I've been excited to see the winner of this year because a lot of people call it one of the worst winners in recent history (but they seem to say that every year, right?) and I wanted to see why people thought this way. I can't imagine it's that bad but I guess I'll see.
1985 Best Picture
Out of Africa
This is a film that everyone loves to hate as a winner. And I think because it is the winner is why people love to hate it so much. If it was simply a nominee, I think more people would appreciate it for what it is - a slow moving story of love. I can't really deny everyone's criticisms of the film. It is glacially paced and it took me three nights of watching to get through (mostly because I'm trying to watch this after a long day at work when I'm super tired) and it's just under three hours long, yet seems longer. The story is also mostly about white people in Africa with the actual Africans relegated to positions of servants or as backwards natives that need to be educated. So the cries of racism aren't totally unfounded. But the story is about a white Danish woman's life while she was in Africa so I'm not sure what people were wanting exactly. I'm assuming the book this is based on deals more humanely and appropriately with that issue than the film which is more interested in the romances. Which the romance is the big draw for the film as Streep and Redford were huge stars back then. Their romance is a complicated one. Redford doesn't quite want to commit to Streep because he's such an individual and enjoys being his own man (and seeing other women, presumably). The two are good together but I never really was interested in them ending up together. Their complicated love seems more genuine than having a storybook ending and I liked that about the film. The main draw for the film besides the actors is the cinematography. It was shot on location and looks beautiful and is one reason you'll enjoy the film. There's a sequence near the end where Streep and Redford are flying in a plane over the African wilderness and it is all breathtaking, like it's part of the Planet Earth series. It looks great but also you have to ask how the hell can you not screw up making Africa look amazing and use the locations to your film's benefit? You'd have to be really bad at your job or something would have had to go extremely wrong for this film to not look as good as it does, which means I'm saying it's easy for it to be so gorgeous and should be expected to look as it does. The score is also memorable at points and adds to the epic feel of the film. When you look at this film on its own, it ticks off a lot of what would make for a Best Picture winner. It feels like a BP winner without even watching it. So it doesn't surprise that it ended up winning the award because this is right in the Academy's wheelhouse. I guess it just depends on if you think it's slow and boring (and maybe racist to a degree) if it should actually win. I'll have to see what else is offered up this year to figure out where it stands for me because I don't think it's as awful and egregious as advertised.
The Color Purple
This film tied the record for most nominations without a single win at 11 with The Turning Point. Crazy to think this film went home empty handed and a lot of people claim racism by the Academy for shutting this out and rewarding Out of Africa in the same breath. They may very well have a point and Whoopi Goldberg at least should have won Best Actress but this film does have a lot of faults. A lot of the musical choices are just plain wrong for the tone of the film. They have a light, family friendly sound while the film deals with rape, incest, abuse and all kinds of dark topics and here we are getting a jaunty tune for some reason right before Danny Glover slaps Celia for talking back to him. This comes up time and again in the film where the music doesn't match what's going on or at least tries to make the tone of the story much lighter than it should be. I remember reading this book in high school and I certainly don't remember it having a slapstick comedic tone or being very light in any way. The story deals with everything I said above as we follow Goldberg's Celia through her life of rape, incest, abuse, neglect, misogyny, etc. as she struggles to find her place in the world. It's bizarre to me that Steven Spielberg would try to make this a family friendly type of film as if he's completely unable in treating any subject with a darker tone in favor of sentimentalism, which is what The Color Purple needed. It needed someone else to direct and make it a true drama and not gloss over all of these darker elements found in society at that time especially against black women. It's emotional and sentimental and a little manipulative and I don't think it does the story the justice it deserves. It does manage to pull down some really great acting performances that were rewarded with Oscar nominations and were strong overall like Glover. That's the saving grace of the film for me because the acting was so compelling enough to keep watching even though Spielberg was doing his best to pull me out of the film at every turn. I'm disappointed because this could have been so much better and been much more of an important film in our culture and in the Oscar pantheon. There are scenes that work tremendously and scenes that embarrassingly fizzle out. This film needed to be more consistent to be considered the Best Picture winner.
Kiss of the Spider Woman
This is such an interesting film. One that I think you're better served not really knowing anything about before watching it. Going into it blind allows for much more of an impact, I think. With that said, it's a film about two men in a Brazilian prison, one who is gay and the other who is a political prisoner. We spend almost the entire film with these two men in a prison cell as they learn about each other and we learn about them. These scenes are interrupted by two fake movies as told by William Hurt's character to his cellmate, Raul Julia. The main one is about a Nazi love story and the other is about a spider woman. The premise of this film sounds ridiculous and not very entertaining but it really is. Hurt and Julia are so mesmerizing together and their performances are both so tremendous. Hurt deservedly won Best Actor and I'd wager that Julia deserved some kind of nomination as well. As the film progresses, you realize there is more to Hurt than we realize. Once that comes into full view it makes the previous hour and so more interesting knowing that Hurt is playing Julia to some extent. I didn't quite understand the love angle and initially thought that it was part of Hurt's act but I guess he had really fallen for Julia? And then obviously they consummate that love which was probably extremely daring even back in 1985. The ending feels a bit rushed to me with the love angle included. Once Hurt is released and he does the favor for Julia and it ends badly for all involved, I wonder if another ending would have been better? It does call into question whether or not Julia was just using Hurt and both ended up using each other for what they wanted, which is interesting to ponder. I read that this is the first independent film to be nominated for Best Picture which if true is quite a feat but not all that surprising it was this film, because it is really well done. This is a very intriguing film overall and I'm very glad it was nominated. Will be interesting to see where it ends up for me.
Prizzi's Honor
I thought this film might be pretty cool based on what it's about: a mafia family that has a lot of things happen to it that is supposed to be darkly funny, like a dark comedy The Godfather. Sounds kinda cool even though that's not a perfect description. Jack Nicholson is a hitman for the Prizzi family who meets Kathleen Turner at a wedding and falls in love. The two hit it off and come to find out she's a hitwoman. Anjelica Huston is the daughter of Don Prizzi and former flame of Nicholson. Hijinks ensue where Turner runs afoul of the family and to get back in the good graces of the family dimes out Turner who has now married Nicholson and then hits get put out on each of the married couple so they have to face off and kill each other. It should be a good film but I was thoroughly bored with the film. And it's not like there are bad performances in it, it's just that everything falls flat. I don't really find the comedy in it funny so it comes off as weird and tonally off. It also feels long at only two hours and it felt like it dragged to me. I don't know why it didn't click with me but I really didn't enjoy it. I'm not sure why it got so much Academy love, either. I figure because it was John Huston directing Jack Nicholson and his daughter in a mafia movie with comedy undertones. It makes me wonder if the voters actually watched it or just voted for name association. This is just one Best Picture nomination I don't get at all. And it's not going to grow on me, I don't think, because I'm writing this after almost a week since I saw it and have thought about it a bunch and I feel nothing but bewilderment. Not much else to say I guess, other than I don't really recommend this film unless you're an Oscar completist like me or just really love Jack Nicholson or something. Yes, I'm trying to make this blurb a bit longer because I don't like short BP reviews. Anyway, this will be my 5th of the category without a doubt. Really disappointed this was so underwhelming when you read all the praise and nominations it received.
Witness
This seems to fit the bill of the popular film that makes a lot of money (though surprisingly Out of Africa and The Color Purple made more) and has a recognizable star and is a thriller/crime drama that makes its way into Best Picture. I'm actually more surprised that Cocoon didn't take this spot but I guess this film is a little more serious. Anyway, it's about an Amish boy (played by Lukas Haas who you know by face and who was really a good actor as a kid, he's showed up in more than one Oscar film) who witnesses a murder in a bathroom in Philly and then Harrison Ford the cop has to protect him after the kid says one of the police did the crime. It's honestly your basic thriller/crime drama/romance stuff. You've seen this film countless times but this one just adds in the wrinkle of the Amish setting. Ford is still a mega movie star and gets the girl (which you can call before you even see the film), saves the day and becomes the hero, and looks good while being uber cool during all of it. The Amish thing is its saving grace. If it was just another cop film from the 80s I would dismiss the whole thing but at least it is interesting from that angle. It might not be truthful as to how the Amish live and act but at least it's different, which counts for a lot with 80s thrillers. The ending, though, where Ford hast to take on the three Philly cops who come to silence him is really well done. It looks great, first of all. Second, it has a really inventive death that I won't spoil. And it's really tense. Ultimately, this film has basically everything you could want in a Hollywood film, so it's easy to see why it got a Best Picture nod along with a ton of other nominations. It's not a bad nomination at all and I can say I had a good time watching it.
Maybe not the greatest BP category ever but Out of Africa winning isn't so egregious as others would like you to believe. It looks like a BP winner when you really think about it. But then you have to ask what exactly was going to replace it? The Color Purple is so tonally off at times that it's really off putting. I don't know what Spielberg was thinking but he needed to make better choices or probably better yet, step aside and let someone else do the film justice. Prizzi's Honor is also tonally weird. It's dark and tries to be funny but it fails miserably and isn't all that interesting as a mob film. I don't feel like it should have been nominated, honestly. Witness is good fun to watch. It's turn off your brain type of stuff so naturally it's my 4th even though I enjoy it. Kiss of the Spider Woman is my winner because the others have some faults (and this film does, too) that bump them down and this film is pretty great and an interesting watch. It also would have made history with it's subject matter and maybe Hollywood and Oscar looks a bit different if that happens. Below are my rankings though you could probably flip Out of Africa and The Color Purple and I wouldn't mind.
Oscar Winner: Out of Africa
My Winner: Kiss of the Spider Woman
The Color Purple
Out of Africa
Witness
Prizzi's Honor
No comments:
Post a Comment