The Oscars

As I admitted below, it is something of a ritual for me to watch the Academy Awards each year, although I often have not yet seen many of the films and roles in contention.  As I have often written, I see just about everything in due course but I am usually in no rush to view the same movies immediately on their release.  But this doesn't stop my having my own very definite opinions on their various merits by a combination of those films I have actually seen (quite a few this year as it happens) and those I have read about, seen clips of, and what have you.

The results this year were largely what I had expected with one major disappointment.  Having won three of the early technical awards, I was flabbergasted to find that "Pan's Labyrinth" did not win best foreign film. Granted I have not seen the German film that did win, but I find it hard to believe that it was better made or more cinematic.  For my money the Mexican film should have been in the running for best overall picture, and Del Toro should certainly have been considered for best director.  But there you are: the Oscars are often full of surprises.

No surprises at Forest Whitaker taking the best actor Oscar, although as I wrote after seeing "The Last King of Scotland", he was if anything too good at portraying the monster that was Idi Amin and I thought the Academy might shun such a dispicable character.  With Alan Arkin taking the best supporting actor award, I briefly wondered if Peter O'Toole might also benefit from the good will accumulated for veteran actors, but it was not to be; 8 nominations and no wins, how frustrating that must be (and I understand there is a sound engineer who has had 19 nominations and no win).  At least Arkin prevented Eddie Murphy from winning that particular prize, although why I should feel so negative about his winning is a very good question, probably because he seemed so smug about it.

Finally, oh dear, Martin Scorsese at last has his elusive Oscar.  This appears to have been inevitable despite "The Departed" being far from his best work and despite the very worthy credentials of the other nominees.  There was too large a groundswell for him to fail again, but whether the film in question was a worthy best picture winner is very debatable.  Personally I think not, even if it was something of an improvement on the Hong Kong original, but then Oscar does have a history of making some very dubious best film selections.  Now if "Pan's Labyrinth" had been in the running....