Category Archives: Oscar Vault Monday
Oscar Vault Monday – A Serious Man, 2009 (dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
Joel and Ethan Coen’s 14th feature film was also their third film (out of four) to be nominated for Best Picture (1996’s Fargo was the first, 2007 Best Picture winner Now Country For Old Men the second, 2010’s True Grit the fourth). It’s also probably the most insular of their films; those who love it really love it, but many who saw it just couldn’t relate. The setting of the film, St. Louis Park, Minnesota in the late 1960s, adds a slight autobiographical element to the film and its plot deals heavily with Jewish mysticism and spirituality. The film was only nominated for two Academy Award, winning none: Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: Avatar, An Education, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, The Blind Side, Up, Up In The Air and winner The Hurt Locker.
Oscar Vault Monday – The Racket, 1928 (dir. Lewis Milestone)
The Racket was long thought a lost film. After the death of Howard Hughes, however, one surviving print was recovered. It was restored with help from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. As you can probably tell from the date, it was one of the first Best Picture nominees. This is a tricky ceremony, as the Academy had two Best Picture categories, one for Best Production and one for Most Unique and Artistic Production. After they dropped the latter category, the Academy tends to count the former as the official “Best Picture” nominees. Thus I decided to write about a film that was nominated in that category, but I am going to list all six films that were nominated in both categories. It’s important that you watch them all because you can really see why a split category like this was necessary at the tail-end of the Silent Era. But with the invention of sound, artistry got lost in the mire while the industry struggled to get back to the basics, only this time with sound. The nominees for Best Production were: The Racket, Seventh Heaven and winner Wings and the nominees for Most Unique and Artistic Production were: Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, The Crowd and winner Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.
Oscar Vault Monday – Born On The Fourth of July, 1989 (dir. Oliver Stone)
I think I first saw this film when I was in High School. If I remember correctly, I rented it because I was going through a Willem Dafoe phase (yes, really). My mother watched it with me because she had really enjoyed the film when it first came out. Then she told me about how she’d seen the real Ron Kovic speak at an event once and she thought Cruise had really captured his spirit. There’s a lot of themes in this movie; because it is directed by Oliver Stone, it isn’t particularly subtle with its point of view. But, from what I gather, neither was Ron Kovic. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two: Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing (Won), Best Actor, Best Director (won), Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot and winner Driving Miss Daisy.
Oscar Vault Monday – Milk, 2008 (dir. Gus Van Sant)
I don’t even know where to begin with this movie. I have so many feelings about it. And there is so much to say. There’s the actual history on which it is based. There’s the amazing ensemble cast, including Sean Penn’s Oscar-winning turn. There’s Dustin Lance Black’s amazing script, which also won an Oscar. But then there’s this anger I get when I watch it because I think about the fall of 2008. This film was released on November 26th, a few weeks after the 2008 election, which in California included the passage of Prop 8. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the film had been released earlier. Would it have had an impact? I just wish the studio had thought to try. When it did get released it played at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco for quite a while. That is where I first saw it (I’d just moved earlier in 2008 from Berkeley to San Francisco) and I’ve got to say it just made the whole election all the more bittersweet. Upon several revisits to this film I think this is the superior film from 2008 and it should have gone home with the big prize. But I can see why it didn’t. It’s a film about a very polarizing issue and Slumdog Millionaire was (marketed as) a feel-good film. In the long run I think Milk will be the film people will return to time and again. Milk was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two: Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Original Screenplay (won), Best Supporting Actor Josh Brolin, Best Actor Sean Penn (won), Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader and winner Slumdog Millionaire.
Oscar Vault Monday – The Right Stuff, 1983 (dir. Philip Kaufman)
This was one of those movies that just completely blew me away when I first saw it. Partly because it’s one of those “great American stories” type movies about heroic everymen, but also because it is so visually stunning and packed with great performances. I will say right off that it has a pretty hefty ensemble cast and instead of trying to write about all of the performances, I’m going to focus on the five main men. But I do want to say that the women (specifically, Barbara Hershey, Kim Stanley, Veronica Cartwright, Mary Jo Deschanel and Kathy Baker) are all marvelous as they try to support their men, and sometimes try to come to terms with their own fear as their husbands become pioneers in this thing we called The Space Race. I also want to mention that Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer add some much appreciated levity to the film as befuddled NASA recruiters meeting with the various pilots as they try to convince them to join this new program. The Right Stuff was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning four: Sound Effects Editing (won), Best Film Editing (won), Best Original Score (won), Best Sound (won), Best Supporting Actor Sam Shepard, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were The Big Chill, The Dresser, Tender Mercies and winner Terms of Endearment.
Oscar Vault Monday – Bonnie and Clyde, 1967 (dir. Arthur Penn)
I actually discussed Bonnie and Clyde a little bit in my article last year about 1967 and how it was the year that Old Hollywood became New Hollywood (I actually discuss all five Best Picture nominees from that year, as well as In Cold Blood), so I was reluctant to revisit 1967 for awhile. But I wrote that article over a year ago now, so I guess it’s time to revisit 1967 after all. I remember when I first saw this film it completely blew me away and upon every revisit I remain in awe of what an utterly amazing feat of filmmaking prowess is on display here. I saw an interview with Arthur Penn, I believe, where he talked about how he decided he wanted to shoot the picture in color because he wanted it to feel modern. They weren’t making a documentary of Depression Era America. This film was going to feel as modern as it possibly could, without being avant-garde. I think Penn accomplished just that, and made it just modern enough to feel timeless, actually. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning two: Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography (won), Best Supporting Actor Gene Hackman, Best Supporting Actor Michael J. Pollard, Best Supporting Actress Estelle Parsons (won), Best Actor Warren Beatty, Best Actress Faye Dunaway, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were Doctor Dolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and winner In The Heat of the Night.
Oscar Vault Monday – Shanghai Express, 1932 (dir. Josef von Sternberg)
Shanghai Express is an interesting film for a handful of reasons. For one, it was the fourth of seven collaborations between its star Marlene Dietrich and its director Josef von Sternberg. Also, it was made in the Pre-Code era, so it’s deliciously racy. But then there is some inherent racism that is very hard to ignore. It’s very “orientalist,” in that it’s almost voyeuristic in its look at China, having the villain by a “mysterious Eurasian,” (played by a Swedish American actor), and having Anna May Wong play a character who becomes a murderess. Regardless of its faults, Shanghai Express is a must-see classic film, anchored by a sultry performance from Dietrich. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one: Best Cinematography (won), Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: Arrowsmith, Bad Girl, The Champ, Five Star Final, One Hour with You, The Smiling Lieutenant and winner Grand Hotel.
Oscar Vault Monday – Anatomy of a Murder, 1959 (dir. Otto Preminger)
I first saw this movie during TCM Summer Under The Stars last August and it made me fall in love with Lee Remick. She is something else in this film, a film that also features a stellar ensemble cast. I also feel I must point out that this was the year that Ben-Hur won Best Picture and as much as I like Anatomy of a Murder there’s no comparison between the two. Especially in terms of scope and pure cinematic epicness. Ben-Hur is the kind of film that could only be a film, whereas Anatomy of Murder could have worked just as well as a play. That being said, Anatomy of a Murder is an amazing film and definitely worth your time. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, though it failed to win a single award: Best B&W Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor Arthur O’Connell, Best Supporting Actor George C. Scott, Best Actor James Stewart and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were The Diary of Anne Frank, The Nun’s Story, Room at the Top and winner Ben-Hur (which won eleven Oscars).
Oscar Vault Monday – Picnic, 1955 (dir. Joshua Logan)
This is a year wherein I 100% agree with the winner the Academy picked – Marty. It’s one of my favorite films period, let alone one of my favorite Best Picture winners. That being said, the three nominees I’ve seen from that year (Marty, Picnic and Mister Roberts) are all fabulous films. I decided to talk about Picnic because it has one of my all-time favorite performances and there’s lots of shirtless William Holden. Picnic was nominated for six Oscars, winning two: Best Score, Best Color Art Direction-Set Decoration (won), Best Film Editing (won), Best Supporting Actor Arthur O’Connell, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, The Rose Tattoo and winner Marty.
Oscar Vault Monday – Libeled Lady, 1936 (dir. Jack Conway)
Libeled Lady is one of those films that was only nominated for one Academy Award, the big one: Best Picture. I don’t have the stats on how often this happened, but early on in the process and especially from 1931-1943 when they had more than five nominees (the 5th ceremony had eight nominated films and the 6th-16th ceremonies each had ten nominated films), this was more common than it is now. Regardless, it is a wonderful screwball comedy with an outstanding main cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy. All four of them have amazing comic timing and chemistry to spare. The other films nominated that year were: Anthony Adverse, Dodsworth, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Romeo and Juliet, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, A Tale of Two Cities, Three Smart Girls and winner The Great Ziegfeld.
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