And then the sun itself will turn us all to sand

[sovay]

Spurred by a gloomy desire to know what the hell movie Spike Lee's era-defining Do the Right Thing (1989) lost Best Original Screenplay to at the 62nd Academy Awards, spatch and I just spent the last hour reading Oscar nominations and results from 1990 onward, an activity punctuated by frequent cries of "[X] was robbed!" "[Y] should have been nominated!" and "That was poop!" I had forgotten how many years I had opinions about. I've seen even more of those movies now. I have more opinions.

The answer to our original question, by the way, was Dead Poets Society. My opinion about that is: "That was poop!"

Comments

[ethelmay]

I remember my mother telling me when I was a kid that gangster movies in the days of the film code had to employ all sorts of snarling accents in order to disguise the fact that their "swear words" were things on the level of "My stars!" and "Heavens to Betsy!"

[sovay]

I remember my mother telling me when I was a kid that gangster movies in the days of the film code had to employ all sorts of snarling accents in order to disguise the fact that their "swear words" were things on the level of "My stars!" and "Heavens to Betsy!"

I once read that David Milch started writing Deadwood with period-accurate minced profanity like "tarnation" and "consarnit" and had to give it up because, as he told the interviewer, to a modern ear it just sounded like Yosemite Sam.