The Oscars Dissapoint

The 82nd Academy Awards marked the first year in which a woman won an Oscar for best director as Kathryn Bigelow took home the award for her directing of The Hurt Locker, a film about a bomb-squad’s journey in Iraq. As Barbra Streisand put it, “the time has come” for a new era in Hollywood. Unfortunately, this shining moment was overshadowed by one of the worst shows in recent memory for the Academy.
The Oscars were hosted by Steve Martin for the third time this year, his first two coming in 2001 and 2003. Steve was hilarious as usual; just the perfect mix of hilariousness, political-correctness, and edge to keep the audience captivated for what proved to be a marathon of an awards show. The Academy affirmed, though, as it so often does, that it has a knack for making the wrong choice - starting with Martin’s co-host, Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin and Martin had no chemistry on stage and their performance was exceedingly awkward at points. They did get the audience laughing, but it wasn’t nearly enough, to keep the audience interested for the show’s nearly four hour run-time. Every so often it would seem like the Academy reward us and Baldwin would disappear from the stage for a moment, only to return just in time to ruin another one of Steve Martin’s jokes.
The show was also riddled with technical errors. Strange, clunky noises in the background, stuttering by multiple award-presenters, and constant camera-transition mistakes all made the show nearly unbearable to watch on television. The show started with the usual fuss over the red-carpet as a rousing game of “my dress is more expensive than yours” and “my skin is more orange that yours” ensued. As if this wasn’t enough torture the show then attempted to parade the stars from Twilight, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, around the Kodak Theatre as much as possible.
The Academy was entirely too busy proving their ability to be wrong to put on a successful show. Among their errors, assuming that there were actually 10 films deserving of a Best Picture nomination, thinking that Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin would make good co-hosts, including an Edward Scissorhands clip in a video-montage of horror films, and, of course, presuming that Miley Cirus appeals to adult as well as pre-teen audiences. They were too busy screwing up, in fact, that they forgot one of the most captivating aspects of the Oscars – the full orchestra visible in the pit.
The night wasn’t without its highlights, though. Among them were a performance of the Beatle’s “In My Life” by James Taylor, a particularly endearing acceptance speech by Jeff Bridges winning Best Actor in his leading-role as Bad Blake in the film Crazyheart, and for the first time ever, a female recipient of Best Director. But these moments seem to get lost in the four-hour ceremony riddled with b-list celebrities and technical on-screen errors. All-in-all the Oscars left something to be desired this year as Hollywood’s “biggest night” became its “biggest mess.”