Who really cares?

The Oscars are on tonight! Oohh! Oohh! Oohh, who cares???

The Oscars are a "big night" for a bunch of self-important creatures, who think they are the most knowledgable, best-intentioned people on the planet. Never mind that many lack morals, values, and are complete hypocrites (you know, preaching against the United States and wicked greedy Republicans, while raking in millions of dollars for dressing up like children and playing "Let's pretend.").

This year seems to be worse than ever, as the "top" films nominated are all pushing social agendas, most particularly Lib ones. I haven't seen a single one and I doubt most Americans have. Perhaps Blue Staters have, but the people who really populate America certainly haven't taken them to heart.

I don't think I will be watching tonight. It would bore me to tears to have to listen to these narcissists (no, not all of them are) prattle on about who they love and how "fabulous it was to make such an important movie about such an important issue" blah blah blah. And watching them prance around the Red Carpet (Red, huh?), in clothing and jewelry which could support how many starving children in Africa? No thanks.

I really don't know all the nominations (nor do I care to look), but my favorite movie, Pride & Prejudice, is only nominated for four awards (and not BEST PICTURE!): Best Actress (Keira Knightley), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score. I have the movie, so I needn't bother watching the Oscars just to see the little tiny film clip for Keira Knightley. I have the soundtrack, so no need to watch just to hear a tiny bit of the beautiful, beautiful music. A few of my other favorite movies are nominated for small awards, but why watch for those?

I really don't want to watch all the Liberal glorying that will surely take place. Reading about it is bad enough.

Washington Post: And This Year's Oscar Goes to Social Issues---

LOS ANGELES -- The awards season in Hollywood is by its very nature a self-congratulatory affair. But this year, the filmmakers say their serious, somber movies really do matter -- not just as entertainment or art, but politically, socially. Hollywood thinks the movies are important again.

Ang Lee, director of "Brokeback Mountain," speaks of "the power of movies to change the way we're thinking." Steven Spielberg, director of "Munich," has called this year's Oscar-nominated films "courageous" for the risks they took with stories about racism, terrorism, government and corporate crime, and homosexuality. Mark R. Harris, a producer of "Crash," said "this movie has changed people's lives."

(emphasis added)

Oh, yes, so important, so life-changing . . . if you are a Liberal. These sorts of films make Liberals even more self-flagellating than usual, over completely ridiculous notions. These movies only matter to them because they think themselves to be the most important, open-minded, clear-thinking, courageous, wonderful people in the world.

Which they are not.

And, really, nor ar their movies.

Here are some other Conservative thoughts on the Oscars and the nominated movies:

Doug Gamble at NRO---Tofu at the Box Office---Gamble laments:

Most of Hollywood's former leading men have been replaced by boys. Starring roles that used to feature guy's guys now go to punks. Damon and Affleck are not worthy to wipe the dust from Butch Cassidy's bicycle.

As someone who became a teenager in the late 1950s, my movie heroes were
larger-than-life figures like John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Robert Mitchum, Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, Clark Gable, William Holden, Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott, and others of that mold.

Compare that lineup to the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Cruise, Heath Ledger, Justin Timberlake, and the aforementioned Damon and Affleck. It's like sizing up a good steak next to a plate of tofu. And while Tom Hanks has been compared to Jimmy Stewart, as versatile and easy to take as Hanks is, he's no Stewart.

The old Hollywood stars, above all, were adults. They had a steely maturity and craggy features that made them look like they had lived a life that delivered a few hard blows along the way, just like our dads. Many had served in WWII. And they all looked different from one another.

Today's breed is made up of kids playing adults. Their faces bear none of that character inflicted by struggle and they appear as though they all emerged from the same muffin tin.

I would like to see John Wayne and Tom Cruise in a boxing match. No need to guess at who would win. John Wayne all the way.

Also at NRO, Cathy Seipp takes a look at Segregated Screenwriters---

I think Crash, which depicts Los Angeles as a segregated city of angry racists, has a good chance to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday — if the Academy decides the big message they want to send this year is "America Is Racist." On the other hand, "America Is Homophobic" is always a popular Oscars message too (remember Philadelphia?) as well as more buzzworthy right now. So probably the smart money should be on Brokeback Mountain.

"America Is McCarthyite/George Clooney Speaks Truth to Power" (Good Night and Good Luck) and "America Doesn't Understand the Human Beings Behind the Israeli/Arab Conflict" (Munich) certainly resonate with Academy voters, but don't have quite the same easy to understand snap. The fifth Best Picture nominee, Capote, is merely a brilliant character study with no obviously useful lessons for Hollywood to teach the unenlightened, so I'd say it's a longshot — although Phillip Seymour Hoffman is deservedly a shoo-in for Best Actor.

And still more from NRO:

Winners and Losers, a symposium of picks and predictions from NRO contributors and others
The Big Picture by John Meroney, about how "Clooney’s myopic Good Night, and Good Luck misrepresents Murrow."
Ned Rice wrote Butch Cassidy and His Life Partner the Sundance Kid---

Like most Americans I haven't seen any of the films nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year, nor do I plan to. I'll also probably skip the Academy Awards telecast scheduled for the day after tomorrow, or as it's known in West Hollywood, "Super Sunday" because I have this thing called a life, as well as things like books and friends and dogs and my beautiful bride to amuse me instead. All of which makes my Oscar predictions every bit as relevant and worthwhile as, say, Cindy Sheehan's views on Israel. So let's get started.

Bridge Johnson has an article about the “Van Gogh Effect”.

At Townhall.com, Burt Prelutsky
has a column about Saving Oscar from suicide and Chuck Colson writes on Which Movies Are Really in the Mainstream?.

Terry Mattingly has a column on No Oscar for Hirsi Ali?

Ann Coulter's Oscar picks through here.

More on the film honoring suicide bombers, "Paradise Now," here.

If you want to watch the Self-Congratulation Party, you can keep track of which Libs win and which Libs don't using this ballot from IMDB.com.

I'll probably be doing something more useful, like reading a book, watching Pride & Prejudice, or perhaps washing my hair.