One of my favorite bits on the most recent Academy Awards was when Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, costars of the violent comedy The Nice Guys, being released in May 2016, presented the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Gosling gives an inane definition of the category.
Crowe corrects him, explaining the category represents a screenplay adapted from another source such as a novel, play, short story, or TV show.
Gosling replies, “Agree to disagree. Let’s not fight, come on, we have two Academy Awards between us, it’s beneath us to argue.”
“Wait, you’ve won an Oscar?” asked Crowe, surprised.
“Well not when you put it like THAT, but you have two Academy Awards, so technically there’s two between us!” Gosling explained. “Can we go on and give this award so more people can have Oscars like we do?”
Crowe insists that he only has one award, but Gosling repeats, “Agree to disagree.”
“Look, mate, you can’t go around just saying—” Crowe responds, before Gosling cut him off to announce the nominees.
Crowe DOES have but one Oscar, for Gladiator (2000), though he had been nominated two other times, for The Insider (1999) and A Beautiful Mind (2001).
The bit, which you can watch here or here. I found it funny because it’s painfully true.
“Agree to disagree” is actually a reasonable position to take when it comes to opinions. But FACTS? Aren’t there objective facts anymore? They seem to be lost, quite often these days. We’re in a world where we seek, to quote a recent blog title, “News that agrees with you.”
Another thing I liked at the Oscars was the Best Picture winner. “Spotlight” Gets Investigative Journalism Right, the Truthout article says. Getting the story correct was important in 2001 and 2002 when the story was based. The reporters didn’t always get it right, but the goal was the truth.
And Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won her second Oscar for best documentary short, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, a film about “honor killings”, which are anything but honorable.
And Forget Leo, Ennio Morricone finally won an Oscar after 500 movie credits.