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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1995)
1 i 195 :k tie quick]; which said. ?ene tk: c. how / is the 1?” in bio: blocks id ma: bene: ■e aho clock ne us: irtofll from ! agrir. 1 clod manip 3e elit le. D« lowlei lock a: proce: loi ile Monday • March 27, 1995 e Life The Battalion • Page 3 petit.'- Apr: eeti oo UNS BTS E >11 jditor tor Heller ioad Bart ay sz 'lor spring idays 31 ’: 7840- I is A&M :he I . in Oil i r is 843-; Jattalio"! , call >.m. Dasi^J 3 per W The Oscars Gump Fiction 'Pulp Fiction's' daring creativity will scare off Academy voters “Life is like a box of chocolates ...” — Forrest Gump “Oh sh-t — I just shot Marvin’s face off!” — Pulp Fiction T I he coexistence of both of these films on the list of 1994 Best Pic ture Oscar nominees proves that creativity and variety in art — especially movies — is indeed infinite. But the films’ similarities end with the Oscar cate- Jay Robbins rt-'l Senior Managing Editor P li gories in which they both are competing. Tonight, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci ences will announce its choices for the best work in the movies last year. Besides handing out statuettes, the renowned and revered Academy will also hand down its judgment of the merit in the nominated filmmakers’ efforts. So, what will it be? The beautifully crafted, unabashedly and unembarassingly sentimental and wildly successful Forrest Gump? Or, the shocking, innovative and unques tionably unique Pulp Fiction? My money’s invested in Bubba Gump Shrimp. The vast difference between Forrest Gump and Pulp Fic tion not only represents the breadth of human creative ef fort, but also the chasm between traditional Academy fa vorites and films that are truly creative. It sets up another opportunity for the Academy to ignore originality and con tribution to the artistic medium of film when picking who gets the prize. Not surprisingly then. Pulp Fiction probably won’t win tonight. Movies similar in originality to Pulp Fiction, such as Barton Fink, Boyz ‘N’ The Hood and Do The Right Thing often fail to even receive Best Picture nominations, so maybe director-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino should be satisfied. Other films that at least make the first cut by being nominated, like The Crying Game, never seem to get the fi nal nod. In some cases, that’s all they deserve, but at times it seems like only movies that meet a certain, set standard will get the gold-plated figurine. At first glance, both films observed that code. Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction both stacked up Oscar nominations for acting, direction and writing, as well as overall picture. Both films moved beyond the realm of en tertainment to become the topics of talk show and coffee break discussions. Both enjoyed success at the box office, and both have re ceived countless accolades already. All those things being equal, Forrest Gump still has the definite edge with the Academy. Pulp Fiction made the fatal “mistake” of going beyond using good performances and craftsmanship to make a good movie. In the Art section of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, you don’t make loud noise or stomp when you walk. Pulp Fiction finds a loud new way to do almost every thing. The movie is fast-paced when the plot is complicated and other films would slow down for the audience, sedate when many films would liven up a simple scene. Drugs, ad dicts and dealers appear as nothing more or less than they Eire — substances and people, not “evildoers” and “victims.” Pulp Fiction even has the audacity to shock its audience by killing off a main character and not including a hero waiting to be given a chance to change his ways and save the world. If a computer animator — note, in the science branch of the Academy — had completed as much pioneering work on a film as the creators of Pulp Fiction made in acting, writ ing and direction, the Academy would heap awards on the project. Not so in the case of the non-technical awards. It seems like the members of the Academy didn’t even bother to pay much attention to Pulp Fiction after the first few scenes. Although John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson’s char acters both appear throughout the movie and Eire equally important to, the plot, Travolta’s Vincent is up for Best Ac tor, while Jackson’s Jules is shoved down to the supporting category. i rv , « t , , k> Perhaps the Academy’s familiarity with Comeback Kid Travolta kept him from getting lost in the crowd. A true supporting character, Harvey Keitel in a CEireer- highlight turn as The Wolf, didn’t even get nominated, probably because he didn’t show up until halfway through the show. The Academy’s track record Eind present standing on its awards indicate it will pick the chocolate with sweet CEiramel in the middle. To bad they don’t seem to want to start a new cuisine by biting into the chocolate-covered jalapeno. Oscar NOMINEES Best Picture □ Forrest Gump O Four Weddings and a Funeral O Pulp Fiction O Quiz Show □ The Shawshank Redemption Best Actor □ Morgan Freeman — The Shawshank Redemption D Tom Flanks — Forrest Gump CJ Nigel Hawthorne — The Madness of King George lD Paul Newman — Nobody's Fool O John Travolta — Pulp Fiction Best Actress O Jodie Foster — Nell n Jessica Lange — Blue Sky l) Miranda Richardson — Tom & Viv C\ Winona Ryder — Little Women d Susan Sarandon — The Client Best Supporting Actor d Samuel L. Jackson — Pulp Fiction d Martin Landau — Ed Wood d Chazz Palminteri — Bullets Over Broadway d Paul Scofield — Quiz Show □ Gary Sinise — Forrest Gump Best Supporting Actress O Rosemary Harris — Tom & Viv d Helen Mirren — The Madness of King George d Uma Thurman — Pulp Fiction □1 Jennifer Tilly — Bullets Over Broadway d Dianne Wiest — Bullets Over Broadway Best Director d Woody Allen — Bullets Over Broadway d Robert Zemeckis.— Forrest Gump d Quentin Tarantino — Pulp Fiction O Robert Redford — Quiz Show O Krysztof Kieslowski — Red Best Picture Nominees from left: Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption and Quiz Show. Sup porting acting nominees below: Jessica Lange, Samuel L. Jack- son, Martin Landau and Best Ac tor nominee Morgan Freeman. Rapper Eazy-E dies of AIDS complications LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eazy-E, whose pioneer ing “gangsta” group N.W.A. helped bring the raw ness of inner-city rap to suburbia, died Sunday of AIDS complications. He was 31. The rapper, whose real name was Eric Wright, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was hospitalized Feb. 24 with asthma, the hospital said. <f Eazy made an impact on rap music and hip-hop culture that will always be felt,” said Sheena Lester, executive editor of the magazine Rap Pages. Despite his gangster image and the harsh lyrics of his music, Wright was known among his friends as a kind and generous man, she said. In announcing his condition on March 16, Wright said he didn’t know how he contracted AIDS but wanted to warn “all my homeboys and their kin.” His hospitalization prompted so many well-wishing telephone calls the hospital had to hire more operators. “I’ve learned in the last week that this thing is real and it doesn’t discriminate. It affects every one,” Wright said in a statement read by his attor ney. Wright’s attending physician. Dr. William Young, said he went on life support on Msurch 15, and lost the ability to communicate several days before he died, with his wife, Tomika, and his mother, Kathie Wright, at his side. A former drug dealer who claimed to have fa thered seven children by six different women, Wright brought a brutal vision of Los Angeles-area ghetto life to popular art. N.W.A., which stands for Niggaz Wit’ Attitude, scored a hit in 1988 with “Straight Outta Comp ton,” using a thumping beat to tell crude tales of drive-by shootings, drugs and police harassment in the tough Los Angeles suburb. The album’s foul-mouthed, hardcore themes knocked softer rap off the charts and sold more than 2 million copies despite lack of radio play. Wright’s high-pitched voice anchored the song “F Tha Police,” which prompted an FBI protest that it advocated violence against law enforcement. The view of police as racists came years before the 1991 Rodney King beating. N.W.A’s follow-up record, 1991’s “Niggaz4Life,” sold nearly 1 million copies in its first weeks of re lease to become the first hardcore rap album to hit No. 1 on the chsirts. N.W.A. eventually broke up amidst artistic and money disputes but proved hugely influential. Former members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre went on to successful solo careers, and gangsta rap spread into the white, suburban teen-age market to be come mainstream. Wright went on to record the 1993 solo album “It’s On (Dr. Dre) l87um Killa.” His Ruthless Records produced and supervised several other acts, including Above the Law, Thugs in Harmony, Blood of Abraham, MC Ren and Hoes With Attitude. Critics called gangsta rap violent and sexist for its portrayal of police as targets, women as “bitch es” and whores, and its celebration of drugs and gunplay. Some said it promoted criminal violence. Supporters argued that it merely presented the grim reality of the inner city. “The way I see it, most kids nowadays like lis tening to stuff that's real,” Wright said last year. “They wanna be hip, they wanna be down. They wanna know all the street slang, everything that’s going on. Both black and white.” Like other rappers, Wright occasionally was in trouble with the law. In 1993, a judge found he had fathered a 2-year-old Nebraska girl and or dered him to pay about $58,000 a year in what a prosecutor said waa the largest child support order ever handled by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. Wright recently was married to Wood and the couple has a 1-year-old son, Dominick, the youngest of his children. Both Wood and the son tested negative for the AIDS virus, Wright said. Experience the ultimate collection of lingerie fashions. 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