FAST FIVE Oscar Watch: Best Adapted Screenplay
What's this? Yes, my children, though our very own Ryland Aldrich stated his arguments as to why Fast Five deserves to win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in February's upcoming extravaganza just last week - arguments I fully endorse and agree with - I am here to present something for your further consideration. Because, in my view, this line between 'Original' and 'Adaptation' is a spurious one at best, and there is no reason why something cannot fit in both categories. Yes, Fast Five deserves your consideration as Best Adapted Screenplay.
I can hear the arguments now, just as I heard them then. They go something like this: Fast Five should only be considered for Best Adapted Screenplay because it is a sequel and the Academy says sequels aren't original. Well, to that I say piffle. And piffle a second time. If the original is original then declaring a story unoriginal because it happens to continue outside the bounds of a single film is just silly. Continue on this topic and I may even need to throw in a poppycock.
No, Fast Five is not an adaptation because it is a sequel. Nor is it adapted from a book or a play or some other literary source. No, Fast Five is something far more impressive. Fast Five has been adapted from real life.
To understand what I mean I need you to take a step back from the storied franchise and put the fast cars out of your mind entirely. I need you to think big picture. Consider, if you will, what Fast Five is about on the largest possible terms. This, friends, is a movie in which a man who has named himself after a type of fuel (Vin Diesel) and a man who has named himself after a type of geography which frequently covers fuel (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) join forces to travel into South America and rob another sovereign nation of their resources simply to make a point. A big America, Fuck Yeah point.
Do you see it? Do you see what writer Chris Morgan has done here? He has taken the glossy, candy coated exterior of the Fast franchise and used it to mask a cleverly disguised satire of American foreign policy. He has turned candy into a vegetable, people, and turned a movie ostensibly about fast cars into something good for you. He has educated America's Heartland about their shoddy international practices without anyone even noticing. Pay close enough attention and I'm pretty certain you'll see some secret School Of The Americas handshakes in there and, good God, I'm pretty certain I spotted Ollie North lurking in the background of a few shots.
So there you have it, folks. It's time to end this arbitrary division of "Original" and "Adapted" and the way to do it is to give both awards to a single film. Fast Five for Best Adapted Screenplay.
[Support the Fast Five Oscar Watch: Tweet the hashtag #ConsiderFast5]
I can hear the arguments now, just as I heard them then. They go something like this: Fast Five should only be considered for Best Adapted Screenplay because it is a sequel and the Academy says sequels aren't original. Well, to that I say piffle. And piffle a second time. If the original is original then declaring a story unoriginal because it happens to continue outside the bounds of a single film is just silly. Continue on this topic and I may even need to throw in a poppycock.
No, Fast Five is not an adaptation because it is a sequel. Nor is it adapted from a book or a play or some other literary source. No, Fast Five is something far more impressive. Fast Five has been adapted from real life.
To understand what I mean I need you to take a step back from the storied franchise and put the fast cars out of your mind entirely. I need you to think big picture. Consider, if you will, what Fast Five is about on the largest possible terms. This, friends, is a movie in which a man who has named himself after a type of fuel (Vin Diesel) and a man who has named himself after a type of geography which frequently covers fuel (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) join forces to travel into South America and rob another sovereign nation of their resources simply to make a point. A big America, Fuck Yeah point.
Do you see it? Do you see what writer Chris Morgan has done here? He has taken the glossy, candy coated exterior of the Fast franchise and used it to mask a cleverly disguised satire of American foreign policy. He has turned candy into a vegetable, people, and turned a movie ostensibly about fast cars into something good for you. He has educated America's Heartland about their shoddy international practices without anyone even noticing. Pay close enough attention and I'm pretty certain you'll see some secret School Of The Americas handshakes in there and, good God, I'm pretty certain I spotted Ollie North lurking in the background of a few shots.
So there you have it, folks. It's time to end this arbitrary division of "Original" and "Adapted" and the way to do it is to give both awards to a single film. Fast Five for Best Adapted Screenplay.
[Support the Fast Five Oscar Watch: Tweet the hashtag #ConsiderFast5]
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