The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1961
What happened here? Not that I’m totally against it, since I like Sophia Loren, but, come on now.
Otherwise, though, 1961 is a pretty good year. West Side Story wins Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (first double Best Director winner in history. One of two, including the Coen brothers), Best Supporting Actor for George Chakiris and Best Supporting Actress for Rita Moreno (which I talked about here). Big film. Great film. The other award was Best Actor, which went to Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg, which I don’t even hide as one I consider one of the worst decisions of all time.
But back to this category. It’s tough to say, since Sophia Loren is a legend, but I really don’t think she should have won this one. And it’s not even because of Audrey Hepburn. I don’t think she should have won this one either. But, because of the love I have for Sophia Loren, it makes it cloud the fact that I consider this win a terrible decision. And that’s what’s so difficult about this year.
BEST ACTRESS – 1961
And the nominees were…
Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Piper Laurie, The Hustler
Sophia Loren, Two Women
Geraldine Page, Summer and Smoke
Natalie Wood, Splendor in the Grass (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1991
What a stacked year for Best Director this is. Seriously. Just, wow. There was not one bad choice to make here. I mean, there would have been a weak one compared to the category, but still, all these nominees were really fucking strong.
Just to recap, before we get into it, The Silence of the Lambs sweeps the Big Five, which means, along with Best Screenplay (Adapted), it wins Best Picture, Best Director for Jonathan Demme (talked about here. No link. I mean here, here, where we are now), Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins (talked about here) and Best Actress for Jodie Foster. All great decisions. Also this year, Jack Palance wins Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers (which I talked about here), and Mercedes Ruehl wins Best Supporting Actress for The Fisher King. So, in all, 1991 is a great fucking year, aside from that one category I don’t really agree with so much.
But still, how about these fucking directors, right? How great is this list?
BEST DIRECTOR – 1991
And the nominees were…
Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
Barry Levinson, Bugsy
Ridley Scott, Thelma and Louise
John Singleton, Boyz n the Hood
Oliver Stone, JFK (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1976
Oh, 1976. What a stacked year. Rocky wins Best Picture, which, some people are upset over. I understand. All the President’s Men, Taxi Driver, Network, and, Bound for Glory were also nominated for Best Picture. I think we can all agree, there were four great decisions to be made there. Personally, I think they made the best one. John G. Avildsen didn’t necessarily need to win Best Director. I think Sidney Lumet or Alan Pakula would have been better choices (Martin Scorsese was not nominated. Your guess as to why), but you know, Rocky‘s awesome.
As for the rest of the year, Peter Finch wins Best Actor for Network. He beat Sly Stallone (who didn’t need the Oscar), Bill Holden (who had his Oscar already), Bob De Niro (who had an Oscar and would get one four years after this, which may or may not make up for the fact that it was fucking Taxi Driver), and Giancarlo Giannini for Seven Beauties (who went on to get tortured and killed in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Bonus points for also being disembowled in Hannibal). I call that a fair decision. Best Actress went to Faye Dunaway (finally!), also for Network, ending her string of (acceptable) snubs. And Best Supporting Actor went to Jason Robards for All the President’s Men, which, is acceptable (kind of), but — I’d personally have gone for Burgess Meredith or Burt Young for Rocky. But, you know, Robards is awesome.
That’s really it. 1976 is one of the strongest years in Academy history. You know, it’s awesome. (Motif!)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1976
And the nominees were…
Jane Alexander, All the President’s Men
Jodie Foster, Taxi Driver
Lee Grant, Voyage of the Damned
Piper Laurie, Carrie
Beatrice Straight, Network (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1948
This is one of my personal favorite individual categories of all time. Not so much based on the nominees, based on the winner. This, to me, is a top five Best Actress decision of all time. I love it so much. Which is great, because, without this, 1948 would be practically intolerable.
1948 is the year Hamlet wins Best Picture. Easily the single worst Best Picture decision of all time. Hamlet itself is not a terrible picture. In fact, had it won in 1947, I’d probably say it’s a fine and even admirable decision. But, here’s what it beat: Johnny Belinda (which, if you know nothing about it, wait a second, I’ll tell you. Also, watch it. You’ll see), The Snake Pit (also, I’ll be talking about it in a second), The Red Shoes (I bet you’ve heard of this one. One of the most beautiful films ever made, and contains the most breathtaking dance sequence ever put to film), and some little film called The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I think we can all agree — the choice was not okay.
Best Actor this year was Laurence Olivier, for Hamlet. This was a perfect decision. Especially since Humphrey Bogart wasn’t nominated. Best Supporting Actor was Walter Huston and Best Director was John Huston, both for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Best Supporting Actress was Claire Trevor, for Key Largo (which, coincidentally, was also directed by John Huston. Nice bit of trivia. He directed both Supporting Oscar-winning performances this year). Still, that Hamlet decision is not cool.
BEST ACTRESS – 1948
And the nominees were…
Ingrid Bergman, Joan of Arc
Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit
Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama
Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number
Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1949
1949. I’m excited for this one. I like being able to talk about years like this, because I know people aren’t necessarily well-versed in anything before 1950. Or, hell, 1970.
The year itself wasn’t particularly interesting. All the King’s Men, a good film, beat a pretty weak set of nominees. It was probably the best of the bunch, so it’s not like it was a bad decision. Mercedes McCambridge won Best Supporting Actress for the film as well. Best Actress this year went to Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress, and all I can say about that is — yes. The performance is astoundingly good, and she was by far the best choice in the category. Best Supporting Actor went to Dean Jagger for Twelve O’Clock High. I didn’t understand why he won when I watched the film, so I need to rewatch it before I decide whether or not it was a good decision. Though it was a pretty weak set of nominees. And also, Best Director was Joseph Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives, which, I don’t understand. But Best Director is murky this year and the year after this, so I’ll save it until I talk about it. In all though, 1949 is a solid year. A few solid choices, a few bad ones. Above average.
BEST ACTOR – 1949
And the nominees were…
Broderick Crawford, All the King’s Men
Kirk Douglas, Champion
Gregory Peck, Twelve O’Clock High
Richard Todd, The Hasty Heart
John Wayne, Sands of Iwo Jima (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1995
1995. Braveheart. Decent year, not a great year. Like Braveheart a lot, but, Best Picture? Not sure. Still a good choice based on the nominees, I think.
Mel Gibson wins Best Director for it — an easy (and good) decision based on the fact that DGA winner Ron Howard wasn’t nominated (talked about here). Nicolas Cage wins Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas, which I love as a decision, as I explained here. Susan Sarandon wins Best Actress for Dead Man Walking, which I really don’t like as a decision (she should have won one, but not this year. Elisabeth Shue should have won). And Kevin Spacey wins Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects, which, aside from the whole lead/supporting thing, is an awesome decision.
So in all a pretty good year, capped off by this decision, which, despite my track record, I really love. A lot.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1995
And the nominees were…
Joan Allen, Nixon
Kathleen Quinlan, Apollo 13
Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite
Mare Winningham, Georgia
Kate Winslet, Sense and Sensibility (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1934
I love 1934. That will never change, because my favorite film of all time was made in 1934. And also It Happened One Night was this year too. Which, coincidentally, those are the two films I’ll pretty much be talking about in this article. So, that’s cool.
1934 is the first year of the single digit Oscar years, the first year they really figured out how to start doing things. They got up on their feet this year. It would take them another two years to get the Supporting categories in, but, they’re working at it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to recap here, since It Happened One Night literally won everything. Best Picture, Best Actor for Clark Gable, Best Actress for Claudette Colbert, and yes, even Best Director.
I’m not even going to hide my opinion. I’m voting The Thin Man all the way here. It’s my favorite film, and nothing’s gonna change. So I’m gonna make this one as quick as possible, since, we all knew, before I walked in the goddamn door, which film I was gonna vote for.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1934
And the nominees were…
Frank Capra, It Happened One Night
Victor Schertzinger, One Night of Love
W.S. Van Dyke, The Thin Man
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1973
1973 is one of those years I love so much it makes me want to say it real loud. But then I get worried that not everyone feels as strongly as I do, so I mostly keep it to myself. But, everyone loves The Sting, right? We’d all have voted for that over The Exorcist, right? Because those seem to be the only two. If you say American Graffiti, I’ll laugh at you. It’s a great film but — not over those two.
Anyway, the rest of this year was also pretty good. Or at least, above average. Jack Lemmon finally got his Oscar and won Best Actor for Save the Tiger. Tatum O’Neal wins Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon, which was a fantastic decision. Then John Houseman wins Best Supporting Actor for The Paper Chase, which I guess is okay, since he’s an acting legend, even though I’d have gone another way. Oh, and George Roy Hill finally wins his Best Director statue, which, was the best thing to come out of this year.
And now we have — the worst thing to come out of this year.
BEST ACTRESS – 1973
And the nominees were…
Ellen Burstyn, The Exorcist
Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class
Marsha Mason, Cinderella Liberty
Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were
Joanne Woodward, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1996
Hey, look at that, it’s our example category. Way back when, back when I first introduced this Oscar Quest, I was explaining how these articles were gonna work, and I picked a random category by typing in two random numbers after “19–” and one of the categories at random. And I came out with Best Supporting Actor 1996. Who’d’ve thought it would take six months to get to it?
Anyway, 1996 is a year that’s fresh in most people’s minds. The English Patient, a film that most people can say probably didn’t deserve to win, won Best Picture over the superior Fargo and even the superior Jerry Maguire. Anthony Minghella wins Best Director for it as well (talked about here), but with one goes the other. Juliette Binoche wins Best Supporting Actress for it, which I’m cool with, since I like her very much. Best Actress this year went to Frances McDorman for Fargo, which is awesome, don’t cha know. And Best Actor — yeah. Geoffrey Rush wins for Shine. I believe I had quite a few words to say about that one here. So in all, I think this is a pretty terrible year. Next to 1990, probably the worst of the decade. Great. Work’s cut out.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1996
And the nominees were…
Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Maguire
William H. Macy, Fargo
Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shine
Edward Norton, Primal Fear
James Woods, Ghosts of Mississippi (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1977
Oh I know I must almost be done with this year. I’ve talked about everything but Best Actor. And Best Picture, but you should be able to guess that those are coming last, because you need to end with your good stuff. But, if we all didn’t know by now, this is the year Annie Hall beat Star Wars. And that about says it all.
Richard Dreyfuss wins Best Actor for The Goodbye Girl, Diane Keaton wins Best Actress for Annie Hall (written about here), Jason Robards wins Best Supporting Actor for Julia (written about here), and Woody Allen wins Best Director for Annie Hall (bemoaned here). I like being mostly done. I don’t really have to do the big intro.
This is one of those categories — hell, this is one of those years, aside from the bad Best Picture choice (but also, good Best Picture choice, which I’ve sort of explained in the other ones, since The Turning Point was the expected winner) — that people just ignore, because it’s business as usual. It’s not particularly exciting. But we’ll do our best to make it interesting.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1977
And the nominees were…
Leslie Browne, The Turning Point
Quinn Cummings, The Goodbye Girl
Melinda Dillon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Vanessa Redgrave, Julia
Tuesday Weld, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1999
I’ve talked about 1999 a bunch already. American Beauty wins Best Picture, Best Director for Sam Mendes (which I talked about here) and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey (which I talked about here). Angelina Jolie wins Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted (which I talked about here), and Michael Caine wins Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules. That’s about it. It’s great having said a lot of the stuff you’ve wanted to say about a year already. You can get right into the category.
And while we’re on that — what the fuck? Look, I don’t dislike Hilary Swank, she tries and she’s likable. But what did she do in this performance that was so good to have beaten Annette Bening? Are people just unwilling to say that because of the subject matter? Personally, I think the Academy once again went with the “likable” over “unlikable” character bullshit they’re known for. Which really fucked things up, historically. Great job, guys.
BEST ACTRESS – 1999
And the nominees are…
Annette Bening, American Beauty
Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds
Julianne Moore, The End of the Affair
Meryl Streep, Music of the Heart
Hilary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1941
1941. What can you do here but shake your head? Citizen Kane is almost entirely shut out from the Oscars in favor of How Green Was My Valley. Best Picture, Best Director for John Ford (his third, out of four, and second in a row), and even Best Supporting Actor for Donald Crisp, who beat out Sydney Greenstreet for The Maltese Falcon. What can you do?
Also this year, Joan Fontaine wins Best Actress for Suspicion, which is about as blatant a makeup Oscar as you can get (and yet, a good choice. Even though she deserved to win the year before this, everything ended up working out okay), and Mary Astor wins Best Supporting Actress for The Great Lie, which — I don’t think anyone even remembers that particular category, so it doesn’t really matter that much (though she also played Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, so, even she won for another film, I think we can all be cool with that).
But really though, no matter which way you cut it, the blatant snub of Citizen Kane (mostly because of William Randolph Hearts’s doing), really leaves a black mark on this year that will always be there. We can’t pretend that it’s even remotely okay, even though it means nothing.
BEST ACTOR – 1941
And the nominees were…
Gary Cooper, Sergeant York
Cary Grant, Penny Serenade
Walter Huston, The Devil and Daniel Webster
Robert Montgomery, Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1974
I like years like 1974. Because all you need to say is something like — The Godfather Part II — and everything takes care of itself. Everyone’s like, “Oh, yeah, I get it.”
The Godfather Part II swept Best Picture, Best Director for Coppola (which is what we’re talking about here. Sorry to ruin the surprise) and Best Supporting Actor for De Niro. I talked about Best Supporting Actor already. Ellen Burstyn won Best Actress this year for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which I’m very okay with, and I’ll explain why when I get to the category. Best Supporting Actress went to Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express, which I’ve discussed in detail here. And Best Actor went to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto in what I consider one of the worst, if not the worst Best Actor decision of all time (I forget what the final prognosis was, but you can read all about it here).
Wow, I’m almost done with this year. Just Best Actress left to talk about. Which makes sense. This is a year where most people tend to see all the films very easily, even if they aren’t on an Oscar Quest.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1974
And the nominees were…
John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II
Bob Fosse, Lenny
Roman Polanski, Chinatown
François Truffaut, Day for Night (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1961
1961 was a good year for motion pictures. Films like 101 Dalmatians, West Side Story, The Guns of Navarone, Splendor in the Grass, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Parent Trap, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Children’s Hour, The Hustler, One, Two Three, A Raisin in the Sun, and Yojimbo will do that to a year.
West Side Story wins Best Picture in a perfectly acceptable choice. It’s a wonderful film, and deserved to win, even though I personally like The Hustler more. But even so, it’s still a great choice. Plus, the other three nominees for Best Picture were Guns of the Navarone, Judgment at Nuremberg and Fanny, so, really it was a good year all around. Robert Wise wins Best Director (with Jerome Robbins) for West Side Story, which is also a great decision. Best Actor goes to Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg in a terrible decision. Not because he was bad, but because — Paul Newman was Fast Eddie Felson. He was so good in the role they gave him an Oscar for it when he reprised it 25 years after this. Best Actress went to Sophia Loren for Two Women, a decision I don’t agree with and will talk about pretty soon. And Best Supporting Actor went to George Charkiris for West Side Story, which I’m mostly okay with, even though I’d have gone another way. In all though, aside from some decisions I don’t like (to varying degrees), 1961 is a very good year.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1961
And the nominees were…
Fay Bainter, The Children’s Hour
Judy Garland, Judgement at Nuremberg
Lotte Lenya, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Una Merkel, Summer and Smoke
Rita Moreno, West Side Story (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1995
1995, a good year, mostly because they made the best choice. Other than that, I’m not sure how great a year it was. Braveheart is a good film, but is it a Best Picture winner? In a year with better nominees, probably not. Or maybe even still. I don’t know. I only work with what I’m dealt. As it stands, the film was the best choice among the nominees. I love Apollo 13, but I don’t know if I’d give that Best Picture. And as much as I love Babe, it was never going to win.
Mel Gibson deserved to win Best Director. The reason for this is, Ron Howard, who won the DGA award for Apollo 13, wasn’t even nominated for the Oscar. Which made Mel a by default best decision there. And then Best Actress this year was Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking, a decision I do not like at all. Not even a little bit. I like that she has an Oscar, but, she beat better performances. Best Supporting Actor this year was Kevin Spacey for The Usual Suspects, which is such a good decision it doesn’t even matter whether he was lead or supporting. And Best Supporting Actress was Mira Sorvino for Mighty Aphrodite, which was a fucking fantastic decision. So, in all, it’s a good year for choices, but, I don’t know, I still can’t decide what I think about the year as a whole.
BEST ACTOR – 1995
And the nominees were…
Nicolas Cage, Leaving Las Vegas
Richard Dreyfuss, Mr. Holland’s Opus
Anthony Hopkins, Nixon
Sean Penn, Dead Man Walking
Massimo Troisi, Il Postino (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1977
1977. A year I try to mentally skip over whenever I see it. It conjures up bad memories. Annie Hall wins Best Picture this year, beating out Star Wars. That’s why. Now, granted, The Turning Point was the “favorite” to win, and by all accounts, Star Wars never had a chance, but, either way — come on.
Woody Allen wins Best Director and Diane Keaton wins Best Actress for Annie Hall, both of which I’ve talked about. Best Actor was Richard Dreyfuss for The Goodbye Girl, a decision I like, and Best Supporting Actress went to Vanessa Redgrave for Julia. I’d have gone another way, but that’s probably just because the category contained a type of performance that I almost always go for. Still, that’s cool, I guess.
Overall, this isn’t a terrible year, especially considering what it could have been, but it’s still not a good year, because — really, how does Star Wars not win?
BEST ACTOR – 1977
And the nominees were…
Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Turning Point
Peter Firth, Equus
Alec Guinness, Star Wars
Jason Robards, Julia
Maximilian Schell, Julia (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1955
1955 is usually a “skip” year for most people. That is, when you’re reading through a list, looking at all the high and low points, like, “On the Waterfront, all right!”, or, “Around the World in 80 Days? Really?”, when you see 1955 and see Marty, most people, either not recognizing it or viewing it as a kind of blank, just mentally skip past it without a word. Usually they’ll be say the title, but mostly as a mental pause, as they skip ahead to the next film.
The reason for this is that Marty, while a fantastic film utterly deserving of Best Picture this year, isn’t a big film. In any other year, it probably wouldn’t come close to winning. But, it wasn’t in the strongest of categories. And since it doesn’t have too much of a lasting reputation like the films around it do, most people skip it. Which is a shame. It is a great film. Ernest Borgnine won Best Actor for it, and I’ve talked about how, while I wouldn’t have voted for him, it’s great that he won. Also this year, Anna Magnani won Best Actress for The Rose Tattoo, in what was mostly a weak year. I’m somewhat undecided on my feelings on that. Best Supporting Actor went to Jack Lemmon for Mister Roberts, and Best Supporting Actress went to Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden. See? Nothing here particularly stands out, which is why this year, understandably, yet somewhat unfairly, keeps getting skipped over and overlooked.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1955
And the nominees were…
Elia Kazan, East of Eden
David Lean, Summertime
Joshua Logan, Picnic
Delbert Mann, Marty
John Sturges, Bad Day at Black Rock (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1970
Oh, 1970 — a year I don’t like, even though I know, there isn’t anything I can do about it.
Patton wins Best Picture, Best Director for Franklin J. Schaffner, and Best Actor for George C. Scott. Now, Best Actor I have no problem with. George C. Scott gives one of the best male acting performances of all time here. I completely understand that. And even Best Director I get. But Best Picture? I don’t know. I mean, it’s a perfect fitting Best Picture, but, the other film that was up this year was Love Story, and I’m extremely partial to that. That, to me, is a perfect film. Patton is kind of a long mess. Not really a mess, but, the only real reason I think it won is because it was “supposed to.” Looking at it you think, “There’s a film that’s a Best Picture,” but, really, is it? It’s kind of boring. It’s a good film, but — I don’t know. I don’t think it needed to win. (And just so we’re clear on this bias, I did see Patton before I saw Love Story, so I’m not just saying Patton should have lost because I really want a film I love to win at all costs. I don’t do that. I so stay as objective as I can. I respect Patton, but I’m not sure I can say I accept that it should have won. Plus, Love Story beat Patton in the Globes. I notice how, when one gets it wrong, the other usually gets it right. And I felt the Oscars got it wrong this year.)
1970 is also notorious for featuring the worst Best Actress decision of all time. Glenda Jackson won Best Actress for Women in Love, beating Ali MacGraw for Love Story. Now, everyone here says here that Glenda Jackson should not have won. This isn’t a sentimental thing. This is literally, she should not have won. The film is terrible, and she’s not even really a lead. Plus Ali MacGraw gave the performance of a lifetime. It’s a terrible decision all around, made worse by the fact that they gave her a second one three years later for A Touch of Class, which is a glorified romantic comedy (with some drama at the end), which would have been okay if they just gave her that one. I don’t know what the fuck the Academy was thinking there, and here. Don’t worry, I’ll have a lot to rail on when I get to that category. As for the rest of this year, though, Best Supporting Actor went to John Mills, for Ryan’s Daughter, because — well, I don’t fucking know. It’s decisions like that which are the reason I don’t like this year at all. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1959
This is the one category for 1959 where I can really say — what a fucking terrible decision.
Ben-Hur wins Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Charlton Heston and Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith. All of those are pretty okay. I talked about the Best Director and Best Actor already. The other category this year was Best Supporting Actress (which I’ve also talked about), which went to Shelley Winters for The Diary of Anne Frank. I’m less okay with that one, but I do understand that one. Which leaves this category. Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking here?
BEST ACTRESS – 1959
And the nominees were…
Doris Day, Pillow Talk
Audrey Hepburn, The Nun’s Story
Katharine Hepburn, Suddenly, Last Summer
Simone Signoret, Room at the Top
Elizabeth Taylor, Suddenly, Last Summer (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1991
1991 is a near perfect year, Oscar-wise. Were it not for one tiny shitty decision (and one upsetting one), the entire year would be flawless.
The Silence of the Lambs became only the third picture (after Cuckoo’s Nest and It Happened One Night, in not that order) to win the Big Five, i.e. Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress (Jodie Foster), Best Director (Jonathan Demme), and Best Screenplay (Ted Tally, in case you were interested). Rightfully so, too. It’s a perfect film. No one seemed to see it coming, since Bugsy was winning most of the awards that season, but, now, twenty years later, it seems like a no-brainer, right? Best Supporting Actress this year went to Mercedes Ruehl in one of those “best choice in a weak category” kind of deals. And Best Supporting Actor went to Jack Palance, which I talked about, in a decision that’s upsetting, but cool, since it’s Jack Palance. That’s the decision that’s upsetting, but the one I can live with.
The shitty decision I mentioned earlier was The Prince of Tides being the fifth Best Picture nominee. It’s clearly a terrible film, and the only reason it got on the list seems to be the fact that it’s a Barbra Streisand movie, and the Academy loves Babs about as much as the Hollywood Foreign Press loves Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp. If the Academy had picked a better film as the fifth Best Picture nominee, like, say, Barton Fink, The Fisher King, Boyz N the Hood, or the most obvious choice (since it was nominated for Best Director in the Babs spot), Thelma and Louise, we’d have had that film, along with The Silence of the Lambs, Bugsy, JFK and Beauty and the Beast as the five nominees. How fucking great would that lineup have been? (Ooh, I kind of want to rank the Best Picture years now, based on how strong I think their nominees are. That’s getting done at the end of this Quest. Write that shit down.) So, in all a perfect year, since, they made all good decisions. But it’s like the little pockmark at the end of it that’s annoying because, one little fix and it would be perfect. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1972
Let’s not waste time here. The Godfather won Best Picture, it was a great decision. A top three decision of all time. Coppola lost Best Director to Bob Fosse and Cabaret. Unacceptable for this year, acceptable for all time. No need to waste space on something we can all agree on. (We can agree, can’t we?)
Marlon Brando won Best Actor. Nuff said. Best Actress went to Liza Minnelli for Cabaret. Nuff said. Great decision. Best Supporting Actor — which I talked about very recently — was Joel Grey, also for Cabaret. To echo my sentiments in the article, unacceptable, but understandable how it happened. And Best Supporting Actress went to Eileen Heckart for Butterflies are Free. That was a very weak category, and is what it is. So, now, this one.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1972
And the nominees were…
John Boorman, Deliverance
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather
Bob Fosse, Cabaret
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Sleuth
Jan Troell, The Emigrants (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1966
The thing I remember best about 1966 is that it’s one of, if not the only — double checking on this right now. Yes it is — it’s the only year in the history of the Academy (with five Best Picture nominees) where the Best Actor category matched up exactly with the Best Picture category. That is — all the Best Actor nominees were all the male leads of the five Best Picture nominees. No other category can boast that. There are a couple of fours, and 1964 has four matches and one repeat, but, the other nominee didn’t really have a male lead, so, 1966 will always be the only year (unless they go back to five nominees) where Best Actor matched Best Picture.
It also was a pretty good year overall, with A Man For All Seasons winning Best Picture, Paul Scofield winning Best Actor for it and Fred Zinnemann winning Best Director for it, and then every other award going to the other film that was just as great that year, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, with Elizabeth Taylor winning Best Actress and Sandy Dennis winning Best Supporting Actress. The only other category that wasn’t won by either of those two films (but not for lack of trying), was this category, which is a pleasant little change up. Because who doesn’t love Walter Matthau?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1966
And the nominees were…
Mako, The Sand Pebbles
James Mason, Georgy Girl
Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie
George Segal, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Robert Shaw, A Man for All Seasons (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1982
Oh, 1982. A good year capped off by a boring Best Picture winner. Gandhi is many things — a great film, a terrific biopic on one of the most important men of the 20th century — but an interesting film it is not. It didn’t need to win Best Picture. It’s just too on-the-nose. Which, kind of what the 80s were for the Oscars — a boring decade. Think about it. How many interesting decisions did the Academy make in the 80s? Amadeus? Platoon? Rain Man? Terms of Endearment? Even the ones that won weren’t great decisions. At best they’d be strong films in other decades. So, I just count this as one in a long line of boring 80s choices.
Richard Attenborough winning Best Director this year was — well, I talked about it already. Recently too. Meryl Streep winning Best Actress was — well, I talked about that too. Jessica Lange winning Best Supporting Actress was a fine decision, and Lou Gossett Jr. winning Best Supporting Actor was — well, it was. Which leaves this category. The most interesting of all the categories this year. It’s tough talking about it. Because on the one hand, he played Gandhi. But on the other hand — well, is the other hand. It’s kind of a lose-lose.
BEST ACTOR – 1982
And the nominees were…
Dustin Hoffman, Tootsie
Ben Kingsley, Gandhi
Jack Lemmon, Missing
Paul Newman, The Verdict
Peter O’Toole, My Favorite Year (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1983
Still don’t know what to do with 1983. Or rather, how do you solve a problem like 1983? For the most part, 1983 is a boring year. Two of the five Best Picture nominees are pretty meh — The Dresser and Tender Mercies — one of them is amazing but was never going to win — The Big Chill — and then the other two…which do you pick? — Terms of Endearment and The Right Stuff. I love The Right Stuff, but, I don’t love it enough to call it a slam dunk Best Picture winner. And I love Terms of Endearment, but it’s also not quite a Best Picture winner even though it is. James L. Brooks also winning Best Director is kind of okay, and yet at the same time — I don’t know. I just don’t know what to do with this year.
Best Actor this year went to Robert Duvall, which — thank fucking god. The man was part of the biggest upset ever recorded in the Best Supporting Actor category in 1979 when he lost for Apocalypse Now. Interesting bit of fact about that whenever I get to it. But for now, even though the performance isn’t incredible (I actually compare it to Jeff Bridges’s Crazy Heart performance), the man deserved to win, so, we live with it. Best Actress this year went to Shirley MacLaine, which, also, fucking finally. That woman should have won 23 years before this. And I think she said that in her acceptance speech as well. Best Supporting Actor this year was Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment, because, why not? I think that was their reasoning. Why the fuck not? He was the big name in pretty weak category.
But, this year is very much a dead year for me because, the winners are clear cut, they’re not very interesting past — it’s about time — and the Best Picture choice is weak in terms of Best Picture choices, but, probably not a bad choice in terms of the nominees for this year. I’m pretty sure when the time comes it’ll be my vote, then again maybe not. I don’t know. It’s just — what do you do with a year like this? (more…)
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