Features

Babel rousers

By PETER KEOUGH | January 17, 2007

What about Clint? Several critics groups have given him awards, but the Directors Guild snubbed him, and I suspect a lot of Academy members (like audiences in general) have shunned his Iwo Jima diptych for the same reason they won’t go to see United 93. The two films are too real. No sentimentality, no bromides, no big stars soften the blow. The war in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima may be different (and more legitimate) from today’s debacle, but the carnage, the dehumanization, and the sacrifice of lives to a dubious cause are all the same. Eastwood’s films, especially Letters, which tells the tale from the point of view of “the enemy,” puts one in the line of fire without the protection of preconceived opinions or ideology. The critics have acknowledged that film’s importance. If the Academy wants to retain any credibility, it should do so as well.

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Topics: Features , Elections and Voting, Politics, Djimon Hounsou, More

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Today's Event Picks

[FILM] John Cassavetes and Peter Falk

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Peter’s picks:

Best Picture
Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Dreamgirls
The Queen

Best Director
Michael Condon, Dreamgirls
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress
Penélope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Supporting Actor
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Brad Pitt, Babel

Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barazza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

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