This was the decade when Hollywood and moviegoers asked themselves: How soon is too soon?

Would Americans want to see movies about terrorists after 9/11? Should filmmakers digitally erase the Twin Towers, even from frothy romcoms, lest the sight distract or upset audiences? Would anyone want to sit through a movie about doomed Flight 93 or an American bomb squad in 2004 Iraq?

"The Hurt Locker," about those bomb techs, is one of the best reviewed movies of the decade and poised to be among the 10 Best Picture nominees for 2009. It doesn't touch the most explosive issue of all -- whether America should have gone to war -- but it gives a vivid sense of the agony, adrenaline and desperate desire to go home.

With 274 movies eligible for Best Picture of 2009 alone, it's impossible to revisit every triumph, tragedy or trend from the decade, but here are some highlights:

A recap: This is what Oscar voters picked for the decade to date: "Gladiator," "A Beautiful Mind," "Chicago," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," "Million Dollar Baby," "Crash," "The Departed," "No Country for Old Men" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

Lessons learned: Moviegoing is not a democracy. If you can afford the extra money to see "Avatar" in IMAX and 3-D and are lucky enough to have such a theater within driving distance, you will have a different experience than the patron watching it in 2-D, which is so last decade.

Some movies, even ones that score plum spots on top 10 lists, simply never arrive here. Take "Big Fan," about an obsessive New York Giants fan who is a sports talk-radio regular. Is that a movie made for Pittsburgh or what? Guess we'll find out Jan. 12 when it arrives on DVD.

An education: Among the many things the movies taught us were to order pinot noir instead of merlot ("Sideways"); green ogres and other animated characters are not just for children ("Shrek"); tats aren't just for twentysomethings ("Memento"); forgetting can be a blessing ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"); even Oprah can have a "Crash" moment; and you lose 35 minutes a flight by checking a bag ("Up in the Air").

Asked and answered: In July 2001 we headlined a story "Are VCRs doomed?"

Technology rules: Social networking sites have turned every user into a critic (for full-fledged membership you have to see the one-star horror movies, too) while 3-D and digital wizardry lure patrons to the theaters when they could as easily wait for DVD or on-demand services.

Time capsule movies: Nothing defined the decade more than the shattering events of 9/11, and three very different movies captured that period: "United 93," "World Trade Center" and "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Best war movie: "The Hurt Locker," hands down, after the disappointment of such films as "Stop-Loss," "Lions for Lambs," "Rendition," "Redacted" and "In the Valley of Elah."

Best epic: "Gladiator," even if Mike Tomlin couldn't rouse the Steelers by quoting its famous line about unleashing hell.

Best gamble: Shooting the "Lord of the Rings" films simultaneously in New Zealand. By the time "Return of the King" went 11 for 11 on Oscar night, director Peter Jackson looked like a genius and Viggo Mortensen deservedly had legions of new fans.

Second best gamble: Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," which grossed nearly $371 million.

Riskiest romance that paid off: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the heartbreaking, oft-quoted Best Picture nominee "Brokeback Mountain."

Best bromance: Paul Rudd and Jason Segel in "I Love You, Man."

Best musical: "Chicago." Runner-up: "Dreamgirls," with numbers that produced spontaneous applause.

Best actor: Sean Penn, for playing a mentally challenged man in "I Am Sam," a Boston grocer and father of a murdered girl in "Mystic River," and Harvey Milk in "Milk," among others.

Best actress: Meryl Streep, who this year added Julia Child, a divorced mother of three in "It's Complicated" and the voice of the animated Mrs. Fox to her body of work.

Best director: Clint Eastwood, 79, who directed "Invictus," "Gran Torino," "The Changeling," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Million Dollar Baby," "Mystic River," "Blood Work" and "Space Cowboys."

Best brand: Pixar. We should all work for a company that bats 1.000 and seems like the happiest place on earth for artists.

Best franchise: Harry Potter.

Best documentary: "March of the Penguins," with "Bowling for Columbine" and "An Inconvenient Truth" runners-up.

Best animated feature: "Finding Nemo."

Best movies based on comic books: "The Dark Knight," "Spider-Man," "Iron Man," "Wanted" and (I don't care, I loved it) "Superman Returns."

Best reinvention: Daniel Craig as James Bond, although we could have lived without the torture in "Casino Royale." And the new "Star Trek," with Pittsburgher Zachary Quinto as Spock.

Worst reinvention: "Land of the Lost."

Best raunchy comedies: Although released in 2005, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" set the tone for the decade and "The Hangover" finished it off.

Best movies about music: Cameron Crowe's autobiographical tale "Almost Famous" and "Ray," with a brilliant Jamie Foxx.

Power of personality: We would follow George Clooney, Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and Sandra Bullock anywhere.

Worst trends: Out-of-control paparazzi, fawning coverage of celebrities and their families, people who are famous for being famous, authors who cannot keep their mouths or memories shut (that means you, Mackenzie Phillips and Julie Powell), MPAA ratings creep, ageism, sacrificing story for special effects, and Hollywood's perpetual amnesia about the importance of the female audience until they turn out in droves for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" or "Sex and the City."

Pittsburgh on parade: Calls to scrap the Pittsburgh Film Office were silenced by a nearly nonstop stream of film and TV work here.

No one knows if the pace can or will continue, but it didn't hurt to have "Warrior," "Love and Other Drugs," "The Next Three Days," "Unstoppable" and TV's "Three Rivers" and "Fire in the Hole" (since changed to "Justified") in town in a single year.

Biggest disappointment: "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."

Sweetest surprise: "Adventureland."

Perfect Pittsburgh portrait: "The Wonder Boys," which captured the city in all its slushy, wintry mess. The Los Angeles Times credited cinematographer Dante Spinotti for making the "Pittsburgh settings gleam like an eccentric urban fantasyland." Yes, that's just how we think of it.

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