10 Years Ago Right About This Very Second...
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 11:00PM ... Oscar night was wrapping up for the films of 2000. The lady whose smile devoured the world was loving her life.
Did you watch on that night? Were you into the Oscars yet? How is that particular race holding up for you.? It broke down like so among the "Big 8"
- Picture: Gladiator
- Director: Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
- Actress: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich
- Actor: Russell Crowe, Gladiator
- Supporting Actress: Marcia Gay Harden, Pollock
- Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, Traffic
- Original Screenplay: Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous
- Adapted Screenplay: Stephen Gaghan, Traffic
It was a spread the wealth night. Honestly, I'd forgotten that Almost Famous won Original Screenplay since it missed the Best Picture slot that many expected it to nab. You can blame the Weinsteins and the late entry Chocolat for that, I suppose. The other wins I remembered. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon won 4 Oscars but I still think it got the shaft (among their nominees) and should've taken Best Picture with ease. And I still maintain that Erin Brockovich was the keeper from Soderbergh's double dip.
And remember this? Winona Ryder sure loved musicians back in the day (in more than one way).
Thoughts? Jump back a decade, won't'cha.
Björk, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, Julia Roberts, Oscars (00s), Winona Ryder
Reader Comments (40)
The first Oscar telecast I ever watched.
I was only 9, I didn't even know what the Oscars were...but I've done my research. That Marcia Gay Harden win, y'all....who would've won had she not snuck in? Kate Hudson, right?
I was 7... Totally did not watch this telecast. Hadn't seen those films until years later (when I was age appropriate)
the exact moment i really started to dislike julia roberts (the obnoxious "stick man" comment, beating the lovely laura linney - boo)
gladiator - what a terrible choice for a year full of great films (virgin suicides, you can count on me, requiem for a dream, wonder boys, best in show, billy elliot, chuck and buck)
This Oscars was when I first started reading TheFilmExperience (I started obsessing roughly 3 months later when it briefly became TheMoulinRougeExperience). I maintain that Almost Famous is one of the best movies of the last decade, and truly feel that Marcia Gay Harden stole Kate Hudson's Oscar. For serious.
Julia's win? Perfect. As is Erin Brockovich. Which would've been my vote of the 5 nominated that year. Cannot. believe. this was 10 years ago.
Has Winona Ryder (or Bjork, for that matter) aged at all in the ten years since this? Jesus.
I remember this race so well... Wow has it really been 10 years? As much as I like Roberts, and the fact I was completely traumatized by "Requiem for a Dream" ( like, seriously couldn't speak for an hour and vowed never to watch that movie again) - I thought Ellen Burstein was ROBBED. I was so upset.
Requiem for a Dream. Dancer in the Dark. What a great year!
Older character actress loses to Julia Roberts, an Oscar history first. Seriously, she lost two straight times in a row to an unknown, heavy-set, Irish, character actresses, with Anjelica Huston on the side as a co-loser -- Brenda Fricker (1989) <B>Supporting(Steal Magnolias), Kathy Bates (1990) Best Actress(Pretty Woman) -- it was her turn for the best of her three nominated performances -- Julia Roberts ushers in the 2000s! Go Julia!
Older character actress loses to Julia Roberts, an Oscar history first. Seriously, she lost two straight times in a row to an unknown, heavy-set, Irish, character actresses, with Anjelica Huston on the side as a co-loser -- Brenda Fricker (1989) Supporting(Steal Magnolias), Kathy Bates (1990) Best Actress(Pretty Woman) -- it was her turn for the best of her three nominated performances -- Julia Roberts ushers in the 2000s! Go Julia!
I feel as though Bjork should have been nominated for every original song slot that year. And won best actress. And smiled contentedly as Catherine Deneuve took supporting actress and von Trier took best director.
Hey, I defend Gladiator. I remember watching it in the theaters as a little kid (having big brothers is a plus sometimes) and 11 years later it's still watchable as hell. And admit it, you've all quoted Maximus at one time or another (or....not. maybe it was just my family). I'm glad it won.
I think this was like the first year I started becoming aware of the Oscars....
OMG, I was a junior in high school! I remember getting so annoyed at the predictability of Julia's win. Even my friend who didn't follow the Oscars, let alone see "Erin Brockivich", told me "..of course she's going to win! She's Julia Roberts!". I've let this one go. It's Julia's best. Wish that "Dancer in the Dark" won more accolades that year.
Oh God! You are all so young!
I was rooting for Traffic mainly because Gladiator and Tiger/Dragon bored me to death...
Bjork should have been at least a contender and Bardem's performance was the best of ALL the nominees (thanks Winona!).
I feel 2000 is remembered best with oscar bloggers for marcia's win which was like the 1996 binoche win moverall bacall the fave once i saw her in the film i knew why she won plus the field was v v weak no room for connelly,may or zeta jones ,this is also the point i think the whole world fell out of love with julia something that will be remedied i think with larry crowne.
I became aware of the Oscars in 1991 and I started watching in 1996 (though not always live, the broadcast starts at 2:30 AM in Norway...).
Traffic was such a mixed bag, I thought the Benicio del Toro-bit was brilliant whereas the Michael Douglas-bit was rather weak. Erin Brockovich was evenly good, but I hardly remember it as a film, only as a performance. I agree with the Gladiator-win out of the five nominees, but Requiem for a Dream is possibly my favourite film of that year. On that note: Jennifer Connelly or Ellen Burstyn for Supporting Actress.
Oh, and Björk! Love the song, LOVE the dress! :)
I am perfectly happy with Julia winning because her performance was fantastic in a very Hollywood-ish way. It's the crowning achievement of megastar, like Crawford in Mildred Pierce, os Foster in The Silence of The Lambs. Unbeatable. It helps that the only performance equally deserving was given by a forst-time nominee, Laura Linney. I don't like Burstyn histrionics here, and I totally despise Requiem for a Dream.
My votes:
Picture, Director, Screenplay, Foreign, Art Direction, Costume Design, Editing: Crouching Tiger
Actor, Before Night Falls (wow, he was best the best everytime he was nominated!)
Actress, Erin Brockovich
Supporting Actor, The Contender
Supporting Actress (Hudson), Screenplay, Almost Famous (can't vote for Harden here. It's LEAD, LEAD LEAD)
Score, Malena
Sound Mixing, Cinematography, The Patriot (Morricone and Deschanel are not Oscar winners, can you believe that?)
Sound Editing, Space Cowboys
Make-up, The Cell
Visual Effects, The Hollow Man (go Verhoeven! this movis is SO good)
That year had great nominees, but I ended up really sad about the wins, for the most part. Bjork should have at least won best song. She was robbed by a half effort from Bob Dylan (and I love Bob Dylan).
Watched it in my college dorm room-sophomore year with my fellow film fanatic friend. I remember being annoyed all season that Roberts was taking the steam from Burstyn and Linney (who I still can't choose between). Looking back now, I really don't begrudge Roberts her Oscar. Also, while I don't remember Gay Harden's performance that well, at least it made for a surprise on Oscar night. If Kate Hudson had won I think she would have felt a ton of backlash.
As to Gladiator and Crowe.....bleh. At least Soderbergh won. I do still think Traffic was the right movie to win for. Crouching Tiger should definitely have dominated in 2000-what a gorgeous, original movie. Almost Famous has not held up all that well.
I think 2000 was a terrific year for movies, the Academy just didn't do a great job recognizing the right ones.
My votes:
Pic-Crouching Tiger
Actor-Javier Bardem
Actress-Ellen Burstyn (or Linney?)
S. Actor-Del Toro
S. Actress-McDormand?? (really weak year for this category)
Director-Lee
Speaking of Winona Ryder-related things, how 'bout taking some Swan inpiration from Bjork for that midnight movie event?
Kurtis --ooooh. Björk/Black Swan fusion. I like.
All I remember is being shocked that Dancer in the Dark wasn't nominated for Original Score and a second slot in Original Song (really, pick any other song in that film and it would be a worthy nominee). I wasn't surprised, however, that "I've Seen It All" lost. It's just a bit too mellow for this category, especially in the context of the film with the repetitive imagery.
2000 was a good year... Not great, not bad, just good.
I really HATED Gladiator, I would honestly prefered Chocolate... c'mon guys, it's not that bad!
I liked that Julia Roberts and Del Toro won, but hated the Oscar for Crowe and Gay Harden (one of the most clear category fraud EVER). My choices for these Oscars would be Ed Harris and Julie Walters.
I had been watching the shows since Silence of the Lambs swept.
The Oscar telecast that year was a decent one, to say the least. Traffic, a film I did enjoy and thought the best of the Best Picture nominees looked ready to clench the Picture prize once Soderbergh surprised everyone (including Globe and DGA winner Ang Lee) to win Best Director, only to see Gladiator (the perceived front-runner and nomination tally leader) eventually claim the prize. I didn't see the Marcia Gay Harden win coming (was in the Kate Hudson corner; looking back it was a fool's hope), nor the Russell Crowe win (undeserved given the competition). Somehow the nominees and the eventual winners had a aire of freshness (save Chocolat, which smelled less so) and I look back at that year with some nostalgia, when the winners sprawled from somewhat decent to well deserved. Case in point: my favorite film of the year Almost Famous being honored somewhere in the top 8 with Cameron Crowe's win, then Steven Soderbergh's shocker of an Oscar win.
That was the year before everything seemed to go downhill with the forehead-smacking Best Picture choice of A Beautiful Mind over the likes of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Good times...
Back then, just based on the strength of the clips they showed, I was disappointed that Ellen Burstyn didn't win as well as Ed Harris. But seeing BEFORE NIGHT FALLS has changed my mind about that particular race. Personal: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee, Burstyn, Javier Bardem, Frances McDormand, Willem Dafoe, "You Can Count On Me" and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" should've won the top 8 awards imho.
Some people who I felt deserved to be nominated that year: Michelle Yeoh & Zhang Ziyi "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Jared Leto & Jennifer Connelly "Requiem for a Dream", Bjork & Siobhan Fallon Hogan "Dancer in the Dark", Christian Bale "American Psycho", Renee Zellweger "Nurse Betty", Kirsten Dunst "The Virgin Suicides" AND Billy Crudup "Almost Famous". Also where the hell were DANCER IN THE DARK or AMERICAN PSYCHO's screenplay nominations?
Ten years have passed and I STILL don't know how on Earth they didn't nominate Björk, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Bale, Gael García Bernal, Catherine Deneuve and Guy Pearce but they still decided to hand out horrid nominations to Juliette Binoche, Tom Hanks, Geoffrey Rush, Willem Dafoe and Judy Dench. Seriously, it's beyond me.
At least they got Joan Allen, Ellen Burstyn, Laura Linney and Javier Bardem right.
About the cerimony itself, it was always going to be Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe (and I thank the Academy deeply for giving him the win in 2000, because if he won for 'A Beautiful Mind' I think I'd lose it - thus allowing them to reward Denzel Washington). Marcia Gay Harden was a lovely surprise and I am still surprised that in 10 years' time they would prove to be right: that was THE one role for Kate Hudson; she never performed convincingly again. And I love Del Toro's win.
If I was picking, I'd give my awards to Kate Hudson, Laura Linney, Javier Bardem and Albert Finney or Benicio Del Toro. Without it being from the nominees, Ruffalo and Bale would take the actor spots.
I didn't watch, but lord knows I'm still happy about Julia's win. One of the most deserving of the decade, and still my favourite Soderbergh film. To this day, I'll never understand the backlash against her performance.
When I saw that Julia Roberts won the oscar I thought the same that Bjork: "I've seen it all, there is not more to see", but now I know that I was wrong, Sandra Bullock has won too :D
Dancer in the dark is one the best and hardest film I have seen, and Bjork perfomance is more than perfect.
I was 13 when it aired. I watched some of the show, but I missed a lot of it. I remember being disappointed when Julie Walters didn't win Best Supporting Actress for Billy Elliot. I still think that she should have won instead of Marcia Gay Harden. I also don't think Gladiator should have won Best Picture. There were so many other better movies out that year. I saw Bjork's performance of "I've Seen It All" on YouTube last year and I was completely blown away. I hadn't heard the song before and I thought it was amazing. I think that Bjork definitely should have won instead of Bob Dylan.
2000 was a fun ceremony (Steve Martin is so much funnier hosting than acting). I had hated Gladiator when it came out, but by the time the Oscars rolled round I was rooting for it to win. And 10 years on? I still think it should have won. (I haven't seen Chocolat, but I doubt it's better than Gladiator!) Crouching Tiger, Erin Brockovich, Traffic - all have virtues, but Gladiator (a flawed film, for sure) is the best.
But only the best of the nominees. Dancer in the Dark, The House of Mirth and Wonder Boys were all better and should have been nominated (with Gladiator and Traffic, I guess).
But seriously, has any film proved more influential than Gladiator in the past 10-and-a-bit years? I mean, that film single-handedly reignited a whole genre, ushering in Troy, Rome, Alexander, Kingdom of Heaven (oops), 300, The Eagle...as well as advancing the general art of the CGI-assisted epic. And it's still damn watchable. That music! Those helmets!
I was happy, too, with Russell Crowe's win, though Javier Bardem should have won (no, Michael Douglas should have won!).
And it was a year in which there was three-way suspense over what would win Best Picture right up until the envelope was opened. We don't get that very often!
Oh, just to add: Soderbergh's speech was the best Oscar speech I've heard in years. So generous and inspirational. I'll never forget it.
Miguel -- yeah, Oscar loves their romcom queens gone serious. This is why Jennifer Aniston and Kate Hudson and the like are far more likely future Oscar winners than people like Julianne Moore and Annette Bening. Sad but true. That's how it shakes out.
that said i LOVE that Julia Roberts performance. Not my favorite of the nominees but certainly one of the very best performances to win Best Actress in the past 20 years.
How Requiem for a Dream didn't get any other nominations is perplexing enough, but Ellen Burstyn NOT winning Best Actress? One of the biggest travesties in the history of Awards giving.
Julia Roberts will always be the runner up in that category of that year for me, personally. She was excellent, but Burstyn gave one of the best performances ever put on screen and the fact that she wasn't rewarded for her extraordinary efforts is crraazzzaaaayyyyyy!
I loved that Angelina Jolie reaction shot at the end. Bjork is such a bad ass. It bothers me that the only thing people remember from her Oscar experience in 2000 is the swan dress. Most people don't even know why she was at the Oscars that year!
That night became a genuinely thrilling race as the awards were doled out. By the time we got to Best Picture, each of the three films thought to be in contention had won 4 awards: Gladiator (Actor, Costume, Sound and Visual Effects), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Foreign Film, Score, Art Direction, and Cinematography) and Traffic (Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor and Editing). Furthermore, with Traffic going 4 for 4 (and Soderbergh's surprise victory) it seemed like it might be able to pull off a clean sweep and win the big prize. That Gladiator ultimately prevailed was disappointing, but it didn't change the fact that the race was SO CLOSE literally right until the last envelope was opened.
Oh if only we'd get another race like that!
Julia's win is one of my all-time Oscar favorites. One of the best acceptance speeches too.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was robbed for BP.
I was fine with Soderbergh's win.
The less said about "Gladiator," the better.
First and foremost, I remember the show being incredibly tight and well-timed. Martin was quite funny playing on Russell Crowe's brittleness and Julia's star power with nice aplomb.
In terms of winners...At the time I was certainly shocked at Kate Hudson's loss, but looking back I actually like McDormand more and think she was more robbed (although Harden is quite good).
To me Crowe won as a makeup for the loss for The Insider, a far braver and more nuanced performance to me. I quite like Hanks's performance then and now (although having recently seen Before Night Falls, Bardem just continues to astonish me. Michael Douglas was also robbed of a nod for a career-best performance in "Wonder Boys")
I think Julia's win still holds up pretty damn well despite how good Laura Linney is.
It's weird to look and see that Traffic won director, screenplay, and editing, yet failed to win picture. I was hoping for a similar thing to happen with The Social Network this year.
Crouching Tiger should have won in a walk though. Lee's direction is especially wonderful. I just remember predicting that year (granted, I was 14), but in most of the techs it was between Crouching Tiger and Gladiator, and they split them pretty evenly. Gladiator's actually not as bad as it's presumed to be though, Chocolat is a far less defendable nod where Almost Famous or You Can Count on Me would have been far more inspired choices.
Oh and how wonderful would a nomination for the subtle beauty that was Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon have been? Rarely is a performance with equal parts ass-kicking badassness with such delicate beauty and solitude ever nominated, and despite Juliette Binoche's general loveliness in every else she's ever done, Chocolat is certainly not it.
First Oscars I ever watched, I think the whole of NZ was hoping Crowe would win, but these days I feel that Bardem was the best. Roberts was great but Burstyn should've won that. Or the un-nominated Bjork. I'll bet the Academy look abck and think "thank god we didn't give it to KAte Hudson" with the way her career has gone. I haven't seen Harden, but Hudson was damn good.Pity. Can't believe Gladiator won, and even though I loved Chocolat, It baffles me that it was nominated, its such a guilty pleasure.
What a blast from the past? i still remember this telecast like it was yesterday.
Who can forget Julia's speech? her hyper, too happy but memorable speech?
That dress?
and she was dating Benjamin Bratt at the time.
Yes, time flies.
And as for the winners that year. Erin B, Traffic and Gladiator? I love them all, good films.
Can't say i was unhappy with any of the winners that year.
OH Bjork. Remember she hit all the worst dressed that year?
good times. good flashback there.
Jazz