Academy
Spreads the Wealth Saving Surprises for Last
By
Sara Michelle Fetters
Senior Editor - Theatrical
www.moviefreak.com
In one of the
biggest upsets in Academy Award history, the multi-character racial
drama “Crash” won Best Picture over heavy-favorite “Brokeback
Mountain” closing out one of the fastest moving (and otherwise
unsurprising) Oscar telecasts ever. Ang Lee’s gay cowboy melodrama,
long thought a virtual lock for the top award, ended the evening
having to be satisfied with wins for Directing, Adapted Screenplay and
Original Score. “Crash” also took home three statues, winning for
Picture, Original Screenplay and Editing.
Comedy Central
stalwart Jon Stewart kept the evening moving briskly, stumbling early
with a few comedic misfires only to rebound with some of the best
impromptu gags since Johnny Carson set the gold standard as an Oscar
host. He and his “The Daily Show” staff assembled some incredibly
funny mock campaign ads for the Best Actress nominees, gently ribbing
both the annoying campaigning of Hollywood studios and of political
parties fighting more virulently than ever for their candidates. The
opening bit featuring past hosts Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, Steve
Martin, Whoopi Goldberg and David Letterman (as well as George Clooney
and Halle Berry) was also wonderful, starting the night on a high the
host was somehow able to maintain.
Unlikely allies
Clooney and Three 6 Mafia (aka Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul
Beauregard) proved to be the bell standard for winners at the podium.
Clooney glibly stated, “All right, so I’m not winning for Best
Director,” after opening the evening taking the Best Supporting Actor
for his work in “Syriana.” He followed that up by urging the Academy
to continue to remain daring and “out of touch,” reflecting that like
in the 1930’s, 50’s and 70’s the new millennium is ripe for films to
take a stand and make their feelings heard noting, “This group of
people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still
sitting in the back of theaters.”
Meanwhile, the
rambunctious hip-hop group, fresh from an exuberantly over-the-top
rendition of their song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” was
completely ecstatic by their win for the “Hustle & Flow” song. Their
speech was quick, to the point and filled with joy, the threesome
shocked and surprised by their win. As Stewart pointed out moments
later, Three 6 Mafia might just have been the happiest people in the
room and others in the quiet audience might want to think about
emulating their enthusiasm.
The rest of the
evening went pretty much as expected. Reese Witherspoon nabbed the
Best Actress award for “Walk the Line,” Phillip Seymour Hoffman won
for “Capote,” Rachel Weisz took Best Supporting Actress for “The
Constant Gardener” and both “King Kong” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”
swept up in the majority of the technical categories. “The Chronicles
of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” took home the award
for Best Makeup, George Lucas’s “Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of
the Sith” following in the footsteps of his other two prequels by
taking home no trophies whatsoever. In comparison, the original series
of popular Jedi favorites took home nine Academy Awards.
Those perky
penguins kept marching on, “March of the Penguins” winning Best
Documentary, while cheese and crackers were certainly on Oscar’s menu
as “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” won for Best
Animated Feature. South African drama “Tsotsi” was the winner for Best
Foreign Film, Palestinian favorite “Paradise Now” seemingly undone by
the virulent write-in campaign which successfully derailed its Oscar
chances.
There were some
losers, of course. Steven Spielberg found both his features (“Munich”
and “War of the Worlds”) completely shutout, as did multi-nominated
features “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Cinderella Man” and “Pride &
Prejudice.” Overall, however, Oscar spread the wealth around, four
films (“Brokeback Mountain,” “Crash,” “King Kong” and “Memoirs of a
Geisha”) winning three awards apiece.
Finally, it had to
happen someday and for the first time since I joined Moviefreak in
2001 editor-in-chief and webmaster Dennis Steven Landmann managed to
do a better job predicting the winners than I did. Ironically, I did
actually end up calling “Crash” as an upset winner; I just didn’t two
days after I’d submitted our annual Oscar article for publication.
While I appreciate the phone call from my best friend Phil giving my
props on my prognostication skills, I just wished I could have come to
the conclusion the racial potboiler was gaining momentum a few days
sooner.
In all seriousness,
while “Crash” is a great movie its win over “Brokeback Mountain” will
go down as one of the great Oscar cop-outs in
Hollywood’s
78-year Academy Award history. Tony Curtis said he had no interest in
seeing the film, and it is clear by what happened tonight he wasn’t
the only one who held that point of view. Is this an example of some
latent homophobia on the part of Hollywood? Maybe, but I think the
real truth is that Tinseltown felt more connected to the hometown
melodrama than it did to the Midwestern period piece.
On the plus side,
“Brokeback Mountain” joins films like “Goodfellas,” “Fargo,” “Pulp
Fiction,” “Citizen Caine,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Private
Life of Henry VIII,” “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Maltese
Falcon,” “Taxi Driver,” “Double Indemnity,” “Traffic,” “Network,” “The
Color Purple,” “Reds,” “Atlantic City,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,”
“Apocalypse Now,” “Star Wars,” “The Lion in Winter,” “L.A.
Confidential” and many others as an important work that lost to a
lesser contender.
History will tell
the ultimate tale, and no matter which way you look at it the 2006
Oscars were as wondrous as any in recent memory. For the first time in
ages, the films the Academy chose to honor mattered just as much
politically and culturally as they did as entertainment. All five of
the Best Picture nominees were daring features that took a stand on
important issues of our time, and while blockbusters are always going
to be the staple at the box office that doesn’t necessarily mean they
should be the winners here.
Sometimes they
overlap, many times they don’t, but in the end it is quality that
ultimately should matter the most where it comes to these awards.
Surprises aside, this is how it should be, and here’s hoping this is
one trend Oscar doesn’t quit anytime soon.
Article Posted: March 6, 2006
