The Best Part about the Oscars is…

By Michelle Koyanagi


So, like some of the others in our class, I didn’t watch the Oscars this year—no surprise there. My excuse was, “I had no TV to watch it on.”

Anyway, the good thing about having this week’s blog topic be about the Oscars is, I won’t be out of the loop the next time someone brings up Slumdog Millionaire or Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, I have yet to watch either movie.

This week, I was busy sifting through Oscar blogs trying to find some commentary other than talk about the winners, the losers, the best dressed, the worst dressed…

It’s not that I find all that talk boring—I don’t. I like looking at the pictures and reading the bios about the nominees and winners.

I just wanted to find some commentary that would inform me about what the Oscars was really about—what was beneath all the superficial stuff—the stuff that really matters (the stuff people would be talking about in class next time).

Yeah, perhaps the musical numbers and all the glitz and glamour seemed out of touch with the rest of the country. Even though I really enjoyed the opening musical number and the musical medley (both of which I watched on Youtube), they did seem out of place—I didn’t see any big, musical movie up for an award this year.

One could argue that the gowns, the glittering chandelier, and the whole Broadway-feel of the show are what the Oscars are all about. It’s a fairytale-like, princess-like world—but I want to go further than that.

Because even in that world, one can still find heart and that is what gets some Oscar cynics interested in this glitzy production. I do think one of the reasons why those winners are required to give speeches after accepting their coveted award is so viewers who normally see them in film and TV roles can see them for who they truly are.

Sure, one could argue that those speeches are prepared, that the person about to win knows exactly what he or she is going to say and how to say it, but I for one am amazed when the camera zooms in and there is nothing but pure joy and speechlessness on their faces.

Everyone likes to be appreciated for their hard work.

I won’t go into detail. Most of us already know about the speech Heath Ledger’s family gave on behalf of his posthumous Oscar or the sincere words the actors gave each other.

Beneath everything that is "The Oscars," lies a carefully crafted production designed to bring out the “little moments.” And on top of all the talk about who wore and who won what, there still are those moments.

And in the end, that is what viewers will remember fondly about the Oscars.