The styles the stars, the stunners

The Oscars were expected to have a political tinge Sunday night, and they did, from the first award -- to George Clooney, who used his supporting-actor acceptance speech to deliver a call for action -- to the last, "Crash," a drama about racial strife.

And as soon as the awards were over, talk about behind-the-scenes politics started. The supporters of the gay romantic drama "Brokeback Mountain," which host Jon Stewart had called "the elephant in the room" because it was so widely expected to win, were left to wonder if the movie's subject matter had cost it the top prize.

It wasn't shut out, however. Ang Lee won the Academy Award for directing. But while he tried to downplay his film's controversy, saying that it was about love in general, the filmmakers behind "Crash" flaunted their movie's political bite.

"The purpose of art is not to hold a mirror up to society but to use a hammer to shape society," co-writer Paul Haggis said in accepting the award for best original screenplay.

The tone for that sort of rallying call had been set at the beginning of the evening. Clooney, winner of the night's first award as best supporting actor for "Syriana," used his acceptance speech to praise Hollywood for openly dealing with issues like AIDS and civil rights "when everyone else was just whispering" about them.

His comment came on a night when the film industry had gathered to salute movies that addressed issues of homosexuality, racism, sexism, censorship and political corruption.

Although "Syriana" was billed as a thriller, it had an overt political subtext about the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the oil industry. Clooney didn't speak directly to that topic, but he did pick up on a quip Stewart made about Hollywood being out of touch with the real world.

If addressing controversial issues is being out of touch, Clooney said, "then I'm proud to be out of touch."

His speech wasn't the only refreshing change of pace from the usual clichéd lists of "thank yous."

The supporting actress award went to Rachel Weisz for "The Constant Gardener," another story rich with real-world context: the murder of a whistleblower and the ensuing coverup by crooked politicians and greedy industrialists.

She thanked novelist John le Carré, "who wrote this unflinching, angry story. And he really paid tribute to the people who are willing to risk their own lives to fight injustice. They're greater men and women than I."

The show's producers certainly weren't trying to skirt controversial issues. On the contrary, Samuel L. Jackson came out with figurative guns blazing as he introduced a montage of scenes from politically charged classics, from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "Philadelphia."

He saluted the film industry for "using the big screen to tackle the biggest issues of the day" and "make us think about who we are as a people and a nation."

But a movie didn't need an obvious political angle for someone to pull out a soapbox. In accepting the best documentary award for the nature film "March of the Penguins," the French producers got in a plug for the Antarctic Treaty System intended to protect the environment of the South Pole.

Pretty soon, everyone was getting in the act. When he took the microphone to accept the best-actor award for "Capote," Philip Seymour Hoffman saluted single mothers by noting that his mom raised four children.

By the time Reese Witherspoon collected the best-actress award for "Walk the Line," a musical biography of Johnny and June Carter Cash, she was determined not to be left out of the political parade. Although her film had no political angle, she hinted that it won't always be that way: "I'm just trying to matter and do good work that might mean something to someone."

Ironically, Stewart was one of the evening's more subdued political pundits. Known for his acerbic political commentary, the host of cable's "Daily Show" opened the show by assuring the celebrities in the crowd that he had no intention of turning his sharpened tongue on them.

His introduction was steeped in modesty. He made fun of his own innocuous movie experience -- including a bit part in "Death to Smoochy" -- and appeared flustered the first time he saw all the famous faces looking back at him from the Kodak Theatre.

The academy members continued a trend away from block voting. Gone are the days of a "Titanic" that sweeps up a bevy of Oscars on its coattails. As has been the pattern for a couple of years, the awards were spread among many movies, with four films -- "Crash,"Brokeback Mountain,"King Kong" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" -- winning three. All the winners for acting were first timers, and Ang Lee became the first non-white to win for directing.

Jeff Strickler • 612-673-7392 BY JEFF STRICKLER • jstrickler@startribune.com