The Quote of the Week (so far) and a short intro

The Oscars were a little slow and pretty predictable this year, and although this is the first time I've watched the entire ceremony, I shouldn't have been surprised.  My favorite part of the night by far was right before the presentation of the Best Picture Oscar.  With a sly smirk on his face, Steven Spielberg delivered a line that put the entire evening into perspective:

"Well in a moment, one of these ten movies will join a list that includes On the Waterfront, Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather, and The Deer Hunter.  The other nine will join a list that includes The Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, The Graduate, and Raging Bull."

I've always had a mixed opinion about Steven Spielberg.  In some movies, he appears to be a consummate artist (Jaws, Schindler's List), and in others he seems like a typical Hollywood blockbuster-pusher (Indiana Jones 4, producing Transformers, etc.).  I guess I shouldn't fault the guy for being productive.  But this surprising (at least to me) intro reasserted that, of course, Spielberg cares a great deal about movies and that he's one of the most commercially successful Director/Producers of all time for a good reason.  Anyway, he re-earned my respect by bringing the ego of the Academy down a little, even if they didn't take it quite that way.

If this had been a weak year for movies I don't think the statement would have really resonated.  But this was a fantastic year for movies, and that fact that an organization with an often spotty record chose one very good film over many other arguably better films is really a small matter in the grand scheme of things.  Don't get me wrong, I loved The King's Speech and it was a high-quality movie.  But I enjoyed Inception and Black Swan more, and I thought The Social Network deserved the Best Picture Oscar over any of them.  And, as is the case with the second list of movies above, I'm willing to bet that in ten or twenty years Black Swan, Inception, and The Social Network will be considered bigger contributions to the film canon than the movie that won Best Picture (sort of an Oliver! situation).  

So, if anyone should stumble upon this blog, it's really just meant to be a dump for all my random thoughts, opinions, and observations.  It's more for my benefit than anything, but if people somehow find it and decide to read it that's cool too.  The title's from a quote from one of my favorite movies, The Philadelphia Story, and it's still tentative.  Anyway, Katharine Hepburn's character is apologizing to Ruth Hussey's character for the mistakes of a drunken night, and she replies:

"Oh it's all right Tracy.  We all go haywire at times and if we don't, maybe we ought to."