Review of the 70s

The 70s - Blockbusters, Masterpieces, Underdogs and the shape of things to come....(if only!)

I think the 40s is still my favourite decade for films in general - but when it comes to Best Picture Winners then the 70s is the ultimate decade. Most of these films are considered to be absolute classics and are watched regularly around the world today (and so are most of the forty other nominees). I really like all of them except Patton - and I'll concede that Patton had some great things going for it (especially George C Scott and the soundtrack).

There's a real shift in film-making this decade - or at least in "critically-acclaimed" film-making - away from high-budget glamour and whimsy and towards gritty realism. We saw a bit of this in the 60s (In The Heat of the Night, Midnight Cowboy) but, with the arguable exceptions of The Sting and Annie Hall (both still a bit gritty and realistic....) the 70s gives us intelligent, thought-provoking and (sometimes) disturbing drama. There are no more musicals (even near-miss Cabaret is a very different sort of musical) and, apart from the De Niro scenes in G2, every film is set within 50 years of the time it was made. All the films are American (both technically and in spirit) and are set, at least partly, in the US (Patton's speech in front of the flag just about qualifies as a US setting). At least half of the films are strongly connected to contemporary New York.

Also, a lot of these films (and many of the other nominees) are shot mainly or partly on location, rather than on big Hollywood lots. There are several examples of scenes that were shot very early in the morning on city streets (possibly without the proper permits), and glimpses of bystanders who were probably quite surprised to find they ended up in an Oscar-winning film. (The French Connection and Rocky are probably the best examples of this....).

I have really enjoyed this decade - if enjoyed is the right word for some of these films. It is with great reluctance that we move on to the 80s, where flashy capitalism and an increased reliance on personal therapy looks set to derail a lot of what the 70s gave us!

My Top Ten (as they stand today!) is as follows:

1. The Godfather
2. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
3. The Sting
4. The Godfather Part II
5. The Deer Hunter
6. Rocky
7. Annie Hall
8. The French Connection
9. Kramer vs Kramer
10. Patton

Best Picture

Nominees:   

The Godfather
The Sting
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
The Godfather Part II
The Deer Hunter

And the winner is.....

The Godfather

I know it's obvious, but it's that good. Better than the sequel (although the De Niro parts of the sequel match it well). I've seen it half a dozen times now and it gets better every time I watch it. It's long, serious, hard-hitting, violent and grim in parts - but always compelling and (weird but true) very enjoyable. It's right up there on my all time list!



Best Director


Nominees:   

Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather 1 and 2)
George Roy Hill (The Sting)
Milos Forman (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest)
Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter)

And the winner is.....

Francis Ford Coppola

Two Godfathers - no contest!


Best Actor


Nominees:   

Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest)
Robert De Niro (Godfather 2, The Deer Hunter)
John Cazale (Godfather 1 and 2, The Deer Hunter)
Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter)
Paul Newman (The Sting)
George C Scott (Patton)


And the winner is.....

Jack Nicholson

It's a tough category - hence six nominees (and no Pacino). But Jack gets it because he acts his socks off all the way through Cuckoo's Nest without ever getting in the way of the other great performances. Even though he has often over-acted his way through the last four decades, when he gets it right he gets it very right indeed.


Best Actress

Nominees:   

Diane Keaton (Godfather 1 and 2, Annie Hall)
Talia Shire (Godfather 1 and 2, Rocky)
Meryl Streep (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs Kramer)
Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest)


And the winner is.....

Louise Fletcher

Actually not as rich a category as I thought it would be, as most of the great female performances of the 70s were in non-winning films. The winners in this decade were not female focussed films. Three women - Keaton, Shire and Streep - had significant roles in more than one winner, and were good in those roles (although I still can't work out what Talia Shire did in G2 that was worthy of a nomination over Diane Keaton!).

However, I'm giving this to Louise Fletcher. Playing against Nicholson in *that* role and holding her own. Her performance is a masterclass in restraint - she acts more in what she doesn't do than what she does.


Best Non-Winning Picture

Nominees: 

Cabaret
Star Wars
M*A*S*H
Dog Day Afternoon
(I could go on - lots of great films in the 70s!)


And the winner is.....

Cabaret

This is probably sentiment as much as anything, but I love this film. I'm not saying it should have won - I don't think there are many examples in this decade of the Academy getting it spectacularly wrong. Clearly The Godfather was the right choice that year, but Cabaret ran it a close second!

Worst Picture

Nominees:    

Patton

And the winner is.....

Patton

There's only one dud in the whole decade. And even in Patton, I rate the acting very highly - just don't really like the film.

Kramer vs. Kramer 1979

The Film:

This is a film I've seen before, quite some time back. In fact, I think I got the DVD for £2 in the Woolworths closing down sale. I remember liking it - I like Hoffman and Streep (far more than Andy does!) and I'm always happy to watch a family drama, particularly if it's also a legal drama.

I don't remember being blown away by it though, and I'm guessing that it's going to suffer a bit from being slightly on the ordinary side - possibly because there were so many similar films (some with Hoffman or Streep in them) throughout the 80s that may have served to render this one far less special to me than to 1979 US audiences.

It's interesting how each film that won in the last year of a decade somehow seems to fit more with the following decade - Broadway Melody was the sound of things to come, Gone With the Wind was a 40s-style tecnicolor blockbuster, All The Kings Men was a very 50s style social drama, and Midnight Cowboy belonged very much in 70s realism. Everything I remember about Kramer vs Kramer puts it in a very similar bracket to so many 80s films, especially ones directed by the likes of Mike Nichols - things like Heartburn, Regarding Henry etc. It will be interesting to see how it holds up to these films!

The Ceremony:

Very little difference from last year - same place, same month (14th April this time), same host - slightly shorter running time. Here's Carson's opening monologue - with a joke about the length of the ceremony that references the Iranian Hostage Crisis......which we'll be coming back to in about 30 films' time.....

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Oscar liking Sally for the first time!

The Kramers pretty much swept the boards, certainly with the big awards. If it wasn't for Meryl (rightly) winning for a supporting role, then it would have won the Big Five. 

It didn't though, and Best Actress went to Sally Field for Norma Rae, the first of her two wins (and not the one with the infamous acceptance speech - that's still to come!)

79 year old Melvyn Douglas won Supporting Actor, for Being There. He was 70 years older than fellow nominee Justin Henry - the biggest age gap up to that point (and not surpassed until 2013)

Among the other winners there was an award for the Visual Effects in Alien - with one of the team being H R Giger. Their award was presented to them by Harold Russell who was still using very similar prosthetics to those he had in the 1940s. I bet Giger could have designed something fabulous for him!

Best Song:

Sorry Oscar, wrong choice again this year - choosing Jennifer Warnes (singing this song from Norma Rae) over the masterpiece that is Kermit the Frog's signature song, The Rainbow Connection. Thankfully (in this category, at least) the 80s are on their way....

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Sheen Snr in 'Nam (Sheen Jnr is coming up in a few films' time!)

The other nominees were Breaking Away (a "coming-of-age-drama" that I know absolutely nothing about), Norma Rae (see Sally Field above!), All That Jazz (weird but wonderful) and the next big Nam film after last year's two classics, Apocalypse Now.

It probably should have been Apocalypse Now. It's a bit of a marmite film, but put up against Dustin and Justin making eggy bread it's definitely got a lot more going for it. I'm guessing the Academy felt they needed a change after the double-Nam domination at the previous years' awards.

(Of course, it was also the year of Alien - but everyone failed to recognise quite what a classic that would become, and the Visual Effects award was its only win out of two nominations.)

Our Verdict:

Father-Son bonding over eggy bread

I'm actually really glad that KvK didn't get the Big Five. It really doesn't deserve to be put on a list with those films that did. There's nothing really wrong with it - and there's a lot that's right with it - but, watching it in 2018, it's really nothing special. As I said above, I think that's partly the fault of the 80s. It sort of suffers from being the first of it's kind. And, for the record, I'd say it was better than Heartburn but not as good as Regarding Henry (which, technically was a 90s film, but only just!)

Single parent determination

So, to the plot - Ted is a workaholic who is married to Joanna and they have a young son, Billy. One day Joanna announces that she's unhappy in the marriage and leaves. This then leads to the first half of the film showing Ted trying to cope with his job and his new responsibilities as a single father. The job gets lost fairly quickly and he has to battle to get a new one and start again far lower down the career ladder. Meanwhile his relationship with Billy takes some time but becomes gradually stronger. This is where some of the best scenes happen - Justin Henry, playing Billy, is very good indeed and plays really well next to notoriously intense method actor Hoffman. The way their changing relationship is shown through successive mealtime scenes is subtle and effective.

Oscar nominated crying

The second half of the film starts when Joanna returns, more than a year later, and starts a custody battle with Ted. This shift quickly heightens the tension, leading to courtroom scenes where, if you didn't know the outcome, it would be difficult to call it.

There's a fair bit of shouting, rather a lot of crying - but ultimately none of it is unrealistic given the characters and the situations they find themselves in. Meryl Streep apparently pushed for changes to Joanna's character to make her more sympathetic. She lost, but I think she was probably right. I know that we are supposed to be championing the cause of the single father, but I think we end up doing it too much at the expense of sympathy for why Joanna felt she had to leave. This would have been handled very differently even only a couple of years later and would have made for a more even handed story.

Oscar winning crying

As both of us watching have a legal background, we were particularly harsh critics of the court scenes - having to stop and remember that this was the US legal system 40 years ago. Actually, when you look at it in this context, the film was quite radical in showing the changing parenting roles and different family setups. Also, ten years later the UK still enshrined in law the idea that, in a custody battle, a child would be better in the care of their mother unless there are very clear reasons to show otherwise. We know what Ted and Billy have been through, a situation that Joanna deliberately caused when she left the home - but the legal odds are very strongly stacked against Ted.

Overall, the story of the Kramers doesn't do very much for us in 2018. As a film it showcases some very good acting (particularly young Justin Henry) but, whilst the general story is a fairly timeless family drama, the historical social context of it makes it really dated. Something that isn't true of Apocalypse Now or Alien.

The Deer Hunter 1978

The Film:

This is one that I've never seen. I generally don't choose to watch war films - which this challenge has shown (with the exception of Patton) to be a bit of a mistake. I've seen a few Vietnam-based films but they tend to be films about the people left behind (ie. hippie films with cool soundtracks) or things like Forrest Gump. This one has always been filed in my head in the same place as Apocalypse Now (one of the first, very serious etc) with a "must watch later" label on it. Well now is my chance....

My only other frames of reference for this film are quite possibly going to slightly spoil one or two scenes with unfortunately inappropriate associations.

Firstly, those of us of a certain age who were brought up in the UK with the help of the BBC will always associate the theme music - "Cavatina" - with Tony Hart's gallery and someone signing their apologies that no pictures can be returned.....

Secondly, there was an advert for chocolate Revels many years back that was based around the Russian roulette scene - playing on the idea that you never know which flavour you're going to get. I'm guessing the film would have a very different outcome if they were playing with Revels, not bullets!

The Ceremony:

April 9th at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Hosted by Johnny Carson and running to 3 hours 25 minutes.

It included a segment, sung by Sammy Davies Jnr and Steve Lawrence called "Oscar's Only Human", which highlighted lots of great songs over the years which didn't even get a nomination for Best Song. There was some controversy about the song, but the segment was kept in when Jack Haley Jr threatened to quit as Producer and take Johnny Carson with him!

The ceremony was the last public appearance for John Wayne, who presented the Best Picture award. He died two months after. It was also the last appearance for Jack Haley Sr who presented the Best Costume award. He died later that year.


Other Notable Winners That Night:

Jon and Jane

The Deer Hunter took the big two, and a supporting Oscar for Christopher Walken - but the main two acting awards went to Jon Voight and Jane Fonda for rival film Coming Home. Maggie Smith took the other acting award for California Suite.

Only the two 'Nam films and Midnight Express got more than one award, with everything else shared out between a wide range of different styles of film.

Among the Honorary Awards was one for Laurence Olivier and a special award for the visual effects in Superman. (It can't be long now before the "technical" awards categories start multiplying to accommodate new technologies....)


Best Song:

We're deep into Disco at this point - so here's Donna Summer with "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday. 

It beat Hopelessly Devoted To You from Grease (nope, I don't know why that one got nominated either!) and, more to the point, my favourite Barry Manilow song (I'm not a big fan, so there's not much choice) from a film I loved when I was much younger, Foul Play. I love this song - here it is in all its glory with the fab opening titles!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Hanoi Jane and Jon Voight (who still has his legs, btw!)

The other nominees included Heaven Can Wait, Midnight Express and An Unmarried Woman (which I'd never heard of, but apparently was quite a big film at the time - a comedy drama about a strong, liberated woman that doesn't appear to have stood the test of time).

However, it was always going to be a two horse race between the two 'Nam films. It was inevitable that The Deer Hunter and Coming Home were going to be compared. The comparison even crept into Friends - "John Savage was Deer Hunter - no legs. Jon Voight was Coming Home, couldn't feel his legs" (Not for the first time, Ross was wrong and Richard was right!). I've not seen Coming Home - but it was the one that was favoured by those of a similar political persuasion to me. Supporters of Coming Home (and particularly Jane Fonda herself) were very critical of what they perceived as a right-wing glorification of the US - if not of the war itself - in The Deer Hunter. Read on to find out whether I agree with that or not. As to which is the better of the two films, I'll let you know what I think when I've seen Coming Home - but don't hold your breath. With Platoon on it's way soon, I've no great desire to add another 'Nam film to my watchlist at the moment!

Our Verdict:

The second film this decade to start with a
very long wedding scene....

It's been a few weeks now since we watched The Deer Hunter and I'm glad I've given it a some time before writing this - as it's taken several weeks to stop thinking about it. We got as far as Amadeus before anything touched it (not even Ghandi). Part of me doesn't really want to put myself through watching such a harrowing film again for quite some time - yet part of me wants to go right back to it and see what else I can get from it.

The basic plot is just as much human interest / family drama as it is war film - which I wasn't expecting and was very pleased about. It starts with a wedding (a good way to introduce a community, as Coppola will tell you!) and then follows the fates of three friends from a steel town who sign up for Vietnam, along with those they leave behind.

Here comes Meryl Streep - don't worry, she'll be back!

The film is very clearly in three acts - before, during and after. The "before" section is social drama (and includes the titular deer hunt). It looks at how the war is affecting their families, their relationships, their jobs etc, including how it affects those who are left behind - particularly the women, and non-soldier Stan (John Cazale in his last role, literally weeks before he died of cancer).

The "during" section is violent and harrowing. The centrepiece here is the famous Russian roulette scene, which is very well filmed and incredibly tense. The actors all look very shaken (including the extras) - apparently some of their reactions weren't acting. (And, no, I didn't think about Revels even once!)

The big metaphor....

The "after" involves De Niro's character, Mike, returning home and trying to pick up his life as best he can. This includes a developing relationship with Linda (Streep) and, more centrally, trying to track down his two friends, who he lost contact with following the Russian roulette. He finds Steven (Savage) in a veteran's hospital and, through him tracks down Nick (Walken) to somewhere far more worrying.....

He got the coffee flavoured Revel.
It was all downhill from there.

"Like" is probably not the right word for a film like this, but it was really, really good - I rate it far more highly than I thought I would. The acting is superb - particularly De Niro and Walken. The cinematography is beautiful, especially during the deer hunt scenes. Above all, I liked the fact this wasn't really a war film after all. It was a film about the effects of war on a community of people and some of the individuals in it. That's what drew me in.

Being of the wrong generation and nationality, I can't really make fair comment on whether Jane
was right about The Deer Hunter being right-wing propaganda. Apart from a cloyingly patriotic moment at the end, it didn't feel like it to me. It definitely wasn't pro-war and I don't even think it was particularly pro-America. It was ultimately just very sad and very moving.

Annie Hall 1977

The Film:
  Apparently elephants are not kosher (they do have cloven hooves, but they don't chew the cud!). However there is a great big one in the room when we discuss this film (just like there will be a few more times still to come) - this time in the shape of Woody Allen. I like Woody Allen's work and I'm not going to suddenly not like it because he has at the very least an unsavoury sex-life and has possibly done things that are far more sinister. If I was in the business I probably wouldn't work with him - but, the fact remains, I like a lot of his films. Including this one.

The Academy also liked this one rather a lot - it liked it a lot better than Star Wars. And I'm inclined to agree.....

It's a while since I've seen it so I'm looking forward to seeing it again. It's also one of the original templates for so many New York romcoms, sitcoms and dramas that I spend far too much of my time watching (and re-watching) so I'm expecting to be spotting things left right and centre!

The Ceremony:

It's Oscar's 50th birthday - and a very glitzy affair it was too! April 3rd 1978 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with a running time of three and a half hours and ratings of just short of 40 million. Most notably, this was the nineteenth and last time that Bob Hope hosted the ceremony - very much the end of an era!

The ceremony was also notable for two main controversies. Firstly, Vanessa Redgrave used her acceptance speech to speak out against ultra-Zionists and Paddy Chayefsky then used his turn at the mic to have a go back. The saddest thing about this is that the same arguments are still going on today.....

Secondly, the live performance of the Best Song was accompanied by (supposedly) deaf children from a local school signing the lyrics. When several members of the public complained that the signing was nonsense rather than actual ASL, the organisers came clean and admitted that the children weren't deaf and they had been taught the signing very quickly for the performance.

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Star Wars won the most awards (six), but they were mainly technical awards (plus one for John Williams' score). Seven of the big eight awards went to either Annie Hall or Julia (which won the other screenplay and both Supporting awards). The other one went to Richard Dreyfuss for Best Actor in The Goodbye Girl - the youngest actor, at the time, to win it - although more people saw him that year in Close Encounters OTTK (which won one award for cinematography).

Jason Robards won Best Supporting Actor for the second year in a row, a feat only managed by a small number of actors.

Surprisingly (to me, at least) the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was given to Charlton Heston. My first thought was that Hollywood doesn't really have a track record of recognising right-wing gun-toting conservatives as humanitarians - but then I worked out that Heston was probably still (just about) a left-wing liberal civil rights activist at this point.....

 Best Song:

Seriously? This beat the best Bond Theme ever??? Oh dear!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

The force was not quite strong enough in this one.....

The choice was between Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (possibly splitting the Jewish New York comedy vote?), ballet drama The Turning Point (another contemporary NYC-set drama) and holocaust drama Julia. Oh, and Star Wars. It's no real surprise that Star Wars didn't win. Firstly, at the time it was just the one film, not the three, or six, or eight, or ten, or more - depending on what constitutes a true Star Wars film - that we have now. We didn't even know who Luke's father was at this point in time. Secondly, it was a big, effects-laden, sci-fi fantasy film. With very few exceptions (all in the 21st Century) the Academy has only rewarded realism for Best Picture. In fact, it's daring enough that there are a couple of sequences in Annie Hall that mess with reality, even only slightly. With hindsight, Star Wars was probably, objectively, the best film that year. It probably should have won, but rather than bemoaning the injustice of it all, we should be really impressed that it even got nominated!

Our Verdict:

As with Rocky, there's been a bit of a gap between watching Annie Hall and writing up this review. In this case, that's probably not a good thing. I've seen Annie Hall at least four or five times now. It's always an enjoyable experience but the finer details of the plot never really stick in my brain for long after watching it. As I said above, I really like Woody Allen films, including his more recent ones (although the recurring older man / younger woman storylines are a tad problematic). I'm not sure Annie Hall necessarily reflects his best writing, or his best directing, or his best acting - but it is where all three work together at their best. The film captures a particular time, place and community really well and it does so with great heart, great humour and a light enough touch that it can get away with several ideas and set pieces that really shouldn't have worked. 

Just a little comedy about two people

Some "firsts" in this film have become so well used
that you hardly notice them....

One of the first of many conversations about nothing in one
of many queues in many romcoms/sitcoms set in New York

The story is very slight. Alvy is a forty year old neurotic Jewish writer (funnily enough!) who meets similarly insecure midwestern WASP Annie. Their relationship plays out through the course of the film in a variety of set-piece scenes that allow them both (but mainly Alvy) to explore their insecurities in witty (and sometimes hilarious) dialogue. It is funny, it's well written and above all it has heart (something lacking in some of Allen's later films). I like Alvy and Annie and I want them to be ok - and that makes all the difference.

Anyone seen a Mantra lying around anywhere?

I am a big fan of New York and of New York sitcoms - particularly Seinfeld. On our only visit to New York - so far - we spent an afternoon with the real Kramer, buying soup from the Soup Nazi and having a big salad in Tom's (aka Monks) Diner. It's extremely unlikely that there would have been Seinfeld (as we know it) without Annie Hall. The scene where they are queuing and Alvy has a whole rant about queues is a classic example of a whole scene that is basically "about nothing", as Seinfeld was. (And, of course, Larry David has since played the Allen-esque character in a Woody Allen film - a perfect match). Annie Hall is also one of the first modern Romcoms - and, imho, is probably only matched by When Harry Met Sally. Although there are now several thousand to choose from! It's also only the second winner to break the fourth wall (the less said about the first one the better, although it was one of the only fairly good things about Tom Jones) and it's done so well. Add into that one short line from an unknown Jeff Goldblum and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it distance shot of pre-fame Sigourney Weaver and Annie Hall manages to pave the way for a lot of 80s and 90s New York comedies whilst remaining quintessentially 70s. It almost certainly wasn't the best film of 1977, but I'm very glad that it won!

Rocky 1976

The Film:

Rocky is an unusual winner, in that it's the only one that was the first in a long (and still growing) franchise of populist box-office-friendly films. We have sequels that have won (Godfather 2, Return of the King), winners that have spawned sequels (Mrs Miniver, Going My Way, In The Heat of the Night, The French Connection, The Godfather - have I missed any?) along with a fair few that were remakes, remade, spawned TV series etc. There were also several Broadway Melody films, but I'm not counting those, as the only link between them was a lack of imagination in naming 1930s musicals! (btw the last one - 1940 - is the best one, because of the Astaire/Powell partnership, with 1938 a close second, because of Judy Garland!).

At the time of writing there have been seven Rocky films, with the eighth in post-production and due out for Christmas. Stallone has written (or co-written) and starred in all of them, and directed half of them. I have to admit that I gave up after number 4 (which was as much a rock soundtrack as it was a film!) and I've been told that Creed is really good so I should probably watch it (not least because some of it was filmed at Goodison - apparently Sly is a big Everton fan!).

I'm not a big fan of boxing - at all! - but I remember really liking Rocky. It's a while since I've seen it so I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Andy's not seen it and is not a fan of the sequels he has seen, but I think he'll be pleasantly surprised....

The Ceremony:

Monday March 28th 1977 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The broadcast rights moved back to ABC this year, and the ceremony was up against a big basketball game (something that would never happen today with all the concerns about ratings!)

The ceremony ran for 3 hours 38 minutes and was presented, yet again, by several hosts - the interesting quartet of Richard Pryor, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda and Warren Beatty.

The Best Supporting Actress Award was presented by Muhammed Ali, alongside Sylvester Stallone. It's a nice touch that Ali was there the night that Rocky won - although it wouldn't have worked quite as well if one of the others won. (Had someone being doing some selective leaking at Price Waterhouse??)

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Faye and Oscar

The big acting prizes went to the big "serious" films that were nominated this year - three to Network and one to All The President's Men. It was also the first year that an Acting award was given posthumously - to Peter Finch, who had died of a heart attack earlier in the year. Beatrice Straight won her Supporting Actress award for the shortest performance ever to win - just over five minutes (a good few minutes shorter than Judi Dench's win!) These two films also took a Screenplay award each (and they both received more awards than Rocky).

The other notable nominee this year didn't actually win, but is definitely worth remembering. Lina Wertmuller was nominated as Best Director for the Italian film Seven Beauties, becoming the first (of only five to date) female director to be nominated. This came as a big surprise to me as I always thought it was Jane Campion first - with Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow and Greta Gerwig following. How is her name not mentioned more?

Best Song:

Three versions of "A Star Is Born" and only two Oscars between them (I'm not holding out much hope that Lady Gaga will change that, but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong!). Here's Barbra, soft as an easy chair, getting all soppy with hairy Kris:

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

I'm going to defend Rocky to the hilt here, for sentiment and appropriate cheering for the underdog as
much as anything else. I have far less problem than most film buffs with it winning Best Picture. The complaining from others tends to lead people to think Rocky is as unimportant as its many sequels - but its more down to the heavyweight (no pun intended) classics that it knocked out (that one was intended!).

Are we talking to him???

Rocky was up against "All The Presidents Men", "Network" and "Taxi Driver" (along with lesser-remembered Woody Guthrie biopic "Bound For Glory"). Any of those first three could have taken the prize and all are still critically acclaimed today. I can't argue with how good each of them are - but surely a lot of that depends on what you mean by a "good" film. Rocky is also a really good film and people really enjoyed watching it. So there.

If I was to go another way, it would depend entirely on what mood I'm in. "Network" and "All The Presidents Men" were the bigger winners on the night, but I'm still thinking of De Niro from a couple of years back, so let's have Taxi Driver (which shockingly didn't get Marty S a nomination for Best Director!)

Our Verdict:

Obligatory sports-film trainer/trainee shot

It's been a while between us watching this film and me finally writing up this review - I'll blame exam marking, holidays and general inertia! (At the time of writing, we've already watched 1983 - I have quite a backlog!)

For my second time of watching this film I wasn't even slightly disappointed. In really appreciating Rocky, it's important to try and forget the forty-something years that have passed since, the increasing list of really dreadful films that Sly has been a fairly dreadful part of and the gradual melting of his face. He made his masterpiece relatively early in his career!

Filling each other's gaps

One of the best things about Rocky is the fact that it isn't really a Sport Film at all - certainly not in the way that Chariots of Fire is, and not even as much as Million Dollar Baby is. The boxing is the backdrop, not the driving force. Ultimately, Rocky is part drama, part romance. With its gritty, city, working class setting it has some things in common with Midnight Cowboy, French Connection, even The Godfather - although here we're in Philly rather than NYC. Rocky is down on his luck, flawed but ultimately decent and just trying to get through a disappointing life.

Poor cow....

Two key things give him the chance to make things better. One is the big story of the film - although he's pretty much all washed up as a boxer he gets a freak chance to fight the champion. No one thinks he stands a chance, but he gives it his all with one goal - not to win, but just to go the distance. This leads to the iconic scenes in the film - using the hanging carcasses at the meat packing depot where his friend Paulie works as punch bags, and running up the steps as dawn breaks over Philadelphia (as imitated by pretty much everyone who's visited Philly since). These scenes are great. The montages are well shot and edited and the music is superb.

Go the distance!

The other, more subtle but equally important, change in Rocky's life during the story is his developing romance with Paulie's sister, Adrian (Talia Shire being given a lot more to do than in either Godfather film!). She works in a pet store, she's timid and shy - and the gradual development of her relationship with Rocky is beautifully and realistically portrayed. They are both shown to be flawed but basically good and decent people who deserve love, deserve a chance and, ultimately deserve each other - as Rocky says, they both have gaps, together they fill gaps.

Seven films on it's probably not too much of a spoiler to reveal that Rocky does, indeed, go the distance. But one of the best things about the film is that he doesn't win (yet - the sequels exist to spoil that!). The film isn't about winning - it's about trying. Ultimately that's what makes it such a good film.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest 1975

The Film:

It's the second of only three films so far to win the "Big Five" awards (and the first was way back in the mid-thirties). It's another personal favourite of mine and an absolute masterclass in acting and directing.

Jack Nicholson had already been around for a few years (this was his fifth nomination!) but this was the film that really cemented his place in Hollywood history (filed under "legend"). He is remarkable in this film and I am mainly looking forward to seeing it again for his performance.

My office-mate Mark (who has been mentioned here before, and probably will be again), on hearing that this was next on the list, just said "that's a very sad film". I can't disagree with that, but I do remember laughing once or twice last time I watched it. And it's a film that I enjoy. I'm not sure how those things can fit together.....

The Ceremony:

March 29th at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion - hosted by Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, George Segal, Goldie Hawn and Gene Kelly. How incredibly 70s is that line-up?!

The whole thing kicked off with a song and dance number led by 72 year old Ray Bolger (sort of like Neil Patrick Harris at the Tonys, but without any irony whatsoever) and ended with Liz Taylor, Gene Kelly and a whole Marching Band! (it's all there on Youtube!)

Somewhere in the middle of all this an honorary award was presented to 83 year old Mary Pickford - one of the first Hollywood Megastars and the first female Hollywood Mogul. She received it from her home - and the footage of this (including a bit of a guided tour) is definitely worth checking out on Youtube!


Other Notable Winners That Night:

Cuckoo's Nest took all the big ones - so what was left for everyone else?

The Big Five (although technically there's only four here -
two producers and no screenwriters!)

To lighten the mood, the two Supporting Acting Awards went to comedy performances - George Burns in "The Sunshine Boys" and Lee Grant in "Shampoo". "Dog Day Afternoon" took the other Screenplay award whilst "Barry Lyndon" and "Jaws" were the only films other than Cuckoo's Nest to take more than one Oscar - the former mainly for artsy categories, the latter for Sound, Film Editing and *that* Score, giving John Williams his second Oscar, but first (of four) for Original Score.

It was also the first time (but definitely not the last!) that a British animator won an Oscar - the great Bob "Roobarb" Godfrey took the Animated Short Film award for "Great" - a half hour musical film about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I vaguely remember watching it many years ago. Here's an excerpt:

Best Song:

Robert Altman's Nashville was nominated for five awards, including the two big ones. It won one, for Best Song, "I'm Easy" - written and performed by Keith Carradine (and performed with varying degrees of competence at many folkie evenings since!)

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

She's dead...

It goes without saying that we had the right winner on the night. I personally don't think any of the other nominees were ever really in contention. There's Altman's "Nashville" - which is one of his best, but is still very episodically Altman and more than a bit marmite because of it. Then there's Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" - overlong and overboring. "Dog Day Afternoon" is a really good film that still gets rave reviews today, but may have confused some of the Academy back in the day (by its dark "dramedy" tone as much as the transgender storyline). My runner-up award probably should go to Dog Day Afternoon, but I'm going to have to go all populist and give it to the other nominated film - the mighty Jaws. Because people still talk about it and watch it more than 40 years on. I was watching a Netflix thing the other day with Carol Burnett and a bunch of precocious young kids, and one of them (aged about 6) was obsessing about wanting to watch Jaws and be scared, but not wanting to watch it coz it might be too scary. For a film to still have that affect on someone who hasn't even seen it that long after it was released - well, it deserves something!

Our Verdict:

Earning every bit of that Oscar!

I think this is about the fourth time I've seen this film. I can confirm everything I said above - Jack Nicholson is remarkable, it is a very sad film, it made me laugh and I really enjoyed it. The seemingly impossible mix of all of those things is what makes it a truly great film. I have no doubt that I will watch it again sometime in the not too distant future.

Based (loosely and contentiously) on Ken Kesey's novel, the basic premise is that McMurphy is a habitual criminal who pleads insanity to try and get himself an easier sentence for his most recent crimes. He gets sent to a high security mental institution which is run by the cold and compassionless Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).

Watching the World Series.

The film follows Mac as he gets his head around exactly what he has let himself in for. He meets a varied and interesting assortment of fellow patients (including several played by actors who went on to more famous roles in the 80s - Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Michael Berryman) and he  bonds with them through a combination of treating them all as perfectly reasonable individuals and refusing to blindly follow Ratched's rules without questioning them.

Mmmmm Juicy Fruit!

The interactions with the other patients are brilliantly handled. Whenever Mac leads a little (or slightly bigger) rebellion, I'm willing them all on. Even though we know that Mac is inside for violence and statutory rape it is very difficult to not like him. (This seems to be a recurring theme in the 70s - the fourth year in a row that I'm cheering for criminals!) The relationship he builds up with Chief Bromden is brilliantly done - and a great example of how to deal effectively (Mac) and ineffectively (Ratched) with selective mutism.

The film has a dark note running all the way through it, which is shown subtly in the first half of the film in the character of Nurse Ratched. When Louise Fletcher won her Oscar she thanked everyone for hating her so much - and she plays the role with such coldness and controlled power that she could almost be classed as evil. (Although not quite)

Some villains are not quite as obvious as others -
but no less deadly!

Her attitude towards the patients - and to young Billy Bibbit in particular - leads to several tragedies in the second half of the film. All arguably entirely of her making, and certainly avoidable if she had behaved differently. The fact that we don't know the reason why she behaves the way she does, and that we don't really find out how the events have affected her personally, just adds to the cold and detached nature of the character. That's a credit to the screenwriter, director and actress! (Although there is a small part of me that would love to see a film following everything from Ratched's perspective - I sort of want to feel sympathetic towards her, but I'm given no reason to do so, so I can't. Which is both brilliant and frustrating!)

This film deserved every one of its awards and it is right up there in my Top Ten in this challenge. The ending is almost unbearably sad, but with just enough of a glimmer of hope to make the previous two hours worth every second. A triumph!

The Godfather Part II 1974

The Film:

So here we go. The ongoing debate - Is this the best sequel of all time? (possibly) Is it even better than the first installment? (very much not so, in my opinion). Is it really as good as people say it is.....

Well, it still remains (technically) the only sequel to have won Best Picture - although Peter Jackson sort of spoilt that when the third part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy took the big prize. It is currently ranked third on IMDb - just behind Part 1, with both of them a whisker behind the mighty Shawshank (which I will return to in twenty films' time....)

I've seen this film a fair few times and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. I like it far more than Andy did when I first showed it to him (and he was very disappointed by it) but I'm very much more a fan of the first one and would even go as far as to suggest (controversially) that this one only got the number of awards that it did in order to make up for Fosse and co swiping several of them first time round.

The Ceremony:

As the poster says, the ceremony was held on Tuesday April 8th. It was at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion again and was presented by - wait for it - Bob Hope! Along with Shirley McLaine, Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra. That's one hell of a line up - just watch the finale below! (sponsored by Ernest and Julio Gallo among others!)

This year holds the distinction of being the only time that all nominees for one award were from the same studio (Costume Design - dominated by Paramount.)

It is also the last time to date that one film has had three nominations in the same acting category - in this case De Niro fought off competition from Lee Strasberg (who didn't do much in my opinion, but don't get me started....) and Michael V Gazzo (a much more worthy contender!).

Other Notable Winners That Night:

A handful of Oscars - do you think he called them
Sonny, Michael and Fredo?

Having had to share the spoils with Cabaret two years earlier, tonight was Francis' night. He personally took three - for Film, Director and Screenplay - putting him in a select group who have done the "auteur triple" (a name I've just come up with!). A fair few films have won these three awards, but all three have only been given to the same person in the same year on seven occasions. We've seen two so far (Leo McCarey and Billy Wilder). Film buffs might be able to guess one of the other four (ok, I guessed!) but I'm surprised by the others (there's one in the 80s, two in the 00s and one in the 10s!)

Although the family pretty much cleaned up, three of the four acting awards went elsewhere - to Art Carney (seeing off Nicholson, Pacino and Hoffman!), Ellen Burstyn and Ingrid Bergman - winning her third Oscar 40 years after her first.

Best Song:

Remember Maureen McGovern going down with the ship singing the Oscar winner two years ago (last time The Godfather won)? This time she's been hired for the opening of The Glass Tower (the one that very quickly becomes an Inferno!). Seriously people, stop hiring Maureen McGovern to sing at your events!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Ouch - that nose!

A real mix of films in contention this year. Fosse was back with "Lenny", but didn't manage to rain on Francis' parade again this time. "The Towering Inferno" was also nominated - unusually for that type of blockbuster-disaster movie, but it is a particularly fine example of the genre. Coppola was actually nominated twice as producer, with his other nomination coming for "The Conversation". All of them fine films with very fine casts! None of them were ever really likely to cause an upset, but if there was a runner-up prize it would probably have gone to Polanski's "Chinatown", which was joint-most-nominated film that year and is still highly regarded today (despite the current status of its director!). It's a long time since I saw Chinatown. I need to watch it again....

Our Verdict:

Beautiful iconic shot!

Vito and Clemenza, off to find a new carpet.....

 I know I'm going to upset a few people with this one, but the fact remains. I don't think Part 2 is anywhere near as good as Part 1. Maybe it's because the first one stands on its own, but the second one needs you to know the first one. Maybe its because the Michael sections of the second one get needlessly complicated with too many characters and situations - or maybe its because the Vito sections are so good I just keep waiting to get back to them. I've now seen this film nearly as many times as I've seen the original and I still don't love it the way that other fans of the series do.

It's all going to end in tears!

Robert De Niro is by far the best thing in the film and he thoroughly deserved his Oscar (far more than Brando did for playing the same character two years previously). He hardly utters a word of English and yet, even for those of us with very limited Italian, we are able to pick up every nuance and inflection in what he's saying, even as we read the subtitles. He's also amazing at reproducing many of the vocal characteristics and other distinctive tics that Brando gave to the older Vito, without ever actually doing an impression of him. As I said before, the Vito parts of the story are superbly done and, for me, are what makes this film great. Some people prefer to watch the whole saga chronologically, and with the chopping about that goes on here between Vito and Michael I can see the appeal - but watching young Vito with the hindsight of what he becomes adds such rich layers to both the acting and the storytelling.

This, however, is only half of the film, and I'm not as impressed with the other parts, which follow Michael as head of the Family in the late 50s. There's a lot going on and Michael's character - and his gradual rise/fall (however you want to look at it) - is developed really well. The continuing bad decisions from Fredo and the predicaments of Frankie Pentangeli (and the fates of both of them) keep the 50s story going for me, but I keep waiting for the timeline to shift back to young Vito, which sort of spoils things for me.

The birth of a Dynasty.

I'm also disappointed that more wasn't done with Diane Keaton (who had one great dramatic scene and really that was it) and Talia Shire (who was nominated for an Oscar for, basically, having a new hair-do and whingeing a bit). Two good actresses on the rise (we'll see both of them again this decade) and they had very little to do....(I know, be careful what you wish for - Sophia Coppola isn't quite the actress that her aunt is!)

I'm probably sounding far too negative in my review here. This is a great film. If you watch it alongside the first Godfather film, then that's probably the best six and a half hours of cinematic storytelling that's out there - and the time will fly by. However, in comparison to what is possibly the greatest film ever (not my favourite, but the greatest), the sequel falls a little short for me.