Oscar Winners from the Early 2000s
The Academy Awards Five Best Pictures from 2000 to 2004
The films included a Roman spectacular, a bio-pic, the first musical to win since 1968, the conclusion of a Tolkien epic, and a boxing movie that was more than that.
The Oscar winners from the early 2000s represented a wide range of genres. Although it is too early to determine if any of these movies will reach classic status, all are worthy of at least one viewing.
2000 Best Picture: Gladiator
- Gladiator is a return to the sword-and-sandals epics which reached their zenith in the 1950s and early 1960s with movies such as Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, and Spartacus. A Roman general from Spain named Maximus (Russell Crowe) is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt emperor, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Taken into slavery he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.
- Based on a combination of fact and fiction and relying upon a narrow story thread, this movie’s strengths are its digital creation of ancient Rome, memorable fight scenes, and the acting of Crowe, who took home an Oscar as best actor. Strong support is given by a veteran cast that includes Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, and Derek Jacobi.
2001 Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind
- This movie is based on the life of John Nash, a brilliant Nobel winning mathematician who also struggled through most of his adult life as an anti-social schizophrenic. Following his Oscar winning role in Gladiator, Russell Crowe shows his versatility, convincingly playing Nash from early manhood to age seventy and creating viewer empathy for a man who through most of that time was not a very likeable person.
- Crowe was nominated for, but did not win, best actor. Jennifer Connelly won best supporting actress as Nash’s wife and Ron Howard won as best director. Some critics have denounced the movie for being too loose with the facts of the mathematician’s life.
2002 Best Picture: Chicago
- Chicago is based on the true story of two hopeful starlets, who were brought up on murder charges during the Roaring Twenties. The story was first made into the 1942 movie, Roxie Hart, and then became a Bob Fosse musical that had two Broadway runs. It became the first musical to win best picture since Oliver! In 1968.
- The four leads – Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, and Queen Latifa in a best supporting actress role – are not known for their singing and dancing talents, but they give it their best shots. Overall, an enjoyable, but not great film.
2003 Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- The Lord of the Rings series is simply one of the best trilogies ever filmed and this concluding episode is arguably the best of the three movies that comprise it. Although Tolkien purists may disagree, the film offers a fairly decent adaptation of the book as Frodo (Elijah Wood), his loyal friend Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) and the treacherous Gollum (the voice of Andy Serkis) continues their journey to Mordor, the most evil place in Middle Earth.
- The movie won all eleven Oscars for which it was nominated, the only movie to ever score 100 percent. Among them was the richly deserved award for visual effects – perhaps the most stunning and realistic ever seen in a movie to date.
2004 Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby
- What begins as a Rocky wannabe feel-good boxing movie becomes in the last half a bleak tragedy centered on old and new relationships, the fragility of life, moral dilemmas, and redemption. Director Clint Eastwood and scriptwriter Paul Haggis combined to create a lean, heartrending story that does not rely on manipulation or tearful melodrama. So subtle is the movie that each viewing brings new insights.
- Eastwood was nominated for best actor as Frankie, the manager/trainer looking to exorcise his past “demons”, and won as best director. Hillary Swank won best actress for her performance as Maggie, the “trashy” boxer looking for fulfillment and respect in her life. Morgan Freeman won best supporting actor as Scrap, Frankie and Maggie’s world-weary philosophical friend.
For the Oscar winning best pictures of the 1990s see here and here.
The copyright of the article Oscar Winners from the Early 2000s in Classic Films is owned by John K. Davis. Permission to republish Oscar Winners from the Early 2000s must be granted by the author in writing.
