Driving Miss Daisy 1989

The Film:

This is widely considered to be the worst winner ever. Not necessary the worst film to have ever won, but the worst decision ever made. One look at the other nominees (and a few non-nominees) and I'm inclined to agree. Mark Kermode points out that not only is it not the best film of the year, it's not the best Morgan Freeman film of the year.                                                                                                                                          Having said all that, I'm quite fond of it - I really like both the leads and I love the soundtrack (another great bit of Zimmer, that wasn't even nominated!). However, it's been a long time since I've seen it and I'm very aware that time has probably not been kind to it. It is, after all, a story about a black man chauffeuring a white woman around everywhere - a story that would have felt nostalgic and worthy in the eighties, but is likely to reek of stereotypes, white virtue-signalling and the clumsily well-intentioned "magic negro" trope in the far more enlightened present. I can't see any reason why I would ever think it was a worthy winner, but I'm going into it with an open mind and I hope to be pleasantly surprised!

EDIT: I'm putting the finishing touches to this post in the week following the 2019 Oscars - where Spike Lee yet again lost out to a film about a chauffeur. The general consensus at the moment is that Green Book didn't deserve to win Best Picture and it has been pointed out (including by Spike Lee himself) that the only thing that has changed in nearly thirty years is that it's now a white guy chauffeuring a black guy around. I'll let you know what I think when we get to the 2018 films....(although I am still gutted that Roma didn't win, for many reasons!)

The Ceremony:

After the fiasco of the year before, the ceremony on 26th March 1990 switched back to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and got itself a new producer and an actual host. This was the first of a total of nine ceremonies hosted by Billy Crystal (second only to Bob Hope) and you can see from this opening monologue why he kept being invited back. The last minute of this clip is a little musical montage of jokes about the Best Picture nominees - the first of several such "bits" in Crystal's ceremonies.

Despite the far superior ceremony, the ratings didn't pick up this year. It seems that people just weren't willing to take a chance after the horrors of the year before!

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Driving Miss Daisy is one of only three (ed - now four!) Best Picture winners to not have even received a nomination for its director - and the first since Grand Hotel in 1932. Best Director went where many people thought Best Picture should have also gone, to Oliver Stone for Born on the Fourth of July. Jessica Tandy became the oldest person at that time to win a competitive acting oscar, and Daniel Day Lewis took the other big prize (the first of his three) for My Left Foot.

Two of my absolute favourite non-English language films were nominated this year. I'm sad that Jesus de Montreal didn't win, but it was beaten by an absolute classic that still tops lots of lists of Best Foreign Language films ever. Cinema Paradiso is an absolute delight of a film - it's been far too long since I last saw it. It needs a rewatch!

Best Song:

We get to the end of the decade and we enter a new era of Best Song winners. Throughout the 90s pretty much every other winner is from an animated Disney film - here's one that jumps the gun slightly!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Fight the power!

I don't dislike Driving Miss Daisy. However, I like every other one of the nominees more - Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society (which I was obsessed with at the time!), My Left Foot and the lovely Field of Dreams.

There's also a fair few other films that I'd put in the mix. The aforementioned Cinema Paradiso and Jesus de Montreal for starters. And The Little Mermaid for that matter. And Morgan Freeman's other film, Glory. Not to mention one of the greatest romcoms of them all, When Harry Met Sally.

However, I have to go with the criminally non-nominated Do The Right Thing. Spike Lee's early masterpiece. Not just because it's the done thing now to say that it was robbed, but because it is an amazingly good film. The first really hot and sticky day of the year (they do happen sometimes in Yorkshire!) and my first thought when I get in from work is to stick this on. I love it!


Our Verdict:

Road trip!

Ok. I feel I should start this with a few disclaimers. I am neither black nor Jewish. I'm not American and I wasn't born until the very end of the timeline this film spans. I'm not from a social background that would either have servants or be servants (well, not for several generations). This is not, in any way shape or form, my story. I take on board everything that critics say about the awkwardness of the way this story is told - especially the "magic negro" character that is portrayed as the hero and therefore makes everything else ok. I get that - however, I think there are other points being made in this film that get overlooked because of these criticisms, and it's these points that make it a good film (not a great film, but a good film).

One of many reasons why making America
great again is a nonsense

Firstly, there are a lot of parallels between this film and last year's winner, Rain Man. They are both basically Road Trip movies about two characters, their relationship with each other and the effect it has on them both. If you look at it this way, Driving Miss Daisy has a lot to say and a lot to like about it. Just as Rain Man worked because it wasn't a film about disability, this film also works as something other than a film about race. It's more of a stretch here because the story directly refers to race as an issue, but I see this as just part (a necessary part) of a wider story being told.

I admit, I had a teacher moment here....

And this is where one massive plot point makes all the difference. I'd completely forgotten (and, arguably, so have modern critics) that Miss Daisy is Jewish. She has also experienced racism and she understands it. She doesn't see the difference between her and Hoke as one of race at all, but more one of economics or just general circumstance. This is seen most clearly in the way she reacts when she realises that Hoke can't read. No pity or distain for a poor unfortunate "lesser" human but a little bit of righteous anger as a former teacher, and a resolve to fix this particular injustice because she can. Jessica Tandy's Oscar-winning performance really helps here, as it does throughout the film. Morgan Freeman's performance is also excellent. Because these characters are played by these actors the whole thing just about works.

Friendship takes many forms

In conclusion, Driving Miss Daisy is probably not as good as it should be, and is definitely not as bad as it could be. It's also a better film than film history remembers it to be. In terms of the way its themes are handled, it is very much of its time. In terms of the themes themselves it is sadly still all too relevant.

(Which, ultimately and ironically, is probably the strongest argument for Do The Right Thing as best film of the year.....)