Dale's Oscar Aftermath

Dale's Oscar Aftermath: 1997 Well, after an excruciatingly long ceremony, a half-hour longer than the longest of the nominated movies (that would be Titanic, as anyone with such painful bladder memories as I could tell you), the movie award season has ended. And what a ceremony. There was nary a single surprise! Oh well, it could have been worse. Whoopi could have been hosting again.

Before an award-by-award knockdown of the results, I'd like to make a few initial comments about the presentation of the awards. First of all, I am glad that most of the awards were presented by one star, rather than by pairs who stand around reciting stupid banter: the only presenting pairs this year were Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau and Ben Affleck & Matt Damon, and neither of those pairs did any stupid banter, thank heavens. I also like how the nominated songs did not get lame production numbers this year. Another good thing: during the scoring awards, I like how they actually played some of the music of the nominated films. How novel!

On the other hand, there were some lame, time-wasting moments, like the stupid "salute to Oscar moments," and the salute to animal actors. The reciting of all 69 previous Oscar winners as well as the presentation of 70 past Oscar winners onstage was nice, but they sure ate up a lot of time. They could have saved some more time by having one presenter hand out both scoring awards or both documentary awards, but que sera sera.

The best presenters: Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was hilarious in his introduction of the Titanic clip) and Lemmon & Matthau (whose excitement for Affleck & Damon winning was both palpable and infectious).

The best speeches: The Dutch guy who directed Character, Affleck & Damon, Stanley Donen, and Kim Basinger.

Most moving moments: Basinger winning, and the rounds of applause for past Oscar-winners Luise Rainer, Harold Russell, and Theresa Wright.

On to the round-by-round commentary. Please note that I am only discussing the 19 feature-film categories here. As I did not see any of the films in the minor categories, I will leave those to other critics. The "Will Win" were my pre-Oscar predictions, and I am proud to say that I picked 16 out of 19 correctly, including being spot-on for every Titanic victory.

BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Titanic
DID WIN: Titanic

No surprises, right? Titanic was my third-favorite movie of the year, and neither my number one or two (Face/Off and Cop Land) was nominated, so Titanic was a worthy winner, in my opinion.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:

WILL WIN: Jack Nicholson
SHOULD WIN: Nicholson
DID WIN: Nicholson

This was not my favorite category of the night, but I did like Nicholson, so his Oscar is okay by me.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:

WILL WIN: Helena Bonham Carter
SHOULD WIN: Kate Winslet
DID WIN: Helen Hunt

This one was a surprise for me, but I guess it was a Marisa Tomei situation: only one American nominated, so the American wins, right? Personally, I think Jodie Foster should have been nominated and should have won.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

WILL WIN: Robin Williams
SHOULD WIN: Greg Kinnear
DID WIN: Williams

At least Burt Reynolds, in this year's most overrated performance, did not take the statue. I would have liked to have seen some of the Full Monty men nominated for this one.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

WILL WIN: Kim Basinger
SHOULD WIN: Basinger
DID WIN: Basinger

This was the first award of the evening, and the only one that I was really rooting for. Basinger's performance was incredible, the best part of the overrated L.A. Confidential, so I was thrilled to see her win.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING:

WILL WIN: James Cameron
SHOULD WIN: Cameron
DID WIN: Cameron

See my comments above about Best Picture. Same thing applies here.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: The Wings of the Dove
DID WIN: Titanic

This was not one of the best categories. There were several brilliantly-lit films this year, most of which were ignored by the academy. Smilla's Sense of Snow deserved the award, but it was inevitable that the big boat would win.

BEST SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN:

WILL WIN: Good Will Hunting
SHOULD WIN: The Full Monty
DID WIN: Good Will Hunting

Although I wasn't rooting for them, Affleck and Damon did do a great acceptance speech.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

WILL WIN: Wag The Dog
SHOULD WIN: Wag The Dog
DID WIN: L.A. Confidential

The academy actually gave the author of the execrable Conspiracy Theory an Oscar? Please allow me to puke.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Titanic
DID WIN: Titanic

I suppose Titanic deserved it, but where was The Fifth Element's nomination?

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Titanic
DID WIN: Titanic

See "Costume Design."

BEST ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Good Will Hunting
DID WIN: Titanic

Again, not a strong lot of competitors. I was glad to see James Horner win an Oscar, but I wish he had done so for Aliens, Star Trek II, or Field of Dreams.

BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL OR COMEDY SCORE:

WILL WIN: Men In Black
SHOULD WIN: Men In Black
DID WIN: The Full Monty

Another weak category. Does anyone remember the original score for The Full Monty? No, they remember "Hot Stuff," and the other soundtrack songs.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: (none)
DID WIN: Titanic

This year's weakest category by far. In my opinion, none of the nominees deserved to win. The best song of the year was "Once Upon a December," from Anastasia. Well, at least Alan Menken didn't win again.

BEST FILM EDITING:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Titanic
DID WIN: Titanic

The editing from Boogie Nights was absolutely brilliant. How did it get ignored? Titanic's editing was the best of the nominees, but couldn't hold a candle to Boogie Nights.

BEST MAKEUP:

WILL WIN: Men In Black
SHOULD WIN: Men in Black
DID WIN: Men in Black

The only non-acting nomination lost by Titanic! Amazing!

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Contact
DID WIN: Titanic

Well, the Academy skips its only chance to honor Contact, dangit.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EFFECTS EDITING:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Titanic
DID WIN: Titanic

This was Titanic's most deserving victory, so I won't make any snide comments here.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS:

WILL WIN: Titanic
SHOULD WIN: Starship Troopers
DID WIN: Titanic

Again, I can't really argue with Titanic, although I like Starship Troopers a bit better in this regard.