| If
there was one theme to the 2007 Oscars it was that what was old,
and not necessarily true, was new again. The show was looooong,
as it had been in the not so recent past when the west coast regularly
kept the east up until midnight and atoned for the transgression
by rushing through the final big ticket items after indulging the
best supporters and numerous overproduced tribute numbers. This
year's host (Ellen DeGeneres) wasn’t exactly Steve Martin
or Billy Crystal, but an untested unknown in the vein of Mr. Letterman
and Ms. Goldberg. Could she be another one and done experiment?
Personally, I’ve always been onboard with Ellen’s dry
sense of humor, but the mixed reaction and the fact that Hollywood’s
always liked a warm chummy arm on Oscar night means next year that
Billy will likely be back and the show will be cropped by an hour.
With
all respects to Marty Scorsese, the night belonged to Al Gore. In
that, there’s a lot that was rekindled… err recycled.
A once dead political career awoke from a coma to find new hope.
Gore’s decades old crusade to alert all that our
wasteful living was slowly killing our planet, went global and Hollywood
was in on it every step of the way as if they had  been
there the whole time. Then there were the lead ins that Gore might
surprise the world by announce his candidacy for president, done
with bravado, keen timing and cheeky humor. And you can’t
complain about An Inconvenient Truth winning Best Documentary.
The whole matter allowed Tinseltown to be political again without
being political. Surely you must recall Tibet, AIDS and the death
penalty taking stage behind names like Gere, Sarandon and Robbins.
Right and left could argue those issue ad infinitem, but stemming
global warming and protecting the environmental well being of our
planet, who could argue against that?
The
Oscars, always a symbol of excess and waste, tried to ride the wave
of Gore’s message by claiming that the 79th pageant was “going
green.” I guess in Hollywood, using recycled materials instead
of expensive imports for your sets and accoutrements is what “going
green” is all about. For the rest
of us that’s just being practical. Still it’s a start,
and it put the message out there in bold green lettering, even if
it was a bit Johnny come lately and hypocritical. Of course the
big hypocrisy hit days later when Gore’s $30,000.00 electric
bill (20 times more than the national average) popped up. Perhaps
before going down in court, Cheney had one more bit of information
for Libby to leak?
In
the end, after the “Al, we always loved you” banter,
Ellen’s no so out there, out there moments, Clint Eastwood’s
attempt at Italian and some  cool
silhouetted dancer numbers, the night was Marty’s. The
Departed wasn’t even the best film on
the block and Marty wasn’t the best helmsman. Those honors
belonged to Babel or Letters from Iwo Jima and
their respective directors, Alejandro González Iñárritu
and Clint Eastwood. The wins were a makeup call. Scorsese
had, one way or another, been locked out of the winner circle six
times for such instant classics as Ragging Bull, Goodfellas
and The Age of Innocence. And let’s not forget that
Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, Mean Streets,
along with the afore mentioned list—and you could probably
even toss in Kundun, After Hours and The King
of Comedy—all better movies than The Departed.
Perhaps you think I am being to hard on the merits of The Departed?
Well after all it is a remake of a Hong Kong actioneer. Where’s
the originality in that? Yes, most of the performers were great
and Bill Monahan’s script deserving, peppered as it was with
sharp criminal speak. But where was the continuity? Matt Damon’s
mole seemed driven by the plot and Jack Nicolson’s Whitey
Bulger was way too over the top for Bean Town. I liked The Departed,
don’t get me wrong, I just wanted more from it. After all,
I am from Boston, which is where the cop posing as crime and crime
posing as cop thriller goes down, and maybe that's why I hold the
bar so high? I was just happy to see "Mr. Marky" Mark
Walberg get a best supporting nod for the best performance of his
career.
So
yes, this year's Oscars was a make up call. It’s happened
before. Remember Paul Newman in The Color of Money (which
ironically Scorsese directed)? The Academy has shown a penchant
for new blood. Rocky, Marisa Tomei, Mira Sorvino and even Jennifer
Hudson, take your pick. Not that they weren’t deserving, but
when the Academy ignores living legend, you can sense the pent up
guilt and be sure that there will be a double back—sorry Mr.
Hitchcock. Scorsese’s made some of the best films of our era;
it’s too bad he didn’t get recognized for one or more
of his best films when he should have -- the year after they were
made. And near the stroke of midnight (EST) when Steven, George
and Francis came out to give Marty his gold, the venerated veteran
director gave the most reserved and humble speech of the night,
sorry... morning.
-- T.
B. Meek
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