'History Is Made at the Oscars"

'History Is Made at the Oscars'

It was billed as the showdown between the highest grossing movie of all time versus the lowest grossing Oscar nominee of all time. The little guy triumphed for "The Hurt Locker" came away the winner and history was made. The highlight of last night's award ceremony was Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars. What a great message to young women out there that a female can direct a movie and make a big impact in a male dominated Hollywood. I am a big supporter of women in film from actors to producers and directors. This is a step in the right direction for being a man I find what women can do in Hollywood more fascinating but equality is the major theme. Kathryn Bigelow is a very talented director. Heck she made the best movie ever about vampires ("Near Dark") . She made a very great and gritty war drama and she knows how to direct action and suspense which is seen mostly as a man's game. Besides that historic moment the thing that most people were interested in was how expanding the pictures to ten would work out. It actually didn't make a difference in the results. There were five front runners in the Best Picture field and one of those movies won. There was definitely no chance a Blind Side or A Serious Man could have won. The only thing it could change is what movies get nominated in future years.

The Oscar show itself I found to be one of the best shows in recent memory though there were rough moments, great moments and so so moments. I found Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to be very funny and charming hosts. Some of the jokes fell flat but for the most part they did a good and relaxed job. I was off about five minutes in predicting the length of the show. Now if you got rid of that terrible half hour pre show with a stiff Kathy Ireland asking stupid questions then the show would end earlier. It seemed like most of the crowd was having a good time except for George Clooney. Christoph Waltz was a shoo in to win Best Supporting Actor for his great and evil performance in "Inglourious Basterds". He made a very graceful and classy speech and his win was well deserved. One of the first touching moments was the John Hughes tribute that was done just right. It was simple, beautiful and heartbreaking and I love his troop of actors coming out and singing his praises in front of the Hughes family. Ben Stiller coming out as an "Avatar" character was funny and worked for the most part. The winners for the most part were easy to predict but there was a nice, surprise win for "Precious" for Best Adapted Screenplay. The front runner was "Up In The Air" but "Precious" is a very powerful and deeper story. I was very upset that the Lifetime Achievement awards were done the night before and I would have loved to see clips of the winners and their films. We had a producing legend in Roger Corman, one of the best cinematographers ever in Gordon Willis and a legendary actress in Lauren Bacall and we don't get to see their wonderful work? How about expanding that and getting rid of the dancers and their weird choreography of the films nominated for Best Score.

So with the award ceremony just half over there came an expected win and touching speech by Supporting Actress winner Monique for "Precious". Her performance is one of the best I have seen by an actress and her mentioning Hattie McDaniel in her speech was very powerful and classy. The award for most selfish and bitchy speech went to the Costume Designer for "The Young Victoria" She mentioned how she deserved the award and that this award is also for all the people on her crew but that she was taking it home. Well why don't you give the award away to one of the other nominees then. The horror movie tribute was very well done and I love the award show the most when they show film clips. Though showing the unscary and wimpy "Twilight" movies was ridiculous. "The Princess and the Frog" is scarier than "Twilight"! Then came the dreaded moratorium section showing the deceased from the last year. Sending James Taylor out to sing was maudlin and people don't clap after every picture is shown, wait till they show all the pictures. Then some star gets a louder applause then Joe Schmo who was a Costume Designer. That is just too cruel and creepy of a segment. Then came the first winner that I jumped up and down for when "Up" and Michael Giacchino won for Best Score. This was after I was shaking my head at the weird dancing set to "The Hurt Locker" score. Michael Giacchino is to me the best composer out there now for movies. His score for the television show "Lost" is beautiful and perfect as was his score for the wonderful "Up".

Then came the awards for Best Actress and Actor and there was no doubt to me who was going to win. I really like how they bring out five actors that have a connection to the nominees and have them speak about them. Tim Robbins gave a hilarious speech about Morgan Freeman. Then Michelle Pfeiifer, who still looks breathtaking, gave a speech about Jeff Bridges. They both were in "The Fabulous baker Boys" which is one of my all time favorite movies so I found that very cool. Now you know how I reacted when Jeff Bridges won for I had written before about how he is one of my idols and favorite actors. Yes I did burst into tears of joy because it meant a lot to me. Bridges's speech was touching, humble and sweet. I mean he does remind you of The Dude a little bit from "The Big Lebowski" and I thought his speech was one of the most real moments in the show. Now it was time for five actors to give speeches about the actress nominees. I was surprised and deeply touched by Oprah Winfrey's speech about Gabourey Sidibe who gave such a great performance in "Precious". Another great speech and real moment was given by Sandra Bullock for her career defining performance in "The Blind Side". Sandra Bullock like Bridges is a real and charming person and her speech about her mother was inspiring and deeply touching. She was charming, funny and it just caused a great feeling of joy to see her win. I liked that the major theme throughout the night was about parents and particularly mothers because that is what it's all about. We would never get far in life without the support of a good family member. The night was topped off by another huge moment when Kathryn Bigelow won for Best Director. She became the first woman to win this award and Barbra Streisand presenting it to her was perfect. Like I said before what a powerful and historic moment it was and Kathryn Bigelow gave an outstanding speech.
Then Best Picture was announced and it was pretty anti climatic but I liked that presenter Tom Hanks got down to business and announced the little movie that could "The Hurt Locker" as Best Picture. I loved that the three main cast members got up on stage and to see the joy on their faces and the look on Bigelow's face was priceless. Now it wouldn't be my choice for Best Picture but it was on my top ten list and I am glad it won. Now everyone can go see this movie and discover it on DVD for it didn't gross well in theatres.

So overall it was a pretty good show for I have seen worse. The two hosts were funny and there were no embarrassing moments. If you are talking about who looked good in their dresses and tuxedos well here is what I saw. Of course I am more interested in the women so I must say Sandra Bullock looked stunning and perfect. Also looking great were Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep and Zoe Saldana. Also as I expected Carey Mulligan looked luminous and stunning almost like an Audrey Hepburn. You will definitely be hearing Mulligan's name a lot in the next 20 years as you will Seyfried and Saldana. The best speeches were given by Tim Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges, Michael Giacchino, Monique, Sandra Bullock and finally Kathryn Bigelow. The hosts were again good and my favorite moments were those speeches, the John Hughes tribute and of course Bigelow winning. So of course in a month or so there will be articles on who are the front runners for next year's Oscars.