Yesterday in the paper I read an interesting, and I think accurate, article about Martin Scorscese. It talked about how he has never developed a trademark style, or a distinctive feel, to his movies. Instead, his films tend to be imitations of other people’s work, or references to other directors’ styles. I’ve never been a fan of his, so I think that’s very true. That’s why it chaps my ass that people are constantly talking about what a crime it is that he has yet to win an Oscar, and about how the Academy should just go ahead and hand him one regardless of what it is for.
I’ll grant that he should probably have won over Kevin Costner several years ago. But handing him one for a lesser deserving movie doesn’t make up for that. I hate it when the Academy does that “lifetime achievement” instead of “best performance” thing. I was pretty happy when Roman Polanski won a couple of years ago. This year, however, I think Scorscese’s win is a given. I haven’t seen The Aviator but apparently it’s not bad, and Clint Eastwood already has one so heck, let’s give it to Marty.
It reminds me of a couple of years ago when everyone was saying the same stuff about Randy Newman, the “Susan Lucci” of the Oscars. Everyone was like, “just give it to him already!” and he gave lots of interviews about how he didn’t need anyone’s pity, and would hate to win unless he felt he really deserved it. But the Academy didn’t listen at all, and gave him the award for his charming-but-forgettable song from Monsters Inc. to make up for the time they totally robbed him of the win for Toy Story 2. And it was nice to see him up there, but it felt kind of hollow. Incidentally, compare Randy’s words with Martin’s, who just gave an interview to EW in which he said that the fact that he hasn’t won in the past has cemented his feelings that he’s an outsider in Hollywood, forever ostracized by his peers. Boo-hoo.
Come Oscar night, I expect Scorscese to win and there will probably be a huge, 10-minute ovation with mucho crying. I’m not looking forward to it.
TurtleHead 
I think Marty definitely had a style in his early days…I see definite similarities between Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and even The Last Temptation of Christ. But I’ve noticed that his style has started to disappear since Gangs of New York. Apparently he got a new agent…maybe that person convinced him to try to do more “big hollywood epics” or something?
About The Aviator – its most obvious strong point is how well it is paced. It’s long, but it just flies by. I read somewhere one opinion on why: the theory is that Marty was impressed by Speilberg’s Catch Me If You Can, which was perfectly paced, and contained a much better performance from Leo than in Gangs of New York. The Aviator is actually similar to Catch Me If You Can in terms of just sort of being fluffy and entertaining (although I admit it is does have a little bit more depth).
Interesting anyway. I agree, I think he will probably win. If he has deliberately been supressing some of his early style to try to make things that are more “mainstream”, then it’s a shame that he win for The Aviator too. I completely agree with you that it’s dumb when people win for things which don’t deserve it, just because The Academy wishes they had given the award to him earlier.
I think I may have only ever seen one Marty movie — The Last Waltz. It’s a documentary on one of my favourite bands and apparently kind of an inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap. It seems pretty original to me, but I guess it’s not the kind of thing that gets you nominated for an Academy Award.
You’re totally right about the song for Toy Story 2 — love it. Oh, yeah, and I think that in spite of the fact they gave Randy Newman an Oscar, people are still feeling sorry for him. The producers of Monk still have not dumped his horrible theme song. I guess viewers have been complaining and want the (good) original theme back. They even poked fun at the viewers’ complaints on one of the shows from last year. (Have you seen the new Monk yet? What do you think of Sharona’s replacement?)
Oh no! I was really hoping those rumours about Bitty Schram leaving the show were untrue. I haven’t seen any without her, yet. Here in Canada they are behind where they are in the States — at least 4 or 5 episodes.
I did see one episode where Sharona was being hoodwinked by her English teacher into thinking she was insane, so she quit her job and had a friend of hers, a black woman, take over caring for Monk. I thought maybe she was the replacement but at the end of the episode, Sharona came back. Is this the new Sharona? If so, I thought she was too over-the-top with the “I’m not going to spoil you” stuff. I love Monk, I want him to be spoiled! Give the man a damn wipe, already!
Also, I had no idea that the Randy Newman song was not the original theme song, although I’m sure I did watch the show in the first season. I must have some sort of credits blackout.
No, she’s not the one who takes over for Sharona. It’s a single mom with a young daughter. I think I’ve seen three episodes of the new season, and while I don’t have a problem with the new sidekick, I miss Sharona. The original theme song is now used as the closing-credits song, so you definitely know it.