Hurt Locker Wins Best Picture Oscar

Hurt Locker blows up big at the Oscars. (photo courtesy of AP/Summit Entertainment)

It wasn’t the most popular movie of all time and it didn’t make a whole lot of money at the box office, but it certainly won the respect of critics and the Hollywood in-crowd. And at tonight’s 82nd Academy Awards, The Hurt Locker won the Best Picture Oscar.

Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War drama, about a bomb-defusing soldier who thrives on the excitement of life on the razor’s edge, was the dark horse pick for the award. Most of those in the know had James Cameron’s Avatar as the front-runner. But though it recently became the highest grossing movie of all time, it was unable to keep The Hurt Locker from winning.

So did all the thousands of members of the Academy actually watch, and love, the movie? Or did they just vote for The Hurt Locker in order to prevent James Cameron from having another embarassing “Titanic” moment. For those who don’t remember, back in 1998 Cameron’s Titanic won pretty much every Academy Award, including Best Picture. This led to him taking the stage and, borrowing a line from his own script, stating his now-famous line: “I’m the king of the world!” And we can all be thankful he didn’t get a chance to do something similar this year.