Bloody crime drama The Departed blew away its rivals at the Oscars in Hollywood on Sunday, scooping best-picture honours and delivering a long-overdue director’s prize for filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
Scorsese’s violent thriller, a remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs was the biggest winner of the night with four Oscars at an Academy Awards show that saw Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker win the top acting prizes.
An internationally diverse field was also notable for its strong political overtones, with former United States vice-president Al Gore winning some of the biggest cheers as environmental film An Inconvenient Truth won best documentary.
But it was Scorsese who finished the night with the biggest smile.
A trio of legendary Hollywood filmmakers — Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola — presented the 64-year-old with his Oscar which finally came at the sixth attempt after a series of snubs.
”I’m overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed by receiving this from my old friends. We go back 37 years,” said Scorsese, the creator of such cinematic landmarks as Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas.
”So many people over the years have been wishing this for me — strangers. I walk in the street and people say something to me: ‘You should win, you should win.’ I go in for X-rays, ‘you should win one.’
”Friends of mine over the years, friends that are here, my family, I thank you,” Scorsese added to an ovation from the 3 400-strong audience at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.
Moments later The Departed, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson and tells the story of an undercover detective who infiltrates the Boston mob, won best picture, the final award of the night.
It beat out multi-lingual drama Babel, Clint Eastwood’s Japanese-language war epic Letters from Iwo Jima, quirky comedy Little Miss Sunshine and royal drama The Queen.
Babel was one of the night’s biggest losers, nominated in seven categories but finishing with only one Oscar. Hit musical Dreamgirls also had to settle for only two Oscars, despite receiving eight nominations.
Unusually, The Departed did not pick up any awards in the acting categories which as expected saw Mirren and Whitaker crowned as Oscars royalty.
Mirren won best actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the The Queen while Whitaker took best actor for his blood-curdling turn as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.
Mirren (61) praised the British monarch after securing a clean sweep of this year’s acting honours. She had also won Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Bafta Awards.
”For 50 years Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty, and her hairstyle,” Mirren said. ”I salute her courage and her consistency.
”And I thank her, because if it wasn’t for her, I most certainly would not be here,” Mirren said, hoisting her Oscar aloft and proclaiming: ”Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Queen!”
In the best documentary category, heavy favourite An Inconvenient Truth took home the statuette, and gave environmental campaigner Gore the platform to renew calls for an urgent effort to tackle climate change.
”My fellow Americans … people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis,” Gore said. ”It’s not a political issue, it’s a moral issue.
”We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewable resource,” Gore said to loud cheers.
Gore had earlier teased the audience by pretending to be on the brink of announcing his candidacy for 2008 US elections before being ushered off the stage by Oscars staff.
Elsewhere the supporting actor awards saw an upset, with Dreamgirls Eddie Murphy upstaged by Alan Arkin, superb as the foul-mouthed, drug-snorting grandfather in the low-budget Sunshine.
Arkin (72) picked up the first Oscar of his career, 41 years after his first Academy Award nomination in 1966.
The veteran expressed appreciation for the reception given to Sunshine which, he said, ”in these fragmented times, speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection”.
But while Murphy was left to mull over his defeat, there were no such disappointment for his Dreamgirls co-star Jennifer Hudson, the former reality television show contestant who picked up best supporting actress.
An emotional Hudson (25) thanked God, her family, cast and crew for her victory, saying: ”I thank you all for helping me keep the faith, even when I didn’t believe.”
The best foreign-language Oscar was won by Germany’s The Lives of Others, the Cold War drama about the East German secret police.
It shaded the pre-Oscars favorite from Mexico, Guillermo Del Toro’s magical Pan’s Labyrinth, which finished the night with three Oscars for art direction, cinematography and make-up. – AFP