OSCARS A GOOD NIGHT FOR WESTERN FANS
Hal Needham
Tonight’s Academy Awards were shared among an unusually wide number of films, the result of a year with so many exceptional films. The highlights for Western fans? DJANGO UNCHAINED won Best Original Screenplay — Quentin Tarantino, and Best Supporting Actor — Christoph Waltz. LINCOLN won Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis, and Best Production Design – Rick Carter and Jim Erickson. Also of particular delight to Western fans, stunt man and stunt coordinator Hal Needham was presented with an honorary Oscar for a splendid career. As writer C. Courtney Joyner noted on Facebook, “In a way, it meant that Andy McLaglen, Burt Kennedy, Henry Hathaway, Gordon Douglas, John Stugess and Peckinpah were all at tonight’s ceremony, thanks to Hal.”