If you didn't know what movie was favored to win best picture this year, you might have ascertained it from the clip that led up to the award. It featured actor winner Colin Firth's halting war-time speech from "The King's Speech" as segments of all 10 nominated films played on the screen.
Director Steven Spielberg's introduction was both a pat on the back to the eventual winner and consolation to the so-called losers, noting that the likes of "Citizen Kane" and "Grapes of Wrath" didn't win in their years.
And the winner was "The King's Speech," of course, voted best picture by the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in a year when the 10-film field didn't have a weak one (as in no "Blind Side") in the bunch.
I wouldn't normally feel so strongly about a movie about British royalty, but this was not typical. The movie, about Britain's King George VI and his battle to overcome his stuttering to make an important war-time speech over the radio, was deserving.
Of course, so were "The Fighter," "The Social Network," "True Grit," "Toy Story 3," well, you get the idea.
While most the awards were pretty predictable, the fast just-over-three-hours run of tonight's broadcast wasn't. It was refreshingly short for this sort of thing.
"King's Speech" swept three of the biggest awards, including picture, director and actor. It won four in all, which tied it with "Inception," which won four tech awards, for the most.
"The Social Network" took three, with fellow best picture nominess "The Fighter" and "Toy Story 3" earning two each, as did "Alice in Wonderland."
"Black Swan" got one, while the other three best picture nominees — "True Grit," "Winter's Bone" and "127 Hours" — were shut out.
James Franco and Anne Hathaway proved likable hosts, though she showed more personality than he did. She should come back next year, but maybe with another co-host.
And for those keeping score at home, I expanded my Oscar predictions column this year to include two other voices — Charles Horak, artistic director of the Plaza Classic Film Festival and a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association; and Felipa Solis, the Times' movie columnist and a member of BFCA.
They didn't make predictions in all of the categories, citing the fact that they didn't see all the entries in some of them. Chuck made predictions in 2o of the 24 categories and got 12 of them right. Felipa made predictions in 21 of the 24 categories and got 11 of them right.
I made predictions in all 24 categories (silly me), preferring to go with my gut and a few hunches. I got 18 right, which tends to be a bit easier in those years when they are fairly predictable.
What do I win?
It sure is funny how the Oscars and Juanes are very popular in this city. i was looking at your blog and was noticing that you did not cover a concert that happened friday night here at the Don Haskins. It was the Rock and Worship Roadshow a Christian Concert that was not only free ($10 donation at the door) It was an awesome and very positive night. It not being covered by the media and newspaper just shows how people are here in El Paso. It was such a great event and very positive for our city. Was it not covered because it was a Christain event, how sad was that. There was no murders, or bad language or anything negative, that is what El Paso and the nation should be talking about, the good in this world. It was awesome to see all those people praising and worshiping the one that we should all have our minds on, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!!!!!
Posted by: Marita K. | February 28, 2011 at 02:48 PM
Marita: For the record, we featured MercyMe and Jars of Clay from the Rock & Worship Roadshow on the cover of the Feb. 25 Tiempo section, our entertainment tab, and that was posted on our web site. I did not review the show, but we did send a photographer to take some pictures, which ran in Saturday's paper and online.
I do not have any freelance reviewers to help me, as I have at every other paper where I've worked, and chose to review the George Jones concert that night instead. He's 79 and you don't know if he'll perform in El Paso again, so I wanted to cover it for that reason and the fact that he is a true living legend.
I blogged about the Oscars because I watch them every year and don't mind blogging them. This blog has good readership, so I thought I'd share my reactions to the awards as they progressed.
It was, as they say, the Christian thing to do.
Posted by: Doug Pullen | February 28, 2011 at 04:30 PM