Gangs Steal Oscar Nominations

Gangs Steal Oscar Nominations

Introduction

When the Academy Award Nominations were announced in late February, the most important nominations seemed very one sided. Some deserving films received their just nominations such as Chicago and The Hours. Some amazing films like Adaptation were shut out of their well-deserving categories (Best Director, Best Picture). The most outstanding flaw in this years nominations was the acclaim that the Martin Scorsese directed Gangs of New York received. On paper, this film is an excellent idea and should have been nominated for every category there is, but in reality it's the actual picture, not the idea that wins the awards. It seems as though the Academy felt pity on the Oscar-less Scorsese and gave him nominations in Best Film and Best Director categories. This is a complete and utter disgrace to the Academy Awards. Gangs of New York was a sub par film that denied more deserving nominations for other films. The flaws in the categories for which this film was nominated will be spotlighted along with the expertise shown by other filmmakers who truly deserve the nomination.

Best Picture

Films nominated for best picture include Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist, The Hours, and of course Gangs of New York.. Part of making a memorable picture is having characters that the audience can develop feelings for and can feel and emotional attachment to. This is the first flaw of Gangs.. For the first 45 minutes of the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio is convincing as the character Amsterdam. But soon he becomes too comfortable and begins to loose his once authentic accent. This is just one flaw in a miscast character. The Los Angeles Times tells that "none of Gang's main characters make any kind of meaningful emotional connection", which seems like a necessity in a "Best Picture" nominated film. The lead actress is Cameron Diaz, who also is far less than stellar in her role of Jenny Everdeane as compared to Meryl Streep's character in Adaptation. And Streep only received a "Best Supporting Actress" nomination for that role.

Best Editing

It's not very clear to the writer of this paper that any respected film critic could overlook the blatantly obvious flaws in the editing of Gangs of New York.. This film is nominated along with the other "Best Picture" films Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist, and The Hours. The editing problems in Gangs of New York range from horribly timed cuts to use of different filters on similar shots. The writer took into thought that it may just be a problem with the print he was watching, but upon asking another film technician he learned that it was the picture itself and not a problem with the print. It is just difficult to believe

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