Gary Dretzka
Noah Forrest
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Douglas Pratt
Ray Pride

17 Weeks To Go
Man, Oh Man

I already wrote one "Year Of The... " column this season, back in September.  But I seem to be having one recurring discussion this season that has become dominant. 

It's Oscar's Year of The Man.

So... you say that every frickin' year is "The Year Of The Man."  Well, what kind of idiot would argue against that thought?  But I think it's a little more complicated this year.

Of the 16 top contenders on this week's Best Picture chart, only three are headlined by women, Juno, Atonement and Hairspray... and Hairspray's top above-the-title name is a man in drag.

The rest look like this...

Michael Clayton - A man seeks clarity and moral redemption

No Country For Old Men - One man seeks clarity as he ages, another man lives in a world without moral questions but happens to be a psychopathic killer, and a third man challenges himself to find a successful answer to a morally ambiguous situation.

Charlie Wilson's War - A cheerfully corrupt congressman seeks moral redemption by making a serious choice to do the right thing even when he doesn't have to.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead - A man seeks unearned success while rationalizing that he has a moral right to it while his brother seeks acceptance by the brother who has judged him so harshly for so long.

Sweeney Todd - A man seeks revenge for the wrongs of public moralists who are private abusers.

Into The Wild - A boy seeks a higher ideal of manhood than his father settled for by going into nature and embracing the humanity of people from other socio-economic classes.

There Will Be Blood - A man seeks his place in history and respect from the world while struggling with his limited notions of morality.

3:10 To Yuma - Two moral men face challenges from the world and one another, one man perceived as a "bad guy" and the other seen as a non-player in the world.

The Savages - A man (and his sister) face the challenges of a parent who all but abandoned his family as the parent needs the care of his children.

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly - A vain man is challenged to find a better version of himself after suffering an illness that leaves him physically challenged to the extreme.

American Gangster - Two moral men faces challenges from the world and one another, one man an extreme "bad guy" who feels he is bringing honor to his downtrodden class while the other is nearly immoral in his personal life, but an absolutist in his professional one.

The Kite Runner - A boy who becomes a man, challenged by his own emotions and moral failures throughout, exacerbated by the many people in his life who offer lessons of a purer moral faith.

Beowulf - A vain hero can't see past the actions that have made him legend, but is faced, over time, with challenges that come as a direct result of his own actions.

Sensing a theme?

Even the movies that are no longer on that List of 16, like Eastern Promises, Reservation Road, Things We Lost In The Fire, Resurrecting The Champ, and In The Valley Of Elah are all about men (and a few women) being challenged to navigate their notions of who they are and what morality should mean to them in 2007. 

The fact that so many of these films are so good and so distinctive is indicative of the flexibility of art and the notion that there really are only six stories. 

As it turns out, most of these films fit into one of three categories of answers to the big moral question: Love as the answer, Self-discovery as the answer, or Fate as the answer. 

In the Love camp are Eastern Promises, Into The Wild, Resurrecting The Champ, The Savages, and Things We Lost In The Fire. 

In the Self-Awareness camp are The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, In The Valley Of Elah, and Michael Clayton.

And the biggest category, with seven films, is Fate, sweet brutal Fate, with 3:10 To Yuma, American Gangster , Beowulf, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, The Kite Runner, No Country For Old Men, Reservation Road, Sweeney Todd, and There Will Be Blood.

Is there any coincidence that with a couple of exceptions in and out of this group, these are likely to be the most commercially successful of the awards films this season?  Love and Self-Awareness are really hard to navigate.  Fate frees us of our responsibility, even though the transitions in all of these films turn on the actions of the person in flux. 

Four of the nine Fate films are driven by irresistible forces of nature or politics.  The drug dealer of American Gangster is a machine, clean and structured and relentless.  Beowulf features demons who will be dwarfed by the ongoing Christian faith.  The Kite Runner is deeply involved in the ugliness of a culture and its eventual end.  No Country For Old Men has two men facing unstoppable evil, one fighting it as a young man and the other finding perspective on it in his older years. 

The other five are a bit more subtle.  In 3:10 To Yuma, Russell Crowe's character is a bit of a force of nature - The Devil, in some ways - but his other half, Christian Bale, is imperfect himself.  In the end, the question is whether the Christian - literally and figuratively - heals the devil.  In Into The Wild, there is a similar theme, though I do think that love is more powerful than fate in that story.  Before The Devil Knows You're Dead doesn't much care about the moral code, beyond the nature of evil breeding more evil.  Reservation Road watches two men melt down, one truly damaged and the other one unable to accept responsibility.  Sweeney Todd is more of a fable, with sinful revenge taking center stage.  And There Will Be Blood is the story of a man who shuns complexity until it starts to eat at what there is of his soul.

But I have to wonder in all of this... why are we so desperate to find a place in the world for ourselves? 

The Charts

November 1, 2007
October 25, 2007
October 18, 2007
The Post-Toronto Chart - September 21, 2007
The Pre-Toronto Chart - September 6, 2007
The First Chart - June 21, 2007

- Email David Poland