'Borat' Joins 'The Godfather' with Historic Oscar Distinction
Because in the end, they are both about family.
It's a big day in film, with the Oscar nominations announced this morning.
Twitter user @RussellHfilm pointed out a new piece of Oscar trivia upon looking at the 2021 Academy Award Nominees.
\u201cTHE GODFATHER was the first movie franchise to have its first and second films both nominated for Best Screenplay. the second movie franchise? BORAT.\u201d— Russell (@Russell) 1615820822
Technically, the tweet is incorrect. There have been two other instances of an original and sequel both being nominated for Best Original Screenplay. They are The Thin Man and After The Thin Man, the original being based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett, and then The Hustler and The Color of Money.
But it's still worth noting that Borat 2 is joining a very short list that includes The Godfather.
While The Godfather routinely tops "greatest movie ever" lists, the sequel The Godfather Part 2 is considered by many to be just as good or better than its predecessor. Borat and Borat 2 hardly seem like an obvious pick to join The Godfather's first two entries with this extremely rare distinction.
Mainly because they are largely improvised.
If anything, does this sort of point to the silliness of nominated movies for awards? Or maybe just taking such nominations seriously?
Or maybe it just points to the amazing diversity the medium is capable of. A gangster period epic based on a novel, and a fake talk show based on an improv comedy sketch. The tent for greatness in movies is certainly large.
We could do a deep dive on what these franchises have in common... the immigrant experience? The importance of family? The value of letting old traditions go... in a new world...
But we'll leave all that to the film historians.
