Jonathan Demme`s grisly tale of dueling serial killers, ”The Silence of the Lambs,” made history at Monday night`s 64th annual Academy Awards ceremony by becoming the first thriller to win the Oscar for best picture.
The film also secured Oscars for Anthony Hopkins, named best actor for his portrayal of the liver-munching killer Hannibal ”the Cannibal” Lecter, and Jodie Foster, selected best actress for her interpretation of the FBI agent who enlists Lecter`s help in catching another murderer. Writer Ted Tally was named for best adapted screenplay, and Demme for best direction.
”Silence” thus joins the rarefied company of ”It Happened One Night”
(1934) and ”One Flew over the Cuckoo`s Nest” (1975) as one of three films in Hollywood history to win all of the top five awards-picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay.
It was Foster`s second Oscar for best actress, following her win for
”The Accused” in 1988, as well as the third year in a row that a British performer has taken the honors for best actor.
The domination of ”Silence” was established early when host Billy Crystal made a hilarious entrance wearing Lecter`s trademark face mask.
The sweep for the extremely violent ”Silence” suggests that the academy has reached a long-delayed but inevitable turning point away from the warm-hearted, humanistic films that have traditionally taken home Oscars and toward the coarser, more commercial sensibility that actually sells most of today`s tickets.
”Bugsy,” the highly touted gangster epic starring Warren Beatty, was nominated for 10 Oscars but walked away with only two technical awards.
Veteran performer Jack Palance took home the award for best supporting actor for his work in ”City Slickers,” finally winning on his third nomination in his 42-year career. Clearly thrilled to be back in the spotlight, the 72-year-old Palance took the opportunity to prove he could still do one-handed pushups.
A Tony Award winner last spring, Mercedes Ruehl added an Oscar for best supporting actress to her mantelpiece for her enthusiastic performance as a compassionate video store manager in ”The Fisher King.”
Named best foreign language film was the Italian production
”Mediterraneo,” about a group of soldiers stranded on a Greek island during World War II. Directed by Gabriele Salvatores, the film is scheduled to open in Chicago in April.
The best documentary feature was ”In the Shadow of the Stars,” a study of the San Francisco Opera chorus. The award for short documentary went to
”Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment.” Debra Chasnoff, the film`s producer, made the evenings strongest on-air political statement with her call to ”boycott GE,” and best animated short to ”Manipulation.”
Composer Alan Menken of ”Beauty and the Beast” won the award for original score, and the composer and his lyricist, the late Howard Ashman, won original song for the title tune from that film. In an Ocsar first, Ashman`s lover, Bill Lauch, accepted the award on Ashman`s behalf, saying he was
”proud and happy” to accept ”this first award given to someone we have lost to AIDS.”
One of the highlights of this year`s unusually well-paced awards, produced by Gilbert Cates, was a production number devoted to ”Beauty and the Beast,” featuring the film`s cartoon voice cast performing in the flesh.
Callie Khouri, the author of ”Thelma and Louise,” was cited for best original screenplay.
Technical awards included ”Bugsy” for art direction and costume design, ”JFK” for film editing and cinematography, and ”Terminator 2: Judgment Day” for visual effects, makeup, sound and sound effects editing.
At least 10 protesters were arrested outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles as gay rights groups protested what they called stereotypical and derogatory portrayals of homosexuals and lesbians in recent films, including nominees ”Silence of the Lambs” and ”JFK.”
A line of 170 policemen in riot gear or on horseback stood between the demonstrators and celebrities entering the auditorium.
Many presenters wore red ribbons, which host Crystal explained were
”symbols of AIDS awareness” in the Hollywood.
This was the first year in recent memory in which a genuine suspense surrounded the major awards, though the uncertainty seemed more a result of general indifference than intense competition. None of the nominated features seemed to capture the industry`s heart.
Even finding five sufficently high-minded, ennobling films to nominate has become increasingly difficult in an industry dominated by violent thrillers and no-brain comedies.
Of this year`s five nominees for best picture, three contained scenes of extremely graphic violence-”The Silence of the Lambs,” ”JFK,” and
”Bugsy”-that must surely have challenged the academy`s sense of itself as a defender of wholesome entertainment and positive human values.
A lifetime achievement Oscar was presented to 71-year-old Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose ”Apu” trilogy of the 1950s, about a poor boy`s coming of age in Bengal, remains one of the defining works of cinematic realism.
Receiving the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for technological contributions to the industry was the legendary special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, whose meticulous frame-by-frame animation of monsters, dinosaurs and mythological creatures has enlivened 40 years of fantasy films, including ”The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” and ”Clash of the Titans.”
Another fantasy filmmaker, George Lucas, was given the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award ”for consistently high standards of film production.”
Lucas` ”Star Wars” and ”Indiana Jones” series have so far failed to win an Oscar for best picture.
A special tribute was held for Hal Roach, the comedy producer whose output included the films of Laurel and Hardy and the Little Rascals. Roach turned 100 in January.
A fourth film, ”Beauty and the Beast,” was an animated creation that represented a direct threat to the academy`s large actors branch.
The fifth, ”Prince of Tides,” though eminently qualified in most respects (uplifting theme, distinguished source material, showy lead performances), seemed to have been counted out of the competition early on because of director-star Barbra Stresiand`s personal unpopularity among voters.
Three of Monday night`s honorary awards were announced in advance:
The generally well-paced program included several memorable moments, including Crystal`s hilarious entrance trussed up in Lecter`s face mask and trolley from ”The Silence of the Lambs” and a nicely performed production number devoted to ”Beauty and the Beast,” featuring the film`s cartoon voice cast.
Broadcast live on the ABC network, the ceremony was seen by an estimated 1 billion viewers worldwide. With commercial time going for $550,000 for each 30-second slot, revenues for the show are estimated at $23.1 million.
