The Impossible Blindsiding of Hollywood

For the past few years I’ve avoided watching the Academy Awards having finally gotten the message that they’re just a big fat marketing tool that have nothing to do with quality filmmaking. My self-imposed boycott of the televised event was difficult in the beginning for this diehard movie buff but became easier after the dismal fare gave me no films to root for. This year I will be watching just to witness the outcome of what has truly been an amazing year in films. Forget the two billion dollar box office for “Avatar.” No-the big question is does Hollywood have the cojones to pick “The Blind Side” as Best Picture? Nah!

C’est impossible for the far left industry to award a film that actually has a Republican lifetime NRA member as its heroine. I just recently managed to catch the film that was budgeted at $29 million and has earned over $240 million so far and was blown away by Sandra Bullock’s performance. This savvy actress supposedly took a pay cut and opted for a percentage. I hope it was for the gross as Hollywood accountants tend to bilk those who choose a percentage of the net.

Bullock has been nominated for Best Actress but if she wins I’ll be pleasantly surprised-no- I’ll be shocked. Her competitors are more in line with the ideologues who vote for their peers. There’s uber-liberal Meryl Streep whom I loved as Julia Child in “Julia & Julia”; Helen Mirren a great actress who had no problem playing lewd in her earlier career. Then there’s Gabourey Sidibe for “Precious,” who represents the victimized black girl who ironically could have used a savior like Leigh Anne Tuohy, Bullock’s real life character in “The Blind Side.”

But does Sandra Bullock really deserve to win Best Actress this year? If she’s your typical Hollywood liberal then she is the greatest actress around for her dead on portrayal of your non-stereotypical non-racist Christian Republican from the Deep South. They exist in greater numbers than what Hollywood would like us all to believe. The Christian school Wingate in “The Blind Side” is unlike any high school depicted in most movies today. “Big Mike” the lone black student is not mocked but readily accepted by the others and the Wingate faculty are truly concerned with helping him improve his grades.

Frankly all this would be hard to believe if it were not for two things; this film is based on fact and all my six children went to parochial schools where they also avoided the public school horrors that created “Precious” and the young “Big Mike.”

It boggles this conservative woman’s mind that this film was distributed by a mainstream company like Warner Brothers. There’s a rumor that conservatives exist in greater numbers since 9/11 and they are able to vote for the Oscar nominees so the proof of the pudding for that will be in the results of the balloting.

When “Saving Private Ryan” lost out to the heavily marketed, “Shakespeare in Love” the Oscars lost all my respect. Of course I had become cynical after Rod Steiger in “The Pawnbroker” lost out to Lee Marvin’s “Cat Ballou.” Hollywood placated him the next year with the Oscar for the less challenging role in “In the Heat of the Night”

After “The Sixth Sense” lost to the amoral, “American Beauty,” a film that titillated us with the obsession of statutory rape, I lost all interest in wasting my time watching overdressed, unglamorous denizens of a sick, sick town.

When I wrote for the New York Sun, I would receive invites to Oscar parties at restaurants where there would be a fun contest to guess the winners. That’s what all film buffs used to do. I would make copies of the nominees for the major prizes and amidst the popcorn and other refreshments; fun would be had by all. In a way I miss that but I do not miss the general feeling of not having any favorite to root for.

“The Blind Side” is not a great film but it is a great story which is documented at its end by the real life pictures of the characters portrayed by Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates and others. Much as liberals and the mainstream media would like to deny, Leigh Anne Tuohy is representative of the grass root Americans marching in the tea parties i.e. kind, compassionate and tough with a “Don’t tread on me” mentality.

I think I’ll tune in at the final moments of the broadcast to see if Hollywood actually gets blindsided by decency.