despite Golden Raspberry Awards -popularly known as Razzies- it started very modestly, almost like a joke, Over time, they established themselves as the world’s greatest scourge. Hollywood. Edited by publisher John JB Wilson and editor Maureen Murphy. They have been awarding the worst movies of the year since 1981..
For its forty-third this Saturday, ‘Blonde’ starts as favourites, with eight nominations. And if that’s not enough, there’s a chance to set a new record: The most successful actor in the history of these satirical awards, Sylvester Stallone – with a total of 11 awards – is picking another one for his role in ‘Samaritan’..
Birth of a new tradition
While studying at the University of California in the late 1970sWilson used to write movie reviews for a student newspaper.. Shortly after graduating, he worked as a trailer producer for the distribution company Kaleidoscope Film, where he coincided with Murphy. “One of the things you learn at a company like this is promoting a crappy feature film. From 90 minutes you have to find out what 52 seconds you can use to fool the whole world”, he declared in an interview with ‘Daily Bruin’ in 2014.
However imprinted this routine task may have been on him, The true seed of Razzies was forged in the summer of 1980.: ‘Xanadu’ and ‘Don’t stop the music!’ After attending a duo session of their musical – the fictional Village People biography directed by Nancy Walker – she asked them to refund the ticket amount. They told him no, but when he got home, she thought he’d missed out on some of the awards that reward the scariest productions in theaters each year.
Final consolidation
The first edition was made at Wilson’s home on March 31, 1981, coinciding with the delivery of the Oscars. Especially in the living room. A little over 30 friends and some local media said, ‘Don’t stop the music!’ It won the Golden Raspberry for Worst Picture. It is true that the interest has increased gradually in the following years.
But 1984 had a turning point: to maximize coverage, he moved the ceremony to the eve of 1984. Oscar. The move worked for him, as most of the media, both CNN and international, gathered in Los Angeles that weekend en masse. Reason? Twenty-four hours before the big movie party, there couldn’t be a better plan to kill time. “There are some people in Hollywood who get the joke, but most hate it and wish it would go away. Of course, that makes it even more fun,” Wilson told Time magazine.
In the aforementioned ‘Daily Braun’ he also stated: “Raising the bar for entertainment is part of our mission. We have the motto ‘Take care of the bad’, which implies that we can all make mistakes. Accept and move on. It really helps us all to be more humble. It allows you to go back to the world, gain perspective, and move forward to make things better.”
There are those who take it with humor.
On March 24, 1996, filmmaker Paul Verhoeven became the first winner to attend the ceremony.. Although the now cult Showgirls won a total of seven Razzies, he thanked the Worst Director award with these words: “The worst thing that ever happened to me today is to get the seven worst accolades. And I’m very happy because it was more fun than reading the comments in September.”
Sandra Bullock did the same on March 6, 2010, by winning an award in the Worst Actress category for her comedy ‘Crazy Obsession’.. Beyond arriving with a wheelbarrow full of DVDs of the movie he gave to those present, he jokingly said, “See, see for yourself and decide if I deserve it. You’ll agree with me and I’ll be back next year to return it”. The Paradoxes of Life won an Oscar a day later for her role in ‘The Blind Side’ (‘An Possible Dream’).
Bullock isn’t the only one who can boast of having Razzie and an Oscar: Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Basinger, Al Pacino or Ben Affleck to name a few. Both have their resumes. Still, if anyone deserves special mention, it’s undoubtedly Halle Berry. She made history on March 24, 2002 by becoming the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress for the movie Monster’s Ball.
Now, three years later, she has taken Razzie for her performance in ‘Catwoman’ and hasn’t hesitated to hold her precious Oscar in her hands. “First of all, I want to thank Warner Bros. Thank you for getting me into a crappy, scary movie. This is what my career needed. I was at the top and ‘Catwoman’ took me to the bottom”, she verbalized with overwhelming honesty.
Why was it? He justified his decision at ‘Vanity Fair’ in 2011: “I went to Razzies because I think we all take ourselves very seriously. If they give us an award, if they give us an Oscar, they somehow make us feel like we’re better than others. But to tell the truth, it isn’t.”