Posted on 02/24/2017 6:14:42 AM PST by jalisco555
The film that walks away with the Best Picture statue at Sunday’s Academy Awards will earn a place forever in the history books — but perhaps not on viewers’ screens.
The cream of the crop of Hollywood’s golden age gained immortality. They are rerun and ritually rewatched endlessly, and remain regular pop-culture presences. But nowadays it seems like the Best Picture winner shines for one week in February and then — much like former Knick Jeremy Lin — is mostly forgotten.
Anyone watched last year’s winner, “Spotlight,” lately? Plan on revisiting 2011’s “The Artist” every year?
It’s pretty clear that recent Best Picture winners probably won’t have the cultural longevity of past honorees, such as 1942’s “Casablanca,” 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and 1965’s “The Sound of Music".
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
LOL, were you not entertained?
I rewatch a lot of movies, my wife watches them once and that is it.
I stopped paying attention when they gave “Shakespeare in Love” the nod over “Saving Private Ryan”.
The last movie that made me cry was Red Dawn, the original version.
LOL, I thought Shakespeare in Love was terrific, witty and original and deserved to win. Different strokes, I guess.
Funny...I watched a Burt Lancaster movie from the Sixties called “The Train” recently (about Nazis leaving France with a train full of stolen art and loot as the allies advance, and trying to get a French train yard manager (Burt Lancaster) to cooperate with them) and I did enjoy the movie except for one thing.
They made no effort to have any of the French or German characters change their accent...soooooo...you have this French train yard being operated by Brits, guys from Brooklyn, etc.
I suspended belief to watch it, and it was pretty good except for that!
In a vacuum,I thought “Shakespeare in Love” was entertaining, but did not have the gravitas or cultural impact of “Saving Private Ryan”.
But I agree 100%...different strokes!
My favorite movie? “The Best Years of Our Lives”, which won the Oscar in 1946.
Timeless movie...
Yes...GREAT movie, “The Lives of Others”.
I’m becoming quite a fan of Ben Foster. First noticed him in 3:10 from Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004936/
I just watched the entire run of Foyle's War. It was excellent.
You could be right. OTOH, director Clint Eastwood made a colossal error in judgement by using the fake baby.
In that one clunker of a scene, he ruined the movie’s believability and essentially forfeited the Oscar, in order to stay on budget.
Man that's one of my favorites! One of John Frankenheimer's best, and all those train crashes were done for real.
Yeah, he is pretty good.
In that movie “Hell or High Water”, I had to laugh a little at the way they portrayed West Texas...EVERYONE had a gun, and took off after the bad guys in a vigilante caravan in their pickup trucks!
Heh...”Do you have a gun?”
“Yer damned right I do!”
Exactly what I liked...I don’t mind CGI overall if done right (such as in the “Adams” HBO series which used very good CGI) but it was refreshing to see something like that as a non-CGI thing.
So, true-- So very, very true.
Perhaps it is my age (will be 70 in a few months) but 1974's Best Picture The Godfather Part II that Oscar got right as the last of what I call epic, well done, well structured films that will always be watchable even if Francis Ford Coppola kind'a skipped around a traditional beginning, middle and end storyline.
Yes, since 1974's The Godfather Part II, the Best Picture Winners have for the most part not been up to snuff as true classic films to watch over and over again.
Okay, here they are:
2015 - Spotlight -- Saw trailer and knew I'd not ever watch it.
2014 - Birdman -- Could not make it through first 30 minutes.
2013 - 12 Years a Slave -- Saw trailer and knew I'd not ever watch it.
2012 - Argo -- Saw trailer and knew I'd not ever watch it.
2011 - The Artist -- Pretty interesting take on the 'Silent Film' era but not a classic in any sense.
2010 - The King's Speech -- Very good film but not Oscar worthy.
2009 - The Hurt Locker -- Watched it, but not impressed.
2008 - Slumdog Millionaire -- Saw trailer and knew I'd not ever watch it.
2007 - No Country for Old Men -- Pretty god acting but plot left a lot to desire and that ending? Really--
2006 - The Departed -- A good afternoon enjoyment but classic-- No way.
2005 - Crash -- Waste of two hours.
2004 - Million Dollar Baby -- Watched it because Clint directed but have not seen it again since.
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King -- Not my cup of tea.
2002 - Chicago -- Saw trailer and knew I'd not ever watch it.
2001 - A Beautiful Mind -- Watched it but was bored by tell-tell plot.
2000 - Gladiator -- Good action film but still not Oscar worth class.
1999 - American Beauty -- Soft porn.
1998 - Shakespeare in Love -- They picked this instead of Saving Private Ryan if you can believe it. Had it won, Spielberg would be the last director to make a classic that will always be watchable.
1997 - Titanic -- Watched it once and enjoyed it but I am not a 13-year old girl who watched it over and over praying Jack would survive. The 1953 Titanic -- film had a better story and it's 'Jack' did survive.
1996 - The English Patient -- Watched it once.
1995 - Braveheart -- Good action film with Mel hitting on all eight cylinders but not an Oscar classic to watch again and agin.
1994 - Forrest Gump -- Tom Hanks super acting but not a Best Picture to my way of thinking.
1993 - Schindler’s List -- A Spielberg classic but have not watched since and probably won't.
1992 - Unforgiven -- Clint plays against type as long as he can, then go who hog but not his best western by a long shot.
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs -- More of a horror film than a Oscar classic.
1990 - Dances With Wolves -- Please, give me a break--
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy -- Close, but no cigar.
1988 - Rain Man -- Tom and Dustin prove two screen Divas can get through a film without killing one another.
1987 - The Last Emperor -- Boring!
1986 - Platoon -- Not the Vietnam I recalled where the drug dealer was the hero--
1985 - Out of Africa -- Snooze fest.
1984 - Amadeus -- Boring.
1983 - Terms of Endearment -- Saw it and did not find it worth another look nor an Oscar.
1982 - Gandhi -- Another snooze fest.
1981 - Chariots of Fire -- Another snooze fest.
1980 - Ordinary People -- Showed Mary Tyler Moore could play a stone cold heart bitch but otherwise forgettable.
1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer -- Left Wing snooze fest.
1978 - >The Deer Hunter -- Yeah, proves once and for all that the Left's is right that the whole Vietnam War was all about a game of Russian Roulette--
1977 - Annie Hall -- Woody Allen's comedy is not my cup of comedy.
1976 - Rocky -- Good fell good film but not a classic.
1975 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest -- Haven't seen it since.
None of these above winners can touch the films from the 1930's, 40s, 50s and early 1960s that I grew up watching in the theater and still do today on my 42 inch TV.
Okay, that's my two cents worth on what Oscar used to be and will never be ever again--
I always compare the Best Foreign Language Picture winner vs The Oscar winner.
Almost every year the Foreign picture is better.
Jaws, The Godfather, two great movies. Not much since.
These are movies I liked and have saved and watch again from time to time...
2008 - Slumdog Millionaire
2001 - A Beautiful Mind
2000 - Gladiator - I’m surprised at what a good actor Russell Crow is. I’ve wondered why I like him. He seems immersed and focused in his role, yet lithe and realistic.
1995 - Braveheart - good stuff
1994 - Forrest Gump - incredibly imaginative and fun to watch
1993 - Schindler’s List - well done, hard to watch
1988 - Rain Man
1984 - Amadeus - the soundtrack was so sublime and the account of his genius amazed me, I remember sitting there in the theater thinking to myself, “Why am I not listening to Mozart’s music every day?” Since then I have basically done just that.
1981 - Chariots of Fire - as a born-again Christian, I found this true-story sleeper to be a well-done and well-told story.
1977 - Annie Hall - I howled with laughter and the last scene touched something deep down
1976 - Rocky
1975 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
From TCM, we also save movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood in the late 20’s-40’s. When we lived in San Jose, CA, we would go regularly to the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto which David Packard beautifully renovated to its original art deco surroundings and reopened in the 80’s to show the oldies. When they show silent movies, the restored Wurlitzer pipe organ ascends from below the stage to play along with the movie. If you ever get the chance, go, it’s a lot of fun. Popcorn for a buck. http://stanfordtheatre.org/
Imho, The Godfather and Godfather II are two of the best movies ever made. Morality Plays in the best tradition, every few years I find something new in them.
Characteristics
Morality plays typically contain a protagonist who represents either humanity as a whole or a smaller social structure. Supporting characters are personifications of good and evil. This alignment of characters provides the play’s audience with moral guidance. Morality plays are the result of the dominant belief of the time period, that humans had a certain amount of control over their post-death fate while they were on earth.
In Everyman, perhaps the archetypal morality play, the characters take on the common pattern, representing broader ideas. Some of the characters in Everyman are God, Death, Everyman, Good-Deeds, Angel, Knowledge, Beauty, Discretion, and Strength. The personified meanings of these characters are hardly hidden. The premise of Everyman is that God, believing that the people on earth are too focused on wealth and worldly possessions, sends Death to Everyman to remind him of God’s power and the importance of upholding values.[3] The emphasis put on morality, the seemingly vast difference between good and evil, and the strong presence of God makes Everyman one of the most concrete examples of a morality play. At the same time, most morality plays focus more on evil, while Everyman focuses more on good, highlighting sin in contrast.
Other plays that take on the typical traits of morality plays, but are rarely given the title of “morality play” are Hickscorner and The Second Shepherds’ Play. The characters in Hickscorner are Pity, Perseverance, Imagination, Contemplation, Freewill, and Hickscorner. They blatantly represent moral ideals.[5] In The Second Shepherds’ Play, the characters are less obviously representative of good and evil, being primarily a trio of shepherds. But other characters such as Mary, The Child Christ, and An Angel show a strong moral presence and the importance of God in the play.
Source: Wikipedia
Sure enough.
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