Scorsese dazzles as DeGeneres fizzles
HOLLYWOOD – Scorsese dazzled and DeGeneres fizzled at the 79th Academy Awards on Sunday night. For those of us in the Kodak Theatre for the telecast, the evening’s highlight was Martin Scorsese’s triumph as best director for “The Departed,” which also won the Academy Award for best film. The 3,500 people in the theater rose in unison and applauded loudly as Scorsese was presented the golden statue by filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, his friends for 37 years.
For fans of the filmmaker, whose credits include “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “GoodFellas,” the triumph was long overdue, and seeing him accept it from the trio was truly a golden Oscar moment. Spielberg, Coppola and Lucas were obviously sure Scorsese would carry home the gold, because it would have been awkward if one of the other nominees – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Babel”), Clint Eastwood (“Letters From Iwo Jima”), Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) or Paul Greengrass (“United 93”) – would have won instead.
The reaction to host Ellen DeGeneres was extremely low key, due no doubt to her very mild material. DeGeneres hired the writers of her talk show to prepare the jokes for the Oscar telecast, and the result seemed like warmed-over routines – including dated, unfunny references to “Gilligan’s Island” – that would have just as easily fit in her daily broadcast, where for the most part they belonged.
DeGeneres did, however, provide a wonderful moment after going into the audience with a camera, posing next to Eastwood, asking Spielberg to take a photo of the two of them and then telling the wildly successful director to do it again because she didn’t like the composition.
In addition to Scorsese, the big star of the night was former Vice President Al Gore, whose global-warming chiller, “An Inconvenient Truth,” won the Oscar as best documentary. While sharing the stage with Leonardo DiCaprio, Gore made some jokes at his own expense and worked in some message about the importance of environmental concerns.
Some audience members seemed ready to stand and cheer as it appeared Gore might – with prodding from political activist DiCaprio – announce his candidacy for the presidency, but he turned the moment into a good-natured joke.
A slight chill spread through the room when Jennifer Hudson won her well-deserved Oscar as best-supporting actress in “Dreamgirls” and failed to thank her co-star, popular vocalist Beyonce, by name. That icy air quickly disappeared once Hudson and Beyonce performed together and brought the house down during three “Dreamgirls” numbers nominated for best song.
Some interesting moments during the ceremony for the 79th Academy Awards included:
n Producer Laura Ziskin’s idea to have all 177 Oscar nominees in the audience stand at the start of the show and get a least a few seconds of global exposure.
n DiCaprio didn’t look happy when Jack Black, who appeared on stage in an outrageous musical number with Will Ferrell, jokingly threatened to punch out the superstar. DiCaprio found nothing funny about it.
n When Alan Arkin was announced as the best-supporting actor for his role as the heroin-addicted grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine, audience members let out a short gasp before applauding. Most people seemed to have been shocked that the heavy favorite Eddie Murphy didn’t win for his show-stopping work in “Dreamgirls.” He deserved the honor.
n When Tom Cruise came on stage to introduce former studio executive Sherry Lansing as the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, he received a somewhat cool welcome. A few people in the audience shouted wildly, but for the most part, the superstar, whose career has cooled off thanks to some of his misguided comments about depression and psychiatry, was greeted with a muted response.
n Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who has created memorable scores for films such as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “The Untouchables,” became teary when he received his Honorary Award from the academy for his “contribution to the art of film music.”
Even DeGeneres’ lackluster hosting couldn’t damage an Oscar show in which Martin Scorsese and Ennio Morricone both took home well-deserved awards for their incredible film work. Bravo!
Lou Gaul is entertainment editor of the Burlington County Times and film critic for Calkins Media. He can be reached at lgaul@phillyburbs.com and his stories can be read at www.phillyburbs.com/bct.