Oscar 75: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Academy would have pulled a big surprise out of its hat and brought someone truly legendary to the 75th Anniversary Oscars. But I was hit more with the impression that we just weren't seeing enough history on that stage.
THE GOOD: Eminem winning Best Original Song! Of all the categories in Oscar history, one of the most regularly criticized is Best Song. Critics say that the Academy has frequently out of touch with their choices, but wow, did they ever prove there were with the times on this one! Presenter Barbra Streisand even seemed shocked, when I think almost everyone had figured U2 had this in the bag. This marked the first time that the Academy ever honored a rap song as their Best Original Song, and the first time they honored a song with explicit lyrics. And I was immensely pleased personally because I felt that Eminem's song was clearly the best song of the year.
THE BAD: But it was also the first year in 50 years that the Best Original Song winner was not performed live on the Oscar telecast. It's too bad that Eminem could not make it to perform the song, but they could have at least tried to find someone to perform the song. But I know it would be hard to fill Eminem's shoes. Although on the good side, I do have to give credit for Catherine Zeta-Jones in the performance of the nominated song from Chicago, I Move On, by getting up on stage only 2 weeks from her due date to belt out that tune with as much gusto as she had in the film!
THE GOOD: Talk about a surprising choice ... they give Roman Polanski the Best Director Oscar! Well, I don't think anybody saw that one coming ... we thought it was clearly a race between Rob Marshall and Martin Scorsese. It was nice to see them looking past a scandal for once and honoring Polanski even knowing he wouldn't be present to accept the award. In a clear sign of class, he received one of the evening's 9 standing ovations without even being there, and Martin Scorsese, who clearly thought this was his year to finally win one, was one of the first to stand. He was probably glad that he lost to a fellow veteran this time instead of a first time director, as usually happens.
THE BAD: Well, Polanski's
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