Why Care?

There was a time when the Academy Awards ceremony was very different than what we see now. The original concept consisted of studio heads----Jack Warner, Harry Cohn, Adolph Zukor---- and a few major stars like---- Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin--- having a few drinks, having more drinks, maybe, some dinner when necessary, and celebrating the success of the infant industry that was the moving picture. It was partly ego [after all, this is SHOW business] and partly economics [after all, this is show BUSINESS]. It was an inside affair with the public staying out of the fraternal order of the ''movie people''. It was a good celebratory time, with ribald stories and good-natured kidding coming from all quarters of the ballroom. Eventually, the evening would end, the winners would walk out proud, and everybody went home to get laid......... When radio, and, especially, television, came into the ceremony, then the Academy Awards really took off. From the 1940's on, the Oscar race became a yearly horse race, with heavy betting and jockeying for power and prestige leading the charge. Suddenly, instead of quietly admiring a co-workers job performance, the Oscars became Hollywood's favorite cutthroat game. Big Money, always the driving force of any industry, was to be made. If a picture became the ''Best Picture'' of any given year, then, it usually added many millions to the box office take, which would turn an initial disappointing financial investment into a windfall. Studios campaigned for their movies and their movie stars like politicians campaign for the White House. By the end of the studio system in Hollywood---- when actors and directors and producers gained the upperhand in negotiations---- the Academy Awards were a vital component between commerce and perception of excellence........ From the 1970's on, the Oscars became a freefall of excess and egomania. But, in a strange way, that was what made the show so compelling for the outside public. To see a bunch of pampered stars shining the spotlight on themselves held a macabre fascination for us ''normal people'', as Hollywood likes to view us. And, you also have to throw in the ''beautiful people'' with all of their star luster. They lead, what appears to be, exciting lives. They do not have the normal routine of regular jobs like us, the same humdrum existence we carve out for ourselves every day. They glide in a surreal world, a world of enchantment, a bewitching fantasy. To see them onscreen is to be taken into a world we will never know. And, in an ironic twist, to be taken into that world, is a cautionary warning...... Because, for the same reason we are interested in that world, we must see the pitfalls that arise. It is a fantasy world---yes--- but with fantasy comes, for some people, a cloudiness to reality. That world of show business is not the Real World. It is a cocoon from normalcy, a blind silkscreen to go along with the silver screen. For in the Reel World Of Movies comes all of your dreams fulfilled, every whim and desire instantly at your finger tips. While that may sound enticing on one hand, the reality is often fatal. Many stars throughout history, absorbed in their Dream World, fall victim to excess and fallen dreams. It is no accident that Hollywood is the poster child for bad relationships and false intimacies. Why? Well, insecurity is part of the reason. Performers have to fill that vast hole in their souls, the hole of needing to be universally loved by strangers. A person so addicted to that need, for self-fulfillment, is incapable of finding a normal, loving relationship with someone. It is ''All About Me''  and no thought of the other ''You''........ This is the world we have a deep curiosity about. It is foreign to us, as alien as living on Mars. Like a moth drawn to a flame, our interest must be satiated.  And, the Oscars bring us close to that world. That is where the fascination of watching it comes from. Yes, there is the glamour and the ''beautiful people.'' But those interests come along with the fascination of that enclosed world of privilege. Truth be told, there are people walking the streets that rival the beauty that Hollywood shows us [WalMart stores excluded]. But, we have been fed the information that these people in La La Land are important and, therefore, our attention must be directed at them. We call them by their first names, like ''Leo'' and ''Meryl'' and ''Jack'', like we know them personally. And, then, we pick our favorites to win, like you would root for the Bears or Cubs to win. For a very strange reason, an actor winning an award, like a football team winning a Super Bowl, is a vicarious thrill for us, as if we had some part in their achievement. Because if you took a step back and analyzed the situation coolly, why is it important to you? Does it really affect your life that your favorite movie star wins a gold statue?........ For many people, it seems that it is. There is no other reason that I can think of for this show to continue to draw the enormous ratings that it does. The Academy Awards is a long, boring show to watch. Almost every year, the feedback the next day was how bad it was, how long it was, and how badly people were dressed and talked. The winners get up to the podium and thank the people in their lives, their ''team'', that no one at home watching gives a damn about. Technical awards are given for movies most people have not seen, or, care to see. We see actors up on the stage barely able to read from a teleprompter. And, lame jokes fall hard against the pressure of scared individuals out there working without a net. Again, taking a step back and analyzing the program as a whole, why do you, the viewer, keep watching???........ I can only answer for me. Ever since I was a kid, I have been in love with the magic of movies. Long before I ever heard of the craft of acting and movie deals with per diems, I fell for that alternate world of fantasy. The heroes always won, the bad guys got defeated. The boy and the girl always got together. The world beyond the stars was a glorious galaxy of another life........ Movies always made me happy, sad, excited, depressed, enlightened, confused, filled with awe. It also, at an young age, bonded me with my beloved Dad, for father and son religiously went to movies, creating a lifetime of wonderful dreams and memories in my head. Dad liked the Oscars, and, then, so did I. He saw through the phoniness and the insincerity and the bizarre hype. And, so do I. And, yet, I still watch...... Perhaps, it is a bridge back in time for me watching them, a continuation of the movie love I shared with Dad on those long-ago days in the darkened cinema houses. I personally do not care if ''so-and-so'' wins the Academy Award. That award is for their career and ego. But, I do care that the magic of movies is tied into the spectacle, however, bastardized it has become........ In movies, as in life, I watch the whole picture, not just the flash........