Category: Oscar Nominee

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Aliens (1986)

I believe there are some who feel that Aliens is superior to Alien. For me, the two don’t compare. They illustrate the stark contrast between films of the 1970s and what was made in the mid-1980s. Where Alien was more shadowy and dark in portraying the same location, Aliens is all bombastic, large, and in your face. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, dragged along on a mission to supposedly annihilate the xenomorphs for good, is completely shoehorned into a mother role, though it does create a nice parallel for the big ending. Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein are both massively over the top as part of the Marine crew. Paul Reiser is spectacularly oleaginous portraying the ultimate in capitalistic greed. Again the moral of the story is you should really listen to Ripley.  Scifi  Horror

Oscar Wins: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing; Best Effects, Visual Effects

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Score

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The Stunt Man (1980)

I enjoy watching films within films movies as much as anyone, but there’s so much about this story of an accused murderer on the run from the police who gets hired as a stunt man that makes not a lick of sense. I’m not an expert, but none of the actual filming seems to follow how anything would ever be done to maintain any type of safety or continuity in a film. The performances are all over the top, none more than Peter O’Toole as the deranged director. Steve Railsback looks so much like Charles Manson in this (not surprising that he was cast in that role for Helter Skelter). Within the plot of the film, him showing up wouldn’t have been all that odd.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

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Night Train to Munich (1940)

This is not officially a sequel nor a remake of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, but it is written by two of the same authors, features the same pair of supporting characters, and shares their early World War II time periods. Here, we have Margaret Lockwood playing the daughter of a Czech scientist who needs rescuing by Rex Harrison’s British intelligence officer. Directed by Carol Reed, it has a different tone than the earlier film during both its lighthearted and more serious scenes. They make for a great way to compare the works of two fantastic directors.

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Original Story

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Rocky III (1982)

I am incredulous that Eye of the Tiger didn’t win the Oscar for Best Song. The song is so evocative of the entire Rocky series that I’m betting there are people who think it came from the original rather than a second sequel. The movie itself could be used as a stand-in for any individual Rocky story: hero loses the first battle only to use that humiliation to come back stronger and more ready for the final battle, insert montages throughout. Mr. T’s Clubber Lang might be one of the best villains of the series. III firmly moves the series from the gritty realism of the original’s 1970s setting to the upcoming brash Cold War propaganda of Rocky IV.  Sports

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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The Razor’s Edge (1946)

This story of a man searching for the meaning of life after his experiences during World War I is much stronger when his transcendence is told through the mirror of his various acquaintances rather than when it’s explicitly showing Tyrone Power’s journey. It’s a little peculiar that W. Somerset Maugham himself, played by Herbert Marshall, is a supporting character who seems to know more about the ways of the world than any of the other characters. That seems to be faithful to the source material Gene Tierney is very beautiful as usual, but her soul is very dark and conniving in this one. Clifton Webb is entertaining as a snobbish older member of Power’s circle. Anne Baxter is given more to do with a role that has her at the top of society falling to the very bottom. I’m very curious to compare the 1984 Bill Murray version to this one, despite the former’s reputation.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White

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Alien (1979)

Not being a fan of either, I generally avoid sci-fi and horror films. This film is why I can’t avoid them completely. With its feet planted much more firmly in the sci-fi half of the equation, it has incredibly visual design in both the ship and the alternate lifeform. I’m overwhelmed with how perfect the design of the Xenomorph is. Seeing a picture of one, it has the look of a typical Giger design. On the ship, slithering through the shadows of the ship’s mechanics, it is perfectly camouflaged until the moment it decides to show its menacing self. They found an entire crew of extraordinary actors to man the craft, most impressively Sigourney Weaver of whom the entire movie could be summed up with the words ‘you really should listen to her.’  Scifi  Horror

Oscar Win: Best Effects, Visual Effects

Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

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Radio Days (1987)

I admit that I’ve added all the Woody Allen Oscar nominations to The List so that I can’t be surprised by any additional films of his that I’d be forced by my own convictions to watch. Aside from his narration, his acting is largely absent from this one. A series of 1940s vignettes, the coming-of-age tale centers on the childhood memories of the narrator, very similar to A Christmas Story. While not as cohesive of a story as that other film, this one is held up by a great cast, including many old-time Allen regulars like Dianne Wiest, Diane Keaton, and Julie Kavner.

Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

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Sounder (1972)

For a film named after a dog character, the dog does not have a whole lot of screen time. Reading a synopsis for the novel, which I’ve never read, I greatly suspect the movie strayed a bit from its source material, particularly the ending. That said, the screenplay as is provides a rather uplifting story of a family of sharecroppers trying to survive during the Depression. Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield are fine as the parents, but I took particular entertainment by the acting of young Kevin Hooks who carries the story.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

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The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

Africa isn’t a country. Granted this is set in Kenya, filmed in South Africa, but I’m not sure a single character mentions a country name in the entire film. The story of the Tsavo man-eaters is competently told here. The big problem is the stars. Val Kilmer with his blonde tipped hair looks and acts like a stoned Iceman crash landed into the savannah. Michael Douglas on the other hand seems to think he was cast in a second Romancing the Stone sequel. I prefer to think that Douglas’s character didn’t actually exist and that Val was just hallucinating a long haired, supposed southern Civil War survivor as a spirit guide in his quest. The lions themselves are poorly animated and best served when they are only shown in shadows. Their glowing green eyes and the potato chip crunching sound they make as they are eating human legs is laughable.

Oscar Win: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing

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Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Angry, unhinged Bette Davis is an aspiration. Here she is Charlotte, an eccentric who defiantly haunts her ancestral mansion, the site where her married lover was graphically hacked to pieces many years ago, a crime many locals believe she committed. Olivia de Havilland deliciously plays her cousin whom Charlotte hopes will help her in fighting the local highway commission. Olivia is perfection, using her sweet reputation as a façade on some darkness that is evidently hiding underneath. Agnes Moorehead wickedly adds to the cast as Charlotte’s only real ally. Young Bruce Dern is also great as the murdered lover. Rather surprised to see that the creepy song Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte became a hit and that it was composed by The Brady Bunch theme writer Frank de Vol.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Substantially Original Score

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