Oscar Wars

Fascinating book about the Academy Awards that reads like a series of taut short stories. Schulman focuses on 11 Oscar nights that reflected or inspired significant changes in Hollywood. Pivotal events include the rise of the “talkies” in the late 1920s, the blacklisted writers of the 50s, and the infamously horrible 1989 award ceremony opening number featuring a warbling Rob Lowe and Snow White. Not to mention 2015's #OscarsSoWhite, and the cringeworthy La La Land/Moonlight debacle of 2017.

Schulman gives life to actors, writers, producers, and directors whose ambitions, dreams and grudges played out behind the scenes and in front of the curtain. So well done that I would eagerly read a follow-up book that covered all of the Oscar nights that Schulman left out.

It's a DNF, but I still want to rate it.

I'm a massive cinephile, but I find as the years have gone by, my interest in the Oscars has waned considerably. I've finally seen the light for what is a self-congratulatory show inundated with self-important speeches and, at times, mediocre nominations, and the sheer duration of it means I even avoid the highlights program broadcast on TV here the next day.

Oscar Wars sadly did not reignite my interest in the Oscars. It's a detailed examination of Hollywood history from the silent era to contemporary Hollywood. I guess Schulman's thesis statement examines how the Oscars acted as a cultural institution within that period of film, but it leads to a disjointed flow of writing since a lot of the chronology in a chapter goes from one time period to another, which made it challenging to follow.

Also, I would question the decision to have an entire chapter dedicated to the 1989 opening number fiasco, which isn't even that bad, in my opinion. Would it not have made more sense to have tightened up that section and included more of the mishaps that have plagued the ceremony, from the slap to the envelope gate and many others?

If you're unfamiliar with the history of Hollywood, I would even suggest skipping this and reading a good Wikipedia article instead since this book isn't too dissimilar anyway.