Mystery Solved: The Curious Case of Carol

[AMG Joined: Sep 20th, 2012 Topics: 168 Posts: 4323 View Predictions]

#216874

Carol looks set to be shut out of the winners circle from all of the top awards bodies this year, despite being highly nominated, and considered one of the best films of the year.

Many are asking why? But is it because of the way it ends? Naturally, spoilers for Carol and other LGBT Films of recent years may follow.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ABOUT SPOILERS!!!

Looking at previous years in which LGBT have done well with awards bodies, one thing sticks out – death.

Milk – Oscar Best Actor win for Sean Penn = ends in a death
A Single Man – BAFTA Best Actor win for Colin Firth = ends in a death
Beginners – Awards run sweep of Supporting Actor for Christopher Plummer = ends in death
Dallas Buyers Club – Actor and Supporting wins for McConaughey & Leto = ends in deaths
The Danish Girl – largely predicted win for Supporting Actress for Alicia Vikander = ends in a death

And these are just in the most recent of years! Even Black Swan, in which Portman has a single lesbian sex scene, the multiple Best Actress winner across organisations ends up dying!

Now look at Carol, widely expected to go 0 across the board = ends rather happily.

So, question – if Carol had ended differently, say Therese kills herself because Carol can’t be with her. Or even Carol can’t live a lie, and is trapped by her husband, so ends it all; would Carol have won more awards by now, and would it be the frontrunner for any of the top Oscars? Plus, would it be in for Best Picture/Director?

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[FilmGuy619 Joined: Jan 13th, 2013 Topics: 119 Posts: 1019 View Predictions]

#216876

To me, it’s quite tragic that if an actor wants to win an Oscar for playing gay or trans, they have to play someone who dies because that always tends to be the case. Also ask Hilary Swank and Tom Hanks who won their first Oscars for playing gays who die at the end. Even Benedict Cumberbatch’s character in The Imitation Game dies off-screen. 

But if Carol had ended tragically, it probably would’ve gotten that Best Picture nomination. I’m glad the filmmakers didn’t make the ending tragic. It’s just a shame that a gay film has to end in tragedy to get in major recognition. If that weren’t the case, then films like Blue Is The Warmest Color, Pariah, Pride, and Weekend would be more embraced.

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[Bradley Weir Joined: Aug 16th, 2014 Topics: 5 Posts: 572 View Predictions]

#216877

The Kids Are Alright? That didn’t end in a bloodbath.

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[kazzia Joined: Feb 19th, 2015 Topics: 0 Posts: 191 View Predictions]

#216878

The Kids Are Alright? That didn’t end in a bloodbath.

And didnt win a single oscar.

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 37 Posts: 1619 View Predictions]

#216879

This post was found to be inappropriate by the moderators and has been removed.

[babypook Joined: Nov 4th, 2010 Topics: 143 Posts: 17022 View Predictions]

#216880

Is Capote the exemption to the rule?

Perhaps, but in this case, there are some mitigating circumstances. Capote, was a real person and a celebrated one with influential friends. Also, front and centre, was the issue of the Death Penalty, which deflects from the homophobia so rampant in our global society.

If the film had showed Capote’s rather slow death, could it have been a true player in the hunt for Best Picture? Particularly if his death were portrayed as an ignominous one.

We’ll likely never know, but there it is.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K Dick Blade Runner

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[james alexander clim Joined: Jul 10th, 2011 Topics: 0 Posts: 546 View Predictions]

#216881

Well… Duh!! Tom has been mentioning this rule about gay films and performances for years now. It’s sad. Hopefully, diversifying the Academy would mean recognition for “non-traditional” films like Carol, Weekend or Pariah. 

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[Rowan Joined: Mar 29th, 2015 Topics: 0 Posts: 367 View Predictions]

#216882

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Carol is a good movie that came out in a year where other films happened to be better. It has nothing to do with death or LGBT or anything other than it being good enough to be recognized but not good enough to win. Sometimes movies are good but not good enough to win Oscars, but people only complain when they’re LGBT films.

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[AMG Joined: Sep 20th, 2012 Topics: 168 Posts: 4323 View Predictions]

#216883

Yes, but look at other winners in that time period who’ve won and had deaths of the character and we have:

SPOILERS

Winslet, Ledger, Waltz I, Day Lewis, Hathaway and Waltz II.

So of the 8 years of winners and 1 for current nominees (assuming frontrunners win) the 4 openly LGBT portrayal winners all died. It totals 5 if you include Portman, and 6 if you include frontrunner Vikander in the Trans-centric Danish Girl.

That’s 6 of 36 winning performances. Of the remaining 30, just 6 are of characters to die. It clearly shows something is going on about voters only giving the Oscars to LGBT roles if they die. It isn’t a case of ‘they love to see everyone be killed on screen’ given the low number of the non-LGBT winning characters dying in their films!

Check out more of my thoughts on Twitter (@AMG_Review) and Instagram (amg_reviews)

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[AwardsConnect Joined: Jan 16th, 2016 Topics: 17 Posts: 3626 View Predictions]

#216884

William Hurt, Nicole Kidman and Tom Hanks also died in their Oscar-winning LGBT turns.

Robert Preston, James Coco, Felicity Huffman, Annette Bening, among others – survivors and losers.

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[ziggy Joined: Nov 29th, 2013 Topics: 0 Posts: 572 View Predictions]

#216885

Let’s also not forget about Jared Leto’s stereotypically tragic destiny in Dallas Buyers Club.

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[patmcb Joined: Oct 18th, 2014 Topics: 2 Posts: 455 View Predictions]

#216886

This has been heavily studied in Gender/Sexuality Studies in regards to film. Most LGBT films aren’t released wide and don’t do well at the box office unless one of the LGBT characters dies.

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