It’s official: We’ve got our Ben back. And, good Lord, what he had to put us through, and go through, to get here.
The 15-year arc of Ben Affleck’s career — from brash young talent to overexposed movie star to tabloid celebrity to Most Ridiculed Man in Showbiz and all the way back to humble yet triumphant cinematic craftsman — is one of the most singular round trips in American pop culture history.
Comments
Some perspective, please! Argo was an OK movie but it hardly deserved best picture. It had an unoriginal plot that tracked (as best one could expect a Hollywood movie to do) the storyline of an actual historical event. Worse, the characters portrayed were (how to say it kindly?) two dimensional. Worse still, the movie's pace and dramatic moments were driven largely by synthetic, non-historical devices (e.g., the chase scene on the tarmac). Worst of all (if that's possible), the disproportionate amount of camera time devoted to close-ups of Ben Affleck demonstrated irrefutably that the director of the film is still way too involved in a love affair with the male lead. But that's the way it goes in Hollywood, where even the so-called "serious" people are, in the final analysis, not so serious, and certainly not worth taking seriously.
LEOTHELION4: "It had an unoriginal plot..."
YES! I for one am just sick to death of movies that depend on the hackneyed old plot device of freeing a group of hostages by pretending to be a Canadian crew filming a science fiction movie.
Some perspective, please!
Argo, best picture? Are you serious? Oh but wait, let's think about it. This is a movie about how Hollywood comes to the rescue of 6 Americans in a non violent, peaceful manner that were in hiding during a dignified (Jimmy Carter's words at the end of the movie) liberal administration. No mention of how the rest of the 150 or so hostages were then sumarily released on the eve of the conservative Reagan presidency that would have surely crushed the student uprising to gain their release from our "friends in Iran" (Ben Afflack's words last night).
The most obvious choice for Best Picture was Lincoln, but let's look closely at the historical reality of that time. Lincoln and his fellow Republicans fighting to free black slaves while southern Democrats fought him tooth and nail to retain slavery. No, no, no, that won't do at all.
Yes, stakiinnh, I'm sure 'Lincoln' could never have won because Lincoln was a Republican. And of course 'Argo' won because it took place during a Democratic administration.
Oh, and what a silly phrase, "our friends in Iran". The idea of having any friends in Iran is ridic...
Wait a minute...hold on...I'm remembering something having to do with Mossadegh, the Pahlavis, and President Eisenhower.
Have they no shame ? Only in Hollywood would they invite Michelle Obama to announce the best film award from the White House with a military escort no less. Imagine if Laura Bush had done that. I suspect they thought "Lincoln" would win and Michelle and the chorus would sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". Suggestion to Michelle: Give a speech in Hollywood condemning the excessive violence in film.
Ben is one of ours. He's back, and we have his back. I applaud his stamina and grace. We could learn from him instead of mocking Hollywood.
Yay Ben!!! You went Hollywood on us, up and down, but you are back up again. We might have smirked with all the fans at your Gigli time, but you were always ours, along with Matt. We, as Bostonians are wont to do, rejoice in your victory as another Boston triumph. We're just not sure where we should hang the banner???