Oscar's Greatest Moments

From Liza Minnelli's show-stopping production number, "Oscar", to Charlie Chaplin's emotional thank you for his 1971 Honorary Oscar, "Oscar's Greatest Moments" is indeed a compilation of some of 1970-1990's Oscar shows' greatest moments. The show, affectionately and candidly hosted by former Academy president Karl Malden, looks at everything: Best Pictures, Best Actors, Best Actresses...and we get to have some fun, too. We see some of Oscar's infamous fashion statements, from the memorable (hi, Cher) to the... odd (when Carrie Fisher and Martin Short walked onstage- wearing the same dress). And we see some of those unforseen "technical difficulties"...when David Niven was in the process of introducing "a very important contributer to world entertainment" (Elizabeth Taylor) in 1973, a mustachioed streaker ran across the stage. Liz: "That's a pretty hard act to follow."

And we have speeches galore: from the extremely gracious: Louise Fletcher, Diane Keaton, F. Murray Abraham, Barbara Stanwyck, Whoopi Goldberg, to the infamous... Remember Vanessa Redgrave's attack on "Zionist hoodlums"? (Paddy Chayefsky later made a particularly rude stab at Redgrave's speech.) And who could forget dear, sweet Sally Field's "YOU LIKE ME!" speech.

We have our moments of humor, too, from Oscar's greatest hosts: Johhny Carson, Bob Hope, Chevy Chase, and Paul Hogan. Our humor also comes from other sources: Bette Midler cracking about 1980's "Best Song" nominations, and Miss Piggy lambasting Johnny Carson: "It's because I'm a pig I did not get the nomination for Best Actress!".

And we have production numbers: Madonna's overtly sexual "My Man", to Sally Kellerman, Ricardo Montalban, and Burt Lancaster's multilingual "Thank You Very Much". We have tributes to some of Oscar's friends, as well: Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Rock Hudson, Natalie Wood, Rosalind Russell, Danny Kaye and Lord Olivier among them. And there are special little tidbits sandwiched in between.

For all fans of the show who love it, never miss it, and even manage to stay awake into the third and fourth hour of the show, "Oscar's Greatest Moments" is one to buy, and trust me: you'll stay awake through all 110 minutes.

This video is a well put together montage of memorable moments from twenty years of Oscar telecasts. The video was produced by the Academy and hosted by then Academy president Karl Malden, who introduces each section of the video. The compilation of outtakes include musical productions, Best actor and actress presentations, embarrasing moments (recepients political statements, snubbing of the Oscar's, etc.), segments of acceptance speeches and outtakes by presenters and hosts.
Included on this video are outtakes of John Wayne's emotional appearance in 1978, just before his death, as well as Charlie Chaplin's early 70's appearance. Also are outtakes from hosts Johnny Carson, Chevy Chase and Billy Crystal. One of the best outtakes is a speech by "Crocodile Dundee's" Paul Hogan near the beginning of the tape. Another good outtake is the streaker incident from the 1973 show and David Niven's response.
The only downside to this video is the fact that it is limited to the shows from 1971-1991 (the year the video was produced). The Oscars' began televised broadcasts in 1953. It would be great to see outtakes from these earlier programs, as well as outtakes from shows since 1991. Hopefully the Academy will see fit to make a compilation encompassing all of Oscar's televised history and release it on video, or even better, on DVD.

The video compiled some of the most memorable and infamous moments of the most popular award show in the world from 1971 up to 1991. I don't know the significance of the year span that they chose to include in this video, but it would've been interesting to see the earlier clips of the show.

I like the Goldie Hawn-Kurt Russell clip when they presented an award in 1988. They poke fun at themselves as they acknowledge the fact that their relationship ranges from lovers, colleagues, and companions but never married. When Kurt Russell brought that up Goldie Hawn pretended to mistaken it for some sort of "proposal". The audience went nuts. That was really a funny moment and showed again the effectiveness of Hawn as a comedienne. There was also a great Elizabeth Taylor moment as she feigned to be uncomfortable following the infamous naked man who out of nowhere ran through the stage.

The video showed some notable speeches. I like Shirley Maclaine's speech when she won for Terms of Endearment. She said that she always wondered how winning the Oscar would feel like, and she thanked the voters for finally cutting the suspense. Another great moment was when Dustin Hoffman upon winning the award for Kramer Vs. Kramer in his speech said why he was very critical of the Academy Awards. Vanessa Redgrave was booed for her politically charged speech. Louise Fletcher brought the house into tears (okay not really) as she thanked her parents through sign language. Another great moment was when Meryl Streep won for Sophie's Choice, her speech written in a piece of paper could be seen in the ground, she picked it up and was embarrassed by it. That was really hilarious. Those were some of the memorable speeches included in the video.

Another great moment was the impromptu tribute of William Holden to the never honored Barbara Stanwyck. He attributed his career to Stanwyck's generosity, professional dignity, and friendship. And then when Barbara Stanwyck finally get her Honorary Oscar which incidentally the year Holden passed away, she dedicated her award to her good friend. Those two were really beautiful moments.

My only complaint is that they didn't include the only appearance of Katharine Hepburn in the show. I was anticipating to see that but sadly it wasn't shown. I also wished they included the Honorary speeches of Henry Fonda, Cary Grant, and all the other Hollywood stalwarts.

Grade: B+

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars