Drum roll, please? And the new recipient for the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement is... An actor!!
Well, you could knock me over with a spoon. AFI has honored an actor! And not a director. Who would have possibly guessed?? That makes it only the 10th time in the past 11 years that an actor will be singled out.
Not that it would have been a big switch mind you. In 36 years of presenting their Lifetime Achievement "award," AFI has named 28 actors. And eight directors. That's right, every single person the AFI has ever felt worthy of honoring in the film industry has been either an actor or director.
I want to be very clear, lest someone get the wrong impression. (Which they will.) I think every individual who has gotten an AFI tribute has been richly talented. Moreover, the choices are understandable, too: actors are the face of the movies, and directors shepherd the projects to the screen. So, of course, they will get most recognition. Fair enough.
But always?
Only?
That's the point here. "Always and only." Nothing else.
I understand that this is just a self-congratulating TV promotion. But still, The Movies are at the core of American popular culture, helping define who we are and how we present our nation to the world. If you're going to honor it, do so properly.
That this is all AFI ever does is why I gave up watching years ago, and avoided it again on Sunday. It's not a tribute to film-making. It's a TV show celebrating actors and directors, always. And only. To suggest that acting and directing alone is film achievement does a grave disservice to what has made films worth honoring in the first place. And if it appears that I'm the only one who thinks this way, just know that much of America has given up watching, too, since the once-prized AFI broadcast was bounced off the networks and is now on TV Land.
And even at that, AFI has ceased honoring the lifetime culmination of legendary careers. Today, it only celebrates those you expect to show up on The View the next week promoting their latest flick.
The Kennedy Center Honors recognizes the fullness of culture, saluting artists unknown to the general public, alongside Star Names. And it is their doing so that makes the broadcast so meaningful and substantive -- and varied and interesting -- to the viewing public. The result is that it has remained a crown jewel on network television.
To be fair, several of those honored by AFI have occasionally served other functions. But let's not kid ourselves -- they weren't being honored for that. If it wasn't for them being an actor or director, there is zero chance that AFI would have given them a Lifetime Achievement.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are the closest AFI has come to honoring a producer. After all, they each run film studios. But AFI never honored Lew Wasserman, who for 33 years ran a multinational film conglomerate. And ran Hollywood. What he didn't do was direct.
The closest the AFI has come to honoring a screenwriter is Billy Wilder, who did have a full career as a brilliant writer. But AFI didn't honor his writing partners, I.A.L Diamond or Charles Brackett. Just Billy Wilder, the director.
Again, everyone who has received an AFI Lifetime Achievement award has been very talented. The point is, though, if the American Film Institute is going to honor lifetime achievement in film, they should do so. Precisely as their name suggests, in full.
For starters, how about Neil Simon?? He's one of the few screenwriters whose name the public actually recognizes, and has for 40 years with The Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girl, The Out-of-Towners,The Sunshine Boys and on and on. The only people who don't recognize him seem to be the American Film Institute.
Unfortunately, one of the results of this 36-year oversight is that many of those giants who helped create the culture of movies are no longer here. The opportunity lost.
Before Ernest Lehman passed away only a couple of years ago, why in the world didn't AFI honor this acclaimed screenwriter? He wrote legendary movies like North by Northwest, Sweet Smell of Success, Sabrina, Executive Suite, West Side Story, The King and I and The Sound of Music. And many more. For what it's worth -- a lot -- he was nominated for six Academy Awards. And given an honorary Oscar for his body of work.
There are a great many renowned producers still here, still available for a lifetime honor, but far too many that AFI's myopia lost the chance for -- like Hal B. Wallis. Who's he? Well, Wallis made Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and Yankee Doodle Dandy, not to mention the classics The Rose Tattoo, Sergeant York, Sorry, Wrong Number, Juarez and True Grit -- among his 370 movies. Apparently, the AFI was holding out for him to hit 400.
Or if AFI wanted to honor a cinematographer, how about Haskell Wexler? He filmed the Best Picture Oscar-winners One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and In the Heat of the Night, as well as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bound for Glory -- and about 60 others. And he has two Academy Awards of his own. And he's still working.
It's a mark of shame that AFI never honored Edith Head. Easily the most celebrated costume designer in film history, all she did was earn 35 Oscar nominations and win eight Academy Awards. Apparently though, that's not enough of a lifetime achievement for AFI. (Side note -- some recent AFI recipients haven't even made 35 movies.)
AFI never saw fit to have a tribute for Elmer Bernstein, who composed the brilliant scores to The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Ten Commandments, True Grit, and even Animal House, Airplane! and Ghostbusters -- not to mention about 220 others. But he died a mere five years ago, and they won't get the chance.
At least they still have the chance with Ennio Morricone, whose 492 movie scores (!!) include The Untouchables, Cinema Paradiso, La Cage aux Folles, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America, Days of Heaven, and The Battle of Algiers. Or even Randy Newman who has 15 Oscar nominations, including the music for Toy Story, The Natural, Ragtime and Monsters Inc. But don't hold your breath.
(Sorry, I'm still adjusting to the concept of someone writing 492 movie scores. Most people probably haven't seen that many movies.)
Obviously this isn't intended to be any kind of a list. Just a few random examples. A real list is far deeper.
And I know the response from AFI -- "We're producing a TV show, and we need to honor a Star Name, so that people will tune in to watch."
There are several answers to this. All easy --
1) If that's your criteria, then be honest about it. Don't pretend that you're a lifetime achievement for the film industry. Just say that you're a TV show honoring popular actors and directors. Call it the "AFI Achievement Award for Acting and Directing."
2) No, you don't need a Star Name to Honor, to get an audience. When any awards show is promoted, we're simply told all the stars who are "Scheduled to Appear." That's the selling point. It is impossible to imagine that any AFI Lifetime Tribute couldn't fill the ballroom with legendary celebrities to attract a TV audience. In fact, when AFI itself honors something like the "Top 100 Comedies," it's only movie titles they're honoring, no Big Star at all -- they draw an audience with the film clips and by promoting stars "Scheduled to Appear." (And by the way, audiences love these shows, which is why they're on network TV.)
3) Better still, follow the lead of the Kennedy Center Honors, and do a tribute to perhaps three separate talents -- an actor, if you insist, and mix-and match between whatever other fields you want.
4) And y'know, ultimately you can always just salute other crafts separately, and show excerpts of "those honored earlier" on your broadcast. At least they'd be honored, and you'd demonstrate you understand and care about how film-making actually works. Which is a good thing for a film institute.
There is no excuse for the American Film Institute to honor only filmmakers who must be actors or directors. It's too easy to put on a vibrant, highly-promotable show that honors those worthy of a lifetime tribute. Once the decision is made that motion pictures are a part of American culture worth honoring in the first place, you ill-serve that culture and the audience if you do any less. If you are truly an American film institute and truly are honoring lifetime achievement for the history of movies, then live up to your name and honor it.
There is value in honoring American culture for the full depth of what it has brought to America and the world. But if one is just a TV show fawning on actors and directors alone, then it becomes nothing more than a empty sideshow, which explains why what was once a high-water event of the broadcast season is now a footnote. It could be more. It should be.