
A two-month-long national holiday, starting with the fan-favorite Golden Globes in January, followed by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards and, of course, ending with the Oscars in March. The Oscars are like the icing on top of an extravagantly decorated and somewhat plastic cake.
Of course I paid no attention to the actual awards show. All I cared about was the red carpet portion of the event, when my sisters and I would critique the best and worst looks of the night.
As I got older, however, I’ve started to lose interest in watching the red carpet, and cared even less about the awards show itself — if that was possible. Watching these awards shows year after year has made me question their true purpose.
Yes, it’s a nice sentiment to want to honor the spectacular movies, directors and actors of the past year. Personally, if I were Leonardo DiCaprio, and still hadn’t received an Oscar after countless smash hits like “Titanic,” “Shutter Island” and “Inception,” I would’ve quit acting a long time ago.
However, why all the extravagance with not one big awards show, but multiple celebrations of essentially the same thing? Does anyone really watch the SAG Awards? And it’s a known fact that those other honors don’t really match up to the Oscars anyway.
The excessiveness of awards season is too extreme and needs reform. It’s the same group of rich individuals patting each other on the back, numerous times in the course of a few months, for the same movies and performances.
These actors and actresses spend millions of dollars on different suits, dresses, shoes and jewelry that they’re going to talk about for 15 minutes and wear once. Why? What is it all for?
I know Hollywood is known for grandeur and drama, but those in charge need to rethink the concept behind these repetitive and somewhat meaningless awards shows. Why not have just one awards show — maybe the Oscars since they’re already the most well-known and respected — to celebrate the best of the best in Hollywood?
I saw a tweet the other day that encompassed my beliefs on this issue. It essentially said we should take all the money spent on awards shows and use it for something that actually matters.
These actors, producers, directors and so on have millions of dollars that can be used on important and constructive causes, rather than on preparing for the galas that solidify what we already know — they’re talented. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have made it this far and their movies wouldn’t have grossed so much money.
This is just one moviegoer’s critique of a process that’s been around for nearly 100 years, as the Oscars celebrated their 86th anniversary this past Sunday. Here’s hoping that in the next 100 years, they’ll reform such a ludicrous system.