Oscar Snubs and Flubs

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Nobody can predict precisely what will happen when the 78th Annual Academy Awards ceremony is held this Sunday night (March 5th). Will cowboy love in Wyoming win out over racial tensions in the City of Angels? Will Reese Witherspoon walk the line to her first Oscar one or will the Lead Actress race gender bend its way to Felicity Huffman? Only two things are certain about Oscar night. First, Rob Schneider won´t be giving an acceptance speech. Second, audiences across the globe will indulge in the most time-honored of all Oscar traditions: second-guessing the winners.

Far be it from us to break with tradition at DVD Town. We´ve been second-guessing the Oscars since before we were born. There have been some outrageous Oscar oversights over the years and Jim, Chris and Kurtis are here to discuss a few of their favorite Academy blunders. Sure, you could argue that it´s a whole lot easier to identify these mistakes when you´ve had a few years or even a few decades to put the films into perspective, but we´ve never been shy about picking the low-hanging fruit - it tastes just as sweet as the rest!

JAMES PLATH
The first Academy Awards honored films made in 1927-28. Since then, everyone has loved to second-guess Oscar voters, and to that I plead happily guilty. Picking the best films will always be a subjective affair, as perhaps reinforced by The American Film Institute's list of Top 100 films. Thirty of the hundred won Best Picture awards, and while batting just under .300 is good in baseball, it doesn't sound so swell for movie picks. There's even more room for debate if you consider that nearly as many picks (21) in the Top 100 didn't even receive a Best Picture nomination. Some of the top snubs? "Some Like It Hot," "The African Queen," "Psycho," "Chinatown," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Bringing Up Baby," and "Close Encounters of the third Kind." Of course, they did do a better job if you just consider the AFI Top 10, getting six of them "right" ("Casablanca," "The Godfather," "Gone with the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia," "On the Waterfront," and "Schindler's List"). But from my own perspective, these stand out in my mind as the years of Best Picture blunders:

1947
"Gentleman's Agreement" won the Oscar, but two other nominees seem more solid, "Miracle on 34th Street" or "The Bishop's Wife," though I'm sure it hurt that they were regarded as holiday movies.

1952
"The Greatest Show on Earth" won Best Picture, but I would have given the prize to the western classic "High Noon," which was certainly Gary Cooper's finest hour, or to that wonderful John Ford/John Wayne film about an American in Ireland, "The Quiet Man." Or maybe I would have given the statue to a film that wasn't even nominated: "Singin' in the Rain" which placed #10 on the AFI list.

1956
"Around the World in 80 Days" captured the big prize, but how can you give it the nod over "Giant," "Friendly Persuasion," "The Ten Commandments," or "The King and I"? Easy, if you award it once again to a film that wasn't nominated: one regarded by many as the greatest western of all time, "The Searchers."

1964
Okay, so Audrey Hepburn was charming as Liza in "My Fair Lady," but so was Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins" and she did her own singing. "Becket" was also a strong nominee that year, as was "Zorba the Greek." But I would have handed the statue to "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

1979, 1980, 1981, and 1985
This is strictly a matter of preference rather than the kind of miscues I've already described, but I'd take "Apocalypse Now" over "Kramer vs. Kramer," "Raging Bull" over "Ordinary People," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" over "Chariots of Fire," and "The Color Purple" over "Out of Africa" any day of the week.

As for more recent robberies?

1989
"Driving Miss Daisy" won the Oscar, but I would have given it to a film that wasn't even nominated: "When Harry Met Sally."

1996
"Fargo" was really a much more interesting film than "The English Patient," which had me near-comatose by the end.

1997
"Titanic" was a CGI exercise first and a film second, with a melodramatic and trite love story. In future years it'll take more than special effects. I would have given the prize to "As Good as it Gets," or even "Good Will Hunting."

2000
And as much as I enjoyed "Gladiator," I don't think it had nearly the resonance or complexity of "Traffic."

Those are my gripes. But picking Best Picture is always an apples-and-oranges challenge. Some years it's even tougher when there's a bumper crop. What bad luck it was to be up for Best Picture in 1939, when "Gone with the Wind" beat out "The Wizard of Oz," "Stagecoach," "Ninotchka," "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington," and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"!


CHRISTOPHER LONG
I can think of no set of films that is less relevant to everything I value about cinema than the list of Best Picture winners throughout the years. At their best they represent solid craftsmanship; more often they are the embodiment of middlebrow mediocrity. Innovation is strictly forbidden, and aesthetic concerns seldom, if ever, enter into the equation for Academy voters.

I wouldn´t wish a festival of Oscar winning films on my worst enemy, but at the same time I see no reason to get incensed about the whole affair. The Oscars remain what they have always been: Hollywood´s opportunity to celebrate its own glory and to affirm its particular brand of filmmaking as the definition of greatness. The problem with the Oscars is not the ceremony itself, but the unquestioning respect it is granted by a fawning media and by lazy critics. These are industry awards and nothing more. They should be viewed in the same manner (and accorded the same esteem) as the Adult Video News Awards or the Country Music Awards. As long as that´s understood, I´ve got no complaints.

Keeping this in mind, Oscar´s most glaring errors in judgment can´t really be considered injustices, but there are certainly some curious picks that the passage of time has rendered downright puzzling.

1939 and 1942
These two years shared a common theme as a beloved director won for a "lesser" work at the expense of some formidable competition.

Frank Capra was the consummate Hollywood director, and I actually mean that in a good way. If anything, his work is actually underrated today as he has been unfairly dismissed a mere "feel good" director. Because he had long since earned the admiration of his industry peers, it is not surprising that Capra won both Best Picture and Best Director (his third) for "You Can´t Take It With You" in 1939. However when you consider that Jean Renoir´s "Grand Illusion" was also one of the nominees that year, you can appreciate how difficult it is to evaluate art at the time it is released. In the most recent (2002) "Sight and Sound Poll", "Grand Illusion" received 13 votes as one of the ten greatest films of all-time: "You Can´t Take It With You" got none.

John Ford took home four Best Director statuettes in his day, but you might not know that "How Green Was My Valley," not "Grapes of Wrath" or "The Quiet Man," was the only Ford film to be named Best Picture. I also doubt that many viewers or critics today would consider "How Green Was My Valley" one of Ford´s masterpieces. Nonetheless, it won in 1942 over a couple of obscure films you might have heard of: "Citizen Kane" and "The Maltese Falcon."

1969 "Oliver!" was named Best Picture while "2001: A Space Odyssey" wasn´t even nominated. Remember what I said about innovation being strictly forbidden? Perhaps the biggest blunder of all, however, is the fact that "2001," despite having the greatest sound design of any studio film ever made, did not even get nominated for Best Sound. However, Kubrick did win his only Oscar that year: for special effects. Of course, his only competition in the category was "Ice Station Zebra."

1977
Actually, I´m going to highlight "Rocky" as a great pick, one of the best in Academy history. This might sound strange since I consider "Taxi Driver," also nominated that year, one of the twenty greatest films ever made. But if you view the Oscars as Hollywood´s chance to promote itself, then "Rocky" is a perfect choice. It represents the very best in popular, crowd-pleasing film-making and also captures the essence of Philadelphia (my home town) better than any other movie. This might have been the strongest group of nominees ever with "All the President´s Men" and "Network" also in the mix. As a side note, "Rocky" is the only Best Picture winner that places in my personal Top 100 list.

The 1990s
If they show movies in Hell, they could fill the entire marquee with the godforsaken nominees and winners of this decade. I think the 90s was a fantastic decade for film-making, but you couldn´t tell it from these dreadful selections. I like "Unforgiven" quite a bit and "Titanic" isn´t nearly as bad as its detractors claim, bit this group is almost universally hopeless. "Rocky" is the only Best Picture winner to make my Top 100, but I number several Oscar-winners among my Least Favorite Films of All-Time, and most of those come from this decade. "Forrest Gump" and "The English Patient" both place on that list, and that´s not even counting the fact the worst (and most offensive) movie I have ever seen won a Best Picture this the 90s (I´ll leave it to your imagination to guess which one).

KURTIS BEARD

THE HONORARY AWARD
The Honorary Award has long served as the Academy´s last effort to recognize filmmakers who were previously forgotten or repeatedly snubbed. A handful of the greatest directors have been honored by the Academy in such a way. Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Sidney Lumet, Andrzej Wajda, Stanley Donen, Akira Kurosawa, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, and Jean Renoir all received the Honorary Award as their very first Oscar statuette. For Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin, it was their second. In the case of Stanley Kubrick, it´s a terrible shame that he wasn´t acknowledged prior to his unexpected death in 1999. On the other hand, Satyajit Ray received the Honorary Award just over a month before his death. Unfortunately, he was in no shape to attend the ceremonies. Martin Scorsese, who has yet to win a single Oscar, is a likely candidate for the award in future years. Evidently, the Academy uses this award as a means to avoid any further criticism concerning their past oversights.

I have no problem with the Academy´s choice of recipients, but there are countless individuals whose recognition has been withheld for much too long. It was not uncommon for the Academy to present several Honorary Awards each year during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Perhaps the Academy should reinstate such a tradition. There are plenty of deserving candidates, and so little time.

At this year´s Oscars, Robert Altman will be recognized with the Honorary Award, coincidentally his very first Oscar. Altman´s five previous directing nominations indicate his significant influence on the film industry. His dedication to film is undeniable; the man is 81 years old and he is still directing. Hopefully, Altman will be present to accept his long overdue statuette. If there´s one reason to watch this year´s Oscars, it´s for the tribute to Altman´s extensive and acclaimed career.

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