Volume CXXXIII, Number 19 March 29, 2002 f

An Oscars extravaganza
MONICA GUZMAN
COLUMNIST

All of Hollywood's cinematic turnout couldn't beat the drama of this year's Oscars. Stunning upsets, lengthy but touching tributes, and cultural breakthroughs made the 74th Annual Academy Awards one of the most memorable awards shows in recent history.

Even though Whoopi hosted and the whole thing was four and a half hours long, it was worth wading through the formal slush and prolonged accolades just to see Halle Berry, in that gorgeous dress of hers, make history as the first black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar. "This moment is so much bigger than me," she said (in an acceptance speech comparable in sheer cuteness to Julia Roberts's from last year), "it's for every nameless faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened."

The Oscars proved to be a cultural breakthrough in Hollywood. (Courtesy of washingtonpost.com)

If that weren't groundbreaking enough, Denzel Washington followed up by being only the second black actor to win Best Actor-and all this after Sidney Poitier, his Best Actor predecessor, got an honorary golden guy celebrating his stunning career. Previously, only 3% of acting awards had gone to people of color. Is Hollywood now color-blind? "I hope so," said Halle in a post-win interview. I'm sure we all do.

Speaking of colors, Russell Crowe turned a nasty shade of red after Denzel pulled that stunning upset. To be completely honest, despite the amazing night it helped create, Russell did deserve that award. His performance as John Nash demanded hard-core talent that far exceeded the strains of Denzel's role in Training Day. But hey-the guy just won last year. And Ron Howard got a very undeserved Best Director Oscar for directing him in A Beautiful Mind-clearly a consolation prize. Don't cry Russ. Go cut your hair and better luck next year.

Other surprises included Randy Newman finally getting his big break: after 16 musical Oscar nominations over the decades, he finally won for Best Original Song with "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.. "I don't want your pity," he said once up at the podium. Well, he got mine anyway. Go Randy.

The rest of the awards followed the Golden Globes example: Jennifer Connelly and Jim Broadbent took away the supporting awards, and, if you managed to stay up late enough, you saw A Beautiful Mind take home the last and greatest statue-Best Picture.

The unusual thing about these Oscars was that no one movie swept up all the awards. All the acting awards went to different movies, two of which weren't nominated for anything else. Despite Lord of the Rings's 13 nominations and A Beautiful Mind's eight nods, both came out even with only four total wins each.

This won't be known to future movie buffs as any single movie's year-but maybe they'll say it was Halle and Denzel's year; the year when Hollywood finally recognized that America has different kinds of people with enormous talent and their own stories to tell. The future seems more colorful in Hollywood since last Sunday-studios are realizing that because America isn't all white so neither should be its most popular art form. The doors have been opened. Let's see what comes through.