Tag Archives: oscar

November 1, 2016 · 11:04 am

The Also Rans — The Exorcist (Best Picture Also Ran 1973)

Directed by William Friedkin

Screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based upon his novel

Starring Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow, Lee J. Cob and Jack MacGowran

Confession is an appropriate place to start this entry, given the heavily Catholic tone of The Exorcist, so here goes: I’ve seen The Exorcist before.

See, when I started this Project – The Also Ran’s – I had the idea I’d use it to see Best Picture nominees I’d not seen before as a way to force new viewing experiences on myself. Given I’d already seen many of the Best Pictures, that made the Best Picture Project as much about revisiting films as it was about discovery. By definition then, The Also Rans was explicitly meant to be about discovery because it excluded movies I’d already seen. Moreover, it would also give me a unique look at the workings of prior generations, in that by looking at what lost, I might find something very instructive.

But while this is my aim, here I am throwing the rule away and using this project as an excuse to re-visit The Exorcist. Why? Because it’s my Project, so it’s my rules to break. Also, because with The Exorcist, any viewing will be a discovery.

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Tagged as American Graffiti, best picture, butch cassidy and the sundance kid, Day for Night, ellen burstyn, film, Jackie Gleason, jason miller, jason patrick, jesus christ superstar, linda blair, max von sydow, Movies, oscar, Oscar winners, Oscars, papillon, poltergeist, Taxi Driver, that championship season, the day of the jackal, The Omen, the paper chase

October 3, 2016 · 4:09 pm

The Best Picture Project — Cimarron (1931)

Directed by Wesley Ruggles

Screenplay by Howard Estabrook, based upon the novel by Edna Ferber

Starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne

Here we are friends – after these many, long years together, with you diligently consuming every entry of The Best Picture Project, and me, less-diligently, producing them, we’ve reached the end of the road, where it all comes to an end. And coming here almost feels bittersweet, like somebody should cue Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, or Boyz II Men’s End of the Road, to play us out. And don’t worry about neither being appropriate for this occasion, because they’re hardly appropriate for the other occasion for which they are most associated – high school graduations. If they work there, why not here?

But I digress. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Dances With Wolves, edna ferber, film, george stevens, Movies, no country for old men, novel, oscar, Oscar winners, Oscars, richard dix, Unforgiven

September 21, 2016 · 2:07 pm

The Best Picture Project – Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Screenplay by Paul Haggis, based on the stories of F.X. Toole

Starring Hillary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Anthony Mackie, Michael Pena and Margo Martindale

Well, here we are – the penultimate entry of the Best Picture Project. After six years of toil and misery,[1] there is but one After Cimarron? There will be no more, forever.[2] But that, is for another day. On this day I bring you the entry I’d been putting off longer than the rest – Million Dollar Baby. Consciously putting off longer than the rest. And the delay? Imposed not because I was saving it for myself, like a delicious dessert. No, it was put off because I did not want to see it again. Not now, not ever, and, as I put it off, I sort-of hoped I might die before I had to get to it and, in death, I’d be spared the discomfort of it. But, given I’m only 40 and in very good health, death did not save me. And that, dear reader, is a lesson – death is its most-cruel when we want it, but are denied.

Alas…

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Tagged as academy awards, anthony mackie, Best Picture Project, clint eastwood, hillary swank, jay baruchel, margo martindale, michael pena, Morgan Freeman, Movies, oscar, Oscars, paul haggis

August 13, 2016 · 9:07 pm

The Also Rans – The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (Best Picture Nominee 1966)

Directed by Norman Jewison

Screenplay by William Rose, based upon the novel by Nathaniel Benchley

Starring Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, Paul Ford and Theodore Bikel

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming might’ve been nominated for Best Picture – and Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and a couple others – but it had zero chance of winning. And by zero, I mean zero. There’s always one or two of those kind of films in any Best Picture race and in 1966 The Russians are Coming was it.

One reason was history: Since the beginning, only six comedies have won the Oscar for Best Picture. Ironically, at the time Russians came out, it would’ve had a better chance than it does today, because at that time five comedies had won Best Picture. In the fifty years since, just one. In a very real way its zero chance of winning in 1966 has steadily fallen below zero since. Continue reading →

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Tagged as A Clockwork Orange, academy awards, alan arkin, brian keith, Carl Reiner, Dr. Strangelove, Eva Marie Saint, Hal Ashby, In the Heat of the Night, John Phillip Law, John Waters, Jonathan Winters, Mike Nichols, Nathaniel Benchley, Norman Jewison, North by Northwest, oscar, Oscars, Pablo Ferro, Paul Ford, stanley kubrick, The Graduate, The Music Man, Theodore Bikel, william rose, Woody Allen

July 17, 2016 · 4:11 pm

The Best Picture Project — The Godfather Part II (1974)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, based upon the novel by Mario Puzo

Starring Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, John Cazale, Bruno Kirby, Lee Strassburg, Robert Duval, G. D. Spradlin and Harry Dean Stanton

It strikes me now that as I’ve come to the homestretch on the Best Picture Project, and looking to start my final kick,[1] I’m facing down what might be the toughest stretch of movies, having inadvertently saved some of the longest, and some of those I’d been dreading most, for last. The streak started a few movies back with Crash (dreading), continued to The Departed (long), then on to My Fair Lady (long), leading right up to this one (long). To come, Schindler’s List (dreading for emotional reasons and my discomfort at feeling feelings), Return of the King (massive length), Cimarron (saved for basically being unavailable), and Million Dollar Baby (dread because when I saw it in the theater, the bait-and-switch made me downright hostile with it). Continue reading →

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Tagged as academy awards, al pacino, alien, aliens, Apocalypse Now, Best Picture Project, Blazzing Saddles, Bram Stoker's Dracula, bruno kirby, Chinatown, cimarron, Crash, Day for Night, francis ford coppola, g.d. spradlin, harry dean stanton, John Cazale, lee strassburg, Mario Puzo, million dollar baby, Movies, My Fair Lady, oscar, Oscars, patton, Richard Bright, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Rocky IV, Schindler’s List, Talia Shire, The Conversation, The Departed, The Empire Strikes Back, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Towering Inferno, Toy Story, toy story 2, Young Frankenstein

May 16, 2016 · 4:32 pm

The Best Picture Project — Crash, dir. by Paul Haggis (2005)

Directed by Paul Haggis

Screenplay by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco

Starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Thandie Newton, Michael Pena, Ryan Phillipe, Larenz Tate, Shaun Toud and Bahar Soomekh

Did you ever feel like the whole world was against you and it was because you were black? Or white? Or Muslim? Or Hispanic? Or white? Or whatever? And more than anything, you wanted to see a movie that confirmed your suspicions, so that you knew you weren’t just imaging it? Only to preach at you that your problem might be as much your own racism as it is the racism of others?

Well, if you did, Crash is the film for you.

Or, did you ever feel like people hurt each other, simply so they feel alive?

Well, if you did, Crash is also the film for you.

Or, did you ever wonder why it is that people crash into each other?

Thankfully, Crash has an explanation for that, too – “We crash into each other, just so we can feel something.”

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Tagged as academy awards, Best Picture Project, brendan fraser, Brokeback Mountain, buck rogers, don cheadle, jennifer esposite, larenz tate, ludacris, Matt Dillon, michael pena, Movies, oscar, Oscars, paul haggis, ryan phillipe, Sandra Bullock, star wars, terrence howard, thandie newton, Tony Danza

December 2, 2015 · 11:54 am

The Best Picture Project — Chicago (2002)

Directed by Rob Marshall

Screenplay by Bill Condon, based on ‘Chicago’ by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb and ‘Chicago’ by Maurine Dallas Watkins

Starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Taye Diggs, Christine Baranski, Dominic West, Lucy Liu and Deidre Goodwin

As with many of the films in this series – at least of the ones I’d seen before – I hadn’t laid eyes on Chicago in close to a decade before jotting down my take on it. Sometimes, not having seen the film in years and forcing myself to revisit worked a detriment of the film, in that it made films I one enjoyed, seem a bit less than I thought they were – I’m looking at you A Beautiful Mind. Sometimes, it only confirmed what I already knew – hello Gladiator. So, in returning to it, Chicago faced the very real danger that while I once liked it a lot, I’d suddenly loathe it. Fortunately – if you can call a middling response something of a fortune – I reacted to Chicago this time largely the same way I reacted to it last time. Then, as now, I saw a film with parts I was fond of/blown away by, and parts I could have done without. And perhaps in the most honest assessment a person can give, after having watched it again this time I suspect the DVD will do as it did before – it will go back into my collection and sit for another decade, if not more, collecting dust.

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Tagged as 30 rock, A Beautiful Mind, academy awards, Best Picture Project, Bill Condon, Bob Fosse, Cabaret, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christine Baranski, Deidre Goodwin, Dominic West, Fred Ebb, Gladiator, John C. Reilly, Lucy Liu, Maurine Dallas Watkins, Milf Island, Movies, oscar, Oscars, Queen Latifah, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Rob Marshall, Taye Diggs

February 16, 2015 · 2:07 pm

The Best Picture Project — The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

The Life of Emile Zola poster.jpg

Directed by William Dieterle

Screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine; Story and Screenplay by Heinz Herald and Geza Herczeg; based upon the book by Matthew Josephson

Starring Paul Muni, Gloria Holden, Gale Sondergaard and Joseph Schildkraut

The Life of Emile Zola is really two movies in one.

The first is a 25 minute seminar of a film, focusing on the professional life of writer Emile Zola. It begins with him dirt poor in Paris, proceeds through a whirlwind medley of his greatest hits – books are published, a wife is married, fame is gotten – then settles with him into state of retirement and living off his wealth. Continue reading →

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Tagged as academy awards, american sniper, around the world in 80 days, art prize, Ben-Hur, Best Picture Project, Birth of a Nation, charlton heston, Emil Zola, foxcatcher, gerald r. ford, How Green Was My Valley, in cold blood, jesus, joseph schildkraut, lost horizon, lost weekend, oscar, Oscars, paul cezzane, paul muni, Ray Milland, selma, the awful truth, The Greatest Show on Earth, the life of emile zola, Werner Herzog

February 9, 2015 · 3:32 pm

What To Do…?

As loyal readers know, I’ve been chipping away at the Best Picture Project for some time — a little more intently at some times than others. Well, at this point I’m an even dozen or so away from finishing and I’m determined to put an end to things this year, hopefully in the first half. To that end I’ve got a DVD for The Life of Emile Zola waiting and DVD’s around the house for pretty much all the rest. Come hell or high water, his year will put an end to it.

This leaves me, of course, in the position of wondering…what to do next?

No, loyal readers, I’m not going to pack it in and euthanize the blog — although, given how rarely I posted over the last year, who would know? Rather, I intend to take on a different project, possibly two.

One I have in mind would be called ‘The Also-Rans’, a series looking at a Best Picture nominee in every year that I’ve not seen before — for instance, in 1939 I could watch Stagecoach. Obviously, some years will be tough, because I’ve seen them all, but we’ll make it work. Besides, I’m hoping that by taking a look at something down-menu, as it were, I might learn something. Or maybe not.

The other would be called ‘Twinsies’ and more along the lines of double-features of films with the same title, or with the same actor/actress/writer/director that are disparate ends of the spectrum. Think Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side vs. some movie where she’s the villain.

Maybe what I’ll do is both — I guess since this is my blog, I’m allowed to do that.

In the meantime, I’m going to watchThe Life of Emile Zola — meet you back here in a few days. Maybe.

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Tagged as academy awards, Best Picture Project, oscar

August 12, 2014 · 2:43 pm

The Best Picture Project — Terms of Endearment (1983)

Directed by James L. Brooks

Screenplay by James L. Brooks from the book by Larry McMurtry

Starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jeff Daniels and Jack Nicholson

In a way, James L Brooks is the most unappreciated man in movies, which is a funny thing to say about a guy that has three Oscars. But when you think about it, every movie he’s made of consequence since his first — and for films of consequence since his first, there’s only two — has been singled out for attention by the Academy for everybody else associated with it, particularly those who are in it. But Jim Brooks? Not so much.

Broadcast News? Three acting nominations, a Picture and Screenplay nom for Brooks, but zero wins all around. And when you think of the movie, you don’t think of it as a Brooks film — you think of it as a Holly Hunter vehicle. Or the last of the truly great William Hurt performances. Continue reading →

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Tagged as academy awards, al pacino, around the world in 80 days, As Good As It Gets, Best Picture Project, Broadcast News, Crash, Debra Winger, Geraldine Page, Gone With The Wind, Henry Fonda, Holly Hunter, jack nicholson, Jack Palance, James L. Brooks, Jeff Daniels, John Gielgud, Larry McMurtry, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Movies, Never Cry Wolf, oscar, Oscars, paul newman, Return of the Jedi, Robert Duvall, Schindler’s List, Sean Connery, shirley maclaine, Tender Mercies, The Dresser, The Godfather, The Greatest Show on Earth, Wargames, William Hurt

Tag Archives: oscar

The Also Rans — The Exorcist (Best Picture Also Ran 1973)

The Best Picture Project — Cimarron (1931)

The Best Picture Project – Million Dollar Baby (2004)

The Also Rans – The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (Best Picture Nominee 1966)

The Best Picture Project — The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Best Picture Project — Crash, dir. by Paul Haggis (2005)

The Best Picture Project — Chicago (2002)

The Best Picture Project — The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

What To Do…?

The Best Picture Project — Terms of Endearment (1983)

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