Does anyone think Viola Davis was robbed of her Oscar?

[Anonymous]

I just don't get the hyper over The Help. I thought it was just a so so movie, so I can't get excited about any of its actors either. I thought the book did so much better making me feel, but maybe that's why I didn't care for the movie.

[Anonymous]

I was really undecided about who should win since I thought both women were truly great. What really vexes me is that a foreign film won best picture. Why in the hell was is in the mainstream categories when all the other foreign films were in the foreign film category. This is was pisses me off about last nights award ceremony. ROAR! Stupid French film beat out some truly great American films.

[Anonymous]

Cross posting this.

I would have pulled for Viola Davis more if I didn't find the movie to be such a let down to the book. So many important facts and situations were left out and it made the movie less powerful.

I saw "The Iron Lady" on Saturday and found Streep to have played MT so well. It was a great movie and I enjoyed it much more than the Help. I wasn't surprised by Streep's win but I think it could have gone either way.

I do think Octavia did beautifully with her part in the help and was true to the character of the book. Of course some of that was still left out but she was able to pull it together and play the character beautifully

[Anonymous]

I was rooting for Viola, who was so gracious standing immediately to congratulate Meryl. I did not like Meryls speech and changed the channel as soon as she spoke the first words...snotty and arrogant. She lost points with me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist that you feel Streep shouldn't have one. By the way..she hasn't won since 1982 and has been nominated without a win several times since then so it's not like she always wins. I will also argue that portraying a real life character is harder than making up one as there is tons of footage of Mrs. Thatcher to compare and say...ah no she didn't hit it if that was the case. In the end..these are all great actors and being nominated is an honor win or lose..relax.

Winning performances should be memorable. I was an adult when the Streep v Lange films were out. Still remember Streep in Sophie's choice. Octavia was great and her scenes will always be remembered- whoever was the drunken housewife was great with her also. Those actors played so well off each other.

Best actress? I would have given it to Rooney Mara.

[Anonymous]

Racists white Hollywood liberals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white male Republican who saw both pictures and I thought Viola Davis was robbed. Her performance was brilliant in the Help, which should have won Best Picture as well. I'm a big fan of Margaret Thatcher, and thought the film The Iron Lady was disgusting. Streep portrayed a loony Alzheimer patient suffering from the loss of her husband and memory. Its kind of hard to judge if she did a good job of portraying PM Thatcher, as we haven't seen Thatcher for more than a decade due to her illness. Go watch the Iron Lady and put Mohammed Ali in her place, shaking and stumbling from Parkinsons disease, with crazy ramblings and mumbling of the past and see how much you like those apples. Viola was robbed, and shame on the academy. Streep knows it, you heard her first words when she got on stage. She heard that collective moan across the country. Her reply, ala Chris Brown at the Emmys, was TS.

I am a liberal Democrat and found Iron Lady to be boring and insulting to Baroness Thatcher. The first 15 minutes of the movie were among the most turgid pieces of film making I have ever seen in my 36 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist that you feel Streep shouldn't have one. By the way..she hasn't won since 1982 and has been nominated without a win several times since then so it's not like she always wins. I will also argue that portraying a real life character is harder than making up one as there is tons of footage of Mrs. Thatcher to compare and say...ah no she didn't hit it if that was the case. In the end..these are all great actors and being nominated is an honor win or lose..relax.

Winning performances should be memorable. I was an adult when the Streep v Lange films were out. Still remember Streep in Sophie's choice. Octavia was great and her scenes will always be remembered- whoever was the drunken housewife was great with her also. Those actors played so well off each other.

Best actress? I would have given it to Rooney Mara.

That's my post above. In my not so humble opinion I would have given best picture to The Help or Warhorse [will be watched for decades just like Old Yeller]. The Artist is boring and should be 30 minutes ....too many Hugo awards. The Artist Best Director? Silly in something where I fell asleep. Even Brad Pitt couldn't keep me awake in Moneyball.

[Anonymous]

I'm sick of the Martin Scorcese worship in Hollywood. He's a great director for his time, yes. But is he Frank Capra or Billy Wilder or John Ford ? Not even close. He is better as a producer, imo. He always tips his hand toward the vulgar or the lurid--it gets in the way of the acting. Not everybody wants to watch an endless stream of gangland movies. So, he directed Hugo because his 10 year old son by his 10th wife liked it? It wasn't that good....Scorcese is what, 70? Please. The Academy needs to stop jerking him off.

[Anonymous]

Black man here. Anyone who cries racism on this one is an idiot. Please save the "race card" for important things like employment, human rights, etc. Not for policital awards for people who have excelled in their chosen field of performing arts. Don't forget, race baiters, Viola isn't really a maid in the deep south...she's an actress and is living a pretty good life. She will be okay and doesn't need you making her out to be a victim.

[Anonymous]

I'm AA too and disagree PP. The movie industry racist and sexist industries I've ever been part of and I'm no Al Sharpt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm AA too and disagree PP. The movie industry racist and sexist industries I've ever been part of and I'm no Al Sharpt

Black man here. So Hollywood made a movie about AA maids. It was celebrated, received multiple Oscar nominations, made a lot of money, won best support actress but since Viola Davis didn't win Best Actress, its racist? I'm not trying to say that there isn't racial and gender bias in Hollywood. But using Viola Davis not winning Best Actress is not a reason to scream racism. Save that for something more important.

Crying racism at insignificant events (like the Oscars) belittles the true claims that "regular" people have in their everyday lives. It's like the "Boy who cried wolf".

[Anonymous]

Streep didn't win for this role. She won because she turned in 30 years of consistentlly great acting since the last Oscar. And she did some actual campaigning to get this award this year. She was treating it like a lifetime achievement award, which is why she recognized her make-up artist of the last 3 decades. She even said "this is the last time I'll be up here."

At least she deserves to be honored. The last time that an actress campaigned like that to win an Oscar using her clout in the industry, it was Julia Roberts, and she absolutely didn't deserve to win for Erin Brokovich. Awful acceptance speech too. False humility on both her part, and Meryl's in the speeches.

[Anonymous]

Well I'll just throw my hat into the ring of AAs adding their opinion.

There is racism in Hollywood, the Oscars are racially biased, but I don't think Viola not getting this Oscar was because of racism. I'm glad she didn't win, actually, because I think the reason so many people love The Help is for racially prejudiced but subconscious reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I'll just throw my hat into the ring of AAs adding their opinion.

There is racism in Hollywood, the Oscars are racially biased, but I don't think Viola not getting this Oscar was because of racism. I'm glad she didn't win, actually, because I think the reason so many people love The Help is for racially prejudiced but subconscious reasons.

AA here. That's a great one! Maybe The Help was a reference to what you need.