"American Beauty" Grabs 5 Oscars

March 27, 2000

The movie "American Beauty" won 5 Academy Awards in the March 26 Oscar telecast. The dark comic drama nearly swept the major categories, taking home five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay. With this impressive collection, DreamWorks proved it wouldn't be toppled by Miramax two years in a row: That studio's "The Cider House Rules" had to settle for two Oscars -- for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Caine) and Best Adapted Screenplay (by John Irving).

To understand how such a miscarriage of justice could take place, you must understand how the Oscars are awarded. The Oscars are voted on by the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And who is in the Academy? Well might you ask. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is made up of Hollywood actors, directors, and screenwriters. Thus, the Oscars are essentially awards given by Hollywood insiders to themselves, based on whatever goofy logic they might collectively apply to the task.

Knowing this, you might ask, If "American Beauty" can be awarded a Best Picture Oscar, why were such box office mega hits as "Star Wars" and "ET" stiffed on Oscar night? The answer lies in understanding the logic that the actors apply in voting the awards. The primary thing that the members of the Academy are interested in, besides making gobs of money, is to be taken seriously. Therefore, to win the Oscar, a movie must have a combination of artistry and box office appeal. The balance of this equation will in some years tilt toward artistry and in other years toward box office appeal. For example, awarding the movie "Titanic" the Oscar clearly reflected a tilt toward box office appeal. On the other hand, the movie "My Left Foot" received the Oscar in a year in which the tilt was toward artistry. Of course, the definition of artistry is in the minds of the beholders. In the case of the Oscar, the beholders that count are the actors, directors, and screenwriters who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. These individuals’ perceptions of artistry may appear somewhat warped both to the average man in the street, who will see little of artistic value in "American Beauty" (other than the title), and to the critics. Indeed, in the case of "American Beauty," the artistry is more akin to that found in a modern art display or an Andy Warhol painting of Campbell soup cans. In a word, this perception of artistry can be summed up as "weirdness." If a movie or painting is sufficiently weird, it’s considered art. Hence, "American Beauty," "My Left Foot," and "Clockwork Orange" are all considered supremely artistic because of their supreme weirdness.

While "Titanic" and "The Godfather" were awarded the Oscar based primarily on their box office appeal, they did have to meet the artistry test as well. In the case of both of these movies, the artistry criterion was met by killing off the leading cast members. If enough of the leading characters in a film bite the dust in the course of the story, the movie is de facto considered artistic, provided, of course, that the movie is not low budget, in which case it’s considered a slasher film rather than a serious artistic endeavor. Another factor must also be considered in determining whether leading characters dropping dead makes the movie an artistic or slasher film. This factor is the ratio of blood and guts to eloquent dying speeches. If the leading characters are killed off in a shower of blood and gore on screen, then the death is not considered artistic. But, if the leading character makes an eloquent dying speech as he is being killed off, then the death is artistic. For example, a simple knifing at the end of "Romeo and Juliet" that would otherwise qualify this film as low-budget schlock is turned instead into high art by Juliet’s eloquent dying speech (in iambic pentameter, no less!). It helps, however, that Juliet does not spew a 10-foot high geyser of blood when she stabs herself; otherwise "Romeo and Juliet" might be ranked with the "Friday the 13th" films.

Sometimes, a bloody, gory death that would not otherwise be considered artistic (that is, no eloquent dying speeches) could be considered artistic because of the weirdness factor. A good example is the movie "Alien" when the alien lizard bursts out through the chest of an unsuspecting victim, killing him the process. It all depends on the budget of the film and the fame of the director. In the case of "Clockwork Orange," the fame of the director (Stanley Kubrick) and the incomprehensible story line made this film sufficiently weird, particularly in the drug-induced stupor of the 1960s, that the brutal killings in the film qualified as artistic, even without eloquent dying speeches.

In addition to artistry and box office, other factors such as cronyism and advertising come into play in the Academy Awards. As mentioned previously, the Oscars are essentially awards given by Hollywood insiders to themselves. Since the Hollywood community of actors, directors, and screenwriters is fairly small, everyone knows everyone else. If an actor or a director is disliked on a personal level by his peers, he and his film are unlikely to get an Oscar, no matter what his talent or the quality of his film. On the flip side, when an actor gets an Oscar, it may be a reflection of his popularity, rather than his talent. This may be the reason why Meryl Streep, nominated five times for Best Actress, has never won. She doesn’t live in Hollywood, preferring to live on the side of the country in New England. Of course, the fact that Meryl Streep can’t act her way out of a paper bag may have also hindered her chances of getting an Oscar. However, this minor handicap did not prevent Jane Fonda from winning two Oscars. Fonda, for those of you who are too young to remember, is perhaps best known for her starring role in the classic science fiction movie "Barberella," directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim.

The studios engage in a lot of lobbying and advertising prior to the awards in an attempt to sway the voters. This advertising is directed at the members of the Academy (the actors, directors, and screenwriters), and thus takes place, not on the pages of People Magazine, but in the Hollywood trade journals. These advertisements may influence considerably the outcome of the voting, particularly in cases where the voters have not seen all of the films that were nominated.

The Oscars haven’t always been this way. In Hollywood’s Golden Age, some truly notable films won the Best Picture Oscar, including "Casa Blanca," "Ben Hur," and "The Ten Commandments." All of these films were also box office favorites, true, but the artistry of these films was the artistry of quality, not the artistry of weirdness. The difference between these films and "American Beauty" is the difference between the "Mona Lisa" and Campbell soup cans. However, if Leonardo da Vinci painted the "Mona Lisa" today, he would be accused of being an illustrator, while Warhol and Picasso would be honored as great painters. That, in a nutshell, is why Hollywood dumps excrement like "American Beauty" on us and pretends it’s a great film.

Given all this, why does anyone care who wins the Oscar? Is it because of the eloquent acceptance speeches and the goofy political opinions? Definitely not. The answer is that the Oscars are probably the best thing on television on the night that they’re presented (up against re-runs and no Monday night football). In addition, everyone watches movies--many of the viewers of the televised Oscar show have actually seen at least one of the nominated films. This makes the Oscar show different from the Tony Awards, where no one has ever heard of any the nominated plays unless they’re remakes of movies. Plus, in a perverse way, it’s fun to watch the losers (arrogant, overpaid prima donnas that they are) when they lose. However, the predictable nature and ludicrousness of the awards in recent years may explain why the awards themselves are overshadowed by such hoopla as the arrival of the celebrities and the Oscar parties that surround the event. Everyone can remember what Charlize Theron was wearing when she arrived for the Oscars, but no one can remember who won the Oscar for Best Costume Design. For the answer to this befuddling riddle and the other less than memorable awardees, here's a complete list of the winners:

Best Picture
"American Beauty"

Best Director
Sam Mendes, "American Beauty"

Best Actor
Kevin Spacey, "American Beauty"

Best Actress
Hilary Swank, "Boys Don't Cry"

Best Supporting Actor
Michael Caine, "The Cider House Rules"

Best Supporting Actress
Angelina Jolie, "Girl, Interrupted"

Best Adapted Screenplay
"The Cider House Rules," John Irving

Best Original Screenplay
"American Beauty," Alan Ball

Best Foreign Film
"All About My Mother," Spain

Best Art Direction
"Sleepy Hollow," Rick Heinrichs (art direction) and Peter Young (set decoration)

Best Cinematography
"American Beauty," Conrad L. Hall

Best Original Song
"You'll Be in My Heart" from "Tarzan," Phil Collins

Best Original Score
"The Red Violin," John Corigliano

Best Sound
"The Matrix"

Best Sound Effects Editing
"The Matrix"

Best Costume Design
"Topsy-Turvy"

Best Visual Effects
"The Matrix"

Best Documentary Feature
"One Day in September"

Best Documentary (Short Subject)
"King Gimp"

Best Film Editing
"The Matrix"

Best Makeup
"Topsy-Turvy"

Best Animated Short Film
"The Old Man and the Sea"

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