So, maybe it wasn’t the best of the trilogy, but the 11 Oscars for Return of the King weren’t so much about that specific movie as a nod to the incredible effort (and amazing faith) it took to even attempt to put Tolkien’s work on film. To have it not suck was my small prayer back in 1999 when I first heard about it. To have it be so brilliant exceeded my greatest hopes. It was a wonderful night of awards for a wonderful group of people.
In fact, I cannot remember ever watching the Oscars without disagreeing with at least one choice. That’s the whole reason the Lunch Gang™ came up with the idea for the Oscar Do-Overs. But I can’t think of any choice I’d argue with this year.
I would — Renee “I can’t see” Zellweger. We didn’t see “Cold Mountain” yet, but by all appearances, she got the nod simply for being outrageous, and knowing it.
Sean Astin got ripped, though, with no nod for Best Supporting Actor.
We did see Cold Mountain, and she stole the show. I haven’t seen any of the other films, but from the clips, it looks like any one of the nominees could have taken that award deservedly.
Oh, and ditto on the Sean Astin comment, but I think he probably got buried in the ensemble and cancelled out by votes for other actors–especially Ian McKellen. At least I hope that’s what happened.
It was definitely a reward for the trilogy, as opposed to just Return of The King, but that was generally understood by most, the way I’ve read it.
As far as Astin is concerned, perhaps he should have been rewarded with the nom, but as Solly noted, there were a lot of great supporting performances in that movie alone, let alone the other stuff out there. (And then they might not have had “the sweep”, as Robbins was quite strong, as were all of the other nom’s.)
Nonetheless, a good night overall. It sure was great having Billy Crystal back. His openings are always fantastic. And my favorite moment…OK, a tie. Will Farrell & Jack Black, or the performance by A Mighty Wind. Turn it up to 11, indeed!
Those and Blake Edwards’ wheel chair stunt were great. I need to see the Pink Panther movies again.
“That was a priceless Steinway!”
“Not anymore.”
I have to add my ditto about Sean Astin, too. I’m glad LOTR finally got the recognition it did. Today I’m hoping to grab “A Shot in the Dark” at our Hollywood video. After watching those clips, I have a hankering.
More agreement here on the trilogy. I was working last night and watched the show this morning/afternoon on tape. Gotta love being able to fast forward the boring people and commercials!
Friday night we got babysitters and actually had a night out. We went to see Club Dread (some mindless comedy), but ended up in the wrong movie theatre (this super-plex has about 17 screens) and ended up in “Monster”. By the time we realized the mistake it was to late to catch the other movie so we stayed. Wow what a performance, glad Charlize Theron won. Glad I saw the ovie too, because I never would have understood why she won. But DANG! That
Last night was the first time I willingly watched the Oscars in years, and the first time that I didn’t give a crap who won in the 4 acting categories. I was looking forward to Billy’s opening movie montage, and I was in tears just watching it – when he was dressed as Gollum I nearly peed in my pants! 🙂
ROTK deserved every award it got, even if Peter Jackson looks like a schlump in a suit 🙂
Jay Black/Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson were awesome. And Allison Krauss and Annie Lennox’s performances were fantastic.
And when Billy Crystal thanked all of us Long Islanders… I admit it – I was grinning! His uncle has been a city councilman here for ages – he’s a hometown boy for me 🙂
Watching Peter Sellers on the parallel bars as Clouseau made me want to see the movies again, too.
“Birdy num num!”
I still nearly pee my pants even at the thought of the opening of “The Party.”