The Unusual Suspects
With apologies to the Bryan Singer-directed wonderful film The Usual Suspects..
Catherine (Cate) Blanchett won her first Oscar yesterday for her stunning portrayal of Katharine (Kate) Hepburn in the Martin Scorcese-directed bio-epic "The Aviator". Over the past couple years, I have been viewing many of Katharine Hepburn's movies, and when I saw Cate in that role in The Aviator, I couldn't help but be amazed at the portrayal. Granted, the face was just a tad off, but hey, the mannerisms, the speech style, the delivery, the diction...man (or in her case woman!) she walked the walk and talked the talk of being Hepburn. If you've not had a chance to view any Blanchett movies yet, I recommend you pick up a DVD of The Aviator (and while at it, also enjoy viewing the performance of Leonardo Di Caprio and Alec Baldwin), Elizabeth, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Also, if you missed it, Cate is Galadriel, the Lady of the Golden Wood, where the Fellowship finds refuge.
Morgan Freeman won his first Oscar (finally, it was about time!) for his portrayal of Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, a friend and janitor in the gym where the protagonist Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank in a Oscar-winning role) trains with Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood in a nominated turn). Eddie was once a boxer for Frankie, but suffered permanent eye-damage because of a delayed decision by Frankie. Having watched many of his movies and the earnest portrayal of his characters, it started to look like Morgan would be one of those that the Academy would forget to honor during the career but make-up for the mistake with a honorary or post-humous award.
Twice before, (for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Shawshank Redemption (1994)) his nominations for best actor were part of a rather heavy-weight nomination list, and he ended up losing out to Daniel-Day Lewis' celebral palsy affected Christy Brown of My Left Foot in 1989 and the Tom Hanks-classic The American Soul character Forrest Gump of Forrest Gump in 1994. And he was not nominated for the classic turn as Det. William Somerset in Se7en, not to mention Principal Joe Clark in "Lean On Me".
Though I was a tad disappointed for Johnny Depp not winning Best Actor for Finding Neverland, it is not like Jamie Foxx deserved it any less. Luckily for Freeman, and unluckily for Depp, the competition in the Best Actor category was as heavy-weight as heavyweights came.
7 comments:
dude, I felt sorry for Martin Scorcese.
You're right. Marty Scorcese has been shafted far worse. I just was too glad that Cate and Morgan finally won and hence this post.
I was also really sorry for Marty. The man is probably one of the last living Masters of Hollywood, and they keep giving him the short end of the stick.
I was happy Morgan Freeman won, I always admired his work and while I havent seen ANY of the Oscar pics this year, I am hoping to catch the Aviator soon.
Another recommended viewing - the best foreign language film winner -"The Sea Inside", a Spanish film. Also, "Sideways" and "Million Dollar Baby" in that order.
This year's Oscar was no surprise. Most of the awards were predicted by critics before hand.
The following article about this year's Oscars might interest you.
http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/feb/28raja.htm
Shadow,
Thanks for the comment.
As you say, the Oscars might have been predicted by the so-called experts. But that should not take away from any actors win.
And the Rediff opinion piece you suggested, is just that..a well written subjective opinion of the author. And the moment he whines about "the Academy holding out on India until our nominees confirm to tuxedos", he just loses it. Honest-to-goodness thank you's to the Gods that Raja Sen is not a voting member of Academy Awards. And its also amazing how he can praise and cheapen Cate Blanchett's win at the same time.
Here is a theory and suggestion to Raja Sen: if you feel the Oscars are a popularity contest, stop watching it. With the Internet being so widely available, and there being no dearth of DVDs and DVD players, we should be able to decide for ourselves what the better/worser movies are. Until then, enjoy the fact that, like it or not, Hollywood knows to party like no other place on earth. :)
Me..yet to see Aviator..lat minute we changed the plan and watched "Constantine" :(
Hi buddy...Daphlo Ramesh...hiiiiiiiiiii... Nice to meet u again!!!
How r u man...'ll come back see more dimensions :)
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