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Scorsese finally won his Oscar for Best Director (for the Departed). I like how it was presented by three other directors:> Spielberg, Lucas & (my favorite) Coppola. Very dramatic. But .. how do you actually evaluate a director's performance? I mean, no one who votes for Best Director is present there (on the set) while the director is doing his job. All we have to go by is the final product (the film). Can you tell from (viewing) the film how well of a job the director did? Really? How? And look at the cast Scorsese had to work with > Jack, Leonardo, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen. I mean, who *couldn't* direct such a cast of actors? (at the top of their game) ••• today's entry continues here ••• Now if you take a group of *unknown* actors (ordinary schmucks), and extract from them Oscar-caliber perfromances, then yeah, I say you're a bona fide directing stud. Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of Scorsese. I'm not saying he didn't deserve the award. I'm merely sharing long-standing questions I've had regarding how the award for Best Director is determined. [Side note: Alfred Hitchcock, who some say is the best director ever, never received an Oscar (for Best Director), despite being nominated 5 times. Neither did Stanley Kubrick.] I have broached this topic before .. with various (graduate) Film school students, and they all claim there are ways you can tell (how well a job the direct did). But none of them have ever been able to tell me exactly what those ways are. Anyway, glad Martin won. I saw the Departed back in October, when it first came out and was impressed, putting it (you may recall) on my official Recommended list. "Well made" are words that come to mind regarding this film. If it didn't win, I would've lost what little respect I have for the Academy's claim to judge excellence. Some film buffs, on the other hand, feel you won't know for 10 or 20 years what films are *really* the best. For more along these lines, here's a Google search pre-configured for the query: martin scorsese oscar academy award best director departed |
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