On the morning following the Oscar ceremony, one common theme in newspapers was that the number of audience viewers in this annual extravaganza has leveled off, if not actually decreased. This leads me to wonder why people care about the Oscar ceremony in the first place, and why it has assumed such apparent importance in contemporary American culture.
I have a sense that the audience for the Oscar broadcasts has two distinct components. There is a relatively small group of serious film devotes who care about the quality of the performances, the writing, the directing, and who have formed their own views about which of the candidates deserves to be honored.
On the other hand, I believe that most viewers are primarily interested in the celebrities themselves: What are they wearing? How do they look? What do they have to say on the red carpet? What kind of victory speeches will they make? How will they conceal their disappointment when someone else wins?
Like many other aspects of American life, such as Mother’s Day and even Christmas, the Oscar ceremony has become commercial. Stories abound, for example, about how the Weinstein Company, distributor of this year’s best picture, The Artist, has achieved such success because of its willingness to spend vast amounts of money on its public relations campaigns. It is a well known fact that winning an Oscar creates new and bigger box office appeal for the winner. Money is a recurrent theme. Even this year’s host, Billy Crystal, made a wisecrack about how in these difficult economic times people are fascinated to see millionaires presenting gold statues to other millionaires.
The Oscars are also commercialized in the sense that jokes and sayings from the ceremony are all over the internet. For example, many people know and saw Angelina Jolie, the acctress who presented an Oscar this year. When on the red carpet and stage, Jolie stuck her right leg out from her velvet black dressed and put her left arm on her hip. This image has swarmed the internet, with a series of blogs mocking her pose.
People have always been fascinated by celebrities. Politicians have had their share of the limelight. Authors like Charles Dickens were renowned and honored in their life time. Now limelight seems to be on the movie star; there are very few people in the world, possibly apart from an occasional dictator or tyrant, who can match their popular appeal. Whether seeking this is a good or bad symbol of our times remains to be seen.
So why do people really watch the Oscars? To be purely entertained or to appreciate the recognition of the best movies and talents of the year?
I really like the angle that you took in this article. I have always liked to watch the oscars personally to see which movie and actress/actor wins the award and what each celebrity wears. I think it is really interesting to think about the reason why people watch the Oscars, since everyone watches for a different reason.