The Slumdog Sham

Slumdog Millionaire was the darling of the Oscars this year, winning eight awards including Best Picture. After seeing the film, I have to ask….how?

The awards ceremony at this year’s Oscars was a beat-down. Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up to the tune of eight Academy Awards across a variety of categories. Though I never formally reviewed Slumdog, I have seen it and found it mediocre at best. In examining each award I am even more puzzled at the success of the film.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The story for Slumdog Millionaire is adapted from a book titled Q & A. This is a hard award to judge…and I am not sure what it even entails. Does the award go to the film who is most true to the source material, or the best film that was originally a novel?

If the latter is true (and I believe it is), then the award is pointless. The director has the right to change what he sees fit to make the best film, so now the award is about who can recreate an author’s original creation into something completely new. It might as well be titled “Best Artistic Remix”. Since I have not read the novel I cannot judge the award in regards to Slumdog.

Cinematography

Cinematography is a fancy word for “looks.” The type of film used, the lighting, and the camerawork are all part of the art of cinematography. Slumdog Millionaire does have a variety of vivid locations, but the driving area of the movie is the Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? set. Naturally it uses the familiar Millionaire lighting and camerawork. There is not much creativity there.

There are artistic parts of the film that I enjoyed as well, such as Salim’s last stand (probably the most potent to me). Those few small instances are not enough to justify the highest honor in the industry. Unfortunately the academy does not take superhero films seriously, because one could make a strong case for The Dark Knight here. The cinematography was essential to keeping the film exciting, and also creating a perfect balance between comic book adventure and human drama.

Sound Mixing

Who cares?

Film Editing

This might be my biggest gripe. Slumdog Millionaire is nowhere near the top in the editing department. There are inconsistencies in the storytelling that make the movie very confusing at points. Sometimes a Millionaire question is asked and we cut to the story behind that question, but at other points we cut to the continuation of the story unrelated to the question.

The story and action sequences are sometimes just frustrating because it is nearly impossible to follow. I completely understood the story of the film as a whole, but some things as simple as chase scenes were a mess. The pacing also creates plenty of boredom and makes the audience yearn for the credits.

In a well-edited film, the viewer will not even notice the editing. At multiple points in Slumdog I was shaking my head in disbelief at the cuts. There is no way it deserved this award.

Music (Score)

The score in Slumdog is fine. It has plenty of Indian music to give a sense of environment and the score fits the film well. However, it did not do anything spectacular to enhance the visual storytelling of the movie.

Wall-E used the score masterfully. Without any dialogue to convey emotion or story, the music worked hand-in-hand with the animation to do both. When the score is this important to a film and performs its task to perfection, I think it should get the recognition.

Music (Song)

Will Smith should continue to win this award every year until another rapper/actor tops “Men in Black.”

Directing

It is obvious that with all of my problems with Slumdog I do not approve of the director receiving an award. All of the problems ultimately fall on Danny Boyle, who strangely made one of my favorite films of all time (How in the world did I only give it an 8/10?).

Best director should have gone to either Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) or Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight). Neither was even nominated, but both created immersive worlds that took the audience on an adventure. Slumdog Millionaire is nothing more than an average film. Wall-E and The Dark Knight are among the best of all time in their respective genres.

Sidenote: The top two viewed posts on my site are the reviews for Wall-E and The Dark Knight

Best Picture

The best movie of the year never wins Best Picture. Part of that reason is that deciding on a best film is extremely subjective, be it amongst a group of friends or the academy.

It should be no surprise that I strongly believe Wall-E was the best movie of 2008. In my rather controversial review I explain in more detail what made Wall-E spectacular.

The animation prejudice is something that will unfortunately persist throughout my entire lifetime. Just because a film is animated does not mean that it cannot be an exquisite piece of art. Wall-E has better characters and a better story than Slumdog Millionare. Between both films I can honestly say that Wall-E‘s story touched me much more than Slumdog‘s.

Even though the Academy selected Slumdog Millionaire as its Best Picture this year, I am confident that Wall-E is going to stand the test of time much better. Ten years from now no one will remember nor care about Slumdog Millionaire, but we will still be talking about Wall-E as a masterpiece.

The strange thing about this post is that I put absolutely zero stock in Academy Awards as a measurement for a film’s greatness. I think in many ways this critique illustrates why. However, I was shocked at the critical acclaim for Slumdog and decided to use its awards as a vehicle to break down its mediocrity.

What did you think of Slumdog Millionaire? Do you put any faith in these awards, or critics for that matter?