New York (CNN) -- When Alec Baldwin closed out the Academy Awards on Sunday night by slapping director Kathryn Bigelow squarely on the backside, that pretty much said it all.





It was Ladies' Night in a Boys' Town.





Yes, the opening routine by Baldwin and Steve Martin was very funny; there was sincerity and genuine gratitude from many of the winners; despite weird digressions into arcane areas like sound recording, the program moved briskly enough.





But did the orchestra need to follow Bigelow's win of her long-deserved best director prize, for "The Hurt Locker," by playing the old Helen Reddy song "I Am Woman"?





When Zoe Saldana and Carey Mulligan arrived on stage to present the Best Original Song award, did they have to be intro-ed with "Thank Heaven For Little Girls"?





And in addition to being groped by Baldwin, did Bigelow have to be so muscled-in-on by her fellow producers when she was picking up the best picture award for her film, "The Hurt Locker"?





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Maybe that wacky Elinor Burkett had a point: The producer of "Music by Prudence" -- which had just won the Oscar for best documentary short -- barreled on stage, saying "Let the woman speak!" and commandeering the mike from her director, Roger Ross Williams.





She provided a classic moment of Oscar craziness and the one instance of spontaneity in an evening when all the big favorites won all the big prizes. Burkett seemed boorish, sure. But that doesn't necessarily make her wrong.





The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly faced a dilemma this year: Vote for the future, or make up for the past.





Years from now, it will probably look profoundly shortsighted that "Avatar," one of the biggest movies ever -- and, more importantly, the one that indicates where movies are going -- didn't win the top prize when Hollywood had a chance to bestow it.





Instead, the Oscars gave their most coveted awards to a small indie film about an unpopular war and a director whose sex had never before been honored with a best director prize.





What helped make it all so complicated was not that there's been a long, long history of overlooked genius female directors that the Oscars had to atone for.





The sin at stake was -- and is -- that women simply have never been given an equal chance to direct.





Predictably, Bigelow didn't have to be as good as the boys, she had to be better. And she was.





But earning your Oscars and actually getting them are two different things. Fortunately for Bigelow, she had history on her side last night.





James Cameron didn't.





The billions being made by "Avatar" will probably be some consolation, but neither he nor his movie are warm and fuzzy, which is what the Academy voters like.





In fact, the big-hearted, sentimental acceptance by best actor Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), and the rather elegant, funny remarks by best actress Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side"), are exactly what we all want Oscar night to be.





That, and a few good jokes, which is what Martin and Baldwin provided, arriving on stage after a musical extravaganza starring Neil Patrick Harris that seemed ready to recall the bad old days of producer Alan Carr and the notorious Rob Lowe/Snow White musical overture of 1989.





Looking back on Oscar's 'train wreck'





Nothing so ghastly reared its ugly head last night, although there were a few moments of bad choices, bad manners and a strategy that was, at best, elusive.





For all the changing characters and categories on Oscar-watchers' betting pool ballots, there are certain things we bet on no matter what: one, that the show will be interminable; two, that it will last at least until midnight (ET) no matter how they try to contain it; and, three, that there will be moments in the show
John Anderson said the Oscar's had to atone for what
long history of overlooked genius female directors
question: John Anderson said the Oscar's had to atone for what, answer: long history of overlooked genius female directors