July 19, 2007

Bury My Heart gets Emmy nominations

'Bury My Heart,' 'Sopranos' top Emmy nods"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," adapted from Dee Brown's nonfiction best-seller, received nominations for best made-for-TV movie, writing and for support acting. The film chronicles the Sioux victory over Custer at Little Big Horn and events leading up to the assassination of Sitting Bull and the Sioux massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890.

Executive producer Dick Wolf said its clutch of nominations was a validation of a very difficult project.

"Anybody who says it's not nice or it doesn't mean anything to get this many nominations, it's the ultimate sour grapes because it sure feels great," he said.
Emmy scorecardSUPPORTING ACTRESS, MINISERIES OR A MOVIE:
Anna Paquin, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

SUPPORTING ACTOR, MINISERIES OR A MOVIE:
August Schellenberg , "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO
Aidan Quinn, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A MINISERIES:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

ART DIRECTION FOR A MINISERIES, OR MOVIE:
"Bury My Heat At Wounded Knee," HBO

CASTING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

COSTUMES FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

HAIRSTYLING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

MAKEUP FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL (NON-PROSTHETIC):
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL (DRAMATIC SCORE):
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO

SOUND EDITING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," HBO
Comment:  Once again, Adam Beach is touted as a surefire award winner but doesn't get nominated. Someone is either overrating or underrating his performances.

Bury My Heart may deserve some of these nominations, but it doesn't deserve a nomination for best writing or made-for-TV movie. My review explains why.

5 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
From THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG, Robert A. Heinlein's millennia-long-lived character: 'A 'critic' is a man who creates nothing and thereby feels qualified to judge the work of creative men. There is logic in this; he is unbiased -- he hates all creative people equally...'
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

What does your ignorance of critics have to do with this posting...anything?

A fictional quote by a fiction writer doesn't tell us much about the art of criticism. Here are some real quotes from real people on the subject:

"The understanding that underlies the right decision grows out of the clash and conflict of opinions and out of the serious consideration of competing alternatives."

--Peter Drucker, management guru

"The power to question is the basis of all human progress."

--Indira Gandhi

"It is from the womb of art that criticism was born."

--Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), French poet

"Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic."

--Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), U.S. writer of detective fiction

"Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters."

--Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), British novelist

"To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own."

--Henry James (1843-1916), American author

"Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well."

--Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author

"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it."

--D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), English writer

"It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic."

--Marshall Mcluhan (1911-1980), Canadian communications theorist and educator

"Temperament is the primary requisite for the critic--a temperament exquisitely susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty gives us."

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish poet and dramatist

Rob said...

But I'm a writer and creative person and have been most of my life. So how does your made-up quote apply to me or this blog? I certainly don't hate myself.

Here's a list of some great writers who were also great critics:

http://thinkexist.com/occupation/famous_critics

Aldous Huxley
Arthur Koestler
Edgar Allan Poe
Emile Zola
Ezra Pound
Friedrich Nietzsche
George Bernard Shaw
Henry Louis Mencken
Soren Kierkegaard
Kingsley Amis
Lionel Trilling
Oscar Wilde
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Susan Sontag
T.S. Eliot
Umberto Eco
Vladimir Nabokov

So what do we have here? On the one hand, many giants of arts and letters who understand the role of criticism. On the other hand, you. Sorry, but I'll go with the giants over small (minded) people like you any day.

I'll also point out that you're a hypocrite for criticizing me constantly in this blog. I'm creating an information resource and you're creating nothing, so you feel qualified to judge me. You're a perfect example of someone who criticizes rather than creates (his own blog).

Meanwhile, I've also written some 400 articles and countless commentaries in the last two decades. Apparently I'm writing more and criticizing more than you are. You can think of me as a new Mencken: someone who creates and criticizes with equal proficiency.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
writerfella quoted Robert Heinlein and did not make it up. Your ostensible 'criticism' either is scathing at its deepest and merely faint praise at its lightest. 'Criticism' in fact means 'to critique' which is an examination and not simple condemnationn nor simply 'to criticize' just for the health of it. Plus, writerfella musta hit a nerve or two because that always elicits verbal hemorrhages from you...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

You didn't answer any of my questions again. I guess you were too afraid.

Heinlein made up the quote, obviously. It wasn't uttered by a real person in a real context.

Did you read my lengthy critiques of End of the Spear, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and SCALPED (to name just three of dozens of examples)? I generally do the exact opposite of merely condemning works; I examine them in depth. If you're too obtuse to understand that, you have no business commenting on the matter.

Yeah, you hit a nerve or two. It irritates the hell out of me when someone says something stupid in my blog and I have to waste time responding to it. Try not to say such things in the future, okay?