Oh, let’s start with the positive. The irony of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner of all time coming in a year when the Academy did everything it could (right down to a hopelessly baiting horror film montage) to shove the Oscar telecast toward populist appeal couldn’t be more delicious. Much of the season was deceptively tame, but a final week push from all sides (including within) to unseat the perceived frontrunner either came too late or simply didn’t work.
“The Hurt Locker” claimed six trophies, including Best Picture, Best Director and best Original Screenplay. The latter became perhaps the tightest race of them all as The Weinstein Company worked aggressively to secure a prize for Quentin Tarantino, but again, it either came too late or didn’t work.
Kathryn Bigelow’s war saga wasn’t even daunted by its perceived competition as “Avatar” managed only three wins, for Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Only one of those races included competition from “The Hurt Locker.”
The biggest surprise of the night, no doubt, was Geoffrey Fletcher’s Best Adapted Screenplay win for “Precious,” an award that seemed to be pre-ordained for “Up in the Air” scribes Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner. How often we forget the Academy can be as unpredictable as not. And Fletcher, by the way, is the first African American winner of a screenplay Oscar. “Precious,” meanwhile, was one of three films (along with “Crazy Heart” and “Up”) to win two Oscars, and it seemed to receive a lot of respect and admiration in the room.
The acting categories also went as planned, with Sandra Bullock overcoming doubts in the end and proving the writing really was on the wall. But we’ll never know how truly close it was. I should also note that, whatever your feelings of her performance and win, whether they be sincere or from some hyperbolic pit of vitriol, hers was one of the finest Oscar acceptances speeches ever delivered. Perfection.
As for the telecast itself, and utter disaster in so many ways. The opening song and dance number bombed. It felt frivolous and even arbitrary. I don’t know how I feel about that American Idol line-up to kick of the show, either, by the way.
The orchestra was so trigger happy as to be embarrassing, the truly infuriating moment coming when Louie Psihoyos wasn’t able to deliver what would have been a profound and important address on a show that is the most watched program on Japanese television. I imagine Ric O’Barry’s sign got them nervous, but be educated about the damn season — it was calling for a simple text that has been a part of the film’s marketing. Jesus. They even started to play Jeff Bridges off the stage.
And can we all take a moment and consider that? Jeff Bridges is finally an Oscar winner. What a story. And I’m happy to say I called that as far back as November 4. But then again, who wouldn’t?
The interpretive dance numbers were asinine, and I hope a fine replacement for the opportunity to showcase fine young talent like Ryan Bingham, novelty like Anika Noni Rose and Dr. John lightening up the festivities, etc.
Then there was the moment the show hit a screeching halt: the lead acting categories. If you didn’t already notice the lifting of last year’s title designs, the show ran out of steam and just lifted this aspect of last year’s show, too. Only it was more drawn out, feeling entirely inorganic. Lazy.
The hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin? Inconsequential. Things started out okay, some of the jokes worked. But ultimately the style overstayed its welcome. The best bits in the show were probably the animated feature sequence and Ben Stiller’s Sacha Baron Coen-less Na’vi sketch. And those were still a bit lukewarm.
As for predictions, it looks like, after a quick glance, Steve Pond and our own Guy Lodge leading the field guessing 20 of 24 categories correct. I nailed down 19 (22 with alternates) and there seem to be a few 18s out there, too. The shorts tripped me up severely. I missed all three, and I’m truly flummoxed at how they turned out. I also missed Best Adapted Screenplay (Who didn’t?) and Best Sound Editing, which surprisingly went to “The Hurt Locker” in a sweep of the sound categories.
(Oddly enough, the day of the nominations, I correctly foresaw 20 of the 24 categories. Maybe that’s indicative of how predictable the race because in phase two.)
Check out the full list of winners at The Circuit, and back tomorrow for a special season wrap-up edition of Oscar Talk.
Comments
104 responses to “‘The Hurt Locker’ takes 6 Oscars, including Best Picture”
Oscars is predictable! No element of surprise. I just wasted 3.5 hours of my time. I could have just relied on the critics blogs here! This will be the last time I will watch the Oscars. Get this, Bullock defeating Streep? Really? Really now Academy members? It’s a pure joke!
Meh. I was hoping for some real upsets other than Hurt Locker siphoning tech awards off of Avatar.
I liked the show. The Adapted Screenplay win for Precious made things a bit more interesting than they might have been.
@Ed
The people I was watching with were shocked that Avatar/James Cameron actually lost, even though Hurt Locker had dominated the categories where they went head to head.
If you follow the Oscars through these blogs, it becomes really predictable. If you don’t, then it’s not (sometimes).
Bad predictions on my side but at least I had the three Bs spot on: Bigelow, Bridges, Bullock.
I think Geoffrey Fletcher’s Adapted Screenplay win counts as a surprise. I actually gasped. I thought that “Up in the Air” no ifs or buts about it.
By far my least favorite Best Picture winner ever. But I’m very happy for Bigelow and her team. They should feel proud.
And yeah, Adapted Screenplay? What the heck happened there? Very sad that “Up in the Air” couldn’t win anything.
I was also (pleasantly) surprised that Precious won for best adapted screenplay. I thought Up in the Air was going to win that one.
I like how people on the IMDB boards are complaining about The Hurt Locker winning best picture tonight, even going as far as comparing it as being as weak as Crash or Shakespeare in Love. *shakes head*
Original Script win is for the Hall of Shame. But what to expect from ditiest campaign in history of dirty campaigns?
Great for Bigelow, can live with BP win since it`s in line with AMPAS taste for forgettable but overhyped stuff but Original Script win is unforgivable. Studio bought it big time. Words cannot desribe this disgrace.
It couldn’t have gone to a more deserving film, or director. Congratulations Bigelow. You earned it, and time will prove me right and the haters wrong.
Oh, and does anyone know what was up with that woman who came up and brutally interrupted the black man who had won for Documentary Short? Very strange.
Very good night, deserving wins for Kathryn Bigelow, Christoph Waltz, Up, and The Hurt Locker!
Yeh its a really unsatisfying Best Picture Win, the again they all are for some reason. I havent been fully satisfied since Lord of the Rings in 2003.
Favourite moments:
-Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech (in my opinion the best of the night)
-the shock around the room as Geoffrey Fletcher won for Precious (thank god)
-Ben Stiller coming up with another hilarious Oscar sketch, this time as an Avatar.
Least Favourite moments:
-Neil Patrick Harris’ opening (I’m sick of singing and dancing opening numbers of awards shows let alone with NPH)
-Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as hosts. They were no where near as mesmerising and entertaining as Hugh Jackman last year.
I personally was glad to see a song number at the top. Wish there had been more songs (original that is).
oh noes, a movie i didn’t like won best picture! what ever will i do? how ever will i go on?
*clutches pearls*
can we get over calling a movie we don’t like “overrated”? the hurt locker is overrated? really? compared to what? avatar? every movie in the universe is overrated/underrated depending on whether you like it or not. grow up, man up, get the fuck over it.
Tonight was the most satisfying best picture and best director wins for me in years. Hats off to the Academy for not going the box office route.
speaking english, i was wondering the same thing. WTF was that woman?
Speaking English
Your least favorite ever? I’d call near the top of the last ten years, and probably top 20 ever…
I’m glad that a woman over 40 won Best Actress — Carey will return, so will Meryl, and Gabby may return (of course in the Supporting Actress category).
I love that a African American won a writing Oscar — that’s major. I also happen to like the screenplay for Precious.
The only upset for me was Quentin not winning Original Screenplay — don’t know what they’re waiting for — they already ignored Jackie Brown and he has no plans on making another “serious” picture again.
aaron whoever said the hurt locker is overrated?
Lowest-earning BP winner in 54 years (Marty made $8m by the time it won in ’55). The wrong film won. The Golden Globes stood alone – and got it right.
@ /3rtfu11: “I love that a African American won a writing Oscar — that’s major.”
Yeah, that’s definitely one of the quiet milestones that I hope doesn’t get lost over the celebration of Kathryn Bigelow’s achievement. Hopefully an African-American winning Best Director isn’t too far off…
@ Paul: Yeah, because money = quality, right? That’s why Transformers 2 was robbed of a Best Picture nomination, Blade Runner is Ridley Scott’s least remembered film, and James Cameron should have won Best Director for a remake of Dances with Wolves transplanted over a Roger Dean album cover.
I enjoyed this ceremony. A few moments of spontaneity – the Kanye West-esque interrupting woman, Ben Stiller staring wildly at the audience, Sandra Bullock’s really lovely speech that almost makes me forget about her undeserving win for a minute – and, for the most part, a fairly well-oiled and tight ceremony.
Aside from some unnecessary interpretive dancing and an unpleasant upset in adapted screenplay (although Geoffrey Fletcher gave one of the most emotional, sincere speeches), I thought it was nice enough. Baldwin and Martin were better than I had expected.
19 out of 24 for me too, Kris. I guessed Logorama and you guessed Hurt Locker (for Mixing).
Overall, I preferred last year’s show to this one, but I will say that I thought what they did with Original Score was GREAT (having the dancers perform while a substantial portion of the score actually PLAYS—brilliant!), and I liked how the leading actors’ previous collaborators introduced them.
Speaking English and Edmont:
That woman was the film’s producer; I know this because I saw her a Q&A event. (She was just as eccentric and out there as you could expect. Ha.)
Tonight’s only real surprise was the Adapted Screenplay category. I’m sad that my favorite film of the year (Up In The Air) went home empty-handed. Was that was Clooney seemed so pissed off? Ugh.
Imdb.com gets it right. This is political win like Crash all over again.
Yeah, it’s just like Crash. You know, because The Hurt Locker had such an OBVIOUS political message that every review touched on, and Avatar won every single precursor and was the critical darling before The Hurt Locker swooped in for a stunning upset.
I know you’re upset, but please, try to act somewhat rational.
I think 20 might be the highest this year. That Precious win was way out of the blue. Also The Hurt Locker sound editing win was not expected.
It seemed weird to me that the consensus was that Tarantino was gonna win screenplay even though it was quite obvious that Boal was gonna win.
The shorts kinda seemed all over the place.
@28
You are HL fanboy which is OK. I meant like Crash as in yet another seemingly important yet forgettable BP winner.
Yeh George Clooney pissed me off the whole ceremony
just smile for fucks sake
What was up with that one who rudely interrupted that man who won an Oscar for best short film or whatever it was? Since when did the Academy Awards turn into the VMA’s?
is it too early to campaign for Glenn Close? lol
Got 21 correct (missed Adapted Screenplay, Documentary Short and Sound Mixing) — and this is the year I decided NOT to enter the pool, as I wasn’t sure about THE HURT LOCKER winning. Of course.
Oscars bring best in some people and the worst in other. Total newcomers who undeservedly win everything are an example of the latter. When great class act Sandra won, she paid tribute to Meryl since many felt Meryl should`ve won. When Cameron won Director at GGs, he gracefully acknowledged that Bigelow should`ve won. But when Boal robbed Tarantino he didn`t bother to acknowledge that Tarantino should`ve won. Oh,no. He took the credit like he owns the place. Oh, well, arrogance goes with a win that happened thanks to those foul emails and who knows what other dirty tricks. he won`t last., That`s a promise.
Well, I’m glad this over so we can move on with our lives.
Kris, can we now get a Green Zone review please?
Great coverage once again to the entire In Contention team! You guys do such a great job.
Can we expect a list of contenders for the 2011 Academy Awards by the end of the week?
Kidding.
@37 “Can we expect a list of contenders for the 2011 Academy Awards by the end of the week?”
Inception. Sci fi winner will happen. It will.It will.It will.
I disagree with Kris on almost everything. Loved the show, thought Baldwin and Martin were amazing. Loved the dance to the scores, glad there were no songs performed and think most nominees got a reasonable amount of time to speak. If Fisher Stevens didn’t hog the mic, Louis would have had his chance. Liked the long, montage clips for the supporting nominees and the personal stories for the leads. The only thing I didn’t like was Neil Patrick Harris and the useless opening number.
Great show! (It really helps to not care about any of the films people)
The directing was awful.
They stayed on a wide crowd for 10 SECONDS after Kathryn Bigelow won.
I want to see the reactions. Not some wide shot where I can’t make out what is happening.
@ ninja: I hope it’s in the mix.
I agree with Chad on a couple things as well. Harris’ opening was pointless, and after the initial surprise of seeing him onstage, it just got annoying.
I also thought Baldwin and Martin did a great job. Roger Ebert also expressed some disappointment towards the hosts, and I’m not sure what they did wrong. I thought their jokes went over very well — How did you not love the Paranormal spoof?
I have to agree with Kris though that the orchestra tuned in way too quickly on many categories, although in the case of The Cove, Louis definitely should have taken the mic from the start. I feel terrible for O’Barry.
One thing that confused me was the horror montage. I didn’t get the point of featuring clips from past horror movies. I figured they were gonna showcase horror movies from 2009 that weren’t nominated, but once I saw clips from The Shining and Nightmare on Elm Street, all I could say to myself was, “I’ve seen this all before.”
Agreed with Kris re the show. It was a disaster from start to finish, which is a shame since almost all the winners were so good (I would’ve prefered Tarantino over Boal and Fiore to not win cinematography, but thems the breaks). Just a horribly produced and directed show. Adam Shankman destroyed it after the class act that was last year.
i’m so disappointed that inglorious basterds didn’t win best screenplay — that just seems like anti – harvey weinstein.
Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech was hands down the best and most emotional and she deserves it —
shocked that up in the air didn’t win either. It made me believe that maybe precious was gonna win best pic!
LOVED LOVED the way they did the actor scenes — it was not just one scene but multiple scenes, created the suspense — even if we all knew who was gonna win.
Disappointing show, but excellent set of winners for the most part. I went 18/24–and I am sick of the shorts dragging down my score and/or costing me the pool (tonight I lost on our tie-breaker question). Most years I just guess and get at least one right, this year I consulted the experts and got all three shorts wrong.
But these numbers I can live with: The Hurt Locker – 6; Precious – 3; Up in The Air, An Education, Nine – 0. But it’s odd to know that The Blind Side is an Oscar winner while A Serious Man is not.
Adam Shankman took all the brand new stuff from last year and actually made it bad.
Wishful thinking there – Gabby did not win Best Actress. That’s only 2 for Precious. ;-)
people commenting in the forums here are more civilized and less biased than awardsdaily.com…how refreshing…..
i love both blogs and read it regularly, even if it’s NOT oscar season….
can’t wait for 2010/2011 preview!!!!!
congrats Guy for best predictor of the season!
and thanks to Kris for being a good indicator through the season and carry this wonderful site!
Tim Brayton at Antagony & Ecstasy got 20/24 also.
I thought Martin and Baldwin were just catastrophic, with their absurd Bigelow/Cameron ex-spouses joke being pretty close to the pits. I love that the room stonewalled them for it. But really, all night they were stale. The NPH number, the horror montage, the needlessly protracted John Hughes segment, and the Score dances were all mind-blowingly awful. The orchestra was embarrassingly peremptory, especially at the moments Kris specifies: God forbid Psihoyos get to talk at exactly the moment the Oscars might accomplish something real for a small movie with a big message.
Loved all four of the acting speeches, though, and of course the Bigelow moment was sublime in multiple ways. In other words: good job, voters; great work, winners; and to everyone who worked on the show, please fire yourselves.