| by Kelly Durkin | 2/28/07 | 98 views |
There is a tale passed down through generations of American families, describing a magical Sunday night where kings and queens would process down a crimson carpet and gather for a jubilee celebrating the greatest amusements of the year. It’s been said that these events were enjoyable for every spectator, and the golden prizes were bestowed upon the most awesome works of all. These were the Academy Awards of yesteryear. This is not what occurred in 2007.
Sunday night’s incarnation of the Oscars is best described as awkwardly mediocre. Hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, who attempted to be funny by almost vacuuming Penelope Cruz’s dress, the lukewarm humor and average movies added up to a decent telecast, but nothing spectacular, merely out of the ordinary. For instance, who could have predicted a troupe of interpretive dancers forming the logo from Snakes on a Plane out of their own bodies? Snakes on a Plane wasn’t even nominated, let alone worthy of a mention at the Oscars. And what Oscar ceremony would be complete without Celine Dion bellowing a song for no reason other than just because she can? Dion wasn’t nominated for an award either. Most impressive was Clint Eastwood’s gripping portrayal of an Italian interpreter as Ennio Morricone delivered his acceptance speech for his honorary Oscar. It would have been more convincing had he not been looking directly at the teleprompter.
The biggest moment of the evening occurred when Martin Scorsese, after six previous nominations, finally won his first Oscar for Best Director, presented by legendary directors Francis Ford Coppola, Stephen Spielberg, and George Lucas. The Departed, directed by Scorsese, also won the award for Best Picture. Helen Mirren received another accolade for portraying Queen Elizabeth II, winning the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in The Queen. Forest Whitaker won his first Oscar for his chilling portrayal as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, giving one of the most heartfelt acceptance speeches of the evening.
A few surprises surfaced in the Supporting categories, most notably Alan Arkin’s win for his portrayal of a cocaine-addicted grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine. Jennifer Hudson won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Effie White in Dreamgirls, a truly amazing feat considering she’s not an actress. Her high-energy performance of the three tracks nominated for Best Original Song with Beyoncé and Anika Noni Rose brought the evening to a climax, but that atmosphere quickly deflated when Dreamgirls lost the award to Melissa Ethridge’s "I Need to Wake Up," from An Inconvenient Truth. Speaking of An Inconvenient Truth, who would have thought that Al Gore would receive the most votes for an award and actually win it! Although Al Gore and awkwardness go together like peanut butter and jelly, his serious demeanor and outright passion about finding a solution to global warming drastically overshadowed his halfhearted stabs at humor.
So what do you think? Was every winner deserving of an award? What were some of your favorite moments from the show? A recent article in Slate.com revealed that some academy members left their vote for Best Picture blank because none of the movies stood out as being worthy of the award. Do you think that the Academy Awards are becoming less about the quality of movies and more about the hype surrounding them? Personally, I didn’t think any of the films were that unique. Little Miss Sunshine was a feel-good comedy, The Departed was a mafia/cop drama, and Babel seemed like a poor man’s Crash. Letters from Iwo Jima and The Queen were of a higher caliber, but their topics didn’t seem to jive with either the Academy or the American viewing public, who, as of last week, has spent $74.7 million on Eddie Murphy’s crude new comedy, Norbit. Even compared to last year’s Best Picture nominees, including Crash, Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich, the quality of the nominated films seems to have decreased. Maybe 2007 was just an off year for the movies.
     
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University of Delaware
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