Last year's Oscar ceremony - the 80th such affair - sported the lowest Nielsen ratings since Hollywood's "big night" was first televised on March 19, 1953. After the 1998 ceremony when "Titanic" propelled the numbers, viewership hit the decline.
The Academy decided to take drastic action and actually rethink the formula for the 2009 extravaganza that aired Feb. 22.
Changes began even as the stars arrived at the legendary red carpet. Meryl Streep, rather than taking a limo, showed up in a silver 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid.
As the show itself began, the most immediately noticeable difference was the distinctive change in the set design. Rather than the usual Broadway style theater setting, the new Oscars sported a neo-retro design with the band on the stage and the audience up front and personal. As host, Hugh Jackman told the press a few days before the show, "It's more like the nightclub of your dreams. It's very intimate."
And while we were spared the usual seemingly interminable big opening production number, Jackman, a talented singer and dancer, launched into what he called a homemade production number aimed at honoring the five films nominated for best picture. After five minutes, I was wondering if this year's show was just the same brummagem in a different package. The other wince-inducing number was the tribute to musicals, with Jackman joined by Beyonce (who was obviously lip syncing) and a full chorus.
There were genuinely funny moments throughout the evening, though. Tina Fey and Steve Martin had good chemistry. Natalie Portman was accompanied by Ben Stiller doing a send-up of Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre appearance on a recent David Letterman show. "You look like you work in a Hasidic meth lab," Portman quipped.
The funniest moment of the night - one of the funniest moments in Oscar history - was a short film from Judd Apatow starring the "Pineapple Express" team of James Franco and Seth Rogen. They're watching DVDs of recent films in their "Pineapple Express" stoner personae. They howl with laughter at scenes from "The Reader" and "Doubt," and wonder why "The Love Guru" wasn't nominated. Things get weird when a scene from "Milk" comes along. It's Franco kissing Sean Penn. Suddenly, they notice there's a film crew in the house, and they are joined on the couch by legendary cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. As the film ends, the trio takes the stage to present the award for short subject documentary.
The show's new producers, Laurence Mark and Bill Condon (the team behind "Dreamgirls"), came up with a few interesting ways of doing the Oscars presentation.
For the acting categories, five previous winners came on stage at once to introduce the nominees and hand out the awards. Actors and actresses from Robert DeNiro to Eva Marie Saint to Sophia Loren to Anthony Hopkins were among the four ensemble casts.
Another smart move was grouping like categories together and letting the same presenters do the honors. Art direction, costume design and make-up were grouped together, as were the musical categories, visual effects, sound editing and sound mixing and a few other similar categories.
There were several montages: romantic screen moments, action sequences, documentaries, the nominees in all of the acting categories - and, as always, a salute to those from the film community who passed away last year.
Jerry Lewis did a mercifully short acceptance speech when he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, but the shortest speech of the night came from the delightful (even with that crazy look in his eye) Philippe Petit, the high-wire walker and subject of "Man on Wire," this year's documentary winner. Petit said, "Yes!" and then made a coin disappear and balanced his Oscar on his chin.
The musical nominees also were shortened into one segment, with each song given one minute of airtime. This prompted nominee Peter Gabriel to boycott the event. His song didn't win anyway.
As always, there was a bit of politics thrown in. "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black gave an impassioned speech ending with "very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours." Sean Penn, who starred in the film, followed suit but first said hello to "all you homo-lovin' Commies."
There were a few upsets this year. In the foreign language film category, the race seemed to be between "Waltz with Bashir" and "The Class." Instead, the "Departures" from Japan took home the Oscar.
There was comeback buzz surrounding Mickey Rourke and his starring role in "The Wrestler." He'd already won at the Golden Globes, The Independent Spirit Awards, The Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and film critic societies in London, Toronto, Chicago, Boston and several other cities. He even tied with Sean Penn (as Harvey Milk) in San Francisco. But at Oscar time, it was Penn who got the statue.
Then there was the curious case of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." There was buzz galore and the film was nominated for 13 Oscars. It took home but three, and they were in technical categories.
Congratulations to Kate Winslet. At 33, she's the youngest actress to have been nominated six times already in her career. She finally won for her stunning turn in "The Reader."
And of course, the big winner was "Slumdog Millionaire," with a total of eight awards, including best picture, best director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing, sound mixing, score and song.
In a case of life imitating art, consider that Warner Bros., who owned the rights to the film, having shut down their Warner Independent Film division considered releasing "Slumdog" straight to the home video market, and Fox Searchlight Pictures stepped in. Eight Oscars and a pre-awards show gross of more than $93 million says every dog does indeed have its day.
Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.
