The poor, poor film critics are getting their feelings hurt

The overwhelming majority of groups comprised chiefly of film critics named The Social Network as the best picture of 2010. For what it's worth, I too thought it was easily the best film of the year. Last year, these same fellas thought The Hurt Locker was the best and they were filled with self-congratulatory glee when the Oscar voters agreed with them.

This year, however, the Oscar folks are not going to agree with them and that has got these self-anointed guardians of all things that are pure about motion pictures huffing and puffing like I haven't seen in quite some time. (You can see them in this picture marching on the Motion Picture Academy.) Some of them are comparing this miscarriage of justice to what happened 69 years ago when Citizen Kane, considered by most film historians (although not by me) to be the greatest film ever made, wasn't even named the best picture of that particular year (1941) by the Oscar voters. Get a grip. The Social Network is not on the same level with Citizen Kane. I'm not even sure it's on the same level as that year's winner, How Green Was My Valley. I wouldn't even put it on the same travesty level as when Ordinary People beat out Raging Bull, or Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction.

A better comparison of this year's likely Oscar victory by The King's Speech would be back in 1997 when The English Patient won the Oscar over Fargo.

Here's another issue the critics need to deal with. If the Gallup pollsters queried movie goers who had seen both The King's Speech and The Social Network as to which one they liked best (not which one they thought was the better picture) I'm betting The King's Speech would win in a landslide. The Social Network is a film populated exclusively by unlikeable characters. There's no one in that film to root for. And the voting members of the Motion Picture Academy almost always follow their heart.

So here's my message to all those high-fallutin', self-appointed motion picture intellectuals: GET OVER IT. It's not like the incredibly overrated and emotionally barren Inception is going to be named best picture. The Social Network will still be the best picture of 2010 regardless of which film wins the Oscar. And, for my money, The King's Speech, while not the best alternative (that distinction belongs to either Winter's Bone or Toy Story 3), is still a fine, fine choice.