AwardsSome Came Running by Glenn Kenny

Gold 1

By February 14, 2012January 12th, 20267 Comments

I have a very simple but at the same time very strict policy with respect to writ­ing about the Oscars, which involves not doing it for free. I am happy, how­ever, that my pals at MSN Movies have com­mis­sioned to me to con­coct not just one but sev­er­al pieces on the movie awards this year, and the first, a con­sid­er­a­tion of some par­tic­u­larly mem­or­able accept­ance speeches, male divi­sion, just went up. More, includ­ing a gal­lery of women’s accept­ance speeches, is forth­com­ing. I hope all the pieces prove suit­ably diverting. 

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7 Comments

  • jbryant says:
    February 14, 2012 at 11:46 pm

    My reac­tion to Olivier’s speech was sim­il­ar to Voight’s, but it was because I was think­ing, “What the heck is he jab­ber­ing about?” That was at the time, how­ever; maybe if I watched it again I’d see the profundity.
    If I’m not mis­taken, William Holden gave the shortest speech for a com­pet­it­ive Oscar, say­ing just “Thank you,” because the broad­cast was run­ning long. Maybe not a ‘classy’ speech, but he was able to make up for it by tak­ing out trade ads the next day list­ing every­one he inten­ded to thank.

  • Sal C says:
    February 15, 2012 at 10:01 am

    A nice list, Glenn. I’d like to just men­tion Altman’s speech when he received his Honorary Oscar in 2006. I found it quite touch­ing com­ing from a man who presen­ted him­self as not caring much about such things.

  • skelly says:
    February 15, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    Always liked Dustin Hoffman’s accept­ance speech for win­ning for his per­form­ance in Kramer vs. Kramer – earn­est, pas­sion­ate and “classy’ in its own way.
    Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhDmNRQgKLM

  • MW says:
    February 15, 2012 at 2:06 pm

    Small cor­rec­tion: Scorsese won his Oscar the year before the Coens won for “No Country for Old Men.”

  • Brandon says:
    February 15, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    Like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Thank You” for his hon­or­ary Oscar, I believe Joe Pesci is some­times also cred­ited with the shortest accept­ance speech for say­ing the same (when he won as Best Supporting Actor for GOODFELLAS).
    I don’t think any­one has just said “Thanks”.

  • jbryant says:
    February 15, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    Pesci actu­ally said, “It’s my priv­ilege. Thank you.”
    And Hitchcock actu­ally threw in some­thing after “Thank you,” seem­ingly as an after­thought, but the music came up and obscured it. I watched this half a dozen times and could­n’t make it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2zjm79Esq4

  • Cadavra says:
    February 18, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    The shortest speech ever is zero words: hav­ing pre­vi­ously giv­en a speech when he won Best Director for A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, Fred Zinnemann, upon return­ing to the stage to accept Best Picture, merely smiled and nod­ded. Next closest is prob­ably Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen for Best Song (“High Hopes”): One said “Thank” and the oth­er said “You.”
    Two per­son­al favor­ites. Ben Johnson: “This could­n’t have happened to a nicer fella.” And of course, Mel Brooks: “I just want to say what’s in my heart: ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump…”