For most people, the 74th annual Academy Awards ceremony was just another drawn-out waste of time. Trust me when I say that I would rather sit through a lecture on the mating rituals of honey badgers than to watch the Academy Awards from beginning to end. There were two main reasons why I didn't want to watch the awards ceremony this year:
Reason No. 1: The long thank you speeches:
Why is it that whenever someone wins an award they feel it necessary to get up on stage and ramble on and on for five minutes? Even more irritating is watching someone say, "Oh I really didn't expect this at all," as they pull out a long list of people to thank. Maybe it was just me, but I enjoy speeches that are written on the way up to the stage than on a piece of paper.
Reason No. 2: The long boring telecast:
Four and a half hours, the longest running Academy Awards telecast in history. The Academy Awards takes home the award for most boring, unoriginal telecast. Even the performances for best original song are boring beyond belief.
If there were one reason for tuning in this year it would be to see if Halle Berry, Denzel Washington or Will Smith were going to be able to give a speech this year for winning an Oscar.
In the 22 years I've been alive, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cuba Gooding Jr. all walked away with Oscars for their roles in "Glory," "Ghost," and "Jerry Maguire" respectively. It's pathetic that in 22 years only three African-Americans have been honored with an Oscar. Some people would say that just having three black actors nominated is a big deal within the industry because it has only happened one time before, in 1972.
In 1972, three African-American actors were nominated for an Academy Award: Diana Ross for "Lady Sings the Blues," Cicely Tyson for "Sounder," and Paul Winfield for "Sounder." Never in the history of the Oscars were so many non-white actors nominated in the same year. A major breakthrough was happening for minorities in Hollywood.
Three decades later, it seemed that the promise of 1972 had not been fulfilled, until now.
The 10 nominees who were announced for best actor and actress for this year's Oscars included three black stars: Berry for "Monster's Ball," Washington for "Training Day," and Smith for "Ali." When I heard of the nominations I was excited to see three great performances by three great African-Americans actors. At the same time I didn't think there was any chance any one of them would actually take home a statue on Oscar night. Oscar history shows that the academy loves to nominate black actors but send them home empty handed.
Like a lot of other people, I thought Russell Crowe was going to walk away with best actor. Crowe did do a good job in "A Beautiful Mind," but the cop that everyone wanted to hate Washington played in "Training Day" was a performance that was so different from what people are used to seeing him play.
Washington should have at least two Oscars by now. He was amazing as the lead role in "Malcolm X." What I find so disappointing is that in 74 years of honoring actors and actresses only one African-American has been named best actor; Sidney Poitier for "Lilies of the Field" in 1963. Keep in mind that no actress had ever won for best actress until Berry won this year. It made me proud to see two African-Americans in the film industry being honored for their work. It leaves a better taste in my mouth to sit around and talk about why these two great African-American actors won than why they didn't win.
Seeing Berry and Washington receive top honors at the ceremony gave me new hope for the little kids who are dreaming of becoming actors and actresses one day. On Oscar night, a door was kicked open some people thought was locked a long time ago. The task now is to keep the door open for the future.
