Not impressed by the Oscars (From This is Hampshire)

Not impressed by the Oscars

3:32pm Friday 12th March 2010

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MEMBERS of The Academy are no doubt still giving themselves a big old pat on the back as we reach the end of the biggest week in Hollywood’s calendar.

They opted for the least commercially successful Best Picture winner of all time in The Hurt Locker, which has taken less than $15m at the US box office, which is peanuts when compared to its biggest rival for the gong Avatar.

James Cameron’s epic motion picture is the most successful nominee of all time with more than $700m in hard cash already, but it was his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow who got to feel all smug by picking up the most coveted prize of all.

But of course it’s not all about commercial success. Nor should it be.

I just wish the Oscars weren’t so – well American.

And that’s not just sour grapes because our own Colin Firth, Dame Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan missed out on the top acting honours.

It’s just that even the wonderfully worthy |The Hurt Locker, a portrayal of the lives of military bomb disposal experts in Iraq, is utterly Hollywood.

Not only is it financed by the big movie houses, but it’s approach is typically gung-ho and pro-American.

And Avatar, the 3D colossus which has taken on the world, is tainted by Hollywood |liberalism.

One of Hollywood’s great strengths has always been it’s ability to absorb the biggest influences on the Western World and even further afield to Bollywood and beyond.

But this year it was just a lot of parochial pap.