These Academy Award commentaries are the least popular things on the blog, but I want to do them anyway.
The 1990s were a good decade for the Academy Awards. It starts with a win for Dances with Wolves which is worthy but quite dull. Ghost is far better remembered but Goodfellas is probably the one that should have won. How The Godfather Part 3 was nominated will remain at eternal mystery – Coppola took a giant dump on his legacy with this one.
Silence of the Lambs won in 1991 and it is an excellent film, far better than The Prince of Tides or Bugsy (as for Beauty and the Beast it is was only there as Disney were agitating about it not being fair that cartoons were never nominated). But JFK is my favourite film ever so that – I once watched the extended version in the morning and then the same version with the director commentary on in the afternoon.
In 1992 Clint Eastwood won for Unforgiven. Now, despite his terrible politics, I do like Clint Eastwood, but this smacked of being a farewell award, yet he keeps making films. There was also a buzz about someone making a cowboy film after they had been an ignored genre for so long. A Few Good Men or The Crying Game should have won out.
Schindler’s List won in 1993 and you can’t argue with that really. The Academy had been looking to give it to Spielberg for years but even I would not deny this film. Watch with a friend – it is emotionally devastating.
1994 is a tough year. I think it has the best five films as a group ever. The least good is Quiz Show (based on a true scandal from the 1950s) that is merely very good. The Shawshank Redemption may well win if people voted now, despite its poor reception at the time its reputation has grown with time. Forest Gump won and it is the weirdest thing as many people judge it on the box of chocolates scene if they have not seen it, yet love it if you force them to watch it. Then there are Four Weddings and a Funeral (I saw this on my 29th birthday after eating huge amounts of pizza with people from work – somehow Diane still managed a large popcorn too) and Pulp Fiction – I love both to pieces and they could not be more different. Pulp Fiction just shades it as the best Tarantino ever. Watch all five if you have not seen them.
1995 makes me madder than any year. Braveheart is an appalling piece of inaccurate crap. The Scots did not wear kilts, droit de seigneur is a myth, the whole thing is just a fiction that namechecks some people who lived. Apollo 13 should have won, maybe Tom Hanks was doing too well?
Really? In 1996 The English Patient beat Fargo? I mean I think Jerry Maguire is so over rated too, but Fargo is the best Coen Brothers film and a truly awesome movie. How many films have a pregnant policewoman as the lead character? Plus it inspired a top notch TV series. What were the Academy thinking?
Titanic dominates 1997, though I would not say it was one of James Cameron’s best films. It is two films put together with sticky tape – a romance and a disaster movie. Go watch Aliens or Terminator 2 for far better. Good Will Hunting and The Full Monty are better films, but the best is LA Confidential – it is not good as James Ellroy’s fantastic novel (his LA Quartet should be a Netflix or HBO series).
Shakespeare in Love is a lovely film, not a great one. Elizabeth was nominated too in a festival of Tudor fun. At least it denied Saving Private Ryan a win. I remain sceptical about a lot of Spielberg’s work. This starts with a devastating tour de force on the beaches of Normandy, but most of the movie is that kind of cloying the USA won World War 2 crap. 1998 was not a great year for nominees.
In 1999 American Beauty won and to be honest at the time I liked it. It seems a lot more problematic now with our knowledge of Kevin Spacey (though he is a great actor) and its focus on a man’s lust for a teenage girl. The direction and design is lovely. The Cider House Rules and The Green Mile are both novel adaptions that are nowhere near as good as the books (and Green Mile seems to have been nominated as Shawshank Redemption did not win). The Insider is a more important film dealing with real life issues.
Fatboy Slim – the band of the 90s as he said about himself. Love this video too (despite it being inaccurate).
Right Here Right Now
Five Miles Out 