> > Gladiator was a 90 minute movie in the body
>>of a 3 hour epic. I think it was good enough
>>to justify 90 minutes of fighting and angst. 3
>>hours of fighting and angst are what made it so
>>bad.
>
> Ironically, had it been 90 minutes long, I bet
>the academy would have ignored it completely.
>Its epic angst is what got it the Oscar, I'll
>wager - In my experience, the Academy likes long
>periods of brooding. And since pretty much all
>the nominees of that year were brooders, I guess
>it just went to the longest one. ;-}

I do not doubt that at all. And the only reason Crowe got his Best Actor award was because it was really a Best Angster award that year, clearly.

I feel he deserved an award *more* for his role in A Beautiful Mind, but he had two things going against him that year: 1. Denzel Washington, and 2. Everyone finally woke up from the stupor they were in previously and realized Gladiator was ass and deserved pretty much none of the awards it got.

-- Dave