(Originally posted by cinemabon)
When Clint wins the Oscar, I will spit at the screen.

Wow! That's pretty strong! Would you care to explain why, or are we supposed to just know? I think handicappers regard Clint as the favorite now, and I don't begrudge his film its recognition. In fact, the Best Picture candidates this year are all worthy ones, in my opinion: The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Sideways, Ray, and Finding Neverland are all good movies and I very much enjoyed watching every one of them. I would personally like Before Sunset, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Undertow, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, and my other US ten best choices to get more consideration, but you have to be realistic about what kind of vote produces the Oscars and what kind of Hollywood machine the nominations emerge from, and this time those have not served us as badly as they have in other years. None of them, or their makers, will arouse my ire. It is not unusual for the truly finest film under consideration to be a runner-up rather than the winner, at best. We can only be happy that some superior work gets mentioned, and this has always been true at Oscar time. When something extraordinary actually wins, that's really grounds for rejoicing, but it happens only once in a blue moon.

I differ with you also on saying that in The Aviator the link between Hughes' mother and his disorders is "only alluded to." The movie focuses meaningfully on Hughes' mother's encouragement of a fear of germs in a powerful opening scene. This is more than a mere allusion; it is a heavy foreshadowing--though it may be an allusion to the early parts of Citizen Kane by the cinephile Scorsese to set his movie in a greater tradition than he can quite hope to live up to. Undoubtedly there's truth in the rest of what you say, that isolation, power, and great wealth contributed to Hughes' eccentricity and madness, as they may have done (or may currently be doing) with the other magnates you mention.