The Oscar-winning Songs Countdown: 2004

Hello again and welcome back to our Oscar-winning Songs Countdown. Today's year is 2004: In a year of battling biopics, the big winner wasn't one.

Martin Scorsese was at the top of his game; a couple of years before, he directed Gangs Of New York which finally brought the Best Director Golden Globe home. (The Oscars, however, were another matter; 10 nominations for the film, but no wins). Also, he was doing great in non-fiction work: in 2003 he produced (and directed the first episode of) the acclaimed TV series about The Blues (also the name of the series). He also directed a documentary for TV concerning the Statue of Liberty, and his video for Michael Jackson's Bad was showcased in a DVD that collected all the videos of MJ's greatest hits. He was also shooting a documentary about Bob Dylan called No Direction Home. His offering for 2004 was The Aviator, a biopic of billionaire Howard Hughes, starting with his early filmmaking years as owner of RKO studios but mostly focusing on his role in designing and promoting new aircraft.

Michael Mann was originally going to direct the film, but having directed back-to-back biopics The Insider (1999) and Ali (2001), he decided to produce instead, and offered the script to Martin Scorsese.

With his new muse, Leonardo DiCaprio, replacing his old muse, Robert De Niro, (their second collaboration of many) the film was a labor of love for Scorsese; he designed each year in the film to look just the way a color film from that time period would look. When he went over-budget, he personally paid $500,000 of his own money to cover over budget expenses.

The gamble paid off, however; this was Scorsese's first film to gross over $100 million in the US. Many reviews were enthusiastic, others were lukewarm. I think that The Hollywood Reporter, sums it up best: "Scorsese has crafted a rip-roaringly gorgeous-looking, beautifully acted biographical epic. But while firing on all cylinders, there's something oddly distancing about the picture."

The two leads were rightfully praised: Newsweek said: "DiCaprio is astonishing," while Slate remarked, "But Cate Blanchett ... ahhhh. She doesn't impersonate Katharine Hepburn, she channels her."

Taylor Hackford hadn't made a film as celebrated as An Officer And A Gentleman in more than 20 years. Then Ray happened, the story of Ray Charles. Originally, no studio was interested in backing the film. The film was then shot independently and once it was completed, Universal stepped in to distribute it. Part of the reason Universal released it was because one of the executives of the studio used to hitchhike to Hollywood to watch Ray Charles concerts.

Denzel Washington was first approached to play the title role, but passed on the project. Jamie Foxx was then offered the part, and he jumped at the chance. He was very thorough and meticulous; he played the piano in all scenes himself. He attended classes at the Braille Institute and he wore eye prosthetics that really did make him blind for up to 14 hours a day during shooting. His efforts paid off: Rolling Stone remarked that "Jamie Foxx gets so far inside the man and his music that he and Ray Charles seem to breathe as one."

The film itself had good-to-mixed reviews: Newsweek said, "It's hobbled by the too-familiar conventions of the musical biopic: with so many chapters of Charles's life to cover, Hackford's movie never finds a rhythm, a groove, to settle into. It wins its battles without winning the war." The film, however, made a profit and everyone was happy.

Jamie Foxx shone in another film as well; Collateral was directed by Michael Mann (The Aviator's producer) and starred Tom Cruise as an engaging contract killer, while Foxx was the cab driver who finds himself Cruise's hostage, as the latter makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles. New York Magazine noted: "Most of the time we are with Cruise and Foxx, and their interplay is never less than galvanizing."

Another movie based on real-life events, while not being a straight-up biopic was Hotel Rwanda. It was based on the real-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.

During the 1990s, some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda - and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered.

Director Terry George had Don Cheadle in mind for the lead part from the beginning of his involvement. During pre-production, potential investors and interested studios wanted Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Mekhi Phifer and even Will Smith because of their suggested bigger drawing capacity at the box office. But due to ultimately producing the film independently and coming up with the money himself, George was able to go back to his original choice. The film garnered good-to-very-good reviews, but it was Cheadle who got the lion's share of acclaim. The Hollywood Reporter raved: "Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration."

Another real-life story dealt with a lighter subject: Finding Neverland was about J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan. Peter Llewelyn Davies, J.M. Barrie's child muse, and inspiration for Peter Pan, was troubled by the public moniker, and committed suicide, in 1960 at age 63, by throwing himself under a train. Two of the five Llewelyn brothers died young. George died at age 21, a soldier in World War I, and Michael, in a drowning incident, at age 20, under mysterious circumstances. None of these incidents are portrayed in the film; the movie ends while the children are still young. Perhaps this is for the best, it would've been too gloomy otherwise. The film was rewarded by the critics: Newsweek wrote, "Mingling reality and fantasy, Forster has given us a luminous, touching meditation on life and art."

The movie starred Johnny Depp. Entertainment Weekly was enthusiastic: "Depp portrays a fellow who is openly gentle to the core, and the actor just about wraps the movie around his lilting delivery and quiescent gaze. Great actors like Kate Winslet, Julie Christie and Dustin Hoffman, ably supported him, but it was a twelve-year-old boy in his first major international part that got most of the praise: Freddie Highmore as Peter Llewelyn Davies. Johnny Depp was so impressed with the performance of Freddie Highmore during filming, that when Depp was cast for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), he specifically requested Highmore to play the title character of Charlie. Highmore is very much active today, as a young adult. He has just completed the fifth and final season of Bates Motel, a wonderful sort-of-prequel to Psycho, starring Highmore and Vera Farmiga. I highly recommend it.

Finding Neverland was later created into a Broadway musical, but for another film it was the other way round: The Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera opened at the Majestic Theater on January 26, 1988 and has run for over 12,000 performances, making it the longest running show on Broadway, as of January 2010. Phantom was nominated for ten 1988 Tony Awards, and won seven of them (Best Musical, Best Actor (Michael Crawford), Best Actress (Judy Kaye), Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Direction of a Musical (Harold Prince).

The film version, which starred an 18-year-old Emmy Rossum, who would later find fame in TV's Shameless, Gerard Butler in his first starring role (300 was still to come), and Patrick Wilson fresh off his Angels In America breakthrough part, and was directed by gay director Joel Schumacher (of Flatliners and Falling Down fame, but also of Batman & Robin infamy), didn't do as well; it lost money. The reviews were decidedly mixed - but were the reviewers judging the film or the play? On the one end of the spectrum, Rolling Stone wrote, "Phantom, still running on Broadway after sixteen years, is a rapturous spectacle. And the movie, directed full throttle by Joel Schumacher, goes the show one better." On the other end, the Los Angeles Times were not so kind: "The real problem with Phantom is the problem with Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals in general. It's a slow-moving orgy of lowbrow grandiosity that's as tedious as it is overblown and pretentious."

Clint Eastwood had been a movie star since the 60s, before trying his hand in directing in the 70s. In the 90s he was rewarded for the consistent quality of his movies by winning the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for Unforgiven in 1992. Clint was handed a story "about two old grizzled guys and a girl fighter" by producer Albert S. Ruddy, who had spent four years trying to find backers who were interested in helping him make it. Eastwood was interested - he said, "It's a downer...but God, it's gorgeous". That movie was Million Dollar Baby.

Originally, writer Paul Haggis was scheduled to direct, but, as he became involved with Crash, Eastwood (who was to act only) asked to direct it as well. Haggis agreed to step aside as director.

For the role of his assistant, Clint chose Morgan Freeman - they had worked well together in Unforgiven and would work together again in Invictus. The casting of Maggie was more complicated; Sandra Bullock was the first actress attached to play her, but by the time a studio expressed an interest in the project, her commitment to Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous prevented her from doing the film. So Hilary Swank entered the picture, who hadn't been in an awards-worthy part since her Oscar-winning role in Boys Don't Cry, 5 years earlier. Once in, she underwent a serious training schedule to prepare for this film. She gained nearly twenty pounds of muscle due to the workouts.

The film delivered a cinematic knock-out; it ended up earning a multiple of its frugal budget and the reviews were stellar: The Hollywood Reporter raved, "Under Eastwood's painstakingly stripped-down direction -- his filmmaking has become the cinematic equivalent of Hemingway's spare though precise prose -- the story emerges as that rarest of birds, an uplifting tragedy." The New York Times were equally effusive, "With its careful, unassuming naturalism, its visual thrift and its emotional directness, Million Dollar Baby feels at once contemporary and classical, a work of utter mastery that at the same time has nothing in particular to prove."

Sideways was the little movie that could; filmed on a budget of $12,000,000, it managed to gross more than $71,000,000 in the US alone. Alexander Payne, the indie director with Greek roots had already made a name for himself with Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt. For this tale of two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment, who embark on a week-long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle, he cast rising character actor Paul Giamatti; his then wife, the popular Sandra Oh; and two actors who were big in the 80s and early 90s in mainstream films and TV: Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen.

The critics loved it: its metascore was 94%. Newsweek was enthusiastic: "In Sideways, Payne has created four of the most lived-in, indelible characters in recent American movies. This deliciously bittersweet movie makes magic out of the quotidian."

Another small-scale, but definitely less ordinary film was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The film was co-written by its director, Michel Gondry, together with Pierre Bismuth and the king of whimsy, Charlie Kaufman. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of Kaufman (Adaptation, Synecdoche, New York, etc), but the critics seem to like him. The film starred the unlikely pair of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a couple that undergoes a procedure to have each other erased from their memories when their relationship turns sour.

The reviews were mostly good, especially praising the script's ambition. Rolling Stone wrote: "Chases so many ideas that it threatens to spin out of control. But with our multiplexes stuffed with toxic Hollywood formula, it's a gift to find a ballsy movie that thinks it can do anything, and damn near does."

Also praised was Winslet's performance; this is what The New Yorker had to say: "There aren't many performers who can deliver the fullness of heart that such a plot demands, but Winslet is one of them."

Mike Nichols was no stranger to masterfully adapting successful plays in movies (Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?) or TV (Angels In America). So it was no surprise when he was handed Closer, the play by Patrick Marber, to direct. Nichols is an actor's director, and he gave his quartet of players ample chance to shine. Funnily enough, it wasn't the stars (Julia Roberts and Jude Law) who received the highest praise, but rather the two supporting actors (Clive Owen and Natalie Portman). Newsweek wrote, "Here's a surprise: of the four actors in Closer, Clive Owen is the least famous, but he delivers the most memorable performance."

Nobody stole the show from Annette Bening in the witty adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, Being Julia, even though she was surrounded by very able thespians, like Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon. This is how the Christian Science Monitor put it: "Part of the movie's fascination is watching Ms. Bening play a role that tantalizingly mirrors her own position in today's movie world - and she does it with wit, sparkle, and all-out energy."

A surprising number of well-received arthouse movies came from abroad; the UK gave us the new film from the master director of the British working class, Mike Leigh. Vera Drake was about an abortionist who finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain - a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family. Both Leigh and the actress portraying the film's title character, Imelda Staunton, got rave reviews: the Village Voice opined, "Vera Drake puts the passion in compassion. Building up to a shattering conclusion, Leigh's movie is both outrageously schematic and powerfully humanist."

Maria Full of Grace came from Colombia; a powerful film about a pregnant Colombian teenager who becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family. The main character was heartbreakingly portrayed by Catalina Sandino Moreno.

Another film to successfully come out of South America was The Motorcycle Diaries. Brazilian Walter Salles (Central Station) directed great Mexican actor Gael García Bernal as the Argentinian revolutionary, Che Guevara, on his four month, 8,000 km long dream motorcycle trip throughout South America. Variety gave it a definite thumbs up: "This intelligently made picture is artful but not arty, political without being didactic."

China gave us another masterful (and visually awesome) action drama by Zhang Yimou, called House of Flying Daggers. Film Threat was absolutely won over: "Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills and even dancing."

There were two art-house hits that came from France; Jean-Pierre Jeunet followed up his smash hit Amélie with A Very Long Engagement, which was even better, in my humble opinion. Time magazine seemed to agree: "Can a movie have too much good stuff? Not when it's stuffed like this one."

Another hit from France was The Chorus by Christophe Barratier. It starred Gérard Jugnot as the new teacher at a severely administered boys' boarding school who works to positively affect the students' lives through music. The child actors were charming and the film's music and songs were adorable.

From Spain came The Sea Inside, the factual story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who fought a thirty-year campaign in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die. The film was discreetly directed by Alejandro Amenábar, but its main strength was a tour de force performance by Javier Bardem as the central character. It was a film, as The Hollywood Reporter said, "both poetic and profound."

Germany's offer was a captivating account of Hitler's final days, appropriately named Downfall. The Hollywood Reporter called it "One of the best war movies ever made" and the film's worldwide gross neared $100,000,000.

South Africa gave us the powerful Yesterday, about a young African mother who learns that she is HIV positive, and whose goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.

From Sweden, we had As It Is In Heaven, about a successful international music conductor who suddenly interrupts his career and returns alone to his childhood village in Norrland, in the far north of Sweden. It starred Michael Nyqvist, who has sadly passed less than a couple of weeks ago.

What about the year's top grossers? The big winner of the year was an animated sequel. Shrek 2 relied on the success of the first installment, as well as on its own good reviews and came on top with a worldwide gross of $920,000,000. Two other animated films made the top 10 - and they were both original: The Incredibles (#4) and Shark Tale (#9). Another animated movie almost made the top 10, but not quite: Polar Express is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records 2006 as the "first all-digital capture" film, where all acted parts were done in digital capture. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring the digitally captured Tom Hanks, it was expected to do even better.

Another film that was definitely expected to do good enough to start a franchise, but ended up not even making a profit, was Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Aimed at children and teenagers, the film, starring Jim Carrey and featuring Meryl Streep, although reasonably reviewed, failed to make waves at the box-office.

The year's winner among live action films aimed at children and teenagers, was, not surprisingly, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry's third year at Hogwarts, directed by the future Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón. The film came second at the year's box-office, with $800,000,000 worldwide gross.

There was a superhero sequel at #3 (Spider-Man 2), a disaster movie at #6 (The Day After Tomorrow), a comedy at #7 (Meet The Fockers), Troy, featuring Brad Pitt as Achilles, was at #8 and the all-star caper movie, Ocean's Twelve (the sequel of Ocean's Eleven) was at #10. Here's the full list:

We left out #5, so that we could talk more about it. Passion Of The Christ, Mel Gibson's violent depiction of Christ's last days on Earth, divided both critics and audiences alike. Some critics were for it, like Time's Richard Corliss: "A serious, handsome, excruciating film that radiates total commitment." On the other hand, Time's rival magazine, Newsweek, through its own film critic, David Ansen, retorted: "Instead of being moved by Christ's suffering, or awed by his sacrifice, I felt abused by a filmmaker intent on punishing an audience, for who knows what sins."

Then the Bible Belt pipeline started buzzing: the "good, upright Christians" were encouraged to go watch the film, and "not listen to the Jewish propaganda generated by the film critics and the Hollywood studios". It was anti-semitism, pure and simple, and people fell for it; they went to see the film in huge numbers. It was probably the same people that elected Trump into office.

The film eventually grossed about $600,000,000, which was 20 times its frugal budget, making it comparatively the biggest hit of the year; Shrek 2, the absolute highest grosser, "only" grossed 6 times its (much higher) budget.

The Nominations

Best Picture: The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways.

Best Director: Martin Scorsese (The Aviator), Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Taylor Hackford (Ray), Alexander Payne (Sideways), Mike Leigh (Vera Drake).

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland), Jamie Foxx (Ray), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda).

Best Actress: Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), Annette Bening (Being Julia), Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake).

Best Supporting Actor: Alan Alda (The Aviator), Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), Jamie Foxx (Collateral), Clive Owen (Closer).

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (The Aviator), Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Laura Linney (Kinsey), Natalie Portman (Closer).

Best Original Screenplay: The Aviator, Vera Drake, Hotel Rwanda, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Incredibles.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, Sideways, The Motorcycle Diaries, Before Sunset.

Best Art Direction: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Phantom of the Opera, A Very Long Engagement.

Best Costume Design: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Ray, Troy.

Best Cinematography: The Aviator, The Phantom of the Opera, A Very Long Engagement, The Passion of the Christ, House of Flying Daggers.

Best Film Editing: The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, Ray, Collateral.

Best Sound Mixing: The Aviator, Ray, The Incredibles, The Polar Express, Spider-Man 2.

Best Sound Editing: The Incredibles, The Polar Express, Spider-Man 2.

Best Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Spider-Man 2, I, Robot.

Best Makeup: A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Passion of the Christ, The Sea Inside.

Best Foreign Language Film: The Sea Inside (Spain), The Chorus (France), Downfall (Germany), Yesterday (South Africa), As It Is In Heaven (Sweden).

Best Animated Feature: The Incredibles, Shrek 2, Shark Tale.

Best Documentary Feature: Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, The Story of the Weeping Camel, Super Size Me, Tupac: Resurrection, Twist of Faith.

What about the music nominations? Here they are:

Best Music, Original Score:

Finding Neverland, by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by John Williams:

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Thomas Newman:

The Passion of the Christ, by John Debney:

The Village, by James Newton Howard:

We have arrived at the Best Music, Original Song category. Here are the nominees:

Al Otro Lado del Rio from The Motorcycle Diaries • Music & Lyrics: Jorge Drexler. Sung by Jorge Drexler:

Look to Your Path from The Chorus • Music: Bruno Coulais • Lyrics: Christophe Barratier. Sung by the chorus of children:

Accidentally in Love from Shrek 2 • Music: Counting Crows • Lyrics: Adam Duritz & Dan Vickrey. Sung by the Counting Crows:

Believe from The Polar Express • Music & Lyrics: Glen Ballard & Alan Silvestri. Sung by Josh Groban:

Learn to Be Lonely from The Phantom of the Opera • Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber • Lyrics: Charles Hart. Sung by Minnie Driver:

Also eligible for nomination were:

Million Voices from Hotel Rwanda • Music & Lyrics: Wyclef Jean, Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis and Andrea Guerra. Sung by Wyclef Jean:

America, F**k Yeah from Team America: World Police • Music & Lyrics: Trey Parker. Sung by Trey Parker:

Shelter for My Soul from Ned Kelly • Music & Lyrics: Bernard Fanning. Sung by Bernard Fanning:

My personal favorite is Look to Your Path from The Chorus, with Al Otro Lado del Rio as my second choice.

As you can see, The Aviator led the pack with eleven nominations, followed by Million Dollar Baby and Finding Neverland with seven each, Ray with six, and Sideways with five. The way the nominations were distributed, the battle would apparently be between the technical brilliance of The Aviator and the big heart of Million Dollar Baby.

The Winners

... And indeed it was: The Aviator won the battle, but Million Dollar Baby won the war. You see, if the question is "who won the most Oscars?", the answer is The Aviator with five against Million Dollar Baby's four. But if the question is "who was the real winner of the evening?", the answer is definitely Million Dollar Baby. Because The Aviator's five Oscars were for Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, and to Cate Blanchett for Supporting Actress. While Million Dollar Baby got all the big ones: Best Picture, Director, Actress (Hilary Swank), and Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman).

The writing awards went to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Sideways, while Ray got Best Actor for Jamie Foxx and Sound Mixing. Sound Editing and Animated Feature went to The Incredibles, Visual Effects went to Spider-Man 2, while A Series of Unfortunate Events was awarded for its Makeup. Foreign went to Spain for The Sea Inside and Documentary went to Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids.

Finding Neverland's only win among its seven nominations was that of Best Music, Score. Finally, the Best Song Award went to The Motorcycle Diaries for Al Otro Lado del Rio. Were the awards fair? More or less, yes. I might have picked a few different winners (the song from the Chorus, Annette Bening, Hotel Rwanda for Original Screenplay), but it's not that I think that the winners weren't also worthy. And more than everything, I enjoyed the fact that the Best Picture award went to the film that made me shed tears.