FEBRUARY 22, 2008 - VOL. 1, ISSUE 3

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably already read Joe’s short but sweet criticism of John Raskin/John Levitan’s I Met the Walrus, about Levitan’s encounter as a fourteen year old boy with John Lennon. If you haven’t, check it out, first because he makes a few solid points, and second because I’m not going to go through the synopsis, because he already has. My review will thus be shorter than his; that’s right, I will out-short him.

The main point that Mr. Yeoman makes is that while this video is not terrible, it doesn’t belong in the Oscar bin, but rather on YouTube. I find this argument interesting especially as it relates to short films, because Youtube is really the only modern place where people commonly go to watch short films, and what makes these videos particularly compelling is that they are made by common people, the fan boys, the lucky ones with the unique video or audio. And as an old and semi-respected institution, the Academy always has to look for ways to include itself in the new waves of audiovisual media presentation.

Maybe, then, the complaint is with the Academy. I respectfully disagree with that as well, however, on the grounds that the Academy Awards represents not the absolute best films made in a given year, or even the best films from America. If you look at previous winners, they almost always represent popular Hollywood films of markedly high quality. Sometimes they represent a popular series of quality films, as was the case with last Lord of the Rings movie winning really for the trilogy, as opposed to the film itself. On these grounds, then a film that by no stretch represents a popular movement in audiovisual art should receive some recognition. It still may not be Oscar worthy, but that’s clearly also a matter of opinions other than either of ours.

One major thing I think this argument hinges on is how inherently interesting John Lennon is. Mr. Yeoman says he’s heard John Lennon like this before, which made it banal, and I believe him. I will say he doesn’t sound like much of a Beatles’ fan. I am; I haven’t heard much of John Lennon’s interviews, however. I knew what he stood for, but for me it was interesting to hear the man speak, and it was funny to hear him speak to a fourteen year old kid, because I could imagine how desperately hard I would try, as a fourteen year old kid, to appear adult to my idol at the time, Kubrick. And this animated documentary put me in that childish state, and showed how comically naïve it is.

Anyway, it’s nice to think that with the right about of skill, anybody, even YouTubers, can get Oscar nominated.