A Decade of Oscars: 2000

Every once in a while, there is a clear-cut favorite for Best Picture on Oscar night. Movies such as Titanic and Schindler’s List come to mind when reminiscing about runaway favorites that earned all the glory exactly as expected, but fans may be surprised to find that these instances do not happen as often as they think. The first 10 years of cinema in the 21st Century brought some exciting races to the Academy Awards. There were several years during the most recent decade when two or more films had a viable shot at winning the coveted prize. In this series, I look back at 10 years in Oscar history, sharing my opinions on the winners and (more often than not) who the winners should have been.

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The world survived the near-apocalypse that was “Y2K,” and Hollywood came out swinging with some great Oscar fare in 2000. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was something unlike American audiences had seen before, and it caught the attention of Academy voters with its period-piece flare and its visual effects. Chocolat was an interesting foreign love story that was very good, but not very many people saw it. Traffic told three intertwining tales of drugs, and it was one of two films in the race directed by Steven Soderbergh. The other was Erin Brockovich, the inspiring true story of a woman suing a power company for polluting the water supply. Finally, there was Gladiator – the epic tale a Roman general seeking revenge. Traffic and Gladiator were the two hot contenders going into Oscar night. It was the opinion of many that fans of Soderbergh would split the vote between his two films both here and in the directing category (in which he was nominated twice) allowing Gladiator to walk away the winner. I had hoped that wouldn’t happen.

I recall watching the Golden Globes in January when Elizabeth Taylor nearly botched the finale by opening the envelope before reading the nominees. When she announced Gladiator the Globe winner, I nearly fell off the chair. Gladiator had kicked off the summer with an early May release date. This seemed very early in the year, and the wrong type of film, to be recognized by any governing awards body. It was a pretty good film, as far as those types of films go, but I had dismissed it as a Best Picture contender by the time the holidays rolled around. And now, here it was standing tall as the winner. Traffic had a traditional “Oscar season” release and received praise by many film critics and their respective awards. It was far and away my favorite film of the year, and I believe to this day that it is the best film of 2000.

Traffic was one of those films that was gritty, heavy, and made you think. I have an affinity for those films, and for the 3 years prior to 2000, I found them losing out to movies that were more “everybody” friendly. Titanic beat out L.A Confidential in ‘97 (not a surprise, but it fits the bill). Shakespeare In Love shocked the world by beating Saving Private Ryan in ‘98. And just the year before Traffic, The Insider lost out to American Beauty. Could a movie like Traffic finally win the big one?

Gladiator made a late stride going into Oscar night, probably helped along by its Globe win (which at that time took place before Oscar voting finished – making those results a possible influence). Russell Crowe was crowned Best Actor earlier in the evening, and there was concern on my part that Ridley Scott was going to be victorious as well. When Steven Soderbergh won the Best Director Oscar for Traffic, I celebrated. My heart raced, knowing that the winning Director/Picture ratio is unusually high. I anticipated an upset. Unfortunately (for me), Gladiator took home the prize.

After 4 years of having a losing favorite, would 2001 be any better? Visit the 2001 Commentary to find out.

-Steve