..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

February 7, 2003

Chap Taylor's Response To Bill Goldman
Goldman's Variety Article

___________________________

I'm a churchgoin' fella, but I must have been absent the Sunday morning God appointed William Goldman the Lord High Protector of Academy Morals...

My name is Chap Taylor. I'm using my real name because I intend to write some harsh things and I don't intend to do so hidden behind a pseudonym. I'm a screenwriter. I co-wrote a movie called Changing Lanes which Paramount released last year. The reason I mention this is, like that movie or not, I'd like to establish that I know at least a little about the movie business.

First off, I want to say that Gangs of New York is a bad movie. Period. Like most people, I have very much enjoyed and appreciated Martin Scorsese's films through the years. I am also a New Yorker with an interest in the criminal and social history covered by Gangs. I have read Asbury's book several times. My office is two blocks from Old St. Patrick's Cathedral (the church whose construction was portrayed in the film). In other words, I was looking forward to Gangs with great anticipation and was, therefore, greatly disappointed.

Secondly, I agree with Mr. Goldman's contention that Miramax has done more to sink the Oscar race into a cesspool of media whoredom than all the other studios combined. In fairness, Harvey Weinstein did not invent Oscar campaigning. He is, however, its most vicious and effective participant. He has made a significant personal contribution to the transformation of the Oscar race from an exercise in the personal egos of movie folk into an all-out war for social validation, fought by highly-paid consultants across the pages of every glossy magazine and Internet site in the Universe. I can't disagree that giving Roberto Benigni an Academy Award for acting like an organ grinder's monkey is reprehensible. But for me, the nadir of Oscar manipulation was the night Mr. Weinstein stole the Best Picture Oscar from Saving Private Ryan. I very much enjoyed Shakespeare in Love but there was more art in five minutes of Private Ryan than in all of Shakespeare, Gwyneth Paltrow's breasts included. For me (and I believe for many others) that was the moment when we realized the Emperor was not only naked, he was willing to peddle his ass to anyone with a warm smile, a goody bag and fifty cents toward the cab ride home.

Having said all that, WHETHER MARTIN SCORSESE WINS AN OSCAR OR NOT IS NONE OF GOLDMAN'S GODDAMN BUSINESS.

An Academy Award is many things. It is certainly the pinnacle of achievement and recognition in the film industry. It also possesses a irresistible glamor and an unmatched universal attraction. Winning an Oscar is one of the few things, like being President or heavyweight champion of the world, that everyone has fantasized about at least once in their life. I certainly have. But mostly, the Academy Award is a fickle and unpredictable bitch who gives herself to the worthy and unworthy with equal vigor.

Anyone who thinks that the winner of an Academy Award is the "best" of that particular category is an idiot. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they aren't. Also, and this is a critically important point for the discussion at hand, the Academy Awards often reward deserving individuals for undeserving films. Should Paul Newman have won an Oscar for The Color of Money? Should Al Pacino have won an Oscar for Scent of a Woman? Probably not. Are they giving them back? Not on your life, pally. Do they feel that their honor is somehow diminished for having won an Oscar for the "wrong" film? I don't know. My gut feeling is that giving prizes for art is such a subjective business that they are all just grateful for having been recognized. Mr. Scorsese clearly wants an Academy Award. Whether he wants one for personal validation or because he believes it will enable him to keep making films, I couldn't say. But he goddamn sure wants one or he wouldn't be out on the campaign trail, shaking hands and kissing babies. Would he have preferred to have won for Raging Bull or Goodfellas or Taxi Driver or Mean Streets or The Last Temptation of Christ? Probably. Will he give it back if he wins? Not on your life, pally...

Mr. Goldman is arguably the best known and certainly one of the most respected screenwriters in the business. But in recent years he has held himself out to be some kind of self-appointed elder statesman of the film business. He has written some very good movies. He has two Academy Awards. He also wrote The General's Daughter.

I am not a member of the Academy. Mr. Goldman, I presume, is. If he believes that Roman Polanski, for instance, is more deserving of an Academy Award, he should vote his conscience. But to use his semi-celebrity status to intentionally damage another man's chances of winning an Oscar is an ugly thing. When the individual in question gave us three of the AFI's 100 Best American Movies of All Time, it's unforgivable. It is exactly the kind of manipulation of Academy voters that he apparently intends to decry. And that, sports fans, makes him a hypocrite.

I've never written to a Web site before. I'll leave it in your hands whether you can use this or how it should be edited. All I ask is that if you do use it, you do so with my name attached. I don't believe in slagging a guy unless I'm willing to do so under my own name.

Chap Taylor