I am so glad to be done with 1975 because I feel like I've been in it
forever, or at least a whole year. I took a break in the middle of this
year to stop and do 2017 and then came back to this year. Plus, it has a
lot of films to watch: 15 out of 25 possible spots are different films.
Some years just seem to drag and I'm excited to move on, but first
let's get to what on paper looks like a hell of a Best Picture race.
I've seen three of them already and know they are pretty great and the
other two are always held up as being great films in their own right.
This could be right up there with 1976 in terms of quality.
1975 Best Picture
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One
of three films ever to win the big five awards (Picture, Director, Lead
Actor/Actress, and one of the writing awards) along with It Happened One Night and Silence of the Lambs.
Good company, for sure. It tells the story of Jack Nicholson, a
criminal who is sent to an asylum to be monitored to determine if he's
crazy and should be committed. He's a head strong man who likes to
challenge others and runs into the notorious Nurse Ratched. He also
meets a whole cast of crazy/not so crazy patients and Nicholson pushes
things to the limit. Now, the film did win both lead acting awards and
did so with legitimately great acting from Nicholson and Louise
Fletcher. They are joined by a ton of good actors who play the fellow
patients like Danny Devito, Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, and William
Sampson (Chief). The story is pretty simple and tells the power struggle
of the two leads as McMurphy resents authority but grows to hate Nurse
Ratched over time. Nurse Ratched wants to exert control over her
patients and be the power figure of the asylum and McMurphy challenges
that ideal by turning the patients against her. It's just a really well
made film that is made all the better because of the tremendous acting.
Nicholson has to carry most of the film with his character being this
domineering presence who leads the patients on an escape trip to go
fishing, has an after hours party in the ward, and gets everyone to
demand their privileges. Fletcher is also a domineering presence in that
she's the ice cold head nurse who controls everything that goes on in
her ward. Just the name Nurse Ratched alone conjures up the evil,
vindictive head nurse. It's almost become it's own pejorative to call
people you don't like. Sometimes I have little narratives that I like to
get across about films but I don't have anything for this film. It's
just a plain good film. I've seen it a few times now and it never feels
worn out or dated. It's also probably one of the better Best Picture
winners, at least for me. Also, I wanted to mention that this film
reminds me so much of Cool Hand Luke. I feel like they are so
similar with a bravura man coming into a new situation with a lot of
supporting guys in prison/asylum and this man uplifts those men with fun
little scenes before an ultimately tragic ending. I always think of the
one with the other and I dunno, it's just an observation I've always
had that I wanted to get out there. Anyone else agree? Both are great
films.
Barry Lyndon
I
remember watching the very beginning of this film once after another
film had ended on TCM and being completely sucked in. I had to turn it
off because I didn't want to have to rewatch a three plus hour film
somewhere down the line but I thought the film looked sumptuous and the
production was perfect. There are scenes that look like they were
straight up lifted from some old painting and I do think that the
production value and look of this film is the big draw. It's simply
gorgeous to look at and rightfully won Best Cinematography for it's
efforts. The film itself is based off a novel about the (mis)adventures
of the title character (though it starts out as Redmond Barry), an
Irishman who tries many different ways to improve his lot in the world.
The short of it is he falls in love with his cousin, duels a British
Officer that she likes to win her over, flees after shooting him and
then enlisting in the British Army and fighting for a while before
deserting and then joining the Prussian Army. After, he becomes a spy
but it's just a ploy to get back to England where he mingles in high
society because of contacts made while a spy and meets Lady Lyndon and
then eventually they marry. As you can tell, a lot goes on, yet the film
never feels too busy and never overstays it's welcome on any one part
of the plot. The film can move along at a brisk pace while also lazily
lingering on scenes and somehow the two work harmoniously together and
makes the film stronger. It's like everything has a purpose even when it
doesn't and the kudos for that goes to Kubrick. This is an obvious
labor of love that took over two years to finish and the details in this
film are evident from the Oscar winning wardrobes, to the background
locations, to the almost one hundred percent natural lighting used for
the film - which is incredibly impressive to me. I think this film gets
overlooked as one of Kubrick's many classics because he has so many of
those, but this is just as strong and worth at least one watch just like
his others. I really like that a period piece film like this doesn't
ever feel stuffy or proper and yet that kind of language is used but
it's used to great effect. It almost feels peppy or punchy or dynamic.
That sounds kinda weird but the language adds a layer to the film that
makes it interesting and not just stiff upper lip boring British accent
crap. You might think I'm reaching with that one but it works for me,
maybe it's the way a lot of the dialogue is said with a dry with or a
straight face with something obviously hammy. Anyway, the details of the
film add up to make a legit classic film and a great nomination by the
Academy.
Dog Day Afternoon
This
is such a good film and it's one of those I've seen many times, even
before starting this project. So why am I having such a hard time
writing this review, when I easily wrote about Al Pacino and Chris
Sarandon? Their performances are the highlight of this film along with
John Cazale and Charles Durning. What's really fascinating about all
that is director Sidney Lumet allowed the actors to mostly improvise the
script and get inside the characters and deliver something raw and
real. From the opening of the film, you know what you are going to get
is realistic and authentic. The film opens with everyday scenes of New
York City with an Elton John song playing over it before we land on
Pacino and his cohorts. The film is simply about a bank robbery gone
awry but obviously the film goes much deeper than that. We see this
comedy of errors develop as the manic Pacino has to deal with all the
issues that arise while things look more and more bleak for him. We
later learn his relationship with his family is terrible, his
relationship with his wife and kids is pretty lousy, and his
relationship with his gay lover/wife is pretty rocky as well. There's
not much right going on in Pacino's life and we see the weight of all
that hardship on his shoulders. Pacino is incredible and this is one of
his best roles, if not the best role of his career, in terms of pure
acting. The improvisation leads to many great scenes in the film from
the Attica chant, to the phone call with Sarandon, to Pacino just
yelling at the cops on the street. I think this film shows that a simple
story can be elevated to great heights with high quality acting.
There's no musical cues in this, no snappy editing or camera tricks, no
special effects. It's just a straightforward story that is one of the
better films of the 70s.
Jaws
I
will admit I'm not even going to watch this film again because this is
one of those movies that I've seen countless times. It is/was always on
some station on the weekend growing up or there was some Jaws
marathon and it would find it's way onto the TV. And these days, my
brother always seems to have it on when we go over there. It's always on
somewhere. So yeah, don't need to watch it again. The thing that I
think some people don't know or forget is that Jaws was the first
ever summer blockbuster. It really created that whole machine. The
powers behind the film gave it an unprecedented marketing push with tons
of ads and made sure it was in the most theaters possible. And because
of that, people flocked to the film and watched it over and over,
putting Jaws firmly in the front seat of most money made at the box office ever (for a short time anyway). Thing is, Jaws
is a good movie. It's not some crummy Hollywood blockbuster of today
where the story and actual filmmaking elements take a back seat to
spectacle and big stars. The film has great acting from Roy Scheider,
Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss. The music is undeniably memorable and
has been riffed on and parodied ever since, yet still can inspire dread
when you hear it. I mean, the film turned a generation of people into
being frightened by sharks and scared of the open water and it's hard to
blame them given the impact of Spielberg's classic. He does a great job
of making the shark into this fearful, horrifying thing by controlling
when we finally see it so that it's reveal has the most impact. And
there's a bunch of memorable scenes including the opening shot of the
girl swimming alone in the dark, the story of the USS Indianapolis, the
moment the shark pops up when Scheider is chumming the water, and you
could go on and on. There was always one scene that stuck out to me even
when I was little and that was when the beach is full of holiday
vacationers and someone yells Shark! and we get that deep focus pull
back zoom on Scheider sitting up from his beach chair, cigarette hanging
limply from his mouth. I always marveled at how that was accomplished
because it just looked so cool and probably helped really get me
interested in how films are made. Which reminds me that the mechanical
sharks, nicknamed Bruce, were such a problem for the production that
it's a miracle the film ever got completed. They worked in salt water in
the open ocean and that was because Spielberg insisted on location
shooting instead of shooting in a tank on some sound stage. I think that
location aspect really serves the film well because it feels more
authentic and looks better than some joyless tank. Any way you look at
it, Jaws is a great film and is a pretty awesome choice by the Academy to include in a Best Picture field.
Nashville
If
you're not a fan of Robert Altman or country music, you are going to
hate this film. Like most of his other films, this one involves a whole
lotta characters with different stories who all intersect at various
points and have a crazy ending. And as you probably could have guessed
from the title, the story takes place in, and is all about, Nashville.
So that means it's full of country music characters and focuses mainly
on that, although there are some other non country singing people, too.
The story is about twenty four characters in the city and it follows
them around for about five days as we watch them go about their lives.
With that many characters, there are of lot of plot threads going on,
some that are fulfilling and some that don't really go anywhere. That's
to be expected with so much going on, but I must confess, I was
expecting a lot more from this film. I really like some of Altman's
other films like The Player and Short Cuts, but this was a
letdown especially when you hear how much praise it gets as a
quintessential film. Some of that reasoning is probably due to the fact
that I'm not a country music fan at all and this film is essentially a
musical. Altman had his actors write and then sing their own songs for
the film and that has a detrimental effect on the film for me. Most of
the songs are really awful, even if they are lampooning the country
music genre a little bit. So having to sit through characters sing these
full songs every so often wasn't much fun. The standouts were by Keith
Carradine's character who actually won a Best Song Oscar for his effort.
I really liked his individual song and the one's he sings with his
country/folk band. The people of the city of Nashville didn't like the
film very much and the country stars hated it, too. I'd say mostly
because it lampoons their city and identity a bit, but also because the
country music stars didn't get to write and sing in the film. I think
they were mad that they weren't included and regular actors were singing
in their place. The positives about the film are the strong acting by
most everyone involved and that includes a ton of interesting female
characters. The Golden Globes actually nominated four women from this
film in their Best Supporting Actress category and I could have seen
Oscar doing three or four, too, without it feeling undeserved. Also,
Jeff Goldblum plays this ridiculously kooky guy who drives a huge three
wheeled motorcycle and doesn't seem to have any purpose other than to be
different than all the conservative country folk. He wears crazy
outfits and is gloriously Goldblum like, you can't not like him. So
there is a lot to like but as I said, the country songs are ever present
and if that's not your thing, this will be a little tough to get
through, though I guess you could just fast forward them. The political
plot that runs through the film can get annoying when the campaign van
blares speeches throughout most of the film. I understand why it's
included and relevant but it still gets on your nerves after a bit. So
yeah, this film has a lot of great acting and the scenes of Nashville
are pretty cool, especially the ending which is set at the Parthenon.
It's a real thing in Nashville and is supremely awesome to see and
experience in person. I do recognize that this is very talented
filmmaking and seems like a bit of Americana in it's own right, it just
wasn't as great as I thought it would be.
This
is certainly one of the best group of five Best Picture nominees that I
have yet encountered and most likely that I will encounter throughout
this project. Every film in this group is excellent. Plain and simple.
Not a bad film in the bunch. I may not have been as gushing about Nashville
as I was with the other films, but it is definitely a great film with
some memorable female performances and it's slice of Americana is like
opening a time capsule. It's just that the whole country music thing
brings it down slightly for me. If you love country music, though, it
might be a contender for you. Barry Lyndon is gorgeous to watch
and is like a comforting film to just put on in the background and pay
attention every now and then. That sounds like a knock, but really it's
one that I could watch without really having to pay attention and just
enjoy the scenes on screen. Just a well put together film by Kubrick
that I think a lot of people overlook because it's not as famous as some
of his other films. Dog Day Afternoon is such an interesting
film. It seems small in focus but it has such great depth that it
delivers in every conceivable way. Not to mention it might be Pacino's
best work, it just has so much working in its favor that you can't help
but love it. That leaves me with two more and some might be surprised
that I put Jaws in second place, considering the hefty classics
it is up against and it being a summer blockbuster film. But it is the
quintessential summer blockbuster film and the first real one, at that.
Yet it holds up even 40 years later with so many iconic scenes and beats
within the film that you forget that it originated almost all of those
beats. It's also a film that I've seen so many times and am still not
tired of watching. It's fun and entertaining, yes, but it's also a great
piece of filmmaking on its own. That leaves One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
as my winner for the year and I think that's a good choice by the
Academy, too. With what is possibly Nicholson's best work of his career,
the film leaves a lasting impression on the viewer and American
culture. It's still a scathing indictment on how we treat our mentally
ill and still very relevant to today's world. It tells a tragic, yet
engaging story and is a bonafide classic, just like the other four in
this group. None of these are bad or even mediocre, and you could easily
mix them up and any film on top would be a good winner. What a year!
Oscar Winner: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
My Winner: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Jaws
Dog Day Afternoon
Barry Lyndon
Nashville
No comments:
Post a Comment