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2003 AWARDS |
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February 29, 2004 BILLY CRYSTAL'S INCREDIBLE TALENT ILLUMINATES AN OTHERWISE PREDICTABLE OSCARCAST
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The Academy hits a homer
--or did we just get lucky?
of TheColumnists.com
This is the year in which I have no earthly reason to gripe, complain and stamp my feet over the results of the annual Academy Awards competition. For the first time in a kazillion years, I picked all the winners in the five major categories.
When word gets out about that, I'm sure heads will roll in Hollywood. In studio offices, I'm certain there's always been a conspiracy to screw me over in at least three out of five categories. I'm also sure I'm not the only Oscar watcher in the land who has suspicions of that kind.
But there's the record anyway: "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won the Best Picture Oscar. Sean Penn, proverbial Hollywood "bad boy," won Best Actor. Charlize Theron, an outsider in an independent film, beat out sentimental favorite Diane Keaton as Best Actress. Perennial political protester Tim Robbins took home the Best Supporting Actor award and Renee Zellwegger, the only winner who always was everybody's betting favorite to win, finally got her Oscar as Best Supporting Actress.
Did that make the nearly four hour Oscar show too predictable? Maybe, but it didn't damage its entertainment value. Here's why:
* Billy Crystal, doing his eighth turn as Oscar host, was as funny as ever. He is so clearly the best host the awards have had in their long history as a televised event that it's cause for celebration any time he agrees to return for another year.
* Even the most tediously predictable people somehow surprised us. Example: Sean Penn, who usually skips such events, showed up and behaved himself admirably. Penn seemed truly grateful and appreciative that Academy members recognized the greatness of his extraordinarily moving performance as the father of a murdered girl in "Mystic River." Except for a brief dig at Pres. Bush's missing "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, he even toed the line like a graduate of the Ronald Reagan School of Proper Deportment.
* There were lots of hilarious moments from people you just don't expect to be that hilarious. Example: Last year's Best Actor winner, Adrien Brophy of "The Pianist," who kissed award-presenter Halle Berry so hard and for so long that she's probably been in therapy ever since. Brophy quipped that he was "under a restraining order" this year as he prepared to present the Best Actress Oscar. Then, when drop-dead gorgeous Charlize Theron turned out to be the winner, he took out a vial of mouthspray to get himself ready for the Big Kiss. (Charlize kissed him, all right, but broke it off smartly. He didn't try to hold on, no doubt because he remembered how tough she looked as the serial killer in her Oscar film, "Monster.")
These winners, predictable or not, also seem to indicate an encouraging new turn for the Academy Awards. Giving the big prize to the final installment in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy shows that the new Hollywood isn't afraid to reward fantasy films--a category that's very big with modern audiences, but has seldom been rewarded at Oscar time. Giving awards to Penn and Robbins also shows the Academy isn't going to blackball characters who don't play by all the rules. Both have taken unpopular public positions on issues that sometimes spilled over into the Oscar ceremony. Both actors compromised a bit this year--but Academy voters didn't know they would when they cast their ballots earlier this year.
Theron's very deserved victory also is further evidence that well-made films that come from outside the major studios are now winning the lion's share of awards. That may nudge the studios toward taking more chances, pulling away from formulaic productions and endless sequels.
Theron's acceptance speech, in which she constantly choked back tears, saying, "I won't cry!", was extremely moving, especially when she let everyone know how much she loves her mother, who brought her to America from their native South Africa several years ago because she believed in Charlize's dream of becoming a movie star.
It was just one of several very emotional speeches. Penn and Robbins even came up with stirring emotional moments as they praised and thanked their very loyal, supportive actress/wives: Robin Wright Penn and Susan Sarandon, who rooted them on from the audience.
Though Clint Eastwood didn't win Best Picture or Best Director for his "Mystic River," it was clear he was very proud of the two actors who collected gold under his direction. Both Penn and Robbins have directed their own pictures, but they both praised Eastwood and made it clear they felt they had learned an enormous amount by working with him for the first time. Ironically, Eastwood is politically conservative and both actors are liberals. Their mutual respect for each other may be an indication that the new Hollywood is changing attitudes, bringing different factions together with a new spirit of cooperation.
I'm personally delighted with the Oscars for director Peter Jackson of New Zealand and his awesome "Lord of the Rings" finale. Like everyone else, I'm assuming the award was meant for the whole trilogy--one of the most significant works ever made in the realm of fantasy. The awards--11 in all, tying with "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic" as the most Oscared film--and the huge box office returns for all three films surely will generate more interest in production of similar projects.
I would have been equally delighted if Eastwood's "Mystic River" had won Best Picture. But the two acting awards were major trophies for the film and will prolong its time in theaters, once more assuring Eastwood and other directors will be able to go forward with other dark-edged dramas like this one.
The Academy also rewarded Sofia Coppolla, whose "Lost in Translation" was only her second film as a director, with the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. This will keep her spirits up and will make up for her not winning either Best Picture or Best Director, awards she really didn't deserve, considering the heavy competition.
Here's another interesting development: Veteran rock performer Annie Lennox won the Best Song Oscar for "Into the West," which she performed on Sunday night's show. Is this a big new trend: Old rockers turning to writing movie songs? Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Sting all have turned up with Oscar songs in recent years. Sting was back this year, competing with Lennox with a song he wrote for "Cold Mountain."
This year's show seemed more about the new Hollywood than any other telecast in recent years. There were few efforts to ring in the old Hollywood. Tom Hanks introduced a tribute to Bob Hope and there was another for Gregory Peck, who both died during the past year. But the only tribute to a living old-timer was the one to a very feeble and aged Blake Edwards, who took part in a phony "out of control" wheelchair stunt introduced by wacky comic Jim Carrey. The director appeared a little shook by the stunt and wife Julie Andrews looked more worried than proud when the camera caught her in the audience.
But Billy Crystal was the
major, major hero of the night. His introduction, withi Crystal
digitally inserted into a dozen or so films of the past year,
was a comic masterpiece. Seeing him made up as the goopy Gollum
from "Lord of the Rings" was worth sitting though the
whole show. But his gig went on and on from there, leading into
his now mandatory musical tribute to the five nominated Best
Picture contenders.
Crystal didn't just stand on his big rehearsed numbers, though.
He also chimed in with scores of ad libs and gags from a prepared
list of maybe a thousand or so, written in advance for just about
any eventuality.
Among the best lines: Referring to Johnny Depp's character in "Pirates of the Caribbean" as "Jack Valenti's worst nightmare--a slightly gay pirate." (Valenti, long the spokesman for the Motion Picture Producers Assn., has led the fight against people who "pirate" copies of movies on the black market.)
Another, referring to the competition between Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" and "Seabiscuit," both nominated for Best Picture: "Peter Jackson woke up to find Seabiscuit's head in his bed." (A reference to the famous scene from "The Godfather," where the head of a movie producer's favorite race horse is left in his bed--a reminder from the Mafia to give their "boy" the role he wants in the producer's new film.)
Yet another example: Crystal thanked the Academy for "letting me come and go as I please, sort of like the Texas National Guard."
Then there was the sequence where Crystal introduced the films certain celebrities picked as their favorites: "21 Grams" (Rush Limbaugh), "Kill Bill" (Hilary Rodham Clinton), "Runaway Jury" (Martha Stewart), "Confessions of A Dangerous Mind" (Donald Rumsfeld), and so on.
All in all, Crystal was letter perfect and it didn't seem the Academy nor ABC ever were tempted to shut anybody down at the podium, even with the new five-minute tape delay, adopted last month after the Janet Jackson "boob" incident during the Super Bowl telecast.
Here are the major awards awarded Sunday night:
Best Picture: "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
Best Actor: Sean Penn for "Mystic River."
Best Actress: Charlize Theron for "Monster."
Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins for "Mystic River."
Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellwegger for "Cold Mountain."
Best Director: Peter Jackson for "Lord of the Rings: etc."
Best Adapted Screenplay: "Lord of the Rings: etc."
Best Original Screenplay: "Lost in Translation."
Best Original Musical Score: Howard Shore for "Lord of the Rings, etc."
Best Foreign Film: "The Barbarian Invasions" (Canada)
©2004 by Ron Miller. The term "Oscar" and "Academy Award" are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
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