Oscar
Winner Russell Crowe and the
Oscars
Monthly
Entertainment Column
April 2002
 The 74th
Academy Awards are over. Congratulations
to all the winners! Congratulations
to Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford for their well-deserved Oscars.
(Read about one of Robert Redford's movies,
A River Runs Through It).
Best wishes for Russell
Crowe who hopefully will win another Oscar.
Crowe deserves it. His three,
consecutive Best Actor nominations are no accident.
We are fortunate to have him as an actor in our movies today.
Crowe has
proven his talent and so he deserves another Oscar.
The fact that Denzel
Washington won is what the Academy Awards is all about:
surprises.
If anyone should beat
out Crowe, I
clap for Denzel Washington. The
build-up to his award, with Sidney Poitier’s honorary Oscar, and Halley
Berry’s historic Oscar, makes the big statement of how the Academy is
not only for honoring individual talent, but is also for honoring the
history of filmmaking.
History this night
concentrates on breakthroughs in film, what Poitier, Berry, and Washington
represent: opportunities for
diversity. I respect this
part of the history of the Academy Awards.
However, more
breakthroughs can be made. Robert
Redford talked about this in his speech.
He challenged everyone in the industry to take risks.
He backs up his words with his creation and ongoing support for the
Sundance Film Festival which allows new, creative talent to display their
work. He is a visionary. Time will tell if his vision will become widely accepted.
It might take a hundred more years, but he will be seen as one of
the “grandfathers” who helped make diversity in movies,
mainstream.
So the evening had this
historic flavor and it’s an important statement.
Still, because I’m a
Russell fan, I wish for him another Oscar. At
least this is something for a movie-going fan to look forward to:
Crowe's
attempts at surpassing his previous work.
Should he succeed, he, more than ever, deserves to be with all the
actors who have been recognized twice by the Academy.
Brian Grazer, producer
for A Beautiful Mind, Best Picture winner, in his speech, looked at
Crowe and said that he and Ron Howard would not be standing up on
stage if it weren’t for Crowe and his contributions to A Beautiful Mind.
In response, Crowe touched his chest and gave Grazer a thumbs up.
This compensated some for Russell
Crowe not winning the Oscar.
Grazer also commented,
as he opened his sheet of paper for his speech, that he was nervous.
Then he commented something like, “Imagine me being nervous.”
This is humorous because here is a man, along with Howard, who can
afford to pay Crowe a reported 15 million dollars. And
this is only for the leading actor. It
does not include the many others who contribute to the completion of a
film.
So for powerful men
like Grazer and Howard, admitting nervousness when accepting an Oscar
proves again how the Oscar is a highly respected honor.
So even though we may
disagree with some of the Academy’s results, we can’t ignore the fact
that a statuette makes the powerful in the industry nervous.
Incredible Oscar winner, Russell
Crowe!
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