79th Academy Awards (2006): Commentary

The 79th Academy Awards (2006): Awards Commentary

It’s less than 24 hours after the 79th Academy Awards and its time to take an immediate look back at this year’s awards. After the fiasco last year, this was a welcome respite from disappointment, though there were several things to be disappointed about, there were still some pleasant surprises.

The show opened with its 30-minute red carpet arrival special. Chris Connelly looks older every year and Lisa Ling really should consider a new dress maker. The other co-host of this year’s special was Vogue fashionista Andre Leon Talley. First rule, never let him shop for a dress for you. Thank goodness Jennifer Hudson dropped that dreadful shoulder wrap when she got into the auditorium. The best dressed among those featured in the program was Cate Blanchett who looked stunning. That she’s going to play Bob Dylan, a man, is a brave career choice, but watch her nab her second Oscar for it.

The opening montage of nominees was funny, inspiring and just what we needed. Most of those people we never see because producers will only put the big categories on the television screen. However, they got their time in the sun and it was nice to have the ones with the most screen time were the least recognizable. Matter of fact, Judi Dench was nowhere to be seen and Kate Winslet only got a brief image towards the end.

Ellen DeGeneres opened the show proper with a fantastic monologue. It was inoffensive and the audience was in stitches. I think it’s safe to assume that she’ll be invited back again. Her quip about Al Gore being elected but not was priceless as were a number of other funny moments.

The show pushed out six awards before it got to the evening’s first Top six award. Pan’s Labyrinth took an early lead winning Art Direction and Makeup. Both awards were richly deserved and predictable. The evening continued its relative predictability until Animated Short film went instead of to Disney’s The Little Matchgirl to the short The Danish Poet. Then things settled back to normal until Supporting Actor.

Winning the ever elusive career Oscar for a role that wasn’t exceptional, Alan Arkin beat out front runner Eddie Murphy. Murphy’s reclusive nature and comedic history seemingly bit him in the ass in the end forcing him out of the winner’s circle where he belonged.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Gore appeared on stage to announce that the Academy telecast had gone Green for the first time. The segment was ended by a mock presidential candidacy announcement that was drowned out intentionally by the orchestra. Gore wasn’t going to announce, but it added a bit of flavor.

Animated Feature provided one of the night’s bigger disappointments shortly thereafter. The what-were-they-thinking Happy Feet triumphed over the more interesting Cars to prove that the Academy loves penguins as much as it loves the Holocaust. I think a film about a penguin Holocaust might Top Ben-Hur, Titanic and Return of the King as the all-time Top award winner!

After an expected win by The Departed for Adapted Screenplay, the night progressed to the Costume Design category where the traditional retread of a costume period piece triumphed over four more inventive uses of costuming.

After Tom Cruise avoided making an ass out of himself presenting Sherry Lansing with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award, the night’s first big shock arrived. Everyone had predicted Children of Men to pick up a well deserved Cinematography award. Then Gwyenth Paltrow dropped the bomb. Pan’s Labyrinth picked up its third trophy by nabbing the Oscar.

Not long after, we were treated to an engaging revisiting of all fifty Best Foreign Language Film award winners and the award went to another surprise. The Lives of Others picked up an award that Pan’s Labyrinth should have won. It proved multiple things: The Academy loves European films, they don’t like art films, and only members with no active careers have the time to sit and watch all the films and thus pick the wrong film for the category.

There was only one award I was emotional invested in. That investment paid off when Hudson won Best Supporting Actress for her amazing debut in Dreamgirls.

When Clint Eastwood, who doesn’t seem to be a very eloquent public speaker, came out to present Celine Dion’s new song, I was hopeful for a good performance (while many others were squirming because they dislike her a lot). Then I heard the song. The music was nice but the lyrics weren’t anything special and Dion’s delivery was significantly lacking. I was shocked to read people surprised she wasn’t as bad as they were expecting, but her fans were sorely disappointed.

The only other major heartbreak I had for the evening was when Gustavo Santaolalla was presented the Oscar for Original Score on Babel over the far more rich tapestry of Pan’s Labyrinth whose lullaby was haunting and soulful.

Original Screenplay furthered the idea that the Best Picture winner was still up in the air as Little Miss Sunshine triumphed as expected.

Then the Dreamgirls took the stage and presented a fabulous performance from all three divas and the adorable Keith Robinson. It was then followed by the most bland Original Song winner in years. We though “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” was an unimpressive choice. Dreamgirls split votes and the Academy went with Green-friendly and make-up-for-the-homophobia selection of Melissa Etheridge for the absolutely bland song “I Need to Wake Up”. Any of the other four, including the atrocious Randy Newman song “Our Town” would have been a better choice.

Then we had our first completely unnecessary montage. The rest of the production seemed to focus on how international the Academy was but then Michael Mann edited together a derivative montage about how America has been portrayed through film. What a mistake. Let’s celebrate international diversity and then say screw it and celebrate ourselves. Claptrap if there ever was any. It was one of two show elements that prevented this from being the best Oscar telecast ever (the other item was the ludicrous shadow dancers).

It was after that that we finally reached the award that many of us knew would define the evening. Best Film Editing could have gone to any film but The Departed won the prize making it the new lock for Best Picture.

Jodie Foster eloquently presented the In Memorium segment where a number of great legends were included, the 2005-deceased James Doohan was inexplicably included, and the wonderful Yvonne De Carlo excluded.

We then moved into the two most predictable awards of the night. Best Actress went to the Queen Helen Mirren and the Best Actor prize went to the King Forest Whitaker. Poor Peter O’Toole then set a record as the most Oscar nominations ever without a single win.

Best Director was presented by a trifecta of 70s directing legends, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Spielberg and Coppola appropriately ribbed Lucas for not ever having won and they together presented the Oscar as expected to Martin Scorsese who got the night’s third standing ovation. Though I like Scorsese as a director, he should have won for The Aviator or even Taxi Driver but winning for the slight The Departed should finally put to rest the constant carping over his never having won. I almost would have preferred him to go into the ranks of Kubrick, Hitchcock and Altman than to have been garishly paraded as an Oscar loser just to get him an award. Now it’s over and we won’t have to worry about him being a threat for a long time.

We then got to the final award. Best Picture went to The Departed giving it four awards over all. This wasn’t one of my favorite films of the year and it is a thoroughly middling choice. It ranks right up there with The French Connection as a wasteful award to a film that didn’t deserve it but is still better than many of the other clear Oscar mistakes of the past. The Departed ranks in my list as the 44th best Best Picture winner as you can find updated on my main site.

Biggest Surprises:

Cinematography – Pan’s Labyrinth over Children of Men
Foreign Language Film – The Lives of Others over Pan’s Labyrinth

Biggest Mistakes:

Animated Film – Happy Feet
Supporting Actor – Alan Arkin
Original Screenplay – Little Miss Sunshine over The Queen or Pan’s Labyrinth
Cinematography – Pan’s Labyrinth over Children of Men
Original Score – Babel over Pan’s Labyrinth
Original Song – “I Need to Wake Up”