It’s like the title says, if Chadwick Boseman’s performance is deemed to be the best in the category then yes, he deserves the Oscar. To be quite honest that’s how it should be, to begin with, not because a movie has met the insane checklist that’s been devised for them to follow, nor because Boseman passed away in August and people simply think he deserves it because of this or that. If his acting is deemed to be the best in the category then, by all means, he should receive the award because he was the best, and for no other reason. There are a lot of reasons that have been given as to why the Academy Awards are a joke, and unfortunately, a lot of them are valid since the awards show has become a laughingstock and little more than a chance to see the stars strutting around in garments that cost more than most people would want to pay for a car. In some cases, the cost of one dress could be used for several mortgage payments and still have changed. In a big way, the Oscars celebration is a chance for those that are already making enormous sums of money to be congratulated yet again for having the ‘courage’ and ‘fortitude’ to live a life that many people will never see. If you’re reading the cynicism that’s good, but it’s not being hidden.
One of the biggest issues with the Oscars is that typically the stars that win the awards are already making money hand over fist since they had to be hired on to star in the movies that make it to the top. It might be believed that being paid this much for a job, however hard it can be, and however stressful, would be the reward. The lifestyle itself should probably be a congratulation, a ‘well done’ that gets to last for longer than it takes to make an acceptance speech while clenching a small golden statue and speaking your beliefs in front of your peers. To be certain, some actors know what it’s like to have a hard life and come from the bottom, and some of them are humble enough to thank those that got them there, but just imagine if Boseman doesn’t win this award. Are people going to riot? That’s doubtful. Would they claim that he was robbed? Probably, but how loud they complain might have something to do with who beat him out for the honor. From those that have seen the movie, there’s been little more than praise, and that sounds about right since Chadwick was usually one of those that put everything into his performances. From his time as Jackie Robinson to T’Challa and to his time in this latest movie, Boseman was the kind of guy that could be depended upon to give everything to a role in order to make certain that people understood his character.
The Oscars are going to be an awkward time in 2021 to be fair since thanks to the pandemic the box office wasn’t really able to do much and what little it did do isn’t going to field the entire award ceremony, meaning that streaming is going to need to be on the table as much as possible to give the kind of content that will be missing. But if anyone is keeping track, it might be that streaming will take over the Academy Awards anyway since there’s not much else to work with. The funny thing about this is that anyone trying to fight or dispute this is going to have to accept the fact that streaming is what people have right now and it’s what we’re going to have to deal with. Some might want to think that streaming is going to ruin the Oscars, but the fact is that that ship has sailed quite some time ago, especially with the new set of rules that have been handed down. Putting tighter restrictions on what goes and what doesn’t, what’s acceptable and what isn’t, doesn’t sound like the best idea, since the diversity that people want in the movies has been building for years, but the recognition of it apparently didn’t come from those who were doing the judging.
Those that are seen to be the better actors and that provide the most entertainment to the people should be the ones that are winning, and the politics of it be damned. There was a time when the best person for the job was still seen as the best candidate to get it, and that the person that performed best would get the praise. As it stands now, if Boseman was that person in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom then so be it, he should win. But if someone else put in a better performance in the eyes of the judges, then no crying, no moaning, accept it and move on.
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