Editor’s Note: We are just ten days away from the 82nd annual Academy Awards. In these final days leading up to the event, our resident movie maven Patti will be exploring the past and present of the Oscars.
To kick things off, we have a look at the 1970s and the films of that era:
If I look at a list of the movies that have won the Oscar for Best Picture from the Academy of Arts and Sciences over the years, often I’m surprised at the film chosen. Sometimes, that particular movie spoke to an era. American Beauty is a good example of a film that perhaps seemed better than it was. (Needless to say this is a very subjective piece).
There are a few movies that stand out as truly deserving, however. Films that seem as fresh today as they did in the year of their original release. And then there were the seventies. Between 1969 and 1977, there was a particularly good run of films. I’d eliminate Patton in 1970—a good performance does not a good film make. But the other films over that period were diverse, well-made, brave, and still seem like credible choices forty years later. Beginning in 1969: Midnight Cowboy (tell me that wasn’t a gutsy choice), The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather, Part 2, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall and The Deer Hunter all won best picture. We could quibble over one or two of these, but let’s just say they were original, well-made and deserving of accolades in some essential way.
There’s no other period that produced such a strong string of films. And indeed, this decade was followed by the more conventional choices in the eighties. Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Terms of Endearment, Amadeus, Out of Africa. These are certainly not the worst selections the Academy ever made, but they are far less exciting films. Biopics do well with Academy voters—four of these five are biographical. Terms of Endearment is another favorite genre among voters-the tear-jerker or domestic drama. (Kramer v. Kramer, The Turning Point, Ordinary People, The Color Purple). Again, not bad movies just not as good as those seventies winners.
Why did the seventies produce such strong films? The films the Best Picture winners competed with were nearly as strong. The French Connection competed with A Clockwork Orange and The Last Picture Show. The Godfather 2 had Chinatown and The Conversation to contend with. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest bested Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville. And Rocky beat out All the President’s Men, Network and Taxi Driver. Very few of these movies would be make by major Hollywood studios today. In fact, some of the most creative work is on cable television.
The wisdom is that the blockbuster put an end to pictures like these being made by big studios. But the ten choices of 2010 are pretty strong films. Perhaps we will see a return to big studios making films for the thoughtful viewer. But perhaps not given the case of Avatar.
In recent years, I think DEPARTED and NO COUNTRY were pretty ballsy, surprising Best Picture winners, but you're right. With the jump from five to ten nominees, the Academy is clearly trying to include movies that the casual viewer has actually seen.
The seventies are a hard era to replicate, but there have been bright years in the decades since. 1999 gave us AMERICAN BEAUTY, ELECTION, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, MAGNOLIA, THREE KINGS, and FIGHT CLUB. 2007 saw the release of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, NO COUNTRY, EASTERN PROMISES, ZODIAC, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, and THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES.
Exciting yet challening films that take a European approach to genre filmmaking will never die – it will just rarely feel like an era-defining trend.
I hope I'm wrong about that.
The real constant is that the Oscars will always be a confused entity, unsure whether to embrace the best or whether to embrace the most popular for the sake of viewers.
Nerd,
You make some good points, but I think the Oscars are still the most credible of the big awards shows out there. Emmy awards, Grammy awards…these are both pathetic.
The 90s brought us a generation of film-makers that opt to smaller budgets for more control. Folks like QT, Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Paul Anderson and Coens off the top of my head.
THE DEPARTED and NO COUNTRY both were from very respected folks. I wonder if either would have gotten the love if they had been from unknown directors?
That's a great list from 2007 for sure. I saw all of them and everyone was just terrific.
A lot of the movies that we like most today are not the big studio pictures. Or at least the ones I like-Frozen River, for instance. But maybe that's okay. As long as the smaller pictures can sell distribution rights.
In 1979, the nominees were "KRAMER vs. KRAMER", "All That Jazz", "Apocalypse Now", "Breaking Away", "Norma Rae."
The only one of those I can watch today without getting the yawns is "Breaking Away."
To me, the 70s was a magical period because so many amazing directors came into their own during that era.
Spielberg, Frances Ford Coppola, Scorsese, Lumet, Allen and more. Some of these made films in the 60s, but they stepped into the spotlight in the 70s.
When I think of the Oscars these days, I think of the heartbreak I felt in 2006 when CRASH won best picture over BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I had seen them both, and really wasn't considering CRASH as even being a possibility to win; it was one movie I didn't even feel should be on the ballot. It was just too heavy-handed in its message, while I felt BROKEBACK was just a beautiful piece of filmmaking. And while I liked Philip Seymour Hoffman in CAPOTE, I felt Heath Ledger's performance in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was more deserving as well.
All that said, having just come from seeing CRAZY HEART, I'll be crushed if he doesn't win. I didn't see either INVICTUS or A SINGLE MAN, so I don't know about the performances of Freeman and Firth, but Bridges was just brilliant. The movie overall is at least as good as half of the movies up for best picture, IMO.
I think the Oscars are painfully middle brow and an Oscar win is never a recommended for me. I mean, Roadhouse didn't get an Oscar. . .
Naomi,
I think Kramer vs. Kramer still holds up. I remember the seventies as being a time in which single parents were becoming all too common.