Lord of the Rings: Return of the King has so far won Oscars for sound, makeup, costume design, art direction, and visual effects. And the Oscars are only partway over! Woohoo!
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Duh. Come into AIM chat, we're all watching and discussing.
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
The Lord of the Rings presents: The Academy Awards
Okay, for a while it was pretty cool. But nothing else was even allowed to compete. I'm surprised it didn't win Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary: Short Subject. If nothing else, they should have given up best song to A Mighty Wind. Into The West wasn't even the best of the trilogy's ending songs, but it was LOTR's year, so they had to win everything. I mean, I like LOTR, but this makes it look like Titanic II. Enough's enough already.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
A sweep -- shocking. Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
At least the bookies will be happy. All the favourites home and housed.
I knew it was unlikely, but I did really want to see Johnny Depp and Keisha Castle-Hughes win.
Oh well.
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
Sean Penn? NOOOOOO!! That was one of the hammiest performances I've ever seen in my life. "IS THAT MY DAUGHTER IN THERE!" Compared with the sublimely hilarious performance of Bill Murray, Johnny Depp (do I really need go on), and Ben Kingsley, who should win an award every time he walks on in a film. Even Jude Law is great. I didn't see that movie, but I've never seen him do a less than fantastic job in any film. They were all robbed. Sean Penn is a sucker. The Academy has pissed me off every year. I'm glad they didn't let me down this time.
Posted by Coccinelle (Member # 5832) on :
Yay! A clean sweep. Very good. *satisfied*
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Well I'm glad ROTK won Posted by dawnmaria (Member # 4142) on :
Is it just me or did Johnny look a little relieved that he didn't win? I was amazed he wore a regular outfit! He looks good in anything though! Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I think he and Bill Murray both looked rather glum, though Johnny did a good job of clapping anyway. I paused over Sean's acceptance speech because I was worried I might run out of tape.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
I loved the "You're boring!" song. I wanted that one to win the Oscar. It was better than the actual nominees.
Posted by Lalo (Member # 3772) on :
So am I the only one here who was disappointed by RotK? I hated the theatrical version of TTT, also -- while I'm sure I'll love the RotK:EE, just as I love TTT:EE, the theatrical version was just sequenced action coupled with the occasional misty remark from a random Elf or occasional outburst of wimpy angst from Frodo.
That said, I recognize they're awarding the three years' worth of excellence put out by Jackson, not just this year's sub-par (for Jackson) flick. Still, I hate watching people pretend the film's something it's not -- and won't be until November.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I absolutely adored ROTK, compared to liking FOTR and hating TTT. The strange part is TTT was by far my favorite of the books, and the only one I didn't have to struggle to get through. *shrugs* I think different things in the movies appealed to different people.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
quote:I loved the "You're boring!" song. I wanted that one to win the Oscar. It was better than the actual nominees.
I agree, but I was kind of embarassed for, apparently, the only guy who ran overtime tonight.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I applaud the Lord of the Rings' sweep. Sophia Coppola won one, I loved Charlize Theron's speech, and the performance of Kiss at the End of the Rainbow made my heart melt again. I need to rewatch A Mighty Wind. I missed that everyone was in Hatrack chat until the end. Sorry about the Best Actor award, everyone. I didn't vote for him.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
"Apparently there is no one in New Zealand left to thank."
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
There was only one guy at my friend's Oscar-watching gala, and he was subject to a litany of wardrobe observations and a estrogeny discussion of Sandra Bullock's hair. When he left, he thanked us for the sojourn in the inner sanctum.
I need to go home and read some Azimov to balance out my brain now, I think.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I think given that FOTR and TTT weren't seriously considered they previous years... Who did they lose to? Beautiful Mind and Chicago? Well, I'll look forward to watching it. There weren't any POTC jokes were there? (Oooops, I guess I am the first person to try to acronymize Passion of the Christ and come up with Pirates of the Carribean)
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
That was totally fun! I'm surprised at the sweep, but really glad at the director and best picture awards!! I wish Pirates had won something....coughbestactorcough....but alas. I'm glad Master and Commander won a couple though. That movie was wonderful.
But the sweep was nice. I loved RotK.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Doesn't anyone find it weird that ROTK won for best editing? I mean, I don't even usually think about things like that, but this was one film in which my enjoyment was severely diminished by the choppy editing...
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
They won best editing for being able to get it in under 3 1/2 hours.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
I thought the editing was fine. I would have liked some things to stay in there, but nothing in there would I want to be removed. And they had to fit it all into a movie - even the 3 1/2 hours was a stretch.
I was surprised that ROTK wasn't even nominated for cinematography. I guess they just didn't want any more records broken tonight.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Well, that is an acheivement, since the movie was actually supposed to last 5 hours. Still, like one oft-quoted critic said, the theatrical version was a very long trailer for the extended DVD edition.
Posted by thrak (Member # 5499) on :
I am not too happy with the sweep. RotK was a great movie, but I do not want it being compared to that horrible flick, Titantic. Argh.
As for the categories that I thought someone else should have won...
Best Song... either of the Alison Krauss songs from Cold Mountain. It is a crime that one of her songs didn't win. I will admit that I loved the preformance from A Mighty Wind and that would have been nice as well.
Best Editing... I think that RotK (Theatrical release), had several pacing issues. This award could have gone to Seabiscuit (which I loved) or perhaps Master and Commander which I hear is a great movie, but haven't seen yet.
Best Adapted Screenplay. I will admit that they did an incredible job with what they had to work with, but American Splendor was an inspired screenplay given the source.
If Best Actress can be given to someone because they look and act so differently than normal, why not give it to Depp for the same reason? I did think that Sean Penn deserved it this year, but for 21 Grams.
I would have loved to see the girl from Whale Rider win. Awesome performance. More believable than many of the best roles in many, many years.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Yeah, digging holes, I agree with you. The first time I saw it, it seemed really choppy and rushed. I think they should have swapped that award for the cinematography award to keep it at an even 11. Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
quote: I guess they just didn't want any more records broken tonight.
By the way, does Ben-Hur still hold the record for the most oscars? I'm not up-to-date on my Oscars Trivia...
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
After RotK was awarded Best Picture, someone said that it ties Titanic and Ben Hur for most awards.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
I thought the Bob Hope flashback was depressing. I kept thinking "Oh, so is that what the Awards were like back when the host was actually funny?" I hate Billy Crystal!
And I'm still a little peeved that Big Fish was only nominated for the best score, especially since I thought its score was relatively unimpressive.
[ March 01, 2004, 01:08 AM: Message edited by: Da_Goat ]
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
quote: After RotK was awarded Best Picture, someone said that it ties Titanic and Ben Hur for most awards
Wow, no movie has ever won more than 11 awards? I thought Ben-Hur won 14... i must be getting senile in my old age.
Posted by Beren One Hand (Member # 3403) on :
Bill Murray was robbed.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ties Ben Hur and Titanic for most Oscar awards, with 11. But LOR:RTOK set a record for being the first fantasy film to win Best Picture award, and I think it is the only movie to have won all the categories in which it was nominated. I'd have to check, but there may have been one or two categories where Ben Hur and Titanic were nominated but didn't win.
Despite all the awards, LOR:RTOK did not win best actor or best actress awards, nor best supporting actor or actress awards. Usually when a movie wins best picture and best director and picks up a lot of other awards, you expect to see at least some actor or actress awards too. But LOR is really not focused on one character like most movies are. The only ones that come close to being central characters are Frodo and Aragorn. Elijah Woods may still be considered too young to take the award away from older actors, and Vigo Mortenson did not really give that wide a display of character range, though what he did was good enough for the movie. And perhaps when it comes to evaluating the character portrayal by an actor or actress, most people in the Academy still find it easier to relate to and appreciate characterizations done in conventional stories drawn from real life, as opposed to fantasy stories.
Perhaps if Peter Jackson had used some big name stars, the movie might have brought in up to 15 awards. But you can't get big stars to commit five or six years of their lives to one movie project, even if you could afford them.
I think the most deserved award of all, besides best picture, was best director. And that is not just because of the quality of Jackson's cinematic conceptions. I still am amazed that Jackson was able to raise $300 million dollars to get these three movies produced, when no one before has been able to do justice to LOR, and he was not that well known a producer. No one could know in advance that the movies would make billions. Of course, after the success of the first movie, it was easier to get additional financing for the next two. But from the start, Jackson committed to shooting a three-movie series, and the first movie took a huge advance investment by someone.
I sure wish I could have invested in it! I wonder how much return on the investment investors received. They put up $300 million, and when all the money is counted, it will probably eventually come close to bringing in three billion dollars. So that would be a 10 to 1 return. Of course, other expenses have to be taken out, royalties have to be paid, etc. But still, even a 5 to 1 return would beat almost any investment on Wall Street. I'm glad that those who took this risk are being rewarded so well.
The Lord of the Rings was the literary work of a generation. My boomer generation celebrated LOR when we were going to college, and it is as much "our" fantasy epic literature as the music of the Beatles was "our" music.
Perhaps, in fact, that is why LOR:RTOK could finally be the first fantasy movie to win the Oscar for best picture--the boomer generation, to whom LOR most closely belongs, is the one now in positions of leadership in the country, and that includes the Academy. This is the best loved fantasy story of all to us.
I was amused when one of the people who won an award--I think it was for best foreign film--said, "We're glad that Lord of the Rings didn't qualify for this category!" That brought general laughter. By that time, of course, it was already apparent that a sweep for LOR:RTOK was shaping up.
Although technically, isn't New Zealand a foreign country? Should have qualified, even if they do speak English. And the movie does feature a foreign language--Elvish.
[ March 01, 2004, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
The category was "Best Foreign- Language Film", not best foreign film. If more of the movie had been done in elven, maybe we could have had one more. Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Ron Lambert:
quote: Despite all the awards, LOR:RTOK did not win best actor or best actress awards, nor best supporting actor or actress awards. [...]But LOR is really not focused on one character like most movies are.
I agree. Still, it would have been nice to see Ian McKellan get one. And Sean Astin should at least have been nominated for his role as Sam in ROTK.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
I agree, digging_holes. I would have liked to have seen Sean Astin get best supporting actor award. After all--speaking of supporting actor--he did pick up and carry Elijah Woods over his back the last few hundred feet up to the Crack of Doom.
But seriously, when Astin was portraying Sam after he had been dismissed by Frodo and told to go back down, you could feel from Astin's performance how shattered Sam felt to be doubted and rejected by Frodo, to whom he had been nothing but a faithful friend. And then to rise above that and realize Frodo needed his help, and go back up again after him--Astin performed that well. It convinced me that Sam is the real hero of the movie.
[ March 01, 2004, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posted by butterfly (Member # 5898) on :
Gigi and The Last Emperor also swept all the categories they were nominated in, 9 for 9.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
But this was 11 for 11. And it was the first fantasy film ever so honored.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
quote: It convinced me that Sam is the real hero of the movie.
Me too. You know, I've read lots of things by lots of different people saying how they felt that Sam was the real hero of LOTR. I've read the books five times, but it really only clicked for me when I saw the movie (largely thanks to Astin's incredible performance). As soon as I finish reading Maps in a Mirror, I'll have to give LOTR another read.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
OK, I just checked. Ben-Hur won 11 Oscars, but was nominated for 12, so failed to win all the categories for which it was nominated. Titanic won 11 Oscars, but had 14 nominations, so it also failed to win all the categories for which it was nominated.
So they're probably calling the LOR:RTOK sweep a record because it was a sweep as well as tying for the most Oscars won. That is in addition, as previously noted, to being the first fantasy movie honored as best picture.
Of course, winning 11 Oscars and having one or three additional nominations is actually even more of an honor that just winning 11 Oscars.
Ben-Hur I think deserves to be honored as the greatest movie of all time, but I don't think Titanic belongs in the same class. Yet it had more nominations than Ben-Hur. That wasn't right. It looks like Titanic is the most honored movie of all time, and it was far from the best. I think that Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments should be 1 and 2 on the all-time best list. They are on mine, anyway. LOR:ROTK might be number 3, and then the first two LOR movies are pretty much tied for number 4, in my mind.
[ March 01, 2004, 01:46 PM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
I think Titanic will be remembered as an eternal embarassment to the Academy. It definitely did not deserve to win anywhere near 11 oscars.
But that's just my own humble opinion. I have no problem with people who actually liked the movie. I just didn't.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
quote: I think that Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments should be 1 and 2 on the all-time best list. They are on mine, anyway. LOR:ROTK might be number 3, and then the first two LOR movies are pretty much tied for number 4, in my mind.
I agree with 1 and 2. Both movies had a huge effect on me and I must have watched them a zillion times as a kid (though I think Charlton Heston is a somewhat wooden actor). As for LOTR, I would rather look at it in terms of the entire trilogy, instead of as seperate movies. Because ROTK is, in my opinion, the worst of the 3. However, if you see it as a 9-hour movie (11 or 12 if you consider the Extended Editions), it's a monumental achievement.
I like to think that all the Oscars that ROTK won were in fact awarded to the trilogy as a whole. In which case, it should have got more.
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