Editor's note: Welcome to the fifteenth of a 33-part series dissecting the 83rd Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!
by Rachel of Rachel's Reel Reviews
Makeup is such an essential part of filmmaking that it’s a shock it took the Academy 54 years before it began to annually recognize achievements of artists in the field. This year's three nominees display different techniques of makeup design, making it difficult to say one is truly better than the others, but only one can take the gold man home.
Makeup is such an essential part of filmmaking that it’s a shock it took the Academy 54 years before it began to annually recognize achievements of artists in the field. This year's three nominees display different techniques of makeup design, making it difficult to say one is truly better than the others, but only one can take the gold man home.
Plot: A group of prisoners escape from a Siberian Gulag camp during WWII and walk 4000 miles to meet their freedom in India.
Technique: At work here is a "man vs. nature" element. Dirty skin, snowy beards, dusty hair: all things essential to letting the audience know that this ragtag group of escapees has gone from the hottest desert to the coldest mountain top.
Possible Setback: Some may not consider dirtying up actors all that fantastical of a makeup effect.
Technique: At work here is a "man vs. nature" element. Dirty skin, snowy beards, dusty hair: all things essential to letting the audience know that this ragtag group of escapees has gone from the hottest desert to the coldest mountain top.
Possible Setback: Some may not consider dirtying up actors all that fantastical of a makeup effect.
Plot: Spanning several decades, Barney spins the story of his own life, through his multiple marriages and his best friend's disappearance.
Technique: Since the film covers many years, loads of aging makeup had to be applied to multiple actors in both directions, looking both younger and older than they really are.
Possible Setback: Being one of the most basic techniques in makeup, is aging an actor really all that noteworthy anymore?
Technique: Since the film covers many years, loads of aging makeup had to be applied to multiple actors in both directions, looking both younger and older than they really are.
Possible Setback: Being one of the most basic techniques in makeup, is aging an actor really all that noteworthy anymore?
Plot: After his brother's gruesome death, estranged son Lawrence Talbot returns to his family's estate only to be attacked by a werewolf and be cursed to turn into the monster during a full moon.
Technique: Not only does this film sport the fantasy element of turning Benicio del Toro into a werewolf, it's also set in the late 19th century, forcing period appropriate hair and makeup into the mix as well.
Possible Setback: The movie was pretty bad and released a year ago.
Technique: Not only does this film sport the fantasy element of turning Benicio del Toro into a werewolf, it's also set in the late 19th century, forcing period appropriate hair and makeup into the mix as well.
Possible Setback: The movie was pretty bad and released a year ago.
So who will win? Since this is the only nomination each film received, there isn't a chance they can get caught up in a sweep, so it's do or die at this point. Though the film was pretty terrible, my money's on The Wolfman, as it exercises the most exciting part of makeup and that is to create something beyond our world, and the look of the film is the only thing worth praising. Added to that is the fact that artist Rick Baker has received the most nominations (11) and wins (6) in the category's history, with one of those wins being for An American Werewolf in London in 1981, which was also the inaugural win for the category.
