Live Life Team
Every once in a while, the politics of Hollywood are trounced and the voters get it right. One of my personal favourites happened in 1984 when F. Murray Abraham won Best Actor in a Lead Role for “Amadeus”.
Prior to this film, Abraham was an unknown in Hollywood. His best-known work included some Fruit of the Loom commercials, in which he played a talking leaf. In “Amadeus”, he played Salieri, a composer who is driven mad by the talent of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The film begins with Salieri leading a chaste, pious life, a life dedicated to God and music. Soon he meets Mozart who is vulgar, yet immensely talented. He begins to struggle with a God who would give such talent to such a “disgusting little creature” while he was given only the ability to recognise Mozart’s genius and his mediocre talent in comparison. The film follows Salieri’s jealousy as he denies God, steals Mozart’s music and attempts to murder him.
Since Amadeus, Murray has worked in Hollywood very little. The only films I can think of are “The Last Action Hero”, “National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon” and “Muppets from Space”.
It’s rare that nominees actually win an Oscar first time out. Typically they win after having been robbed several times and then receive an apology Oscar or, worse yet, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Thus, wins like Abraham’s give me a little hope that sometimes film makers win for the right reasons.
