So, night before last was the Oscars, and so (since I'm on the letter M in my AlphaBytes blogs) I'm gonna talk about 'em. Actually, more about past Oscars than this year's, but never mind that...
I've written previously about how much I enjoyed Gangs of New York. I thought Daniel Day-Lewis was phenomenal and that the movie made for riveting viewing.
That being said, I'm psyched that Adrien Brody won Best Lead Actor. I was pretty enthused about all the big acting awards, but in this case, more than most. All the other nominees in the category had won Oscars previously (more than one in the case of two of them) and I like to see an underdog win. So, while I haven't seen The Pianist, and while I loved Daniel Day-Lewis, somewhere in my heart of hearts I was pulling for Adrien Brody. I really loved him in The Thin Red Line, if that counts for anything at all.
(That was my civil review of this year. Now I start to rant...)
I really didn't want Jack Nicholson to win, not just because I was pretty much nonplussed by About Schmidt, or because he's already got three Best Actor Oscars, but because he didn't take off his damned sunglasses throughout the broadcast. Does he have some sort of vision problem wherein he can't look directly at light? Or does he simply think that he is experiencing the world as his devilish character in The Witches of Eastwick? He's just so freakin' SMUG. Makes me want to hit him.
So, yay! He didn't win. On to the women...
I wanted Julianne Moore to win for SOMETHING. Now she has the dubious distinction of being nominated in two categories and losing in both. She shares this with Sigourney Weaver, who was nominated in 1989 for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, and was frankly robbed as far as the lead actress category. Then again, Glenn Close was robbed the year before when Cher took home the Oscar for Moonstruck while Glenn's performance in Fatal Attraction was overlooked.
Speaking of being ROBBED of Oscar glory (and now I am really going to vent), why doesn't Morgan Freeman have an Oscar, damn it? For something, ANYTHING?? The man's a brilliant actor. The year he was up for Shawshank Redemption, Tom Hanks won it. Did Tom Hanks really NEED to win two years in a row?? I don't think so. Give that man an Oscar. You know he wasn't even NOMINATED for Glory? What is that??
And what about Edward Norton? He's BRILLIANT. You cannot convince me that Roberto "I'm going to jump over all the seats" Benigni deserved to win for Life is Beautiful, not when Edward Norton was so incredible in American History X. And, what's even WORSE, was that in the Best Supporting Actor race in 1997, he got beat out by CUBA GOODING JR., of all people, for shouting "Show me the money!" in Jerry Maguire. Oh, puh-leez. Edward Norton was astoundingly good in Primal Fear. That's just utter crap.
Haley Joel Osment deserved to win Best Supporting Actor in 2000 for Sixth Sense. Actually, he should have been nominated in the Best Actor category, but that's a whole other argument - but it certainly shouldn't have gone to Michael Caine for Cider House Rules.
The 1993 Best Actor award was given to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman, in which he played Foghorn Leghorn. Hoo-wah, boy, I say boy, get me a bourbon, boy. His competition included Robert Downey Jr. for Chaplin and Denzel Washington for Malcolm X. But really, I'm sure that it was because the role deserved great kudos and it wasn't just because the Academy was feeling guilty over having nominated him seven times but never actually giving him a little gold statue. Really.
Kind of like how Whoopi Goldberg got an Oscar for Ghost, which I'm sure wasn't at all about the general Academy guilt over having not given A SINGLE AWARD to The Color Purple.
And, hello, Martin Landau for Ed Wood over Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump AND Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction????
I could keep going, for a long time, but now I'm just all pissy and I need to put that angry energy into actually getting some work done. I leave you with this... why the heck did they have Harrison Ford announce the Best Director Oscar? He's never been a director. Not only that, he's only been nominated for an Oscar once, over fifteen years ago.
I smell a guilt Oscar coming on him too... nah, maybe not, given his recent acting choices. But you wait. He'll get a Lifetime Achievement award way before his time.
Comments (1)
Hello Joy,
I agree with you, Adrien Bordy's win was great. I was surprised by it the same way I was when Marisa Tomei won for MY COUSIN VINNIE, but this time it was a good suprised.
Yes Morgan Freeman should get an Oscar. I don't think he was nominated for THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION because the voters couldn't figure out that he was the star of the movie not Tim Robinson. The star is always the person the title refers to and his character was the one redemed. Just by looking at Red's parole hearings you can figure that out.
And yes, I think Edward Norton should get an Oscar too. I say this after watching him in both FIGHT CLUB and DEATH TO SMOOCHY. Same actor, totally different characters.
I saw SCENT OF A WOMAN in a movie house and every time Al Pacino was on screen I had flashbacks to Gloria Swanson in SUNSET BLVD. He was so over the top I wanted to move to a seat in the back row of the theater just to get away from him.
After saying all this I must add I still love watching the OSCARS every year even though I know who wins does not have anything to do with who is the best actor most of the time. It's fun and a great way to waste four to six hours of my life.
Posted by: Colleen | March 29, 2003 10:01 PM