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”
Unless I’m really off base here, Geoffrey Fletcher is NOT the first African American Screenplay winner. Wasn’t Julius Epstein and his brother (who won for a little film called “Casablanca” a few years back) an African American? If I’m wrong, mea culpa…but I think I’m right.
@ Nick: So, how many times have you said “Academy Award-winner Kathryn Bigelow” so far? I’ve clocked it in at twenty so far. It’s just amazing.
@ ninja: Funny you call me a fanboy, because I don’t think I’ve seen a more immature reaction to one’s favorite movie losing. Mark Boal is an asshole for not “admitting” that Tarantino should have won? For cryin’ out loud, grow the fuck up.
@ ninja: Dude, take some fucking codeine, you’re going to give yourself a brain aneurysm with all your immature whining.
@David: I’d never heard this about the Epsteins, and I’m inclined to doubt it, but I don’t really know. Where are you getting your info?
I think Fletcher is both the first African-American winner of a Screenplay Oscar and the first to win for adapting a text by an African-American writer. Both feel like huge breakthroughs to me. (Even if I’m wrong, I can’t be wrong by much: they’re rare enough achievements that they deserve being excited about.)
The Highs:
Fletcher winning for adapted screen play. Always good to have such heart felt surprise.
Sandra Bullock – Amazing Speech, such a classy dame.
Boal Winning for original screenplay Locker – IB had only three good chapters imho.
Jeff Bridges winning. – Fearless remains my favourite performance.
Lows
The show seemed rather disjointed to me
Waltz’s speech, I think his speeches lost their charm for me at Bafta, the uber bingo stuff was just lame.
The tributes and homages to the actors and screen – less said the better.
But congrats to all the winners and nominees.
agreed… most. uncomfortable. telecast. ever. nph opening = wha?! steve and alec = eh. horror montage = really?! why?! john hughes mega-segment = um… yeah, but… interpretive dance to score nominees = good idea, but… no. anti-climactic ending = ridonkulous.
how in the world did it seem like this went on waaay longer than previous telecasts, and they made soooo many cuts to the schedule? no song nominees performed, no honorary oscars presented live, shortened speeches, even nixing the costume nominees showcases and best picture award presentation SHOULD mean MORE MEAT to the telecast. right? but instead they insert really ODD and out of place mega-segments for hughes and horror and interpretive dance… i dunno!
and don’t even get me started on “and the WINNER is” disaster! hooray for kate winslet “going off script!”
i told all you sandra nay sayers you had best give it up weeks ago.
They had some of the most unfunny jokes I ever heard.
The good:
-Christoph Waltz’s win
-Ben Stiller as a Navi. I laughed HARD.
-The Paranormal activity spoof and the couch-long snuggie
The bad:
-Neil Patrick Harris-the snazzy song/dance numbers are wearing thin, and he is tone-deaf
The ugly:
-The break dancing/pop ‘n’ locking to the original scores. Holy shit, was that bad.
-Just about everything else.
I thought it was fair of the show producers to cut away from The Cove’s speech when he unwrapped that banner. It’s one thing to say a few sharply worded things, another to wrap out a tacky banner no matter how worthy or deserving that agenda is. If they hadn’t been so hellbent on being tacky, Psihoyos could’ve actually said some smart, important things. Definitely the Nicolas Chartier moment of the Oscar show, just stupid.
The dancing, my god. Horrifying. Not because of dancing itself, but it had no connection to the music or the films. What the fuck does The Robot (LOL in itself) have to do with Up? Absolutely ridiculous, especially in light of cutting out song performances and not even giving the Cinematography nominees clips to showcase their work.
Overall though, I thought the show was better than I had expected. I really liked Baldwin and Martin, and Bullock’s speech was indeed one for the ages.
Also, with three of the four acting winners accepting their award in such a (relatively) stoic, unemotional way it’s more obvious than ever that there are simply way too many precursor awards. Christoph Waltz (who thankfully kept his analogy short this time) could just as well have been picking up his dry-cleaning or something.
Just imagine if there was nothing (or very little) ahead of the Oscars, just how fantastically surprised and amazed the winners would be. They must’ve been amazing back when there was pretty much nothing except for the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
I thought the actual show part was pretty bland, they could have definitely had better hosts I feel, even though Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin both had some funny moments, but as a whole they did not emcee the night as well as Hugh Jackman or Ellen Degeneres. As for the opening number, I actually liked it, I’m a sucker for big, splashy musicals. I also loved how they did Best Original Score, I’ve always wished the Oscars would do something special for this category showcasing the music, and this year they did, and I was amazed by it, to be honest, very entertaining. I do think it was a mistake to cut out the Best Original Song performances, it could have really livened up the evening other than it being award, award, award. And was it just me, or did it seem as if Martin and Baldwin really did way less than the Oscar hosts usually do throughout the night? Just my thought.
I thought the show was great. Very old Hollywood. Liked having the top acting nominees on stage at the beginning being escorted to their seats. Thought Martin and Baldwin were a fine comedy duo. Showing the Original Song clips was just enough of the song and I was totally fine with that. The score presentation was fine. It wasn’t an unneccessary dance number. Liked the supporting acting montage clips and the lead friend presentations. Liked how they tried to get people interested in short film by showing previous winners who went on to make features. Having Carey Mulligan and Zoe present all three short categories worked. Liked how they explained to the audience the difference between sound editing and mixing. The time spent on the speeches was fine except for The Cove.
The only gripes I can think of:
They didn’t show a single clip or a shot on the screen behind during the cinematography presentation. The very category about images.
And I actually thought the Stiller Avatar joke went on too long.
Well, I did say that Nick Park had peaked and was staying in his seat last night. Some creds for that (considering 99% of ppl pick Loaf & Death).
Boring show, one of the worst ever, which is fitting for the Best Picture winner. Hopefully, next year, the winner won`t be of ABM/Crash/Slumdog/HL variety but something that AMPAS won`t regret. Enough with safe, made-for-Oscars winners that appeal only to old voters. Their giving middle finger to Tarantino in favor of that Nia Vardalos lookalike who is a guy, apparently, is one of major travesties ever.
– Got 18/24. The 3 shorts really screwed me.
– Only things I liked: a) actors on stage in the beginning b) liked extended acting clips, and c) because I love dance … the dancing to the original scores was very nice; at least something to watch – onstead of staring at an orchestra.
– Almost everything else … FAIL.
– VERY disappointed in the telecast. Last year was much, much better; as was Hugh Jackman.
– The telecast was elegant, but borrrrrring.
– Steve and Alec did a good job; but I preferred the Jackman last year.
– And I liked last years formatting of the show with the screenplay-cin-art d-cost-editing. how a movie is made format. This one was just elegant, straightforward, and boring.
– Show stalled when Actor and Actress was handed out.
-What was with the horror segment? For Twilight? Worst.
– The Hurt Locker with 6 wins including BP. Really?? Maybe, maybe it deserved 3.
– Sandra over Meryl. I just still can’t believe she won the majority. I can’t. Love her. Happy for her. But that’s an awful win.
– Precious over Up in the Air and Jason Reitman in Adapted? WHAT!!???? Completely out of left field. Hapy for the guy. But, wow. Big surprise. Best surprise of the night.
– Avatar winning cinematography – for its visual effects.
And now …. my biggest rant ………. foreign film ………………….
I don’t get it. In 06, Pans Labyrinth gets nominated for 6 awards, wins 3 of them , but loses to Lives of Others (which was excellent). in 07, 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days isn’t even NOMINATED. In 08, Waltz with Bashir and The Class lose to … Departures (what a bland movie). And now, The White Ribbon and A Prophet lose to Argentina’s entry which is – apparently – a pretty good sentimental melodrama. WHY IN THE HELL ARE ALL THESE MOVIES WINNING FOREIGN FILM EACH YEAR? Why do frontrunners win in almost all other categories every year, but when you get to foreign … you know there’s gonna be a whack choice. DON’T GET IT.
– Ugh. I just think the show was cut and sanitized so much that I craved the crazyness that Oscar’s brought in the past.
Still can’t figure out why Bullock won, except for being a nice lady. Was The Blind Side really the best female performance of the year? If not, for what great performances in her past body of work was she being honored?
What was with Clooney’s attitude? (Did he have advance knowledge of how Up in the Air was about to be totally shafted in all categories?)
The whole thing was boring from start to finish. This was my first year following thru Oscar blogs during the runup season, and I’ve learned my lesson — bail after the nominees are announced. There’s no suspense for the actual awards. Now I’m going through the task of removing a great deal of Oscar blogs from my feed reader. In Contention will be one of the few that stay.
Also, the Oscars seemed really light on stars this year.
No idea how the ratings will pan out. Anyone know yet?
Translation of ninja’s posts: WAAAAAA! WAAAAAA! WAAAAA!
As for foreign film… please explain how “The Lives of Others” was a “wack choice.” ???
What people aren’t realizing is that foreign film category is more susceptible to a single favorite being hyped because so few people have seen all five nominees.
I don’t think ‘Lives of Others’ is a whack movie.
I mentioned in my commentary that it’s an excellent movie. It just stunned me that Pans didn’t win that year when Pans was EVERYWHERE, and had 6 noms and 3 other wins.
So the “choice” of win, I feel, was a bit whack. Not the movie itself.
I really liked ‘The Lives of Others’. Great movie. But there are always great movies in Foreign race (like Lives of Others), and they don’t win. That was my whack comment; in regards to the year it won.
Damn, I got it wrong last night. It was 6, not 7.
I was tired and BORED. No more Shankman, please.
To whoever wrote than The Lives of Others was a wack choice. HOW DARE YOU SIR?
Also… why the tribute to horror films? I thought this was supposed to be “the year of sci-fi.”
I do think this year was unusual with foreign film because we had two (“A Prophet” and “White Ribbon”) highly touted movies, not just one… and yet, there still was a spoiler.
That said, I’ve heard great things about “The Secret in Their Eyes,” saw a clip or two and can’t wait to see it.
Again, I don’t think the movie is whack. It’s a great, great film. But there are great films every year. And the year it won when Pans Labyrinth was everywhere, winning eveyryhing at precursors, getting top spot at Best Lists, won BAFTA, had the 6 noms, had 3 wins, so nearly everybody who votes saw it and loved it …
so the “whack” is that Lives of Others, though a very well respected movie, came in and just won.
My room of 10 people (and I) were like … WHAT? I just remember it being the same reaction as we had last night when Reitman lost Screenplay.
The decision isn’t whack to me. The ideology that it won that year when Pans was so very dominant is what I meant by whack.
Whack “movies” winning would be Departures.
This is one of those times I wish I had a time machine, so I could go back to 1994, and tell the young Texan making the Bottle Rocket short that in 16 years, a bunch of dancers would be interpreting the score of his Roald Dahl adaptation at the Academy Awards.
Forgive my use of whackage.
Still not sure I like the idea of former winners (2008) or friends (2009) introducing the acting nominees. Stanley Tucci was wonderful for Meryl. But what was with Colin Farrell introducing Jeremy Renner when Colin was a co-star of Jeff Bridges? In his acceptance Bridges thanked Farrell but was there bad blood? Farrell, in introducing Renner, wished the latter luck. If they continue this practice, they need to make sure there’s more than one degree of separation between the person introducing and any of the other nominees. Or am I the only person who found this strange?
I really loved the horror segment, and couldn’t care less that it was pandering. It did feel out of place, though, and I wish the drivel writers had done a bit of research – or perhaps collaborated with the person collecting the clips. The Academy hasn’t honored horror since The Exorcist? What about The Omen, Misery, and Silence of the Lambs – all Oscar winners and all represented in the montage?
I only got 17/24, but 23/24 with alternates. I made some truly stupid calls…
It was a very disappointing show in terms of pace and production values. The opening song bit was worthy of a high school production. It was as amateurish as it was flat. The interminable dance number to the nominated scores slowed the show; it was not even clear which score was which. Do they think that break dancing is still fresh? The low wattage or no wattage presenters gave the evening a K-Mart look. It was almost as if Hollywood royalty boycotted the show or weren’t even invited to be on stage. The homage to John Hughes was absurd; I don’t recall that he ever garnered a nomination for himself or his films. And the tribute to horror films seemed to include clips from several films not usually consigned to this category. I liked the use of the five actor to pay tribute to the nominees but wonder what Tim Robbins intended with his comments. Morgan Freeman must have been squirming with embarrassment. Clearly, most of the winners ignored the advice not to acknowledge lists of people. Michael Giacchino, however, listened and gave one of the best speeches of the night. The decision not to ask Shankman back should be made today. The Academy deserves better than this very mediocre effort.
The Bad
-Random shots of actors/actresses starting off into the distance, clearly bored. Why would they cut to Cameron Diaz chewing gum like a cow?
-Skipping the Original Song performances, yet having…
-Interpretative hip-hop dance to the Original Score nominees. Why?
-Horrible writing: apparently “The Exorcist” was the last horror film recognized.
-Alec and Steve’s opening monologue pointing out every acting nominee in great detail, except Carey Mulligan. (Or did I miss this? I’d be very relieved.)
-“Logorama” winning Animated Short. Ugh.
The Good
-Knowing that these producers won’t be hired again. (Please!)
-Mo’nqiue’s wonderful acceptance speech.
-Kathryn Bigelow’s win, and Barbra Streisand presenting it.
The Bizarre
-Kanye moment during the acceptance for “Music by Prudence”.
-Tom Hanks pulling an “Amadeus”. Thrilling and unexpected!
-Ben Stiller. Can’t decide whether or not that worked or not! Funny, but awkward.
Oh, and Kristen Stewart. Awful.
I think most of America is scratching their head right now going “what’s THE HURT LOCKER?” and the real crime is that unless they rent it, they really won’t have a chance to see the movie as it was meant to be seen — on the big screen — and that’s disappointing. The Oscars should be a forum for celebrating great art, but it’s also a great marketing tool to open the public’s eyes to films that should be seen. Frankly, the distribution pattern for this movie was really bizarre and the film is now not positioned to take advantage of their six wins at the Oscars last night by actually upping their box office take and getting more eyeballs on the movie. How is that a win for independent filmmaking or filmmaking in general? The answer is that it’s not. Sorry, I know that is not a popular opinion.
The show itself was horrible. the opening 6 minutes were as bad as anything i’ve ever seen on the Oscar telecasts. But the worst offense was having to sit through 10 minutes of dancers that have absolutely nothing to do with anything, taking up all that valuable time, and then, the director of perhaps the best film of the year (The Cove), not being able to speak on stage, the Academy playing him off the stage without the chance to say a single word. That is so screwed up I can’t even believe it.
Also: The Mark Boal win: what an incredible head scratcher. I guess the bottom line is this: I will be looking forward to Mr. Boal’s next 3 original screenplays with significantly more anticipation that I would have. Perhaps there will be more there than just the surface story telling that Hurt Locker supplied; but being an Oscar winner now, I’ll be awaiting his next few original works with great interest, that’s for certain.
The show was pretty bizarre at times, I don’t think it was an improvement on last year. I am happy for Bigelow, obviously it was a tremendous moment for her and other women directors. But obviously scifi is still not the Oscars cup of tea, Avatar would and should have won with a younger group of voters. Before its time, maybe they’ll give it to the sequel?
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were possibly the worst hosts the oscars have had since Daivd Letterman “Uma Oprah” anyone? I like them both but their wasnt a single laugh out of anything they said. The jokes were just lazy
Besides the fact that those dancers were groovin to best scores, it really had little relevance, or at least much less than memorable moments that could have been with best song performances.
Other than the obvious, it was plan old disappointing in terms of excitement. There was little too keep me entertained. I love the awards, but there needs to be a change of pace in between categories, especially during a predictable year. What usually glides the show along nicely is, infact, the song performances. Go figure.
No more Shankman. No more Mechanic.
@ Ripley: Maybe they wanted to wait for a film with an original plot and interesting characters.
Anyone else caught of guard by Tom Hanks not rereading the nominees and just abruptly opening the monologue after a few seconds of banter? Im not a particular fan of the word flabbergasted but….I was flabbergasted.
Hopefullu Shankman never asked to be a producer again.
The Bad
Some of the jokes were boring.
Stiller was good in the beginning then it went south.
No more of the little kiddies, Miley making an idiot of herself, and of course the Twilight idiots and Zac Efron, just no.
They need more star power presenting the awards. Some of the presenters were WTF like the kiddies, Chris Pine, to name a few.
The dance montage was long and boring. Bring back the singing!!
The show seemed extra long this year.
I don’t like the 5 presenter to actresses/actors thing, unless the actresses are accomplished. First time nominees who are young really shouldn’t be doted upon.
The Good
The Horrow montage was cool, as was Tina Fey
How about they get some good producer for the shows. Also Star Power was lacking esp for the presenters. Shankman must have thought this was hip to have so many popular young people present, but umm no.
What was up with the Cinematography announcement? It seemed to me there were some technical difficulties, as they didn’t show any clips. Any confirmation about this?
***@ Ripley: Maybe they wanted to wait for a film with an original plot and interesting characters.***
Then why did they award “The Hurt Locker?”
Agree with Al regarding Tom Hanks–either he went off script or was drunk. The 10 nominees needed to be recapped.
Anyone agree that Oprah went way over the top in praising Gaby? She has no career in films of any consequence ahead of her. Think Jennifer Hudson, Jaye Davidson, Haing Ngor and any number of others dragged from near obscurity into the limelight.
It’s a travesty that Up in the Air lost in the Adapted Screenplay category.
I wonder what the voters in the Short Animated and Live Action films were thinking when they cast their votes. The winners were odd to say the least.
First of all, I think all Avatar supporters should rent the DVD when it comes out without 3D and judge the movie based on the writing and other elements of the movie before they claim how original it is. Yes, visual effects and good directing does not necessary equal a good movie. No, Hurt Locker isn’t my favourite movie of the year, but it’s higher than Avatar because repeated viewings and THINKING about the movie did not diminish its power.
I’m actually reading Precious (the novel) now, and as I’ve seen the movie, I think it rivals Up in the Air as a screenplay. It is harder to adapt because of the rough narrative of the protagnist. To make sense out of that is like Precious finally finding a voice and being able to stand up for herself.
btw, I do like Avatar, it’s a good movie with flaws, but I would like 1 Avatars instead of 10 Transformer+ romantic comedy+ teenage rom com any time.
Meryl will never win again. Last night proved it. If they weren’t going to honor her for the best reviewed female performance of the year with box-office and precursors, they’ll never honor her. Period. It’s just getting ridiculous.
@Speaking English
Because The Hurt Locker has an original plot and interesting characters. Duh.
“Meryl will never win again. Last night proved it. If they weren’t going to honor her for the best reviewed female performance of the year with box-office and precursors, they’ll never honor her. Period. It’s just getting ridiculous.”
I believe Meryl Streep will win another Oscar will she reaches the 20s in the number of her nominations.
meryl meryl meryl.
bore bore bore.
get over your meryl obsession.
when she deserves she’ll win.
yadayadayada.
it’s over
finished.
let it rest in peace.
oy vay!