Oscar Unchained, Part Two
I recently watched a copy of the entire 1955 Oscar telecast (honoring movies from 1954). I couldn’t help but notice the vast changes in televised award shows in the last sixty years. Basically, the 1955 show plays like a breezy, comfy Bob Hope special with a most astonishing array of guest stars. Have so many legends ever graced one stage before, from Brando to Crosby to Bogart to Davis? But more than the superstar power, more than the essential simplicity of the show, the thing that stands out is the brevity of the acceptance speeches. Rarely does anyone say anthing more than “Thank you,” and, if they do, maybe they offer one humorous comment, or one person to single out for thanks. For those of us used to long speeches that often include the names of producers, agents, managers and so on, this is a revelation. It appears that 1955 was still a time when people seemed slightly embarrassed by this kind of public adulation, or at least felt it was their job to pretend they were embarrassed. No one seizes their Oscar victory or acknowledges the mountaintop they’ve scaled. Instead, they accept with a blushing graciousness and with as much humility as possible. Someone should do a study of when all this changed in our culture. The last 50s-style Oscar speech I can recall was Joe Pesci’s startlingly brief acceptance of his Goodfellas Oscar in 1991. Watching Marlon Brando and Grace Kelly receive their 1954 Oscars, vanishing from the stage before you know it, is a refreshing sight, so much more pleasing than listening to recent stars race through their laundry-list of names before the band plays them off.
Which brings me to this year’s Oscars, already at a disadvantage after the best Golden Globes broadcast ever. Hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, both at the top of their game, that January event had some of the fast pace and unpretentious no-frills quality of the 1955 Oscar show, making you feel that you were attending a great party. The Globe broadcasts used to be jokes, yet now I am hoping that the Oscar show will have some of the Globes’ clever silliness and, dare I say it, entertainment value. Can the Academy lure away Fey and Poehler for next year’s Oscars? Hardly. I’m sure they’re already booked for next year’s Globes.
Before February 24 arrives, here are a few more random thoughts to go with last week’s Oscar post.
Come on Oscar, give the cinematography award to Roger Deakins for Skyfall. It’s his 10th nomination since 1995, and he’s never won before. He was especially deserving the last time for True Grit, and his work on Skyfall was my favorite thing about the movie, particularly that silhoutted fistfight in the skyscraper.
I know that the Best Actor category was overcrowded with candidates this year, but I wish that, instead of Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper, the final two slots had gone to John Hawkes (The Sessions) and Jack Black (Bernie). Yes, Jack Black!
How nice to see Robert De Niro acting again. He comes through with a nice piece of work in Silver Linings Playbook. The role isn’t much of a stretch for him, but De Niro connects with his character intimately enough to remind us why we used to regard him so highly. I admit I’ve missed many of the supposedly rotten movies he’s made in the last decade or so. The last time I remember him being first-rate was in Heat (1995). Welcome back, Bobby.
I’m sorry that Looper was ignored in the nominations. It was far and away my favorite adventure blockbuster of the year, an action movie in which you could actually follow the action scenes (something shockingly rare today). Yes, like most time-travel movies it doesn’t make any sense, but I loved going on its imaginative, emotional, and often very beautiful ride.
Quvenzhane Wallis is a remarkable little girl, but why not give her a special junior-sized Oscar like they used to do in the old days? Why have a child compete with adults, and presumably lose, when they can give her an actual prize? This would also have freed up the fifth slot for an all-grown-up actress. Wallis should take home an Oscar, just one about half the size of a regular golden guy.
I have a similar gripe with regard to nominating foreign-language films in the Best Picture category. Love Amour all you want, and vote for it as Best Foreign-Language Film, which is why they invented that category to begin with.
I’ll be very pleased if Argo takes home Best Picture. I found it to be the most satisfying of the nine films nominated. It’s a movie in the old tradition of Best Picture winners, meaning it’s an adult movie that is also a commercial entertainment, joining winners like The Best Years of Our Lives, From Here to Eternity, and The Apartment. It’s no surprise that George Clooney is one of Argo‘s producers, since Clooney is one of the few people responsible for these kinds of films over the last decade, movies like Michael Clayton, Up in the Air, and The Descendants. They’re not masterpieces but they are smart, compelling, and entertaining motion pictures. And Argo managed to do the unthinkable, melding historical drama, nail-biting thrills, and Hollywood satire into a seamless entertainment. The only real flaw in Argo is director Ben Affleck’s own dull performance. He almost seems deliberately lackluster, as if not wanting to be too much of a show-off by matching his impressive direction with a knockout performance.
In a way, Zero Dark Thirty is the anti-Argo. Both films deal with a daring, dangerous, secret true-life mission, but their moviemaking styles are very different. Whereas Argo goes for an audience-friendly approach, making the plot as funny and suspenseful and enjoyable as possible, Zero Dark Thirty provides a documentary-like procedural effect. One style isn’t necessarily better than the other, but I did prefer Argo simply because it absorbed me more completely and made me feel closer to its characters.
Life of Pi is beautiful but didn’t add up to anything, scaled for a profundity that never arrived. I liked Django Unchained but felt it was too long by at least a half hour.
Is it just me, or did anyone else get a gay vibe from one particular scene in Lincoln? Maybe Tony Kushner included the moment in his screenplay simply to acknowledge the recent rumors surrounding the possibility of Lincoln’s gayness. It happens when Daniel Day-Lewis visits his two young male secretaries in their bedroom, with both men in their beds. After good-naturedly patting the thigh of one of the boys a few times, Lincoln is asked by the boy if he’d like some “company” tonight. The president declines the offer. The scene is played matter-of-factly, as if it’s not uncommon for Lincoln to request some late-night male “company” after a long day of changing history. It’s a lovely, subtle, sweet moment, whether meant as an offer of sharing cocoa or cuddling in bed.
