A surprisingly sedate Oscars

While presenting the award for Best Picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards, Actor Sean Penn opined, “It doesn’t matter how much they make at the box office.” That’s a good thing because going by earnings, half the people who bought tickets to the night’s biggest winner might have been sitting in the audience.

Birdman, the R-rated film about a washed-up actor trying to revive his career by starring in a Broadway play, has taken in less than $38 million since its domestic release in October, landing it at only 82 on the 2014 box office charts. But the movie took home the most major awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Director for Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu.

Grand Budapest Hotel, which tied Birdman for most awards at four, though in less headline-worthy technical categories (Best Costume Design, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Production Design, Best Score), was slightly more successful with moviegoers, earning $59 million. Still, that hardly qualifies as one of the year’s more popular films. By comparison, the small-budget Christian-themed indies God’s Not Dead and Son of God both earned more.

American Sniper, the only nominee that also scored with the public, earning a staggering $320 million and counting at the box office, was shut out almost completely, winning only for Best Sound Editing. With it, however, politically-themed speechmaking and controversy were also kept to a minimum.

The speeches for acting categories have historically provided the most provocative moments at the Oscars, but this year’s awards ceremony was remarkable mainly for how inoffensive the comments were. Unusually, many of the awards went to PG-13-rated films; neither the host nor winners made any sexually-explicit jokes; and the causes championed were primarily those a majority of viewers could agree with.

Best Actress winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) spoke of the need to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, and Best Actor winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) dedicated his award to everyone around the world suffering from ALS. Actor J.K. Simmons used his time at the podium for his Best Supporting Actor win in Whiplash to express his love and admiration for his wife of 19 years.

To the extent winners did refer to politics, it was in far more measured terms than in years past.

Screenwriter Graham Moore spoke of feeling “different” and “weird” during his speech for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game, the story of homosexual WWII code breaker Alan Turing, but he didn’t elaborate on what he meant by either term. Mexican-citizen Iñárritu touched on the issue of immigration, but in a way that was both complimentary to the United States and stopped short of advocating legalization, driver’s licenses, or other contentious policies.

“I just pray [immigrants] can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones that came before and built this incredible, immigrant nation,” Iñárritu said simply. He was also mildly critical of the Mexican government, calling on his countrymen to “find and build a government that we deserve.”

When Citizenfour, a movie that lionizes NSA leaker Edward Snowden, won for Best Documentary, director Laura Poitras, commented only, "The disclosures that Edward Snowden revealed don’t only expose a threat to our privacy but to also our democracy. When the most important decisions affecting all of us are being made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control,” a comment many people on all sides of the political spectrum will agree with.

Singer-songwriters John Legend and Common grew fiery when accepting the award for Best Song, “Glory” from the film Selma, with Legend commenting that, “the voting rights that they fought for 50 years ago is [sic] being compromised in this country today.” But his comment came in an otherwise uplifting speech in which Common thanked God, described the bridge to Selma as a symbol for hope, compassion, and love for all human beings, and expressed solidarity with those in Hong Kong protesting for democracy. So, something for everyone.

The most stereotypically left-wing moment came during Patricia Arquette’s acceptance of Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood. “It is our time for wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America,” she said, earning wild cheers from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez.

But even host Neil Patrick Harris (or at least his team of writers) seemed to recognize the irony of some of the wealthiest and most successful women in the country complaining of gender discrimination (particularly in a year when women take up two slots on the list of top-three highest-grossing performers in Hollywood). He later quipped, to raucous laughter, that Streep realized during Arquette’s speech she is underpaid.

In fact, the night was so sedate by typical Oscar standards, New York Magazine was prompted to ask during its live blog of the event, “Honestly, what has happened to radical Hollywood?”

The most gasp-worthy moment of the night may have come from a singer who is no stranger to pushing envelopes. Dressed in a conservative, white gown, Lady Gaga took the stage to perform a lovely medley honoring songs from perennial family favorite, The Sound of Music. Now that was shocking.