Mood swings

I’m having a hard time deciphering Peter Bart’s point in his cryptic new blog post, in which he reflects on the Academy’s malleable taste, and how quickly it can shift.

As his primary case study, he cites the bizarre contrast between two back-to-back Best Picture winners, wholesome musical “Oliver!” and X-rated, gay-tinged drama “Midnight Cowboy” in 1968-9, a turnabout which Bart feels reflected significant social change at the time. True enough. But he goes on to imply obliquely that we may be in the midst of a similar situation:

It’s hard to recall a more dramatic example of a professional organization displaying such a dramatic mood swing. But this was 1969, the year of Woodstock, Charlie Manson, Altamont, the Chicago Seven – a year of turmoil when just about everyone changed their attitudes toward just about everything.

Sounds a bit like 2009, doesn’t it? Well, not really. The country is opening up to new ideas and new leaders, but even today “Midnight Cowboy” would provide a measure of culture shock.

He closes by referring to the “winds of change” that affected the 1969 Best Picture race, and asks, “Could it happen again?”

Obviously, we’re all in a political frame of mind today, so I kind of get where Bart is coming from. But he certainly can’t be refering to this year’s Best Picture race — while there may still be a scattering of homophobes alarmed by the relatively polite “Milk,” it’s hard to see how any of this year’s contenders could seriously ruffle feathers in the industry, or in society at large.

It also strikes me as curious to draw the “Oliver”/”Midnight Cowboy” comparison one year after the Academy elected one of the darkest, bleakest Best Pictures in its 80-year history. If anything, the probable coronation of “Slumdog Millionaire” this year suggests a retreat from contentious filmmaking. Is Bart saying that the “culture shock” is still around the corner? Bring it on.