82nd Oscars: Cheers and Jeers

"The Movies are great medicine. Thank you Thomas Edison, for giving us the best years of our lives." - The Statler Brothers

A good movie can transport you to a colorful land somewhere over the rainbow, show you what it means to have true grit or take you into the final frontier of space. At the movies you can travel through time in a DeLorean, see pirate ships battle on the high seas or even visit a galaxy far, far away.

Whatever your taste, someone out there is making a movie just for you. For all of us there is that one, special movie or that single line of dialogue that we carry with us our whole lives, but it wasn't always that way.

When first introduced, people hardly took notice of motion pictures as they were more a science experiment in optics than an entertainment medium. The first known celluloid film ever recorded was a British piece called Roundhay Garden Scene, filmed in 1888 by inventor Louis Le Prince.

Shot at only 12 frames per second, the grainy movie lasted a mere two seconds but pioneered what would become one of the most lucrative industries of the 20^th Century. From silent features starring Douglas Fairbanks, to the first talkies, movies have a special place in the history of American culture.

Over the last century, movies have become an important part of our culture. Many lines from feature films have worked their way into our culture and language. Who can forget Sean Connery's first delivery of, "Bond, James Bond," or Roy Scheider's astonished look as he calmly noted, "We're gonna need a bigger boat." What about Clark Gable's straight-forward parting line to Scarlet O'Hara, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a," well, you know the rest of it.

This week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held the 82^nd annual Academy Award of Merit ceremonies to honor the industry's best works over the last year. Avatar director James Cameron waited patiently to see if the film would take home the Oscar for best picture and he could once again be "the king of the world." He didn't win, but his ex-wife did.

Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker nabbed the Oscar for best picture. Sandra Bullock's long overdue nomination and award for best actress over frontrunner Meryl Streep was a welcome surprise to Bullock and many of her fans.

Awards shows never fail to pat the backs of the uber-rich and limitedly talented as we regular folk watch them strut up and down the red carpet looking "fab." Oddly, these are generally the same people who spend their time complaining about how much gas your pickup trucks use, yet always show up in stretch limousines - and they certainly weren't hybrids. Sadly, for some at the show, the look was all they had to go on.

Hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were, for lack of a better word, boring. The production would have been much better if they had let Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris) host the rest of the show after his opening number. Fortunately substance won out over bad writing.

"The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant," by Yellow Springs film makers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert was nominated for best documentary short. The film did not win the Oscar but at least someone is benefiting from the collapse of the automotive industry.

Finally, there was a wonderful tribute to all those motion picture artists who had passed away over the last year. But, there was one major blunder in my opinion. Where was Farrah?

We lost many brilliant entertainers this year, but Farrah Fawcett was conspicuously missing from Oscar's "Death Roll." The homage did, however, include Michael Jackson, a move that appeared gratuitous and far more political than anything. The tragic death of the self-proclaimed King of Pop was unfortunate, but he had only two film credits - before his death - The Wiz, and a cameo in Men In Black II.

Fawcett had spent 30-plus years in television and film, earning Golden Globe and Spirit award nods, and should have been included in the tribute. Predictably, representatives of the Academy refuse to apologize for the omission, stating, "It is impossible to include everybody."

Ironically, the Academy was presenting the Oscar for best picture to the first female director ever nominated while ignoring the passing and achievements of one of the most famous women in entertainment history. Hooray for Hollywood.

Read more from columnist Gery L. Deer at www.gerydeer.com.