Oscar Where Art Thou?

"Tonight we look beyond the dark days [of the writer’s strike] to focus on happier fare: This year's slate of Oscar-nominated psychopathic killer movies. Does this town need a hug? What happened? 'No Country For Old Men,' 'Sweeney Todd,' 'There Will Be Blood'? All I can say is, thank God for [the comedy "Juno's"] teen pregnancy. I think the country agrees."
-Jon Stewart in his opening remarks at the 2008 Oscars
If you don’t believe his assessment of these movies, or haven’t heard of them you can check them out.
http://www.therewillbeblood.com/
http://video.movies.go.com/nocountryforoldmen/
http://www.sweeneytoddmovie.com/
And this year (2008) was the lowest rated Oscars ever
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/movieawards/oscars/2008-02-26-oscar-ratings_N.htm
The usual hand wringing has followed…."oh if only we had Billy Crystal back" or "the Oscars are too stuffy" or…. any number of things. But the bottom line is that people watch the Oscars when they care about the movies. And as Jon Stewart pointed out, this was a depressing, violent crop of movies. They have received great critical acclaim, but people didn’t want to watch them as much as they wanted to watch 27 Dresses, a movie all the critics hated.
Then we turn to the election in the US and the "politics of hope" has become code for "Barack Obama fills yet another stadium to overflowing with happy, wildly excited voters."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0228/p09s01-coop.html?page=1
The newscasters, even in Canada, are in shock and awe as they try to figure out what is happening. Especially here in Canada. Try to find someone who wants an election in Canada. We don’t want it here but I bet there are a few who are trying to figure out if they can vote in the US.
I know that the first rule of news is, "if it bleeds it leads" but I just wonder why shows that give pure hope, Extreme Makeover and Oprah are so popular if that is all we are want to watch?
I think that at the end of the day, we need hope. We need to leave the sadness, stress, and violence aside and know that there is a choice. We want to dream. And make those dreams live.
Unconsciously perhaps, we know that we need to do this. That we can’t wander too much in the dark without becoming blind.
Not that this years Oscar movies were not good movies. But I think we were perhaps hoping for hope.
Ephesians 5:8-14
http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=71327042