March 3, 2010

The producer of "The Hurt Locker" is banned from the Oscars for emailing members to disparage "Avatar."

Nicolas Chartier broke the rules. He might win an Oscar — it's the producer of the Best Picture who gets the statuette — but he won't be able to take the stage to proclaim himself the King of the World or whatever the hell he might like to do.

31 comments:

Peter V. Bella said...

It would be more news worthy if they denied him an Oscar for breaking the rules. But, hey, he still got slapped.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Rather telling that Hollywood is giving Hurt Locker such kudos while vets are trashing it.

Lincolntf said...

Holy crap. I actually saw the beginning of this story a day or two ago. I was surprised when the article said that "being banned from the event" was one of the potential outcomes. I'm no bleeding heart, but that seems awful harsh for a pretty generic bit of gamesmanship.

traditionalguy said...

Maudite and a finger to the Hurt Locker producer and all his friends.

Anonymous said...

Hollywood is giving Hurt Locker such kudos because vets are trashing it.

FIFY.

Joan said...

HD, vets may be trashing the specifics but overall, The Hurt Locker got a lot more right than any other Iraq War movie has so far.

Alex said...

Both Cameron and his ex-wife can go to hell for their anti-American hate.

traditionalguy said...

The false message in this film is that a cowboy independence is a brave act. It is not. Working with your team is the only way it works. It is true that the IED bombs set nightly to blow up Americans is a terrible fact of life that is now more perfected than ever before to kill Americans in the Afghanistan trap. Afghanistan is Obama's war now, so no movies about that trap will be made.

Scott M said...

@Hoosier Daddy

Rather telling that Hollywood is giving Hurt Locker such kudos while vets are trashing it.

I've honestly not seen it myself...or much of anything else with the new bambino...(drought ends 3/4 with a sneak preview of Kickass)...but my father has. He was an EOD troop for 17 years including two years with Delta. He thought it was a "pretty damned good movie".

Alex said...

Scott - how do you reconcile your father's opinion with all the current EOD guys trashing it?

Anonymous said...

"Nicolas Chartier has been barred from the event after sending an e-mail to voters urging them to name his movie as best film over rival Avatar. "

On the other hand, if he had raped a young girl, he'd be a presenter at least or eligible for a life-time achievement award.

Oh! those show folk.

Fen said...

Most the guys I hear who are trashing it are refering to details that a decent military advisor could have corrected on set.

We all do this when hollywood focuses on our own area of expertise.

They like the film overall, but just wish hollywood had taken measures to get it right.

Fen said...

On the other hand, if he had raped a young girl, he'd be a presenter at least or eligible for a life-time achievement award.

Of course, my only interest in the Oscars would be as disaster porn.

Can we move them closer to the Fault next year?

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I'm a vet. I liked it.

It's a movie. Why do people insist that movies be real? They aren't. You're imposing a narrative just by making it. So called "documentaries" are usually much worse, in that they claim to be more real but are usually even less so.

Yeah, I know EOD teams don't operate alone. I know a .50 bullet would go right through a mud building.

So what? The important thing is that the characters are authentic. They are. I met people that were like the characters.

And the soldiers are the protagonists. I like that. And they aren't awful people, either to begin with or as a result of the war.

War sucks. If someone wants to make an honest movie about war, they need to show that. Normal people do not love war. Sergeant Sandborn and Specialist Eldridge are normal people, professionals, but they want to go home eventually and get on with their lives.

The protagonist of "The Hurt Locker" is not a normal man. He can't go home. Bombs are his life. You meet people like this, people who are born warriors and can't do anything else. Sometimes they are cops or firemen, not just soldiers. They are almost always men.

Is there some sort of antiwar message that I'm missing? No more than any honest look at war will give you. The hero of the movie defuses bombs, the primary weapon of the enemy. The enemy wants to blow up people. The hero tries to stop them. And he loves his job. Is this really so bad?

The producer was breaking the rules, but he's right. Avatar is an empty shell compared to this one.

Anonymous said...

Fen:

I heard the same thing. Lacks the usual Hollywood left agenda but not an accurate depiction of battle field tactics. To which some counter-critics have said "Did you want a training film?"

Penny said...

"Academy rules prohibit 'casting a negative or derogatory light on a competing film'," the Academy said in a statement.

It's a good thing that the Academy doesn't set the rules for our political elections.

Can you imagine if candidates, once they are in the running, were held to such standards?

Unknown said...

traditionalguy -

"The false message in this film is that a cowboy independence is a brave act. It is not."

Really?

Leo Major

Ron Speirs

Fen said...

John: I'm a vet. I liked it. It's a movie. Why do people insist that movies be real?

As a vet, the problem for me is that obvious errors take me out of the movie. And then my subconcious eye is looking for more flaws through the rest of it. Ruins the experience for me.

Had the same problem when Clancy "wounded" one of his characters with three hits from a 25mm chain cannon. Laughed through the next 3 pages.

Lars: Lacks the usual Hollywood left agenda but not an accurate depiction of battle field tactics.

Thats an important point. The bar is set so low that we're pleasantly surprised to get a film out of hollywood that does'nt portray us as Stupid or Evil.

The last good military flick I saw was Tears of the Sun. 6 years ago.

Unknown said...

Not, of course, referring to bombs. But, there are times.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Fen-

I talked to a former SEAL who said Tears of the Sun was the most accurate movie about what he did.

Anyway, I'd rather have inaccurate movies that are fun to watch than accurate ones that are boring. The Hurt Locker is not boring.

The action is pretty brief. The tension is what keeps it going. That's a lot more interesting than an hour of mindless violence.

Penny said...

I am hardly a movie buff, but when I read about this a few days ago, I got angry. I visualized Goliath bending over and patting David on his head while taking away his sling shot.

This isn't a story about "following the rules". This is a story that gives us a closer look at who makes the rules, and WHY.

This was a small independent film, and this poor guy was fighting his battle against big Hollywood dollars in the only way he knew how...E-MAIL, for cripe's sake!

I say, good for him.

Mark O said...

I like cowboys.

Unknown said...

I actually want Avatar to win, that way rather that just mostly discounting the Oscars, I can entirely discount them.

Ray said...

Since Avatar sucked, good for him.

Chase said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

I saw "The Hurt Locker" a few nights ago and I just didn't get it. I couldn't follow any plot or message. I only saw a set of characters in a series of situations. I couldn't find the thread holding it together. Sincerely I ask: What was I missing?

Penny said...

"Academy members either have balls or they don't. We'll see Sunday."

For the sake of discussion, I am going to assume that members will vote for their favorite "best film". What we don't see here, however, is all that goes into why a film with the hype of Avatar might have ten legs up on a small film like Hurt Locker, and that's even before the movie airs in theaters. Is there anyone minimally "plugged-in" who has NOT seen a trailer for Avatar? What about Hurt Locker? Tell me that doesn't play any part in the voting.

Look, I have no quarrel with big studios doing whatever they can to insure the success of their enormous investments. What I do have a problem with is their setting up Academy rules that totally discount that HUGE advantage, and then pawn off said rules in the name of "fairness" to all nominees. That's just hogwash.

This producer, and anyone else in the Academy for that matter, should have the ability to speak out as they see fit. When they change those rules, THEN they'll have the balls you speak of. In the meantime, they're just stacking the deck for the big guys...But EVER so politely.

bagoh20 said...

Hollywood has rules against free speech? How ironic, after "Fahrenheit 911" and "An Inconvienient Truth".

The Crack Emcee said...

Wait a minute:

This guy gets to win the Oscar and not spend the evening with those turds?

I'd say that's win-win.

el polacko said...

i get that trashing another nominated film is not good form but is writing 'vote for my movie, not that other one' really so heinous a crime to deserve banishment?
as for the accuracy of the war flick: it's great when a movie gets more things right than wrong, but it's an entertainment, not a documentary. so it has a gung-ho hero in scenarios that may be less than realistic..the horror! can't anybody just enjoy an exciting flicker once in a while without all the nannies and whiners telling them why they shouldn't enjoy it?

Fen said...

but it's an entertainment, not a documentary.

Qualifier: do you know the difference between Tina Fey and Sarah Palin?

Entertainment is abused as propaganda. If I had a dime for every libtard who thought "A Few Good Men" was an accurate depiction of the Marine Corps... They're still running around with worldviews formed by fiction they saw at the theatre.