Keep reading to learn more about some of the most highly criticized Oscar wins, and how they've aged.
https://www.elkharttruth.com/lifestyles/entertainment/15-controversial-oscar-wins-and-how-they-ve-aged/collection_026264ab-ee1f-550e-a896-593060d1506a.html#2
Although he's right about BBM's year, take articles like this with a grain of salt, I always say.
The article did talk about the highly criticized Oscar wins, but not so much about how they've aged for most of the choices.
A lot of movie articles like this are written as fact, but we have no idea where the supposed "facts" come from. Know your sources!
For example, in the awarding of Out of Africa Best Picture he writes, "Even today, critics are baffled by how "Out of Africa" took the top spot that night, especially over Steven Spielberg's adaptation of "The Color Purple."
No one was "baffled that night." Out of Africa had been awarded the majority of all the Best Picture prizes that year before the Oscars and it was the front runner on Oscar night. And of the major critic's groups that award Best Film prizes that did not choose Out of Africa, the L.A. Film Critics, for example, chose BRAZIL as Best Picture and the New York Film Critics chose PRIZZI'S HONOR. In fact, The Color Purple didn't win any of its nominations. So saying "especially over The Color Purple" is from the current woke perspective based on the idea that it wasn't awarded because of racial bias or animus. The Best Picture nominees that year were also all quite good. At the time, my favorite was WITNESS, but over the years I've gravitated more toward KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Of course, most of the United States' favorite film that year (and STILL a favorite) was not Best Picture nominated: BACK TO THE FUTURE!
And about another controversy he writes:
Hattie McDaniel was only allowed into the ceremony upon the intervention of the film's producers. Even then, McDaniel was seated away from the rest of the creative team at a segregated table, making this historic win also an example today of the ugly racial history of the country.Not true: Hattie McDaniel had an invitation to the awards that night. I think the author gets his info from the HOLLYWOOD mini-series which has Hattie stopped from entering the awards while someone says they might let her in if she wins. That was also bogus because many in the audience, including Hattie, already knew she'd won. Yes, segregation was in practice back then...the author says she sat at a segregated table. I'm not sure what that means, but she was sitting with some white men.
Source: From the biography by Jill Watts called "Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood" (Harper Collins , 2005):
"Additionally, Hattie McDaniel, became the first African-American to attend the awards ceremony. But there was another first in store. The word was out. The Los Angeles Times, privy to advance information, had leaked the names of the winners in its late edition. Many of those gathering already knew what the ceremony would only make formal--Hattie McDaniel would be the first African-American to win an Oscar...Cameras flashed as she made her way to the ballroom, exquisitely dressed in a tasteful, rhinestone studded aqua blue evening gown, white ermine jacket and a beautiful corsage of white gardenias. As she entered the Coconut Grove and made her way to the table, the crowd of almost 1,700 members of the Hollywood film colony broke into a resounding applause. She and Yoder were seated with a white man (possibly William Meiklejohn, or one of his representatives), at their own table, placed at the periphery of the room but near the stage where the awards would be given. Even on this evening of Hollywood firsts segregation remained the rule...But Variety reported that she was so overcome that she left the speech at her seat. The oversight allowed McDaniel to speak on her own. Instead of delivering the speech prepared by Selznick's staff, praising the producer, the actress, with the help of Ruby Berkley Goodwin, had worked up her own remarks. Although they were hardly revolutionary, they did not belong to a white writer."I like sources on articles written about Oscar awards because so much of them are usually a mix of gossip, facts and assumptions. And this stuff perpetuates false notions. Example: He writes about Green Book, that it
"had already received extensive criticism before the Oscars rolled around. The family of Ali's character, jazz pianist Don Shirley, condemned the film."Actually, what Don Shirley's family had condemned is the fact they were not consulted. The family felt they were entitled to some kind of money and they didn't get it and so they began bad mouthing the film. So did Spike Lee, because, well, he's Spike Lee and his film was in competition. Shirley's family began spreading the word that Don Shirley was not friends with Nick Villalonga as the film portrays. That notion might have stayed around with some people if someone hadn't found an old documentary where Don Shirley was interviewed and says on film that he and Villalonga were good friends.
I could go on about a couple other things the author writes, but what he said about BBM is accurate and I know a thing or two about that! Heh!
