Awards Are Business as Usual Vote

Oscar night is when dreams die hard. Not only the dreams of the nominees who didn’t succeed, but also the dreams of those who allowed themselves to hope that the academy would truly open itself up to films that dared to depart from the norm. It was probably too much to hope that “Babe” would win best picture, but wouldn’t it have been swell, a vote for lightness and surprise in an increasingly ossified studio system, if it had happened?

Instead, in the single biggest surprise in an otherwise completely by the book evening, the big winner was “Braveheart,” perhaps the most business as usual choice among the nominees. That film’s five Oscars, including best picture, director and cinematography, remind us what we should have known in the first place, that the academy is finally committed heart and soul to doing what it’s always done. Despite a moving speech by Christopher Reeve about the times Hollywood “put social issues in front of box-office success,” this is very much the exception, not the rule.

One of the positive side-effects of “Braveheart’s” victory was Mel Gibson’s charming appearance at the podium. With very much the kind of self-effacing personality that characterizes Tom Hanks, he has just the type of public face the academy likes to present to the world, and it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of that as a factor in the final voting.

“Braveheart’s” triumph was more of a surprise than it might otherwise have been because earlier in the evening “Apollo 13” had taken home two trophies, for sound and editing, that “Braveheart” was also up for. But on the other hand, maybe the fact that one of the “Apollo” sound winners was wearing a kilt should have been a tip-off of things to come.

But before we allow ourselves to get too depressed about this year’s awards, maybe there’s another way to look at things. After all, “Babe” did win for best visual effects, besting “Apollo 13” in a head-to-head contest. And “The Postman (Il Postino)” took the Oscar for best original dramatic score, beating both “Braveheart” and “Apollo 13,” not to mention “Sense and Sensibility.”

And, in truth, though both best actor and best actress winners, Susan Sarandon and Nicolas Cage, are brand-name commodities, the films they won for, “Dead Man Walking” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” respectively, are departures from the norm, and justify Cage’s happy comment about “blurring the line between art and commerce.”

More than that, it should be said that the independents more than held their own this year. Gramercy walked off with two top awards for “The Usual Suspects,” best supporting actor for Kevin Spacey and best original screenplay for Christopher McQuarrie.

And Miramax, the mighty monarch of the indies, had four Oscars, including Mira Sorvino for “Mighty Aphrodite” and two awards for “Restoration,” best art direction and costume design, to go along with “Il Postino’s” victory. A good part of this success can be attributed to that company’s genius for promotion and showmanship: If the folks at Miramax know anything, they know how to sell. If something like “A Little Princess” had belonged to Miramax, it would be interesting to speculate how far the company could have run with it.

Given its lack of major surprises until the end, the Oscar evening was not a particularly exciting one, but between the bouts of boredom the show produced a surprising amount of tears.

Some of that came from family matters, with Paul Sorvino reduced to jelly by the thanks of daughter Mira, and the four Douglas boys, especially Michael, crying in pride at their indomitable father’s accomplishment.

Intimation of mortality were also cause for tears, not only in the Douglas tribute but in the appearance of a self-possessed and articulate Reeve, paralyzed from the neck down but with spirit intact.

Overall, the best acceptances were the ones where people got emotional instead of reciting the inevitable laundry list of names, like Spacey thanking his mom for “driving me to those acting classes on Ventura Boulevard” and Sorvino’s heartfelt thanks to her dad. Maybe, along with a time rule, the academy should think about limiting the number of people you can thank. It couldn’t hurt.

If one speech proved the most memorable, it was a brief one by Gerda Weissmann Klein, the subject of “One Survivor Remembers,” winner in the documentary short subject category.

Though the film’s director had taken up all the allotted time and the move-on music was playing, Klein refused to budge. After surviving years in concentration camps, she was not about to leave just because a music cue was playing. “For six years,” she said, “winning meant a crust of bread and to live another day.” After she was liberated, Klein said, she wondered “why am I here? I am no better.”

It’s a kind of perspective the Academy Awards rarely gets and is always in need of.