Throughout the nineties it appeared that the Oscars were doing their best to wind serious film fans up. For the most part the big but souless productions triumphed over the smaller, layered dramas.
Dances with Wolves, Forrest Gump, The English Patient and
Titanic beat out the superior likes of
Goodfellas,
Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, and
LA Confidential. And then the following year
Shakespeare in Love, which had BBC tv drama written all over it somehow beat out not only
Saving Private Ryan but also Terrence Malick's
The Thin Red Line and the similar but dramatically superior
Elizabeth. It was with some relief then that the 2000 ceremony finally saw the small film triumph...
Sam Mendes' debut picture
American Beauty walked away with the top prize. Although not withouts its flaws, it was a relief to see an intelligent, thought provoking and well written drama achieve such important critical success. Not that the result was ever in any real doubt however. The film prevailed at the Golden Globes, the Baftas, The Chicago Film Critics Associaton Award and The National Board Review and it seemed a foregone conclusion that the Academy Award for Best Picture would be added to its trophy cabinet. Although the film faced tough competition from;
Michael Mann's propaganda picture
The Insider,
M.N. Shyamalan's chilling horror phenonemon
The Sixth Sense,
Frank Darabont's over the top but powerful prison drama
The Green Mile and
Lasse Hallstrom's film
The Cider House Rules, but no-one in attendance seemed surprised when
Clint Eastwood opened up the envelope and announced American Beauty as the winner. Although the five nominations for Best Picture all packed a punch some glaring ommisions were evident.
Spike Jonze had to be content for a Best Director nomination for his brilliant handling of
Charlie Kauffman's genius screenplay for
Being John Malkovich which definitely deserved a nomination for the top prize. Superb films such as
The Talented Mr Ripley, Election and
The Matrix would have also been in my shortlist of contenders.
Sam Mendes followed in the footsteps of
Delbert Mann (Marty),
Jerome Robbins (West Side Story),
Robert Redford (Ordinary People) and
Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves) to become only the fifth filmmaker to win Best Director for his debut film. Without doubt the most famous director to lose out for their debut film is of course
Orson Welles for
Citizen Kane. This is probably one of the Academy's deepest regrets.
In the Leading Actor category no-one was overly surprised to see
Kevin Spacey pick up his second win for his second nomination as Lester Burnham. In fact perhaps the only surprising thing is that he was only nominated twice in this decade given his equally striking performances in films such as
Swimming with Sharks, Se7en and
LA Confidential. Spacey prevailed in a tough category which also featured
Denzel Washington's stunning turn as Ruben Hurricane Carter and
Russell Crowe's engaging performance in The Insider. Somewhat intriguingly both Crowe and Washington would be the next two men to be honoured with the leading actor prize.
Other nominees for this prize included seventy nine year old
Richard Farnsworth in
David Lynch's The Straight Story and
Sean Penn as jazz guitarist Emmet Ray in
Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. There were two fine lead performances which failed to receive a nomination.
Jim Carrey as surreal, cult sensation comedian Andy Kauffman in
Man on the Moon and
Matt Damon's excellent, multi-layered performance in The Talented Mr Ripley.
There was a shock winner in the Leading Actress category as newcomer
Hillary Swank triumphed for her emotionally wrought and emphatic performance in the film
Boy's Don't Cry. Although no-one could deny the power of Swank's performance, American Beauty's
Annette Benning was considered the favourite for the prize for her hilariously tragic portrayal of a frustrated real estate agent wife. Despite winning the Screen Actors Guild Award prior to the ceremony, Swank was such an unknown (it is rumoured that she was paid a measly $3,000, for her role) that it just didn't seem likely that she could prevail on such a grand and illustrious stage. Had Benning won the award, American Beauty would have equalled the accomplishments of
Silence of the Lambs, It Happened One Night and
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as the only movies to have swept the board with the big five wins of Picture, Director, Leading Actor, Actress and Screenplay (either original or adapted.)
Other nominess for the leading actress category included
Meryl Streep's twelfth nomination (she now has a staggering sixteen!) in
Wes Craven's Music of the Heart, British actress
Janet Mcteer for
Tumbleweeds and
Julianne Moore's second nomination for
The End of the Affair. Omissions included
Reese Witherspoon's superb portrayal of high school overachiever Tracy Flick in Election and
Nicole Kidman's fine display in
Stanley Kubrick's otherwise disappointingly indulgent
Eyes Wide Shut. It is interesting to note that Nicole was completely ignored by the Academy during her marriage with
Tom Cruise.
Best Supporting Actor was an intensely tough category and I fear that the wrong man walked away with the prize. I have never held
Michael Caine in high esteem as an actor struggling to get past his monotonous, bland delivery and the fact that he just appears to be the same man in practically every one of his films. Nonetheless the Academy were enamored with his performance in The Cider House Rules and gifted the man his second Oscar in spite of great competition from the likes of
Tom Cruise in
Magnolia,
Michael Clarke Duncan in
The Green Mile,
Jude Law in
The Talented Mr Ripley and eleven year old
Haley Joel Osment's convincing turn in
The Sixth Sense.
2000 marks the last time that Cruise was nominated for an Oscar and in my opinion he deserved the prize in this year for his egomanical yet emotionally fragile performance as sex guru/promoter Frank Mackey. Best Supporting Actress saw five first time nominees competing for the prize and it was
Angelina Jolie who came out on top for her rebellious role as disturbed mental patient in
Girl, Interrupted.
Other nominees included
Toni Collette playing the mother of a troubled child in The Sixth Sense,
Catherine Keener as quirky, office co-worker in
Being John Malkovich, talented character actress
Samantha Morton for her performance as a mute laundress in Sweet and Lowdown and
Chloe Sevigny as Swank's teenage transvestite partner in Boy's Don't Cry.
Alan Ball picked up the original screenplay Oscar for American Beauty (a script which he had initially written as a stage play) and
John Irving won Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. As per usual a thrilling and unique sci-fi/action film was left to sweep up the technical awards as
The Matrix deservedly won all four of its nominations for Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects and Visual Effects.