Well as luck would have it, the 91st Academy Awards were on last night, just a few days after my having started my “Movies & Music” blog category. It was a coincidence, I swear. In any case, my wife and I went with some family and friends to “La Gran Noche del Cine”, a charitable event at the Caribbean Cinemas in Montehiedra, and had a great time.
As it turns out, we all watched “Bohemian Rhapsody”, a movie none of us had seen, and it proved to be a good choice. The entire event was well-organized and very entertaining. There was a choice between seeing any number of Oscar-nominated movies, or the televised Academy Awards show itself, but we opted for the movie.
I was happy to see later that the documentary “Free Solo” had won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. For those who have no idea what “Free Solo” is about, it is a documentary feature about a young American rock climber named Alex Honnold, and his successful quest to climb the El Capitan rock face in Yosemite National Park in June of 2017. I had previously seen the National Geographic coverage of this event, and was happily surprised to see it nominated in its documentary form for an Academy Award.
At some point I will probably write an article about extreme sports in the Sports category of the blog, but for now I’ll just say that this is one mind-boggling feat. This was a rope-less, equipment-less climb up a vertical granite wall nearly 3,000 feet high. The pictures and videos of the feat are incredible.
But back to the movie we saw, I opted not to see it the first time it appeared on the local theaters, but I’m glad we saw it this time around. It was a well-made movie, not surprisingly it won four (4) Academy Awards, including Best Actor. For me it was a trip back to the 80’s and the rise and fame of the group “Queen”. It was interesting to see the portrayal of Freddie Mercury and his tormented life, which was sadly and tragically ended by AIDS.
Unfortunately, it seems Rami Malek’s (Best Actor) acceptance speech came under criticism for having referred to Mercury as a “gay man” instead of “bisexual.” It seems you can’t win for losing nowadays, and as much effort as I’m sure Malek put into his acceptance speech, he was bound to infuriate somebody. It’s too bad people can’t just accept good intentions for what they are, and feel the need to overanalyze everything to the umpteenth degree, looking for something to be outraged about.
All in all though, a great night for movie buffs.