HURT LOCKER’S HISTORIC NIGHT

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards took place Sunday March 7 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The ceremony brought 2009 awards season in Hollywood to a close, crowning the war film The Hurt Locker as the year's best cinematic achievement.

This year's Oscars hosts were Steve Martin (It's Complicated) (who had previously hosted twice) and Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock"). The It's Complicated co-stars were the first duo to host the show since 1957.

According to the Nielsen ratings, an average of 41.3 million viewers tuned in to the ceremony. Not only was the show the highest-rated since 2005, but it also continued the trend of ratings growth for the show. After a record-low 31.8 million people watched in 2008, the ratings for the Awards jumped to 37 million last year, with Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) at the helm.

While the ratings were up across the country, they were down overall in the New York area. This was due to a WABC blackout on Cablevision after contract negotiations broke down, affecting 3.1 million people. Luckily for viewers from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island and Westchester, the station returned to the airwaves 14 minutes into the broadcast.  

The strong ratings should be reassuring for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy, along with show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, made extensive changes to the ceremony to draw in viewers.

The show started with a glitzy, Las Vegas-style musical routine featuring Neil Patrick Harris, fresh off hosting gigs at last year's Tony and Emmy Awards. Meant to be over-the-top, the opening number did not seem to fit the bill for an event as classy as the Oscars.

Martin and Baldwin were appealing enough as hosts, but they did not have the best material. The jokes were stale, mostly poking fun at the blockbuster Avatar and Best Actor nominee George Clooney (Up in the Air), who charmingly played along.

The two were at their best when they returned from an hour-long absence with a parody of Paranormal Activity. Later they were shown watching the show wearing matching snuggies. However, the producers under-utilized Martin and Baldwin, which was especially disappointing after all the hype surrounding the pair.

Many of the presenters, while glamorous, were also dull. Young Hollywood was well represented, with Amanda Seyfried (Dear John), Miley Cyrus (The Last Song) and Zac Efron (Me and Orson Welles) all presenting awards. The inclusion of popular teen stars may have seemed like an odd pairing for the Oscars, but it drew in audiences.

One of the more memorable moments came from Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder). Presenting the award for Best Make-Up, Stiller was transformed into a Na'vi from Avatar, tail included. (The Oscar went to Star Trek in one of the few technical categories for which Avatar did not receive a nomination).

In an effort to cut down on the show's length, many yearly segments were cut or altered. The time-consuming, but inspiring, honorary awards were handed out at a prior event. In a more controversial move, the Best Original Song nominees did not perform, and were instead reduced to snippets in a montage.

Winners' speeches were also limited to 45 seconds before the orchestra would begin to play. The less-rushed and more thorough "thank-yous" took place backstage.

Despite the changes, the ceremony still clocked in at three hours and 34 minutes. In addition to the annual "In Memoriam" segment, there was a moving tribute honoring iconic director John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles), who never received an Oscar nomination. There was also an extensive dance routine set to music from the films nominated for Best Original Score.

As far as Academy Awards go, this year was light on the drama. None of the night's few surprises came in major categories. Argentina's El Secreto de Sus Ojos earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film over the favored A Prophet (France) and The White Ribbon (Germany). Quentin Tarantino lost Best Original Screenplay to Mark Boal, who penned The Hurt Locker.

A handful of the Best Picture nominees walked away without statuettes. District 9, A Serious Man and An Education were not expected to win in any categories. However, Precious upset Up in the Air for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Oscars honored first-time winners in each of the acting categories: Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting Actor, Inglorious Basterds), Mo'Nique (Best Supporting Actress, Precious), Jeff Bridges (Best Lead Actor, Crazy Heart) and Sandra Bullock (Best Lead Actress, The Blind Side). Each of the winners gave fine, sincere speeches, with Bullock becoming touchingly emotional when remembering her late mother.

Much has been written about AMPAS's decision to recognize more (and more popular) Best Picture nominees. Ratings soared in the last minutes of the show to 70 million, as viewers waited for the close race between Avatar and The Hurt Locker to be called.

In the end, the stunning technology in Avatar was no match for the powerful storytelling of The Hurt Locker. It was the first movie about the Iraq war to receive such accolades, winning a total of six Oscars, and the lowest-grossing ($12.6 million) Best Picture of all time.

The ceremony will be remembered for more than the domination of The Hurt Locker. After all, the night belonged to the film's director, Kathryn Bigelow.

After eighty-two years, the Academy Awards finally recognized a woman as the year's Best Director. Presenter Barbara Streisand proclaimed "the time has come" before announcing Bigelow's name. She was only the fourth woman ever nominated in the category.

While in many ways this year's ceremony was lackluster, the finale gave us, as Bigelow so eloquently described, "the moment of a lifetime."