Okay, maybe it's a little late for an Oscar column, but I had to see the results of this year's awards to decide on whether to add Martin Scorsese to this list or not. While ignoring one of the top 10 directors of all time(future column?) is no doubt a horrible mistake for an awards system that honors the best in film, I felt it would simply look stupid to write about it and 4 days after posting this the man wins an Oscar. I have to work with the posting schedule I've been given. Either way, Martin Scorsese won his Oscar in one of the most memorable moments in the history of the award, so all is right with the Oscar world. Well, not so fast....
The worst story I may have ever heard involving the Academy Awards would have to be when Will Rogers announced the winner for Best Director at the 1933 awards ceremony. When opening the envelope Rogers remarked "Well, well, well. What do you know. I've watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Come on up and get it, Frank!". Well, Frank Capra, who was nominated for his film Lady for a Day, started to make his way up the isle, but unfortunately for Capra, Will Rogers was referring to director Frank Lloyd whom was also nominated for his film, Cavalcade. Frank Capra was made to head back to his seat amongst jeers of "Sit down" being yelled at him. Capra called the walk back to his seat the "Longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life".
That story alone would qualify as a horrible on any list, but this column is not about the stupidity of Will Rogers. What this column is about are the mistakes the Academy has made itself. In hindsight everyone's vision is 20/20, but some mistakes, as we all know, have been inexcusable in the history of the ultimate award in film. Listing every single award given that was either more deserved by another nominee or completely undeserved at all would take about 5 months worth of columns. I will not be doing that. Rather the selections I've chosen are the mistakes I find the most deplorable.
Shakespeare in Love as Best Picture
When I watched the 1998 Best Picture winner I thought it was a good movie. I remember thinking "ah, that was kind of cute". On the other hand, when I watched one of the five films Shakespeare in Love beat, well, I had a little different reaction. After I left the theater having seen Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan I was absorbed by the movie. The vision of war Spielberg brought to the screen was unlike any I'd ever seen. Everyone knows that war is tragic, but no movie had ever shown the horror of war so completely as what I'd just witnessed with Saving Private Ryan. Ryan was an achievement in film that when you saw it you were watching history being made. Anyone who saw the movie knew it was movie of the year, and maybe of the decade.
Eventually we saw what boiled down to a war between two studios as to which one could promote their movie the best in hopes of securing the Best Picture Oscar. Miramax would eventually defeat Dreamworks when Shakespeare in Love went on to win over Saving Private Ryan. Even Harrison Ford, whom was presenting the award, was shocked by the choice. As was evident by his drab announcement. Saving Private Ryan was by far the most deserving of the five films nominated, but even fellow war movie and nominee, The Thin Red Line, was a superior film to that of Shakespeare in Love. Miramax bought the Best Picture award in 1998. What's a bigger mistake than allowing that?
Ignoring Foreign Language Films for Top Honors
While foreign films are normally more realistic or less by the numbers than the efforts from Hollywood, I still consider la la land to be the best supplier of movies in the world. Even with that said, countries such as Japan, Sweden, Russia, France and many others have produced films that rival the best of what Hollywood has ever put out. Directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Sergi Eisenstein and Federico Fellini have all made films that are as revered in film as any list of directors, but not one ever did win the award for Best Director. In fact, the highest awards ever given out to a Foreign language film have been for Best Actor and Actress(1998 for Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful and in 1960 for Sophia Loren in Two Women). The fact that films like Seven Samurai, Ugetsu, 8½, or even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were denied the top award, despite being superior to films that took the award the same year, shows the attitude of "we always make them best" the Academy has. Sorry to tell this to the naked guy holding the sword, but no you don't.
Paul Newman's Nearly 30 Year Quest
Paul Newman was awarded the honorary Oscar in 1985 for his amazing body of work, 28 years after his first nomination in 1957(Best Actor for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). When asked what it was like to finally have an Oscar, Newman offered "It's like chasing a beautiful woman for 30 years and one day she stops and says... okay I'm tired". The next year Newman would win the award for Best Actor for The Color of Money. Many other actors, such as Peter O'Toole, have been extremely deserving of Oscars, but have failed to win one. Paul Newman is the owner of two statues, but the reason I select him out of all the constant Oscar losers is because it became part of his career. Paul Newman getting nominated and losing time after time had become a joke. For one of the finest actors ever to grace a movie screen, that's pathetic.
Citizen Kane
What do Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia all have in common? They are considered the absolute best movies in history. If you were making a top ten list of the greatest movies ever made they would all be on it. Yet, there's another way all of these films are linked. Each one was the recipient of the Academy Award for Best Picture. While these films are always mentioned as the cream of the crop, one film in particular is right there up with them. Citizen Kane was Orson Welles first film and the #1 selection on AFI's 100 greatest movies list. Yet, the film failed to win the Best Picture Oscar. Instead, the Academy picked How Green was My Valley as the best film of 1941. While I consider 1931's Cimarron as the worst Best Picture of all time, the Academy may not have a worse blunder than failing to award what may very well be the best movie ever made it's top honor.
Dishonorable Mentions - LOTR: Return of the King sweep, Ordinary People as Best Picture, Forest Whitaker beats Peter O'toole, Richard Burton's Oscar-less career
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Despite all of the four horrible missteps I listed in the Academy's past, I feel each year the Oscars are meaning less and less. While I may not like the idea of overlooking someone for decades at least it made the award worth something. Now we see the guy from Booty Call and the girl from Legally Blonde winning on their first nomination. Hey, both were great in their movies, but how do you justify not giving Peter O'Toole a competitive Oscar ever and then give one to someone on their first truly serious role? Within in the next 10 years I look for the Oscars to be about as relevant as the Grammy awards.
Oh well, writing about foreign films earlier in the column made me nostalgic for them. With that, I've decided on what you will see next from me. The next Out of the Past will be about Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Hopefully everyone reading this knows who that is. Until then.....
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| Out of the Past |
Every other Thursday
Discussing classic films from City Lights to Apocalypse
Now and everything in between and beyond.
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| Andy York |
Andy is a life long movie fanatic. The first movie he saw in the theater was Back to the Future, Part 2 at the age of 3 and he has loved movies ever since.
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