Sandra Bullock and George Clooney turn in very realistic performances as American astronauts stranded in space after debris from a Russian shuttle disaster destroys their spacecraft. Gravity keeps you riveted to the screen, wondering just how and if these sympathetic characters will make it home or become floating space junk like in Star Wars.
SPOILER ALERT: I really liked the closing scene of Gravity, when Sandra Bullock's character crash-lands back on Earth with a big, dramatic splash in the ocean. She slowly crawls out of the water onto a sandy beach - clearly a metaphor for the origins of life on Earth when the first creatures supposedly slinked out of the primordial soup.
Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón
So a director of "color" winning an Oscar for a movie with an all-white cast proves that Hollywood really is colorblind, right? The fact that a filmmaker can be judged on the merits of his work and not on his race or cultural background is progress, right? Yes and no.
On the one hand, it's great that "minority" directors are getting more opportunities to direct big-budget, mainstream studio pictures, regardless of race. Cuarón
In Bigelow's case, she was the first woman to win the directing Oscar. And it was especially considered progress since she won for a movie about war, not a weepy drama or a similar "woman's" picture.
On the other hand, if "minority" and female directors are just going to be hired hands on big-budget, studio pictures who simply execute the technical aspects of directing a movie, then that really isn't progress. That's an "anyone can do it" mindset that doesn't really advance the cause of increasing diversity behind the camera.
That "colorblind" mindset will simply keep in place the glass ceiling that only lets a few lucky, talented exceptions seep through the cracks every now and then.
Cuarón
And African-American director Antoine Fuqua is an A-list director who helms blockbusters with multiracial casts, such as 2013's Olympus Has Fallen and 2001's Training Day. The latter resulted in Denzel Washington becoming the first African-American man to win a Best Actor Academy Award.
It isn't fair that "minorities" and women have to bear the burden of carrying the fate of their entire race or gender on their shoulders. But hopefully directors of color and women who have breakthrough successes will use their clout and power in Hollywood to help others break through as well.
I'd love to know what other movie buffs think about this issue...
On the one hand, it's great that "minority" directors are getting more opportunities to direct big-budget, mainstream studio pictures, regardless of race. Cuarón
In Bigelow's case, she was the first woman to win the directing Oscar. And it was especially considered progress since she won for a movie about war, not a weepy drama or a similar "woman's" picture.
On the other hand, if "minority" and female directors are just going to be hired hands on big-budget, studio pictures who simply execute the technical aspects of directing a movie, then that really isn't progress. That's an "anyone can do it" mindset that doesn't really advance the cause of increasing diversity behind the camera.
That "colorblind" mindset will simply keep in place the glass ceiling that only lets a few lucky, talented exceptions seep through the cracks every now and then.
Cuarón
And African-American director Antoine Fuqua is an A-list director who helms blockbusters with multiracial casts, such as 2013's Olympus Has Fallen and 2001's Training Day. The latter resulted in Denzel Washington becoming the first African-American man to win a Best Actor Academy Award.
It isn't fair that "minorities" and women have to bear the burden of carrying the fate of their entire race or gender on their shoulders. But hopefully directors of color and women who have breakthrough successes will use their clout and power in Hollywood to help others break through as well.
I'd love to know what other movie buffs think about this issue...
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