I barely saw any of the movies that were nominated for Oscars this year. In fact I only saw 4 movies this year that had any nominations (5 if you let me count Maggie Simpsons' short, but that wasn't a real movie). All of these were nominations in what might be considered minor or "not important" categories, nevertheless I couldn't help but be puzzled when Les Misérables walked away with the "Best Makeup and Hairstyling" Oscar. The other nominees were Hitchcock and The Hobbit. Hitchcock not winning was no big deal (even though other movies have won this Oscar for lesser accomplishments), but HOW DOES THE HOBBIT NOT WIN THIS OSCAR? I mean check out some of the main cast of The Hobbit:
I can't find a shot of the cast of characters from Les Misérables for comparisons, but you've all got google and besides you probably all ready know what they all look like. I'm sure that Les Misérables is a very lovely and nice movie (shoot all they had to do was play that music and they were pretty much guaranteed a hit), but in this instance it comes up short when compared to The Hobbit and here is why:
Beards...and tons of them
I have not verified this, but there is perhaps no other movie made to date with more beards than this movie. There are 13 main dwarves each with varying sorts of beards (and yes some of their beards should have been much larger). There are a couple other dwarves too with their own stylings, not to mention wizards. You know what wizards have? Straight up huge beards that achieve their own level of classification!
From what I understand Jean Valjean sports a pretty big beard for some of Les Misérables, but then he goes and loses it. Maybe he and others have some sideburns here and there, oh and I hear Javert has a small, barely there beard. Yep, that can almost compare to 13+ dwarf and 3 wizard beards!
Crazy creativity
There's an old saying, "Anybody can make a huge burrito, but not everyone can make a huge, delicious burrito". Well likewise, anyone can slap a beard on a man, but not everyone can make every beard individual and distinct, but the hobbit did just that...again, again, and again! Take it from someone with some experience in beard diversification. Its hard to come up with that many beards! And with The Hobbit, its not just the beards, but each one of these dudes has his own individual hairstyle. Keep in mind, I am just talking about the dwarves right now, but throw in the elves and hobbits and everyone else and you've got even more variations! Just about every sort of hairstyle imaginable is represented and then some you would never dream of, like a dude with starfish hair. Yeah, the dude has a starfish inspired hairstyle. Meanwhile Les Misérables has guys running around with faux hawks:
FAUX HAWKS! COME ON! Thats some real originality points there Les Misérables. I guess those raunchy characters have some crazy hair. Oh and perhaps the most iconic hairstyle in Les Misérables is something that even I, a very, very unskilled hairstylist, can administer to anyone in about 30 seconds:
Bravo, clap, clap, clap. Again, a true artist must have been called in for that masterpiece.
Necessity of distinctiveness
When they decided to make The Hobbit, I think there was significant concern that you would end up with 13 Gimli's running around. In other words, how could you individualize 13 dwarves who are generally treated and represented with remarkable homogeneity and have varying amounts of actual dialog? Turns out by getting creative with their hairstyles helps out a lot. You have the bald bruiser, the white haired (and bearded) wise elder, the wild haired, maybe crazy dwarf with an ax stuck in his head. Even the gluttonous dwarf's rotund beard seems to add to his defining trait. I guess what I am saying is that The Hobbit faced a greater challenge in terms of how to distinguish its characters and relied upon its hairstyles far more than most movies do, including Les Misérables, and it succeeded! Do I love all the designs they came up with? No, of course not, but I think it was dang original and admirable!
So there you have it, 3 very compelling reasons why The Hobbit was a far more deserving recipient of the "Best Makeup and Hairstyling" Oscar. You may notice that all I have discussed is hairstyle and haven't even mentioned makeup. Its true, maybe Les Misérables, gained ground on The Hobbit with its makeup. I'm sure it had its makeup gun set on a brilliant shade of "[French] whore", but The Hobbit did have this dude:
Besides The Hobbit pretty well lapped Les Misérables several times with its hairstylings that Les Misérables would have a lot of catching up to do if it hoped to beat The Hobbit in this category. And yet...somehow it did! Stupid Oscars. Its all politics and who you know these days. You get one little "Best Picture" nomination and somehow that gives you a pass in the lesser categories even when more deserving efforts are present. Again, by no means am I trying to say that Les Misérables is a bad movie. Far from it, I mean I loved the musical. It is just greatly inferior to The Hobbit...at least as far as makeup and hairstyles are concerned...and maybe with enjoyability...and box office earnings...and overall awesomeness.
No comments:
Post a Comment