The 78th Annual Academy Awards

Eric:
I knew the 78th Academy Awards were in trouble when the very first thing you saw were past hosts making jokes, and not very good ones, about not hosting this year. Jon Stewart (who was picked to help ratings) was then shown in bed with George Clooney implying that they had just had sex. Stewart finally took the stage and made his expected political jokes about both parties. Also as expected, the only one to go over big in his opening monologue was the one about Dick Cheney. Stewart’s funniest moment came a couple hours later when reffering to a rap group winning an Oscar for best song he said something to the effect of, “for those keeping track of Oscar wins; Three 6 Mafia one, Martin Scorsese zero.”

George Clooney won best supporting actor and showed in his speech the very reason the box office is down and why the ratings for this show were not high. He acknowledge that Hollywood has been accused of being out of touch with middle America. He then points out the Oscar won by Hattie McDaniel (a black woman) in 1939 and civil rights. He said he was glad to be out of touch with Middle America because of all the good that Hollywood movies have done. Is the arrogant Clooney assuming that Middle America is full of bigots who would object to Hattie Mcdaniel's win? Let me just remind Clooney and everyone else that for every To Kill a Mocking Bird there are dozens of movies that make fun of and stereotype overweight people, conservatives, Christianity, rich people and folks from small towns. Hollywood offends many many people. Although that is obviously not the self righteous Clooney’s concern.

This year's Academy Awards were out of touch with Middle America for many reasons but the most important is not any sort of social one. Very few of the nominated movies showed all over the country. Who saw all of these movies? If you did, I bet you live on one of the coasts or a major city. One of the highest rated Oscar shows ever was the year Titanic was nominated. People want to watch this show to root for a favorite movie not to see a particular host. Although the show ran, thankfully, shorter than in the past it did feel long in that so many of the nominated movies seemed like foreign films and the nominated theme songs were hardly recognizable hits.

Scott:
The reason the box office is down has absolutely nothing to do with what Eric said. And at the time of Hattie McDaniel’s win, I’m sure there were many people, irregardless of where they lived, that did object to her winning.

However, I do think that Hollywood, while trying to make movies with a message, did forget one very important thing this past year. Their primary purpose isn’t to educate, enlighten or change the world. Hollywood’s purpose is to entertain. If along the way they can do any of those things, then more power to them, but if they fail to entertain, then they’ve failed before they even started.

As to this year’s Oscar show, it was notable only for it un-notability. The fact that Clooney’s speech was the closest thing to controversy this show could manage, demonstrates just how safe this year’s show was. John Stewart played it safe, thus hobbling his own brand of humor. The winners played it safe, offering bland speech after speech. It’s only a day later and apart from Clooney’s, I can barely remember any of the thank you’s. The fashion was safe and boring this year, without one person making the kind of fashion faux pas that makes the front page of the papers or even Page Six of the New York Post.

Someone thought having montage after montage of movie clips would be a good idea, but instead of entertaining, it merely offered up one of the evening’s most embarrassing moments when Lauren Bacall, a legend of high esteem, stumbled through teleprompter problems.

The only shock of the evening came at the very end when Brokeback Mountain was robbed of the Best Picture award by Crash. The only reason I can think of for this travesty is that older Academy members, embarrassed by the homosexual content of Brokeback, were able to ease their Liberal minds by voting for the safer controversial subject of racism.

Patrick:
Yes, this was a forgettable Oscar show. Low key without any memorable or controversial acceptance speeches or jokes. Jon Stewart did a good job, in my opinion, making fun of both political parties as Eric said. I laughed when he said, “This was the only place you get to see so many big Hollywood stars without giving a bunch of money to the democrats.” Although Billy Crystal remains the best choice for host, Stewart is the next best, since the golden days of Carson and Hope anyway.

The winners this year were a bit disappointing. I’m sick of acting awards going to impersonations of famous people. Will anyone remember Capote in 5 years? Hell, does anyone remember it now? Heath Ledger, on the other hand, created a completely believable and 100% unique movie character that will be considered a benchmark in film history. And as for Crash beating Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture. I agree with Scott that even Liberal Hollywood was a bit uncomfortable with the subject matter, awarding the movie only 3 of its 8 nominations. They threw Ang Lee a bone in my opinion. History will show which is the greater picture however. After all An American In Paris won over A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951.

On a final note, I love seeing Mickey Rooney in the audience each and every year. Somebody give this man an award for attending the most Oscar Ceremonies. He was there the year Hattie McDaniel won for god’s sake and he really is the last star of that generation still working and in circulation.

Let’s hope next year’s show is more entertaining, more memorable and picks better winners.