Best Picture 1971

Ahhh, I love Best Picture time! I also love when I get to finally cross off films that I've wanted to see for forever from my list. There's a couple in this group where I've only seen one of these films. So I'll get to enjoy crossing some films off my list and hopefully get a good group to go with it.

1971 Best Picture

The French Connection

What I like best about this film is how matter of fact the whole thing is. The film is only one hour and forty-three minutes long and yet it zips along telling a very tight, concise story without any of the extraneous plot threads that can doom other films of this nature. It's a manly New York City cop movie where a narcotics officer foils an international drug ring from France. And I do mean manly. There's barely any women in this film and the two partners (Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider) talk frankly and give each other shit. There's so much tension and edge of your seat thrills that you can cut it with a knife. There's also a ton of action, including what some people say is one of the greatest car chase sequences ever put to film. I was excited to finally watch it and can say that it is exhilarating and the fact that it's a car versus an elevated train, really adds to the dynamic. It ranks up there, for sure. Hackman gives a great performance in a role that really made him into a leading man in Hollywood. But I just love how straightforward everything in this film is. Hackman as Popeye Doyle is just a cop who wants to get his man and will doggedly follow them all over. I enjoyed this film a lot and think it's a deserving winner and is a classic, but I also kinda was expecting to be genuinely wowed because I'd heard so much about this film over the years. I figured it would hit me like an All The President's Men and become an instant favorite of mine. Alas, I think it's awesome but not a top film for me personally. But I do appreciate how to the point the story was and honestly it makes it that much better of a film. My one big gripe is that ending. It's left ambiguous as to did Popeye kill his man and then we get the run down of the criminals and that the main French guy was never found and Popeye and his partner were reassigned. So anti climactic and unnecessary if you ask me. Will this be my winner? I'm unsure as of now but it is a very good film that everyone should see.

A Clockwork Orange

The more I watch this film, the more I appreciate it for different reasons. Yeah, it's a cool film with some provocative images but it's more than just some ultra violent flick you find as a teenager. It's got all the usual Stanley Kubrick director trademarks. The use of classical music with the visceral images on screen goes so well together and is something Kubrick is great at including in his films. There are scenes taken straight from a painting. This film has a scene where prisoners are walking in a circle that is taken straight from a Van Gogh painting, I believe, and just points to Kubrick's attention to detail and his aesthetic overall. So much care and detail put into every scene is clearly evident and makes the film an even better viewing experience. Most of you should at least know what this one is about by now, but it's a near future where we follow a teen who goes off with his little gang committing acts of ultra violence but is caught and then reformed through aversion therapy. It has a ton of memorable scenes that evoke all kinds of different emotions, which is an area where this films excel in. It's got a really great lead acting turn from Malcolm MacDowell who should have been nominated for Best Actor and it's a damn shame he wasn't. This film lives on his smarmy, cocky, self assured, wild character as we experience everything through his mind. Just a really strong performance that buoys the film along with Kubrick's direction. This is one of those films that I forget was a Best Picture nominee every time I watch it because it just seems so out of character for the Academy, but they do get it right sometimes. This is an all time great film and just another feather in Kubrick's cap, which is amazing to think about - and he never even won a Best Director Oscar!

Fiddler on the Roof

Amazing that this musical film about poor Jewish farmers in Russia could become this cultural touchstone and be remembered fondly even today. It's incredible to think that this film did so well and made money and got a ton of awards recognition. One thing I found funny when reading about this film was that the producer's hired director Norman Jewison because they thought he was actually Jewish, which he is not and that was the first thing he told them after he was hired! But I think the film really succeeds on two things: Topol's performance as Teyve and Jewison's direction. The film won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in a really stacked year and it is what really stood out to me about this film. It's painted in these drab, muted earth tones and yet it looks as beautiful as any film or musical has a right to. There are so many fantastic shots including the opening with the fiddler on the roof and the closing of the fiddler walking behind the villagers on the move in a cold, snowy, very gray landscape. There's a lot more in between and it surprised me just how well shot this thing really was. The other reason the film does so well is because of Topol's acting as the main character, Teyve. Topol had originated the role in the London stage production and you can tell he knows that character in and out and brings a certain gravitas to the film. Without his performance, the film fails to connect with audiences if you ask me. It's the role he was born to play and he gives us a memorable performance. I will say my biggest complaint is that the film really starts to drag in the third hour. The memorable, catchy songs almost cease totally and the film goes from a lively, good natured story to a serious, dramatic, sad one when the Russians ramp up their hatred. It at least ends in a very hopeful manner but the last hour felt every bit of an hour as I was watching. But the music is very good and honestly iconic. The songs are mostly catchy and ones you want to hum along to. It looks great, has great direction, and a very good main performance. Fiddler is well worth the three hours, especially if you have been sleeping on it like I was.

The Last Picture Show

I had been wanting to see this one for so long. I had appreciated Peter Bogdanovich's other films I've seen and knew that he was part of that auteur movement in the 70s. You could say this film helped usher in that era for the Oscars because this is totally a film with a certain unique style. The film is shot in a gorgeous black and white that makes the setting of a small West Texas town seem even more bleak and desperate. I love Bogdanovich's use of closeups on his characters as the film is full of the shots and it really lends an intimacy and gravitas to the material. The story is about the town but specifically a couple high schoolers and how life is for a small town in the 50s. It's a coming of age story but not one where we end up happy at the end. It's more true to life that growing up isn't this idealistic thing with happy endings and warm fuzzy moments. Life can be cruel and cold and callous. The performances are the highlight because there are so many really great ones in this film. There's four Oscar nominations from it but also Cybill Shepherd and especially Timothy Bottoms standout as well. Bottoms effectively carries the film as the lead actor and gets screwed by not getting a nomination for himself. The film is a classic for all of these reasons from the acting to the incredible directing and cinematography to the writing itself. I love that a film like this could be nominated for Best Picture because it represents a lot of what I am looking for in my films. I love that depressed sorta feel to a story where you enter people's lives and get the raw and real version of what would really happen. This is an incredible film and one that's definitely going on my list of new favorites.

Nicholas and Alexandra

I kept wanting to call this Fanny and Alexander but that's a Bergman film and this is a historical epic clocking in at over three hours about the Russian Tsar (or Czar, however you want to spell it) and the end of his rule. This is a holdover nominee from the previous decade. By that I mean the 60s had a ton of these grand historical epics that were routinely nominated for Best Picture. This film and nomination feels like the last gasp of that era before the 70s style and attitude fully took over. Is this a bad film? Absolutely not. It has some utterly amazing set production and costumes and the visuals are a sight to behold. There are some very fine cinematography moments where you might mistake you're looking at a painting or a picture taken. The visuals are the highlight of the film. But yes, it is a very long film that covers a lot of actual history and crams it all into a stuffed three plus hours. Rasputin makes a brief entrance and is killed, there are uprisings and revolution, the son is diagnosed with hemophilia, the Czar abdicates, the family is murdered. Everything that you know about the last royal family of Russia plus some other characters like Lenin and Trotsky all make their appearances. The acting is fine enough, though nothing really stands out to me. It is a bit jarring to hear English accents for every character even though they are all supposed to be Russian. That probably bothered me more than it should have honestly. It's also not entirely boring. The first half is somewhat enthralling and zipped right along but that may be due to me enjoying the historical aspect of events I don't really know that much about. I do think it slows down in the second half right when you think it should be picking up steam with the tension and terror of revolution and the end of the monarchy and the eventual deaths of the Romanoffs. The final scene is memorable but the lead up to it is a bit of work. This is clearly a holdover nomination but it is also an interesting film. It has no chance in winning going up against those other four behemoths but I do enjoy the variety this nomination brings to this year.


Man, what a list! This is one that you look at and might think meh, I have heard of these but maybe never actually sat down and watched them and it doesn't seem like a strong list. But it is though! The French Connection has become a sort of classic I think in part because it did win Best Picture but also because of Gene Hackman and that great car chase scene. That's why I am leaving this as my winner. I love most of these films a lot but I really did enjoy watching this winner. A Clockwork Orange is such a classic and such an inspired choice by the Academy and I'm glad they didn't ignore it. It's different than most BP films but it deserves to be here without a doubt. I had heard great things about The Last Picture Show and it completely delivered on becoming a new favorite of mine. It's so moody and just has a great feel to it with some amazing acting and direction that it ushered in a new auteur driven decade. Fiddler on the Roof surprised me in how much I enjoyed it. I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, but it's got great songs and great acting and you can see why it was a cultural touchstone. Nicholas and Alexandra is the last gasp holdover from the 60s and is the end of that kind of grand historical epic. It's somewhat enjoyable but really doesn't hold up to the rest of this list. It's interesting to watch for that reason but definitely is the bottom of this list. Overall, a great year that I was very happy to watch - and now finish.

Oscar Winner: The French Connection
My Winner:  The French Connection
A Clockwork Orange
The Last Picture Show
Fiddler on the Roof
Nicholas and Alexandra