The 73rd Annual Academy Awards Ceremony, which aired last Sunday night, provided its vast global television audience with an enchanting evening of entertainment and many memorable moments, but no clear big winner. The majority of the awards were split among three films: Gladiator, Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The night’s top honor, best picture, went to Gladiator, the Russell Crowe-led Roman epic. Gladiator’s win for best picture was especially noteworthy because the film became the first best picture winner in 51 years to win the award without also winning in a writing or directing category. Crowe himself came away with a best actor Oscar for his role in the film. Gladiator won five total awards, which included best costume design, best sound, and best visual effects.
Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, an intimate look at the war on drugs, also made a strong showing on Oscar night, coming away with four Academy Awards. Soderbergh won the award for best director, despite the fact that many felt his two nominations (for Traffic and Erin Brockovich) in the same category would split his chances of winning. Benicio Del Toro was named best supporting actor for his strong performance as Traffic’s conflicted Mexican police officer. Stephen Gaghan’s screenplay, adapted from the British television series of the same name, gave Traffic another major award. The film’s other victory was for best editing.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee’s beautiful epic that contained both romance and lightning-fast fight scenes, came away with four awards. As expected, Crouching Tiger won for best foreign language film. Peter Pau’s incredible camera work earned him the best cinematography award. Crouching Tiger’s also won for art direction and original score.
Julia Roberts provided the evening’s most memorable speech as she claimed her best actress Oscar for her tremendous performance in Erin Brockovich. “I have a television, so I’m going to spend some time here to tell you some things,” Roberts began, alluding to the Oscar producers’ ploy to award an expensive television to the winner whose speech was the most concise. Roberts displayed pure jubilation in accepting her award, occasionally pausing just to laugh and catch her breath. She also humorously reprimanded Academy Awards Music Director Bill Conti, who was quick to cut earlier winners’ speeches short by cuing up the exit music, by saying, “And sir, you’re doing a great job, but you’re so quick with that stick so why don’t you sit because I may never be here again.” Roberts’ speech was truly an unforgettable moment and a well-deserved honor for one of Hollywood’s biggest names.
In the evening’s biggest upset, Marcia Gay Harden won the award for best supporting actress for the little known film Pollock. Many observers thought the award would go to the talented Kate Hudson for her wonderful performance in Almost Famous. Almost Famous did win one award, though. Cameron Crowe came away with the Oscar for best original screenplay for his thoroughly heartfelt and humorous Almost Famous script.
Steve Martin served as the host for the ceremony. In his first performance as Academy Awards emcee, Martin sparkled. While he decided against borrowing longtime host Billy Crystal’s routine of spoofing all of the year’s best picture nominees in an opening skit, Martin was in top comedic form, with his quick one-liners and sarcastic look at various Hollywood personalities. By their frequent laugher, the audience seemed to enjoy Martin’s jokes immensely, with the notable exception of Russell Crowe. It looked as if Crowe took Martin’s light ribbing personally, giving a cold stare into the camera when Martin approached such topics as the alleged plot to kidnap Crowe. Martin also helped move the show along smoothly, bringing the ceremony under four hours, for the first time in years.
Overall, the 73rd Annual Academy Awards presented viewers with a thoroughly entertaining evening, despite the fact that no single film ran away with the lion’s share of the awards. The winners were gracious in victory; the production went smoothly, and Steve Martin excelled as host.