I totally agree with Cenk that this round of Academy Awards was a serious let down.

The Hurt Locker winning as much as it did is baffling since there were so many war movies in the past far more ground breaking. Granted, Hurt Locker is the first exceptional movie about the recent Iraq war but it doesn't stand out as something truly unique compared to Apocalypse Now or Saving Private Ryan.

I have to stand up for Q. Tarantino in that he is such a fantastic director and has never been recognized with an award. Sure, some people loath Tarantino because he'll take risks with styles that are foreign to American audiences such as Kill Bill. But, that just shows the refreshing diversity that Tarantino brings to the screen. Inglorious Basterds was as aggressive as ever and more than willing to put a kind of raw tension on the screen that any other director would shrink away from.

I suspect that Hurt Locker won as much as it did for several political reasons that put a good movie "over the top": it was a war movie about the most recent and arguably unpopular war and was directed by a woman that has been passed up in the past for awards (for potentially better work). The comment by Streisand (?) about there having never been a woman to win immediately foreshadowed the politics of the victory.

Cenk is touching on a reality of overcompensating for the perceived notion that there was a movement AGAINST Bigelow winning the award because of gender. Denying that such an effect exists is naive. We see the same application of politics in so many other facets of society (i.e. excessive quota filling in affirmative action schools to blatantly ludicrous levels). What discourages me, a person who yearns greatly for gender/race/religion to have no influence on merit, is that this behavior (or the perception of it) is quite possibly as bad as discrimination against a person on the same grounds. Will Bigelow set the Oscars that she won on her mantle thinking, "did I win these because I was a woman or because I was the best damn director?" Unfortunately, in my opinion, I think that Inglorious Basterds DID have better directing and so I am inclined to believe there was foul play. But, like Cenk said, it is just an opinion. Perhaps, Bigelow really was the best directory - I just didn't see it.