Gran Torino should have been up for Best Picture

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2009)

Michael Gold (character name of Jeff Goldblum in The Big Chill) once said something to the effect that the attention span of the average person is about as long as one spends taking a crap. That said, I would suggest printing this and taking it on your next trip to the Crapper.
Here we go...
I find it a bit bizarre that a film ranked in the top 100 by IMDb users, and ranked 8.4 out of 10 stars is not nominated by the Academy.
I just watched it this evening and I was completely blown away. This movie was well-cast, acting was pretty superb, and Clint was simply incredible. The story and direction was compelling. I loved Eastwood's reactions; the moans, groans, language, everything, and I really loved the way the actors fed off one-another... it did not feel contrived or forced.
I can only assume the movie was not nominated for Best Picture, Director, or Actor (Clint) because of the perceived racism. But isn't a film supposed to be judged on the quality of the film itself; how captivating it is to the movie-goers? And if that is how a film is judged, then it is clear the great majority of movie-goers taking the time to judge this film are raising their arms, clapping their hands, and applauding this accomplishment by Clint Eastwood.
Yet no nominations or awards at all by the Academy?
There have been many times in the history of the Academy Awards that I've felt people/films should have deserved a nomination and did not. One example was Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky. I thought he was far better than Sean Penn in I Am Sam and could have been nominated over Will Smith for Ali.
But I think the omission of Gran Torino is the biggest shaft I have ever paid witness to.
The Academy ought to expand the list of nominations if it's that close. Or maybe they never intended on nominating the film at all, but if that's the case, then I'd have to say there's a lot of politics going on behind the scenes. Are the racial over-tones any more controversial than the right-to-life decision in Million Dollar Baby?
There is no doubt after watching The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, and now Gran Torino that this film ranks right there with them, if not above. Honestly, if I were voting Best Picture, I'd have Gran Torino #2 to Slumdog Millionaire, but I could be swayed to vote Gran Torino Best Picture of the Year.
Either way, Gran Torino deserved at least the following nominations:
Best Picture, Best Actor (Clint), Best Director (Clint), Best Writing (Nick Schenk), and I would have thrown a nomination to Abney Her for Best Supporting Actress; I think she could have given Penelope Cruz a run for her money. I would have voted for Her.
I have always enjoyed watching the Oscars to see how my predictions play-out, and I tend to agree with many selections for most the categories. My gripes about the nominations are usually minuscule and debatable, but I do not know how anyone can argue against how deserving and how shafted Gran Torino was.
I truly believe something has to change. There are a lot of people who love films, but will not watch the Academy Awards because of the long, boring, redundant speeches with everyone thanking everyone. Furthermore, the show takes too long, always goes beyond the scheduled time, my DVR never records the whole thing, and that's mainly because there are WAY too many commercials (about 5 minutes of commercials every 7 minutes). Thus, many movie-lovers avoid a show they'd otherwise watch because of all that garbage.
If that's not bad enough, now we have to sprinkle in some politics and omit a great film such as Gran Torino.
What do you think happens next?
I'll tell you what. Omissions such as this by The Academy are going to discourage other people from watching "the Oscars" because people are going to see that the best films and performances are not getting nominated due to politics! The omission of Gran Torino might be big enough to deter me from watching next year; we'll see.
I wish Ebert and Roeper were still on TV so I could have heard what they had to say. Or better yet, I wish Siskel were still alive because I imagine he would have been livid.
I am Toadwriter and my fifteen seconds are up.
Take care folks.
Sincerely yours,
Disappointed