First, the Academy Awards is now The Oscars!
As of Feb 20, 2013, the Academy Awards has officially re-branded as The Oscars. I like it. It sounds more glamorous, and we can always use the term ‘The Academy’ for more serious discussions.
Now, I am not going to bore you with who won what and which category. You can easily look that up at Oscars.go.com, IMDB or dozens of other movie news sites. The following is my own observations towards the Oscar presentation, some notable mentions and of course, the winners and nominees all of which are worthy considerations in their different categories.
Suffice to say that some of the big winners of the night were so locked down that their winning was almost anti-climatic. Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, Argo for Best Movie, Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress and Anne Hathaway for Best Supporting Actress are a few examples.
There were some surprises. Ang Lee for Best Director, even though I though his chances were not to be ignored after Ben Affleck was left out of contention for Best Director. Was that a snub? I didn’t think so. Argo was a well-made political thriller but not a brilliant one. Yet the movie is still the most uplifting one in the entire roster of this year’s Best Picture contenders, so when Argo finally came out on top, it just felt right.
Christoph Waltz winning is mildly surprising. I didn’t think he would win again so soon after he gained his Oscar two years ago in Inglorious Basterds.
Argo’s competitors are just a bit self-important and boring (Lincoln), somewhat surreal (Life of Pi), a little superficial and lightweight (Silver Linings Playbook), quite depressing (Amour), not PC enough for some voters (Django Unchained), too controversial (Zero Dark Thirty), sophomoric (Beast of the Southern Wild), and statistically disadvantaged being a musical (Les Miserables).
Did you hear that Ang Lee finished with his acceptance speech with Xiè-xie and Namaste, both are thank you terms in both Mandarin and Hindi? Very appropriate for a multicultural movie like Life of Pi.
I was somewhat happy with Seth MacFarlane as host, but his first song-and-dance number, something about boobs and the last one, an ode to the losers did discounted his performance for me. Those two songs were awkward, borderline stupid and even offensive. He did keep the show moving along briskly. Seth made some good and bad jokes.
Here is a genuine thank you to the orchestra for prompting some of the winners to get off the stage when their speech became tedious. Quentin Tarantino has the right sense to wrap things up quickly when he won the Best Original Screenplay award, the same one he won for Pulp Fiction.
Those are the reasons why the 3-1/2 hour broadcast felt shorter than it actually was. The much helps as well and the entire show was full of it.
The so called 50 Years of James Bond movies tribute was a disappointment even though they managed to have Dame Shirley Bassey singing the iconic 007 song Goldfinger.
Where are the six living James Bond actors that the Academy producers promised weeks in advance. A few days before showtime, the producers played down that prospect. Truth of the matter is the first Bond actor Sean Connery (as in Dr. No) pulled out and so did and Pierce Brosnan as reported by TMZ. The 82 year old Connery was unhappy with the producers of the Bond movies and had a feud with the Brocoli family for the last 40 years.
John Travolta introduces (or should say re-introduces) the Musical Genre. Songs and song-and-dance one after another. Dame Shirley Bassey sings iconic James Bond Goldfinger (not musical but great song), Catherine Zeta Jones’s Chicago All That Jazz, Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Russell Crowe etc. Standing ovation all around. Rare to see Oscar celebration! Wonderful!!
Seems like Reese Witherspoon’s defining role will be that of June Carter Cash from her Oscar turn in ‘Walk the Line, partly because that Johnny Cash song is so catchy. Like La Vie en Rose for Marion Cotillard.
George Clooney introduced the ‘In Memoriam’ segment that even the dead have to fight to get into. This is the Oscars afterall. Ernest Borgnine, Norah Ephron, Richard Zaniuck, Tony Scott, and Michael Clarke Duncan were all included and as a send-away, Barbra Streisand dedicated her very own The Way We Were, still her most well-known song after all these years. Timeless!
The Oscar has limited playtime for this segment, so some were inevitably left out. Like who? As Deadline Hollywood pointed out, Andy Griffith and Larry Hagman were. Those two seems to me inexcusable misses. To learn more about who else didn’t make the cut, you could log onto In Memoriam Photo Gallery at http://oscar.go.com/photos/85th/show/in-memoriam-2012
Besides all the songs and dances and the Broadway numbers, there are old-time Hollywood movie music like Gone With The Wind, The Godfather etc. that the orchestra at Capital Records kept playing.
Documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker received the Academy’s Governors Awards. His most famous work is ‘Don’t Look Back’ in which Bob Dylan flashed cue cards in ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. That act launched MTV and that trick is still widely used today e.g. Amanda Todd used the technique to tell her tragic experience of being bullied. Thank you for The Academy for showing that.
I was away momentarily and when I came back I watched Christopher Plummer quipped, “Pick someone your own size.” Did Macfarlane did something wrong again? Later I found out that Seth referenced Plummer of The Sound of Music which the Canadian actor truly detest but nevertheless did bring him much fame.
Seth did the same thing with Ben Affleck And his turn in the very forgettable Gigli which Affleck starred with Jennifer Lopez during their hey days when they had this big romance up in Vancouver BC. Affleck shot back at MacFarlane with ‘maybe you can turn this around.’
John Travolta introduces (or should say re-introduces) the Musical Genre. Songs and song-and-dance one after another. Dame Shirley Bassey sings iconic James Bond Goldfinger (not musical but great song), Catherine Zeta Jones’s Chicago All That Jazz, Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Russell Crowe etc. Standing ovation all around. Rare to see Oscar celebration! Wonderful!!
Seems like Reese Witherspoon’s defining role will be that of June Carter Cash from her Oscar turn in ‘Walk the Line, partly because that Johnny Cash song is so catchy. Like La Vie en Rose for Marion Cotillard.
Two facts that worry the Oscar broadcaster –
The Oscar broadcast is still the biggest non-sports event. But audience numbers are declining while median age is increasing. That worries advertisers and the show needs to attract a younger audience. The Academy to have two young (and inexperienced) hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway for emceeing duties but that turned out to be a disaster. So this year, expectations were high on Seth MacFarlane as host.
TV audience: about 40 million
Audience median age: 53 last year, it was 39 some 20 years ago
Cost of a 30-sec TV spot: $1.7 Mil
Revenue: $85 Mil
Overall, I am satisfied with this year’s Oscar presentation. It does have a perfect blend of the classics with a modern touch. I think it is a successful combination. That said, I am ambivalent about Seth MacFarlane as host.
My hats off to the Oscar Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan. Well done, gentlemen!
Ray Van Eng is an award-winning Photographer/Videographer, Screenwriter and Movie & TV Producer. One of his videos is currently on view at the Hava Nagila Exhibit, Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Manhattan, New York, NY. from Sep 2012 to May 2013.
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