2004 Oscar Wrapup

There are good years for Oscar and there are bad years for Oscar. Overall I think this was a pretty darn good year. Granted there have been complaints that the Oscars were boring. There were no hideously awful dresses, though Uma Thurman tried to make a good run of it. No one got cut off and yelled back at the timekeepers. There were only a few political jabs brought up, the show did not run historically long, and there were few surprises. But these are good things; it means that nothing went wrong. What kind of society are we that we complain when nothing goes wrong because it makes things boring? The Academy Awards are supposed to be the most glamorous and respectable of the awards shows. Leave the girl on girl kissing and the overly revealing outfits and speeches to the MTV movie awards.

Fashion has been gone over a dozen times. Let me just say, spring colors, strapless dresses, tiny little sandal shoes, all good. Please, please put Joan Rivers and Melissa out of their misery. The pre-awards show was amusing and embarrassing at the same time. That Joan Rivers had to ask the hobbit foursome what their names were after they have appeared in three of the top grossing films and gone to the awards for the past two years shows that Joan hasn’t got a clue. Jennifer Garner pointed out that Joan would not have known whether she was nominated for an award or not. Nicole Kidman would barely give Joan the time of day and seemed to far prefer talking to the BBC interviewer. I can only imagine that Listerine is going to ask for their money back after Joan dissed them on air when Nicole walked away.

On the inside the ABC interviewers were not much better. One climbed over Alec Baldwin to interrupt Sandra Bullock mid-conversation and ask stupid questions. Another made no sense in answering Tom Hank’s comment on the importance of saying the right things on Oscar night. Keisha Castle-Hughes the youngest nominee for best actress seemed embarrassed when they pulled her out of her seat to meet Johnny Depp. Depp seemed authentic when he took her hand and whispered to her so the cameras could not hear, but the episode was so contrived and the actors seemed so uncomfortable and manipulated. I can only imagine that the guy who asked Harvey Weinstein to move from his seat between Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger will never work in Hollywood again. There are some people you can kid with and some people you just do not mess with. I think Harvey may be the latter. Just because he isn’t on the screen does not mean he can be disrespected. He has more power than most of those other stars combined and a slight to him can be a career crusher.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won in every category it was nominated in for a record tying 11 awards right there with Ben Hur and Titanic. It makes me wonder if there was collusion in not nominating LOTR in the Cinematography and Sound Editing categories. I mean, if you don’t nominate them, they cannot win, so the record is still intact. I do not know if there is really as much conspiracy in the world as some people make out to believe, I just do not think that people as groups are that organized. But sometimes it seems like things worked out just a little too neatly. Yes a fantasy film won Best Picture, but, it did not become the winningest film of all time. It is just an observation.

Otherwise it was all about the glitz and the glamour. Charlese Theron won for her role in Monster, remember the beautiful women looking ugly prize. Of course the extra weight and the makeup were gone and she was a slim model as usual. I liked that on the red carpet Jennifer Garner, one of the best dressed women at the awards and one who had nothing to do with the movie awards except that she presided over the technical awards show a few weeks ago, mentioned going to get an In n’ Out burger after the ceremony. It is reassuring that at least some of these people eat like normal human beings at least some of the time.

Of course most of the awards went to LOTR which was funny because the cameramen seemed ashamed to show the LOTR group. Granted Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh may not be the most photogenic couple at the awards show, but it was their night and they deserved the attention more than anyone in the room. Billy Crystal was the one who pointed out that with all of the awards going to the Kiwis, there was ‘officially no one left in New Zealand to thank’. What is even more impressive is that it seems to have become something of a catch phrase to thank everyone in New Zealand whether they have anything to do with you or not.

There were no real memorable speeches. Renee Zellweger’s speech was cute, as was she, I just wish she did not look like she was wrapped in a sheet. Sean Penn’s speech was also a long time coming but he kept most of his comments mild and under wraps. I especially like his dismissive comment of the best actor award thus throwing kudos on his fellow actors. Which I thought was appropriate because Bill Murray looked like he was going to cry. He seemed bitter when asked later and said he wouldn’t have come. I can only hope that with the brilliant acting he has shown the last few years that more awards worthy roles will land in his lap.

I am glad that ‘Into the West’ won for best song, but really Annie Lennox, beautiful voice, scary to watch. Did anyone else notice a resemblance to Gollum? I liked the first of the two Cold Mountain songs as well but I was more intrigued by the strange instrument that Sting was playing. I did not know there was such a thing that could sound like a violin and have a crank.

Of course the one thing that made the show what it was, both the conductor moving the festivities along as well as the glue holding everything together, was the host, Billy Crystal. Now I know there have been legendary hosts in the past. I haven’t seen any of them. For some reason no channel has really picked up showing old awards shows running three or four hours at a pop yet. I assume that some time I will stumble across ASC, Awards Show Classics, and then I will know what they other hosts used to do. All I can say is that for the last twenty years there has been no more consistent host than Billy Crystal. And on Oscar night we saw why. He cracked jokes about movies, about actors, and about New Zealand. He did all of his jokes tastefully but was really witty a fine line that he tread well though some hosts trample on it dreadfully. Overall the show was a technical achievement, an awards show that delivered exactly what was promised, and nothing more, with class, style, and grace.

Related posts:

1. Oscar Nominations 2004
2. Academy Awards Wrapup 2005