Popular! You're gonna be popular!

The Academy Awards, in its latest attempt to be mocked by every single person in America, added a new category this week called "Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film." Nobody yet knows what this category will be ("Eligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming," they said), but it seems as if the Academy is responding to last year's TV ratings free fall.

And the reviews are already in:

NBC News: "Allegedly part of a push for inclusivity, this insulting new award is ham-fisted at best and discriminatory at worst."

Writer Mark Harris: "It truly is something that in the year Black Panther, a movie made just about entirely by and with black people, grosses $700 million, the Academy's reaction is, 'We need to invent something separate ... but equal.'"

Rolling Stone: "WTF Is the Academy thinking?"

Vox: "Feels like a panicked move ... shameless pandering."

Rob Lowe: "The film business passed away today."

So, that went well. I will admit that my first thought about it was precisely the thought that Mark Harris had -- I immediately thought about the fight over Satchel Paige and the Hall of Fame. In 1966, Ted Williams uttered these beautiful words at his Hall of Fame speech:

“The other day Willie Mays hit his 522nd home run. He has gone past me, and he’s pushing, and I say to him, “Go get ’em, Willie.” Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel. Not just to be as good as someone else, but to be better. This is the nature of man and the name of the game. I hope that one day Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren’t given the chance.”

This shamed a lot of people in baseball (and as we saw in Nick Davis' excellent PBS documentary, Williams was asked beforehand NOT to say it). It took a few years, but eventually the pressure built and baseball had to deal with it. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn put together a meeting of baseball people -- including former commissioner Ford Frick, Hall of Fame president Paul Kerr, sportswriter Dick Young, and former Negro leaguer and major league star Monte Irvin -- and they had what is now acknowledged to be one of the nastiest meetings in baseball history.

Young was screaming at everyone that the Baseball Hall of Fame might as well not exist if you didn't have Satchel Paige in it. Frick and Kerr screamed back that including Negro leaguers would water down the Hall of Fame and, anyway, Paige didn't qualify because he didn't play 10 years in the big leagues.

And Bowie Kuhn -- displaying the Solomon-like wisdom that made him one of the least effective commissioners in the history of sports -- announced that he would offer both sides something. He would have the Hall create a special Negro leagues display, featuring Satchel Paige. This, obviously, did not offer both sides something. This was the hideous separate but equal cloak of racists, and Paige ended the whole thing by announcing that he wasn't going into the Hall of Fame through the back door.

So yes, at first, I did think about how the Academy was doing the same garbage here.

But then I thought about something else. Bear with me on this -- I'm going to go year by year since 1977 (the year of Star Wars) and list the Academy Awards' Best Picture, along with the movie that I think could have won the "Achievement in Popular Film" award, had it existed at the time.

1977

Best Picture: Annie Hall

Best popular picture: Star Wars

-- Star Wars WAS nominated for Best Picture, so there is at least that. People would have been utterly shocked if Star Wars had won; that's just not the sort of movie that wins Best Picture. But looking back, even as a huge fan of Annie Hall, how can anyone deny that Star Wars was, by far, the most powerful movie of 1977?

[caption id="attachment_22746" align="aligncenter" width="449"] Star Wars wouldn't have been a bad Best Picture choice at all.[/caption]

[ppp_patron_only]

1978

Best Picture: The Deer Hunter

Best popular picture: Superman

-- I suppose that Grease could also have won Best Popular Picture. Superman was a good movie, and while The Deer Hunter was an artistic triumph, come on, nobody cares about The Deer Hunter now. Nobody watches it anymore. Superman (and Grease, for that matter) had a much, much, much larger impact on the culture and movies.

1979

Best Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer

Best popular picture: Kramer vs. Kramer

-- It was the No. 1-grossing movie of that year ... I NEVER would have guessed that.

1980

Best Picture: Ordinary People

Best popular picture: The Empire Strikes Back

-- Ordinary People was a really good movie, I think. But: (1) It certainly wasn't the best movie in a year that Raging Bull came out; and (2) Many people would rank The Empire Strikes Back as their favorite movie EVER, not just of 1980. Empire wasn't even nominated.

1981

Best Picture: Chariots of Fire

Best popular picture: Raiders of the Lost Ark

-- Come on.

1982

Best Picture: Gandhi

Best popular picture: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

-- Do you see where I'm going with this? How often is the best picture REALLY better than the best popular picture? Gandhi was an extraordinary achievement. But are you telling me that when the history of movies is written, Gandhi will be there? And E.T. won't?

1983

Best Picture: Terms of Endearment

Best popular picture: Terms of Endearment? Return of the Jedi? War Games? Trading Places?

-- Terms of Endearment was hugely popular -- it was second to Jedi among top-grossing films. There were a lot of interesting popular movies that year.

1984

Best Picture: Amadeus

Best popular picture: Ghostbusters

-- Who you gonna call?

1985

Best Picture: Out of Africa

Best popular picture: Back to the Future

-- So this seems as good a time as any to tell you one of the themes of my new book on Houdini. Oh, did I mention I've written a book about Houdini? The idea is this: Harry Houdini was not the greatest magician of his age. That is more or less the universal thought across the magic world. Thurston was probably greater. Kellar was probably greater. Devant ... Blackstone ... Vernon ... almost every interesting magical thinker today will tell you that Houdini was not the best of his age.

And yet, none of them would argue the fact that Houdini endured in ways that none of the others did. We know him 100 years later. We think about him 100 years later. We use him in daily conversation 100 years later. Why? That's my book. And that idea of what is great in the moment vs. what will be timeless, that's something that the people of the Academy don't think about at all. The difference in impact between Out of Africa and Back to the Future is the difference in impact between T. Nelson Downs and Harry Houdini. The first might have been "better" in various measurable ways. But there's no comparison between their respective effects on the world.

1986

Best Picture: Platoon

Best popular picture: Platoon

-- Platoon was third in gross for 1986, and you couldn't argue with people ranking it ahead of Top Gun and Crocodile Dundee. Though if Platoon was playing you probably wouldn't watch. If Top Gun was playing you definitely WOULD watch.

1987

Best Picture: The Last Emperor

Best popular picture: The Untouchables? Moonstruck? Good Morning, Vietnam? Fatal Attraction?

-- Not a great year for best pictures or popular film. I think Broadcast News was by far the best movie of 1987.

1988

Best Picture: Rain Man

Best popular picture: Die Hard

-- Rain Man was the most popular movie of the year, so it proably wins both categories. But looking back, the most influential and lasting movie of 1988 was Die Hard.

1989

Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy

Best popular picture: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

-- Batman also came out that year, and it fundamentally changed the possibilities for comic book movies.

1990

Best Picture: Dances with Wolves

Best popular picture: Dances with Wolves

-- Home Alone was the biggest movie of the year, Ghost second, but Dances With Wolves was third, and that movie definitely reverberated in the culture. I think Best Picture should have been Goodfellas.

1991

Best Picture: The Silence of the Lambs

Best popular picture: Beauty and the Beast

-- Both of these movies were hugely popular, and to the Academy's credit, both were nominated. There's no question that Silence of the Lambs has had a lasting influence, though not as big as Beauty and the Beast, which fundamentally changed animated film forever.

[caption id="attachment_22747" align="aligncenter" width="536"] Beauty and the Beast set a new standard for animated films.[/caption]

1992

Best Picture: Unforgiven

Best popular picture: Unforgiven

-- Unforgiven was one of the 11 movies that year to gross more than $100 million, and it's an interesting group -- Aladdin, A Few Good Men, A League of Their Own. Unforgiven probably wins out.

1993

Best Picture: Schindler's List

Best popular picture: Jurassic Park

-- This is a great year to study, because they're both Spielberg movies. You could argue, perhaps, that he made Schindler for artistic reasons and Jurassic Park for commercial reasons. Which one would you say has greater staying power? Which has altered the landscape more?

1994

Best Picture: Forrest Gump

Best popular picture: Forrest Gump

-- You could make a powerful argument for Pulp Fiction in both categories.

1995

Best Picture: Braveheart

Best popular picture: Toy Story

-- This would be exhibit A for my argument that best popular picture is a better category than best picture. Braveheart is an absurdity. Toy Story launched a whole new way to tell stories.

1996

Best Picture: The English Patient

Best popular picture: Uh, pass? Jerry Maguire? Independence Day?

-- Some years are worse than others. Fargo was the best picture of that year, another time when the Academy, even in their highfalutin pomposity, totally blew it.

1997

Best Picture: Titanic

Best popular picture: Titanic

-- Maybe you could argue for Good Will Hunting, but let's be realistic. That was and will always be Titanic's year.

1998

Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love

Best popular picture: Saving Private Ryan

-- I was THRILLED when Shakespeare in Love won because I found the movie to be delightful. But looking back, come on: Saving Private Ryan was the No. 1 grossing movie of that year. That's amazing. It was a gruesome (and brilliantly done) war movie. And it was No. 1 anyway.

1999

Best Picture: American Beauty

Best popular picture: The Matrix

-- Another banner year for the Academy. Who cares about American Beauty? The Matrix is one of the most significant movies of the last half-century. You could also argue for The Sixth Sense in the popular category (and it was nominated for Best Picture).

2000

Best Picture: Gladiator

Best popular picture: Probably Gladiator

-- I suppose some people would argue for Cast Away or X-Men. But Gladiator really was the force of that year.

2001

Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind

Best popular picture: The Lord of the Rings

-- I'm no fan of the Rings movies or books; that stuff is just above my level of imagination. But either Rings or Harry Potter absolutely crushed A Beautiful Mind in impact, influence, resonance and, all things considered, probably quality too.

2002

Best Picture: Chicago

Best popular picture: Chicago

-- You could argue for the second Rings movie or even another Spielberg film, Catch Me If You Can. But Chicago is fine.

2003

Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Best popular picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

-- Finding Nemo came out that year too, and it was pretty spectacular. Same with Pirates of the Caribbean.

2004

Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby

Best popular picture: The Incredibles

-- Million Dollar Baby II probably won't come out anytime soon.

2005

Best Picture: Crash

Best popular picture: Batman Begins

-- And the superhero movies begin to take over.

2006

Best Picture: The Departed

Best popular picture: Maybe Casino Royale? The second Pirates of the Caribbean movie? Cars?

-- Not a great year all around.

2007

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men

Best popular picture: Ratatouille or The Bourne Ultimatum

-- We're entering a kind of lull in popular films here. The most popular movies of the year were not only sequels, they were threequels -- Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, even The Bourne Ultimatum was the third in that series. I'd give it to Ratatouille, which was bold and original.

2008

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best popular picture: The Dark Knight, Wall-E or Iron Man

-- Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire. And it was pretty popular -- 17th on the list for that year. But that was a transformational year for movies. Iron Man launched a whole new industry. Wall-E was Pixar at its height. And The Dark Knight might be the pinnacle of the superhero movie. The Oscars totally missed the revolution.

[caption id="attachment_22748" align="aligncenter" width="514"] The Academy missed the boat in 2008, and not just with The Dark Knight.[/caption]

2009

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best popular picture: Avatar or Up

-- This is the Academy at its most elitist. This is the year you point to when you want to say that while this whole new "Popular Picture" category is ham-fisted and insulting, the Academy NEEDS the Popular Picture category. Avatar and Up vs. The Hurt Locker? Come on.

2010

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Best popular picture: Toy Story 3 or Inception

-- The King's Speech was perfectly delightful. You tell me which movie will last.

2011

Best Picture: The Artist

Best popular picture: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

-- Look, it doesn't always work out in the popular sphere. One thing I've been doing is ignoring the fact that Transformers movies are ALWAYS at or near the top of the popularity charts, and they're neither good nor influential. We do like escapism too. This year, the popular films were generally the sort of pointless, escapist bubble gum movies that the Academy desperately wants to ignore. Twilight. The Hangover Part II. Transformers. Fast Five. Another Mission Impossible. The Artist was absolutely a triumph. I understand wanting to honor it.

But my point is that by ONLY wanting to honor smaller, quirkier, beautiful and "important" movies like The Artist, they so often miss that the popular movies are better in the grand scheme of things.

2012

Best Picture: Argo

Best popular picture: The Avengers

This was another great year for popular movies, with The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall and The Hobbit and Django Unchained. Argo was a fine movie, but it was an uninspired choice.

2013

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave

Best popular picture: Frozen

How do you compare THOSE two movies?

2014

Best Picture: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Best popular picture: Guardians of the Galaxy. The Lego Movie or X-Men: Days of Future Past

-- None of those popular pictures were even nominated, and they nominated EIGHT movies that year. I was outraged that Boyhood didn't win, but realistically, Boyhood and Birdman, neither of those movies had the Houdini effect that Guardians or The Lego Movie had.

2015

Best Picture: Spotlight

Best popular picture: Inside Out

-- Sorry, Pixar just makes the best and most lasting movies. I loved Spotlight -- of course I did -- but The Martian, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, these will last so much longer.

2016

Best Picture: Moonlight

Best popular picture: Zootopia, La La Land or Rogue One

-- Best not to revisit how this Academy Awards show ended.

2017

Best Picture: The Shape of Water

Best popular picture: Get Out, Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Coco or Logan or ...

-- This was the year that the Academy went off the rails. There has always been this gap between what the Academy saw as a great movie and what America saw as a great movie. And for a long time, America just kind of went along with it; we conceded that our tastes were not as refined as the critics' taste or the Academy's taste. They understood excellence in a way that we, mere movie fans, did not.

So why did we care at all about the Oscars? We checked in for the glamour, the indulgences, the celebrity sightings, the over-the-top productions. It became an American tradition. But as time went on, our movie tastes drifted more and more away from what the Oscars celebrated and honored.

The Shape of Water? Who in the heck is going to watch The Shape of Water in 20 years? Or five? Or now?

[caption id="attachment_22749" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Come on, seriously?[/caption]

Movies are meant to do more than entertain us. They are meant to challenge us, to disturb us, inspire us in the best sense of that word. They are meant to make us see the world in a whole different way. The Academy's role, as they see it, is to make sure to honor movies that do those things, rather than the silly pop-culture thing of the moment. That's fine in theory.

But if you look back over the last 40 years, you find that we meager movie goers honored those movies -- the challenging and provocative movies -- at least as often as the Academy. More often, I think. Our popcorn movies that the Academy snubbed and looked down on are in so many cases more revolutionary, risky, demanding and exciting than their choices. Has a movie as bold as The Matrix won an Oscar? As touching as ET or Up? As important as Saving Private Ryan? As mind-bending as Back to the Future or Inception?

Sure, we watch some pointless junk, just like they nominate some pretentious junk. But while this popular movie thing is obviously a nakedly ambitious attempt to win back much of what the Academy has lost, it's also long overdue. I don't think they should add a category so that they can honor Black Panther.

How about they just HONOR Black Panther?

[/ppp_patron_only]