The Student Voice of Chardon High School

The Hilltop Echo

The Student Voice of Chardon High School

The Hilltop Echo

The Student Voice of Chardon High School

The Hilltop Echo

Opposition groups stand across the street from the restaurant. (Bob Rich)
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We Argo-ing to the Oscars

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The 85th Academy Awards aired Sunday February 24th; it had its ups and downs and more song and dance than needed. Big winners of the night were Ben Affleck, Ang Lee, Jennifer Lawrence and history-making Daniel Day-Lewis.

            The show started off with an opening monologue by the host Seth McFarlane who was accompanied via tele-screen by William Shatner. They cracked a few jokes and proceeded to have Family Guy-esque cut-a-way gags including a song and dance called “We Saw Your Boobs”, Flight reenacted by puppets and an awkward moment with McFarlane and Sally Fields behind stage. McFarlane brought a different, more off-color brand of humor to the Academy Awards, which is a large contrast from its typical tounge-in-cheek comedy. “[McFarlane] did a pretty good job,” said senior Ian Taylor. “It did seem like he was trying a little hard to be controversial and edgy, however.” The opening ran on a bit too long but eventually the award show got going. Christoph Waltz took home the gold for best supporting actor for his role in Django Unchained. This is the second time Waltz has won best supporting actor and the second time for a Tarantino film. There was a tribute to James Bond movies due for the 50th anniversary of Bond in film. Shirley Bassey performed “Goldfinger”, which was the first in a long tradition of Bond songs. There were other performances from Catharine Zeta-Jones with “All That Jazz” from 2002’s best picture winner Chicago, as well as Adele performing “Skyfall” and “Suddenly” performed by the cast of Les Miserables. The awards got rolling again with Life of Pi taking home Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography. Adele won Best Original Song for “Skyfall” and Brave took Best Animated Feature. Anne Hathaway had a great acceptance speech after winning Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables. Unsurprisingly Quentin Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained and Chris Terrio won Best Adapted Screenplay for Argo.

            The show ran past 11:30 when it was supposed to end, and still had the big four awards to give: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Picture. The 22 year old Jennifer Lawrence became the second youngest Best Actress in a Leading Role winner for her role in Silver Linings Playbook and tripped walking up to the stage. Daniel Day-Lewis became the first person to win Best Actor in a Leading Role on three separate occasions. He received the award for Lincoln but previously won for There Will be Blood and My Left Foot. Best Director surprisingly went to Ang Lee for Life of Pi, instead of front-runner Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. The big award of the night, Best Picture, went to Argo, and producer/actor Ben Affleck was accompanied by co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. It was presented by not only Jack Nicholson but First Lady Michelle Obama. Affleck had a fast-paced, heart-felt speech saying: “It doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life, that’s gonna happen. All that matters is that you gotta get back up.” Affleck was referring to the recent slump in his career. In 1997 Affleck won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. After that Affleck went on to star in such films as: Gigli, Pearl Harbor, Elektra, Jersey Girl and other movies considered to be some of the worst of the 00s, earning him two Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Actor. Out of nowhere Affleck began to shine as a phenomenal director starting in 2007 with Gone Baby Gone, then 2010’s The Town and now has had his redemption with Argo.  “I was caught off guard by Argo winning,” explained senior Matthew Chauby. “I just didn’t think the Academy would deem it worthy of the year’s best motion picture.”

            The Academy Awards this year weren’t perfect but they had their moments. Most of the awards given were deserved and Seth McFarlane did a decent job as host, though he has stated that he would not host again. Many congratulations to Ben Affleck for his much deserved win.