And the Oscar Goes To…..

79th Annual Academy Awards

The academy awards this year somehow felt devoid of the drama that usually accompanies it. It is hard to be excited about it when you almost know for sure the winners for most of the categories. The only thing that kept me interested was to see if Scorsese would win the awards this year or not. We had a new host too, Ellen Degeneress, this year and she was a bit toned down compared to Chris Rock last year. The most memorable of her lines was “If there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would no Oscars. Or anyone named Oscar, if you think about that”.

Having said that, the awards did throw up some surprises along the way. The biggest of them all must surely be Alan Arkin, winner for best supporting actor for ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. He beat out everyone’s favorite Eddie Murphy who had won most of the awards leading up to the Oscars for his portrayal of James “Thunder” Early in ‘Dreamgirls’.

In another surprise the German movie ‘The Lives of Others’ won over Mexico’s ‘Pan's Labyrinth’, which was widely favored to win the award. Nevertheless Pan’s Labyrinth won 3 awards including cinematography, makeup and art direction.

The major categories all went according to plan. Hellen Mirren for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” must have been the surest nominee ever to win the best actress award. It was a foregone conclusion that she would pick up the award and which she duly did.

Forrest Whitaker, who started off as a favorite early on faced some sentimental competition from the veteran Peter O’Toole. However Whitaker’s role of Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” prevailed over Toole’s portrayal of an elderly actor in love with a young girl in ‘Venus’ . “Little Miss Sunshine” a popular road comedy about a dysfunctional family won 2 awards for the night including best original screenplay to add to its supporting actor win.

Jennifer Hudson, the favorite to win the supporting actress category, brought in the only Oscar for “Dreamgilrs”. The American Idol reject was visibly overcome with emotion during her speech after receiving the award. But it was a surprise to see “Dreamgirls ” lose out to Melissa Etheridge’s song “I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”, despite having 3 of its songs nominated.

Babel picked up its only Oscar of original score for Gustavo Santaolalla, despite having several other nominations including best picture. Gustavo said during his acceptance speech that his goal was to write a score that doesn't sound like a National Geographic soundtrack.

Among the other notable awards, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was given to ex-Paramount chief Sherry Lansing. While a special Oscar was given to Italian composer Ennio Morricone. Best remembered for the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly's haunting theme song.

But the biggest winner of the night was undoubtedly Martin Scorsese. His crime drama ‘Departed’ not only won him his first Oscar in six attempts, it also went on to take the most awards (4) of the night including best picture. It won in the best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best editing categories. It was a long time coming and the Academy didn’t let go of the chance to make it special either. The moment three his greatest contemporaries came on the stage to give the best director award we were sure it had to be Scorsese’s night. He received the award from Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Oscar definitely has corrected its past injustices towards him.

Martin Scorsese – Will Oscar right past wrongs?

Martin Scorsese – Will Oscar right past wrongs?

It is hard to believe that one of the greatest directors of our time has never won the best director academy award (more popularly known as the Oscars). This year he has been nominated for a record sixth time. If he fails to win it this time as well it would make him the most nominated director without winning an Oscar. But then again, such acclaimed directors like Alfred Hitchcock (5 nominations), Robert Altman (5), Stanley Kubrick (4), Federico Fellini (4), Ingmar Bergman (3), David Lynch (3), George Lucas (2) have never won a best director Oscar before.

This time around Scorsese has been nominated for the movie ‘The Departed’, a remake of the hit Hong Kong crime thriller ‘Infernal Affairs’. The movie starring an all star cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin tells the age old story of cops and gangsters in Boston. One of the cops (DiCaprio) infiltrates the mob headed by Jack Nicholson. In the mean time the character played by Matt Damon infiltrates the Police Squad rising quickly through the ranks and even becoming a star officer, all the while reporting back to Jack Nicholson. What follows from then on is a game of cat and mouse with both infiltrators try to save their skin and also their cover with the whole thing culminating in a mind blowing climax.

Martin Scorsese went back to the very genre that made him such a legend in Hollywood, the gangster flick. His handling of the entire subject matter is with the kind of energy and vitality that made him a legend. He has extracted brilliant performance from all his actors in the film. His pacing of the narrative is excellent and has brilliantly added some great music which suits the situation to T.

Scorsese’s movies never won an award mainly because of its controversial subject and violent nature. His stories were always unconventional and his narrative realistic, maybe a bit too realistic for the academy member’s taste. The academy has always rooted for the underdog stories with a happy ending or inspirational true life stories. Scorsese’s heroes are mainly flawed, suffering from one form of guilt or other and definitely not guys whom you would invite over to your house for a family dinner.

Then there is the peculiar fact that he has the unfortunate knack of losing to actor turned directors. He has lost so far to Robert Redford, Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood. In the coming years he will have competition from some one he knows only too well. Robert De Niro, an actor who has collaborated with many of Scorsese’s movies, is not nominated this time for ‘The Good Shepherd'. It is to be remembered that most of De Niro’s memorable performances has been in Scorsese’s movies. From ‘The Taxi Driver’ to the ‘Goodfellas’. Who can forget De Niro’s “You talking to me” line from “Taxi Driver”. But lurking in the back is the threat Clint Eastwood for his movie “Letters From Iwo Jima”.

Another major issue with Scorsese is his apparent reluctance to do the necessary lobbying that is so essential to winning the Oscars. The academy members like the nominees to show that they care for the award. They want these guys to really sweat it out for the award. Here the shy and reluctant New Yorker is visibly uncomfortable to talk about himself. Add to all this is the fact that “The Departed” does not cut back on the violence front and you just wonder if he would lose the coveted prize this time as well.

The biggest hope for Scorsese however is the Director’s Guild award he has won recently. Only six times in 54 years has a winner at the DGA not won the Oscar for Best Director. So it would be the humongous surprise if he does not win it on February 25th. Above all there is the Academy’s tendency to right past wrongs and give the award to somebody whose previous better performances they had ignored. If Scorsese does not win it this time then he might give up on ever winning the award and start believing in stuff like destiny and fate.