Scholars have long debated whether it was Mark Twain or newspaper editor Charles Dudley Warner who came up with the oft-quoted quip "Everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Regardless, the sentiments of the quotation can easily be applied to the annual Academy Awards ceremony. Dwindling ratings, lack of enthusiasm among young movie-goers, an industry bereft of the legendary personalities audiences used to tune in to see- all of these factors have put the Oscars on pop culture life support in recent years. Who knew all it would take was one superstar in meltdown mode to make last night's ceremonies "must-see" TV? Unfortunately, the entire ceremony will always be remembered for Will Smith's act of inexcusable violence against presenter Chris Rock, who remained cool and dignified under very strained circumstances. There's no point in going into details because by now you know what happened. Smith's temper tantrum marginalized everything that followed as the attendees and viewers around the world tried to make sense of what they just saw. Forty minutes later, Smith received the Best Actor Oscar in front of an audience of boot lickers who couldn't resist giving him a standing ovation. In a bizarre speech, Smith did apologize to the Academy and the nominees, but not the man he assaulted. He then delivered a seemingly endless, self-pitying and self-indulgent, teary-eyed acceptance speech in which he insinuated that his actions were in defense of his wife, much as the character he played in the film was defensive of his family. Talk about taking Method Acting to an extreme...Somewhere along the line, Smith became almost incoherent and began to sound like Brando's Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. The Academy considered having him escorted from the auditorium, as they certainly would have if he were a mere mortal. However, they balked and allowed him to stay and enjoy the moment of his Oscar win. Tonight, top brass are meeting to consider ejecting him from the Academy because he clearly violated their ethics policies. More realistically, they are probably meeting to discuss how to justify not ejecting him from the Academy. Perhaps not coincidentally, Smith has issued a formal written statement of apology to all concerned, including Chris Rock. It reads:
“Violence
in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s
Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part
of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to
bear and I reacted emotionally.
I would
like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I
am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.
There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.
I would
also like to apologize to the Academy, the producers of the show, all the
attendees and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to
the Williams Family and my King Richard Family. I deeply regret that my
behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us.
I am a
work in progress.
Sincerely,
Will”
Well, better late than never. Believe it or not, there was a lot more to the evening than this surrealistic incident. Here are some random observations:
I thought the premise of having a trio hosting the show-Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes- sounded like a fairly ill-conceived idea. I was wrong. It was very ill-conceived.Their entire shtick could have been eliminated without much loss to the ceremonies. Keep in mind, ABC-TV demanded that numerous category of awards be presented prior to the show in a separate ceremony, thus setting off a firestorm by insulting and marginalizing those who were affected. They ended up deceiving the audience by using clever editing techniques to imply the acceptance speeches of these winners were taking place live. Why was all this necessary? Because the network had plunked down $100 million for broadcast rights and wanted to ensure there was plenty of time for the hosts to display their comedic talents. Aside from a few good one-liners, the most impressive aspect of their contributions was the ability of potty-mouthed Amy Schumer to keep things relatively clean throughout the show.
There were erratic elements to the program. Beyonce performed one of the nominated songs but she wasn't in the building, as the Academy had her in an elaborate musical extravaganza that had been pre-taped outside of the auditorium. Isn't it traditional to have the songs all performed in front of the audience? She might just as well have been in London. Then there was the pathetic pandering to youth in the quixotic hope that young people will once again make tuning into the Oscars a tradition. Good luck. Many of the people they are trying to reach don't even feel obliged to own a television. Nevertheless, there were bizarre attempts to appeal to youth including the introduction of a celebrity DJ (!) who made a brief appearance before thankfully seeming to fade into oblivion.
I usually gripe about the annual tribute to artists and industry types who passed
away in the last year because inevitably they leave out plenty of
notable people who deserved inclusion. This year, I didn't even attempt
to make a list of the omissions, preferring to use Turner Classic
Movies' annual memorial video as the gold standard of remembering the
dearly departed. The Academy
obviously left out a number of people because they provided a web site
address you can visit to find tributes to the folks they intentionally
snubbed. Oh, and keep in mind that the only reason they refuse to extend
this segment is because they feel it's more important to have more jokes
and comedy skits during the broadcast. I should point out that even the
memorial presentation was strange. It was shown on a big screen in front of a
large group of people singing and dancing as though we were in a Busby
Berkeley musical. Then, Jamie Lee Curtis stopped the proceedings to pay
special tribute to Betty White and later Billy Murray did the same to
remember his friend, director Ivan Reitman. Two observations: I respect
Betty White as much as anyone, but she was not known for her work in
feature films, as she was a television icon. Also, selecting two
people out of all those who passed away to receive special treatment
made everyone else being honored look like chopped liver.
As for fashion, elegance was happily in style and so was cleavage. Many of the ladies were clad in outfits with plunging necklines that would have looked at home on the cover of one of those bodice-ripper romance novels, but no problem in this corner because it provided some old style high fashion. However, it came as a surprise that the most cleavage to be revealed was courtesy of Timothee Chalamet, who was wearing a glittery woman's jacket by Louis Vuitton- minus anything under it. At least he could rest easy that no other guy was going to show up in the same outfit.
There were the usual unwelcome political jokes but they were thankfully in short supply. Schumer, Sykes and Hall decided to stage a comedy bit involving people testing positive for Covid-19. Considering we're losing 800 people a day in America (the equivalent of a 9/11 or Pearl Harbor attack every three days), it's understandable why the premise fell as flat as a pancake.
The Academy chose to use the telecast to promote it's new $400 million museum in L.A., which has been widely panned for favoring politically correct exhibitions over those that would have mainstream appeal for movie lovers. So how did they use this precious telecast time to induce people to visit the museum? By having Wanda Sykes engage in a comedic tour of the premises that was so poorly done that the segment probably persuaded anyone who intended to visit the place to reconsider their plans.
Reunions were the order of the day: Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and a bald and bearded John Travolta from Pulp Fiction, Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes and Rosie Perez from "White Men Can't Jump" and Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro to honor "The Godfather". Coppola, newly trimmed-down, looked very healthy and happy but he was the only one who spoke in the brief segment, that also included an uninspired film clip compilation that for some reason was set to a hip-hop song! Coppola made some sentimental remarks but Pacino and De Niro said nothing at all...so what was the point of bringing them to the ceremony only to have them stand there silently? Also, Coppola should have explained that De Niro was there because of his contributions to the franchise through his Oscar-winning performance in "The Godfather Part II", as he did not appear in the original film.
James Bond got plenty of justifiable attention for the series' 60th anniversary, even if the Academy shattered fans' hopes that "No Time to Die" would land a Best Picture nomination and Daniel Craig would be nominated for Best Actor in his swansong appearance as 007. Instead, there was a nice but rather perfunctory film clip segment of highlights from the series. In a weird decision, the segment was introduced by three hunky guys who didn't even look vaguely familiar to me. They apparently are "extreme athletes", whatever that means. Presumably, internet "influencers" were not available.) Surely, given the number of illustrious people associated with the Bond series, someone of some stature could have introduced the segment. Also, the trio of "extreme athletes" name-checked each of the Bond actors- except George Lazenby, who at least was seen in the video compilation. (Can this guy ever catch a break?) Billy Eilish and her brother Finneas gave a fine live performance of their haunting title theme to "No Time to Die", which was the best of the songs nominated. It won, too, thus making this the third Bond song to win in a row. At least the Academy is atoning for not nominating so many great ones from the past.
Troy Kotsur's win for Supporting Actor in "Coda" made for a moving segment, as he is only the second deaf actor to be honored with an award.
Kudos to Kevin Costner who recalled the splendor of seeing "How the West Was Won" in Cinerama at age seven and extolled the majesty of the presentation and impact it had on him.
The inclusion of "fan favorite" films was a pathetic attempt to put salve on the wounds of younger movie fans who constantly gripe about their favorite films (i.e superhero flicks) not being nominated in the major categories. Instead of explaining that the nominees are decided by industry professionals in the respective trades and that the ceremony is not a popularity contest, AMPAS decided to allow fans to vote for their favorite films and scenes from movie history. If the winners were any indication of prevailing taste, we'll be giving Pauly Shore a lifetime achievement Oscar in a few years. For the record, the "winners" of these polls were mostly of relatively recent vintage. If you expected to see the likes of "Schindler's List" or "Citizen Kane", you had to settle for "Army of the Dead". Meanwhile, more precious minutes of air time were wasted on showing meaningless clips from these action movies.
Years ago, the Academy decided to stop telecasting the honorary awards to distinguished industry veterans. Fans were outraged. These were often the highlights of the ceremony, but the Academy wanted more time for dumb comedy bits and the network wanted more time for overpriced sponsor advertisements. There was a time they would at least air snippets of the honorees accepting their awards at a separate ceremony, but even that was asking too much. Thus, we got to see this years honorees: Liv Ullmann, Elaine May and Samuel L. Jackson sitting like mannequins as they were acknowledged for a few seconds. If you wonder why some of us pine away for these awards to be an integral part of the ceremonies once again, just watch this segment from the 1972 telecast when Charles Chaplin returned to America from exile in Europe after he had been blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s. We're never likely to see anything like this again because the Academy and ABC simply need to have more kitsch.
The show wrapped up with announcement for Best Picture but things went awry. In an admirable sentimental gesture, Lady Gaga accompanied a wheelchair-bound Liza Minnelli to the stage to commemorate the 50th anniversary of "Cabaret" and to have Minnelli read the title of the winning film. Unfortunately, Minnelli was not up to the task. She was clearly feeble and disoriented. Seeing her in such an undignified light was a painful experience, despite Lady Gaga's good intentions.
Believe it or not, I do not enjoy trashing the Oscars. It's a thankless task to bring this lumbering giant to TV every year and countless talented people work endless hours to achieve that task. Even the worst Oscar ceremonies have plenty of entertainment value and this one was no exception. The worst aspect of it- Will Smith's behavior- was beyond the producer's control as it occurred spontaneously. Although in some bizarre fashion, Smith might well have provided a reason for the Oscars to become "must-see" TV once again.