The Joyous Triumph of "Black Panther"
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at 10:15AM by Chris Feil
Of all of the great wins of Oscar night, some of the most uplifting belonged to the team from Black Panther. The film ran a gauntlet in the past year - early release, genre bias, institutionalized racism - to defy the odds and rack up three richly deserving wins in Costume Design, Production Design, and Original Score. It was the most popular film of the year and yet these wins still shouldn't be taken for granted, theirs a collective trio representing the world we experienced when we experienced Wakanda.
Adding to the sense of massive victory here are several crucial pieces of contextual trivia...
Costume designer Ruth E. Carter and production designer Hannah Beachler are only the second and third Black women to win non-acting Oscars. Beachler is also the first to even be nominated in her category. Additionally for genre fans, Black Panther's three prizes make it the most Oscared superhero film of all time, and the first ever for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I was lucky enough this year to have seen an exhibit on Ruth E. Carter's work, including the costumes from Black Panther live and in the flesh. As if her work in the film wasn't already imaginitive and intricate on the screen to make this a rightful frontrunner all year, I promise you the in-person experience was jawdropping enough to cement her place for yours truly. But this win feels like a long time coming for the indelible Carter - and she delivered a speech both witty and triumphant - and including Spike Lee in her speech helped create an overall context for the night that few speeches ever achieve.
The most emotional speech of the night surely belonged to Hannah Beachler, winning alongside her partner Jay Hart. This is precisely why you should let winners take their time with their speeches. It was personal, contextual, and beautiful - "I did my best and my best was good enough". And another thing I discovered on Oscar night to make me root even harder: Beachler and I share an alma mater!
That Grammy win around voting time surely helped Ludwig Göransson win over stiff competition, but Black Panther's musical landscape is as ingrained and essential to the experience as his other winning teammates. While it's a bummer to not see Kendrick Lamar's musical contribution to the film entire not listed alongside Göransson graciously honored his team of musicians in his speech. And wouldn't you know he even offered charming dorm room annecdotes about Ryan Coogler!
Reader Comments (10)
I avoid superhero movies like the plague and only saw Black Panther very reluctantly because of its cultural significance. I never thought I would be happy to see a Marvel movie win Oscars. But Black Panther completely deserved those Oscars for costume and production design (apart from the fact that Ruth E. Carter is a legend and a genius who should have won an Academy Award by now). The sets and the costumes in that film are very original and will be copied for years to come. Also, the speeches were lovely.
All I wanted from this season was a Glenn Close coronation on Oscar night. They fucked that up and now everyone is bitching about Green Book winning Best Picture. Makes me glad Green Book won since you destroyed the spirit of a 71 year old legend.
/3rtful, I didn't know Glenn Close had been in Black Panther. She's even better of an actress than I thought!
Great post Christ. I predicted BP's wins in Costume/Score to help catapult me on top of my friend group's Oscar predictions bet, but they were pie-in-the-sky hopes too so that was great. I still think The Favourite or Roma should've taken Production Design, but can't find any downside with Beachler winning esp. with such an emotional speech.
I am with Suzanne, I swore off comic book movies a few years ago, but I watched Black Panther on Netflix and was hugely impressed with the costume and production design. Seeing these 2 women win and watching them give marvellous speeches was a treat. They both did astonishing work.
As for the score, it's excellent, but my heart belongs with the strangely unnominated score for "First Man".
I would give both Costume and Production Design to the exemplary "The Favourite".
These were some of my favorite wins of the night! I loved all the shout outs to Coogler, whose lack of a director nomination still is one of the most puzzling omissions of the whole season.
The score for BP was very forgettable. One of the worst wins in that category in a while.
Hannah Beachler's win was good (though my preference was Roma), but her speech was really insufferable I thought.
Loved Ruth Carter though.
I'm happy for those wins. I was wowed by the production and costume design and I'm really happy that the people who did all of that work are getting the rewards they deserve. I'm also happy for Ludwig Gorransson. I wanted Nicholas Brittel to win but Gorransson is a damn good choice as he's made one of the few film scores of the MCU!!!! that really stood out.
I would've loved for that film to win Best Picture as it would've been a victory not just for a great film but also for what it meant to a lot of people who went to see it and felt they had a connection to it. Plus, it would've been even more special to Stan Lee as he co-created the character and comic as it would be a great tribute to the world he's created.
Spike Lee shouting out "RUTH!" when Carter was accepting her Oscar win was the best moment of the night.
Glenn's spirit is fine. She's an all time great legend entering, or soon to enter, the period of her career where 1-2 minimum Oscar nods abound for her. Plus the Tony's, Emmy's, etc that she could clasp...nope, her spirit is enviable.