I just realized that I forgot to include "West Side Story" on my most recent update. This movie is showing via HBO Go right now.
This is the most fun I've had watching a film in many years. The songs and choreography are both better than any other music film I can think of (except, maybe, "Singin' in the Rain").The drama is intriguing, and somehow works alongside the musical whimsy. Catchy songs all around. My personal favorite is probably "In America":
If there is any weakness, it's that the male leads pale in comparison to the excellent Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno; but that is a good problem that more movies should have. My rating for this movie is 9.3.
"Gandhi" won in 1982, because it had to. As someone born in the 80's, Ben Kingsley's performance has replaced whatever I ever knew about the real Gandhi. As beautiful as its message and presentation is, I find that the movie struggles in its narrative during the transition from "independence from England" to "the Hindus and Muslism are at odds." It is not believable. Also, things start to get really weird when Candice Bergen and Cliff from "Cheers" drive up together in a jeep. I gave "Gandhi" a score of 7.1.
One of the oddest things about this project has been the recurring appearance of Daniel Day-Lewis in hilarious bit parts; and in Gandhi we see him very early as a racist South African. He really nails the accent -- would you expect anything less?
I'm glad to be done with "Terms of Endearment." Another winner, this film reminded me of "Ordinary People" in its presentation of alternative family themes. I knew to prepare myself for a heart-wrenching third act, in which the lovingly piece-of-shit husband played by Jeff Daniels laughs off his faults and decides to give up his children. Ha, ha, ha. What I did not appreciate is how good Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson's performances are. They make the movie worth watching. I told my mom that I watched this movie, and she remarked that it was "Deb" (a term of enderament?) Winger's last good role. I give "Terms of Endearment" a 6.6.
"Silence of the Lambs," yet another winner, might be the one of the first examples of a movie whose universal adoration I somewhat reject. Though I had previously seen most of the movie in pieces, I re-watched for this exercise so that I could reflect after a true, start-to-finish viewing. My impression was generally that the third act and climax are among the best ever made, but that it is fledgling otherwise, save a garish though interesting performance by Anthony Hopkins. Jodie Foster's Clarice is fine. The best performance is Ted Levine, who might have sacrificed his career for the sheer brilliance of Buffalo Bill, who is probably the absolute most f*cked up, insane character ever in a non-horror movie.
The answer to the question nobody asked is that I think both the best and most important movie of 1991 is still "Beauty and the Beast." I gave "Silence of the Lambs," a very good but not transcendent film, a 7.2.
I saved the best for last. "Shane" is available through Netflix online, and I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to carve out two hours in the near future and watch. This is the best Western I've ever seen that was not directed by Sergio Leone. Alan Ladd plays the titular character, who as far as I can tell, is a tortured-soul gunfighter who stumbles upon a homesteader ranch in Wyoming and finds the perfect opportunity to change his life. That is, until cattle barons start bullying people around through intimidation tactics and a hired-goon quickdraw played by Jack Palance. Common themes are played out through unique perspectives, including those of the homesteaders, the bad guys, the other townsfolk, and a precocious-but-not-in-a-fake-Wes-Anderson-way young boy. The movie builds to the inevitable (and yet, amazingly, not cliche) gunfight between Shane and the bad guys. There is a clip below. Though we know the outcome, it does not diminish the impact of the film:
Holy shit, right?
This was an education in Western movies for me. No Clint Eastwood, No John Wayne, no problem. For someone of my age, it was incredible to see Palance as someone other than Curly from "City Slickers," and it was incredible to see Alan Ladd, really, at all. He unfortunately died about a decade later. Some of his other performances will be peppered throughout this project, but I seriously doubt any of them will be as impactful as his guardian angel-esque turn as "Shane."
It's also worth noting that this is the best title for a film, possibly ever. I gave "Shane" a 9.4.
My movie-watching pace slowed significantly in Week 2. It included only the following:
Cleopatra (nominated 1962)
Annie Hall (won 1977)
Being a sucker for epic period pieces, and despite its length at four hours, I was excited to watch "Cleopatra." But I understand now why it's more famous for its production issues than for the contents of the film itself, which are simply not very good.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton give impressive performances, sure, but I actually found Rex Harrison's Caesar and Roddy McDowell's Octavius to be more interesting. (Unfortunately, the Ides of March is probably less than halfway into the movie.) The scale of the movie is daunting, especially considering this was long before CGI. I haven't researched the number of extras used in this film, but it must have set some kind of record. There's a spectacular naval battle scene about 3/4ths into the film, and the scene of Cleopatra entering the Forum is pretty amazing. Apart from that, most of the movie is boring and gets somewhat lost in its own bombast, and the No. 1 emotion I experienced while watching was impatience.
I gave "Cleopatra" a 4.6. If nothing else, I now have a better appreciation for Bill Murray's impression of Richard Burton from "Scrooged." Compare below:
Comparatively, "Annie Hall" felt like it was 5 minutes long. I have less to say about this film, other than that I found it heartwarming and thoughtful, but probably less so than most people did when it came out. Hindsight is everything with this movie. We can look back now on Alvy Singer as a trope, and the fact that he frequently breaks the fourth wall in presenting the narrative of his on-again, off-again relationship with Annie was probably bolder in 1977. Still, giving credit where due, we probably don't have "500 Days of Summer" and countless other movies without "Annie Hall."
This was the "Best Picture" winner in 1977. Strange, as decades later we now know that "Annie Hall," though a fine film, is absolutely dwarfed by "Star Wars" in terms of historical significance. Another great example of why this project is so interesting. I gave "Annie Hall" a 6.8.
(I am now retrospectively describing the first week of my work towards the completion of this project; but in the future I hope to do this in real time.)
In Week 1 I watched the following films:
All About Eve (won 1950)
Becket (nominated 1964)
MASH (nominated 1970)
Love Story (nominated 1970)
The Conversation (nominated 1974)
Ordinary People (won 1980)
Witness (nominated 1985)
A Room With a View (nominated 1986)
All of these movies are available to "watch instantly" on Netflix. Of these, the best was probably "Ordinary People"; fitting in that it was the only actual award winner. For someone of my age, it was interesting to see a younger, in-prime Donald Sutherland both as the "Ordinary People" dad and the original Hawkeye Pierce in "MASH." His performance in "Ordinary People" stood out even among the highly acclaimed Timothy Hutton and Mary Tyler Moore roles, and the movie itself was impressively real and touching. "MASH," meanwhile, was more or less what I expected.
Sitting through "Love Story" was very difficult. It's an overwrought movie with a ridiculous and borderline offensive premise. The wife randomly having a terminal disease is very cheap. I suppose it was a year of "men's movies" with "MASH" and "Patton" reigning. Ali MacGraw won "Best Actress." This was the first good example of why this project is so interesting. Never in a thousand years would "Love Story" be on any kind of list of the best movies of all time, and in fairness to the evolution of the Academy Award process, I'd like to think it would never be nominated today. And yet, in 1970, people were apparently enamored by it.
It was good to finally see "The Conversation," which I knew before only as trivia. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and released the same year as The Godfather Part II; it also is one of the six movies in which John Cazale appears. I found that it started out strong but then became boring.
"Witness" is a truly ridiculous film. I was able to pay attention from start to finish, but I could never quite get past the premise. Harrison Ford plays a Philadelphia cop who must flee a corrupt department to Amish country. The "witness" is a young Amish boy who sees a guy murdered (by Danny Glover), and yet the movie isn't really about him, or about convincing him to testify, etc., it is just about Harrison Ford being Amish. There is a barn raising. One of the bad guys is killed by falling corn. I found myself laughing out loud at the supposed romance between Ford and the Amish Kelly McGillis character.
I found "All About Eve" to be very shallow. It's the first Bette Davis movie I have ever seen. It encapsulates how I think of Old Hollywood, as most of it appears to take place indoors and on sound stages. There is even a scene where two characters walk down a fake street. Like "Singin' in the Rain," it is also full of what I perceived to be inside-baseball discussion about entertainment and acting. "Becket" is another somewhat older film. Richard Burton, chanting monks, much use of the royal "we."
Finally, I watched "A Room With a View" on my iPad while lying awake in a hotel room. I later learned that this is based on an E.M. Forster novel and has been produced in several mediums, including television. I loved the cast: a young Helena Bonham Carter, a middle-aged Maggie Smith, and Daniel Day-Lewis in easily his most hilarious role as Cecil. Anyone skeptical of DDL's comedic chops needs to see this movie.
It was an eventful Week 1. Brief recap: Shrinks, monks, spooks; and "love" means never having to be martyred in a grain silo.
The 'Net has come a long way since my first Geocities page in middle school, and now I'm back in 2014 to document my progress on a new and exciting project: watching every film that has ever been nominated for, or won, "Best Picture" at the Academy Awards.
Other people have endeavored to watch all of the actual winners (see e.g. this blog, discovered only because I tried to take the name), but my research indicates no similar attempt to do what I am doing.
Watching all of the winners is easy; it narrows the field. I could do that in a matter of weeks. This is hard. By my count, there are 507 films that have ever been nominated or won. As of this post, I've seen roughly 120 of them already. With 380-ish to go, I could watch five films per week and still take over a year to finish the task. I will not be able to watch 5 films every week, and so it will take longer than that.
Part of this project will be logistically difficult. I am not sure where to find "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" or "Flirtation Walk." I may have to use a VCR for some of these films. I will, at the very least, certainly have to get a full, old-fashioned, snail-mail subscription to Netflix.
Why do this? There are many Top 100 and Top 500 lists floating around that I could tackle instead, but those lists all enjoy the benefit of hindsight. I am watching all the films that "The Academy" deemed award-worthy for their time, in 1940, and 1980, and 1990, etc., and admittedly ignoring all of the great films that were not. It's as much a morbid fascination with the history of film industry back-patting as it is with the films themselves. I hope the experience will be rewarding. I hope to see and enjoy films that I otherwise never would.
Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman would like to welcome you to this blog
Unfortunately I know that some of this experience will suck. I watched "Love Story" (nominated in 1970) last week; it is an awful movie. That's why this is Oscar Purgatory. I am an audience of one captive to the historical judgments of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a voting bloc that originally started as studio executives wanting to mediate labor disputes and make themselves richer.
As I watch movies, I will rank them on a scale of 1 to 10, and summarize my brief thoughts, in this document. Thanks for reading.
