Vintage Oscar Thoughts

[tonygoldenemmy]

1985

Best Picture
1. The Color Purple
2. Prizzi's Honor
3. Out of Africa
4. Kiss of the Spider Woman
5. Witness

Should've been nominated: Back to the Future, Clue, The Purple Rose of Cairo

I've always adored The Color Purple, flaws and all, and am apparently among the few who thinks Prizzi's Honor has held up well. Out of Africa is admirable, but exhausting, and while I love Hurt and particularly Julia, I'm not a huge Spider Woman fan. Witness I've never much gotten the praise for...I consider it among Ford's most vanilla vehicles.

Best Director
1. Akira Kurasawa, Ran
2. Hector Babenco, Kiss of the Spider Woman
3. Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa
4. John Huston, Prizzi's Honor
5. Peter Weir, Witness

Should've been nominated: Woody Allen, Jonathan Lynn, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis

Babenco, Pollack and Huston are all in respectable form here, but none really holds a candle to Kurasawa's stunning work.

Best Leading Actor
1. James Garner, Murphy's Romance
2. William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman
3. Jack Nicholson, Prizzi's Honor
4. Harrison Ford, Witness
5. Jon Voight, Runaway Train

Should've been nominated: Jeff Daniels, Raul Julia, Eric Stoltz

If I'm not mistaken, Garner was not expected to be nominated here, but I'm certainly glad he did - Murphy's Romance marks a career high for him. Hurt and Nicholson are fine, too, while Ford mostly phones it in (kind of depressing this marks his sole Oscar nom) and Voight is absurdly over-the-top. Scary to think Voight was considered a real possibility to pick up his second Oscar here...Roger Ebert of all people strongly pushed him during awards season.

Best Leading Actress
1. Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple
2. Anne Bancroft, Agnes of God
3. Geraldine Page, The Trip to Bountiful
4. Meryl Streep, Out of Africa
5. Jessica Lange, Sweet Dreams

Should've been nominated: Norma Aleandro, Cher, Mia Farrow

Not particularly over-the-moon about the bottom three, but I love Goldberg and Bancroft here. The former's certainly never been better, and in a super-demanding role to boot, while Bancroft brings a subtle eeriness to a part that could've been played straight and boring.

Best Supporting Actor
1. William Hickey, Prizzi's Honor
2. Roberta Loggia, Jagged Edge
3. Klaus Maria Brandauer, Out of Africa
4. Eric Roberts, Runaway Train
5. Don Ameche, Cocoon

Should've been nominated: Tim Curry, Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd

Hickey's a hoot and Loggia's in good form too, albeit in a rather thankless role. Brandauer turns in some of the best acting in Out of Africa, but I wouldn't say that's saying much. The other two, forget it. Not sure if Roberts' hamminess or Ameche's doing nothing is worse.

Best Supporting Actress
1. Margaret Avery, The Color Purple
2. Meg Tilly, Agnes of God
3. Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple
4. Anjelica Huston, Prizzi's Honor
5. Amy Madigan, Twice in a Lifetime

Should've been nominated: Eileen Brennan, Chunchuna Villafane

This, on the other hand, is a pretty great line-up, sans Madigan, who tried her best in what was effectively a C-grade Lifetime Movie of the Week. Avery and Tilly are truly spectacular here - these are two of the best female supporting turns of the decade - and Winfrey has some really strong moments as well. And Huston brings loads of nuance and humor to her role.

[dws1982]

One of the worst Oscar years ever. Don't love any of the nominees, really, except for Kurosawa's well-deserved Director nomination. In the acting categories, Page and Brandeur were both pretty solid, and Out of Africa isn't a bad Best Picture winner, I guess. I think The Color Purple is Spielberg's worst movie ever, just a case of a director who wasn't up to the material, and wasn't suited to it, and that scene with Margaret Avery and her dad at the church is one of the most jaw-droopingly awful scenes ever conjured up by a major filmmaker. The rumor was that, due to mudslides in Malibu, Runaway Train was the only movie available to Oscar voters who were tuck in the house, which accounted for the two acting nominations. I don't recall ever seeing it, but Andrei Konchalovsky is responsible for one of the greatest movies of all time (Siberiade) and allegedly one of the worst (The Nutcracker 3D - I haven't seen it). Worth noting that Anne Bancroft was nominated for a role that fellow nominee (and winner) Geraldine Page originated on Broadway.

Best Actress: 100% Vanessa Redgrave in Wetherby. Tracy Ullman and John Gielgud both should've been nominated in the Supporting categories for Plenty. The Purple Rose of Cairo should've swept the nominations--Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress in addition to its screenplay nomination, plus a handful of technical nominations. Clue is a fun movie, but a fun movie doesn't have to be elevated to the level of Oscar contender, even in a year as bad as 1985. Shoah and Come and See (a 1987 release in the States) are the two most significant movies of the year by far, and two of the most important of the decade, but it's hard to place them and Oscars in the same thought.

[eurocheese]

Looking at that list, I didn't realize I'd seen all five and wow, what a sorry group. The Color Purple is one of Spielberg's best for me, so it would easily be my vote in Picture. I haven't seen Ran but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was my pick for Director. Truly sad that Clue wasn't recognized in its time - it would easily take my BP honors, and I'd nominate all three of those ladies over Huston, who is one of the worst winners in her category (though she has done fantastic work in other years).

[NUguy514]

The Color Purple is one of my favorite movies, and I'd vote for it without thinking twice.

Raybee, I'm curious if the way you feel about Streep extends to any other actors. I sort of agree with you about Streep, but I usually still find her very interesting to watch. I think what you said about Streep applies a hundred times over to Daniel Day-Lewis. He's all about his bullshit technique: every performance is so calculated that there is no spontaneity or life to them, and I always see right through him. If I didn't find his performances so tedious, I would laugh at every second of them.

[Raybee]

Good point about Day-Lewis. He's never really my choice either. I preferred Phoenix in 2012, Jones in 2007 and Freeman in 1989, and the other years he was nominated I preferred Brody in 2002 and Hopkins in 1993. So there you go. It's more I can appreciate his work more than like/love it. Which goes the same for Streep.

[ash]

The 1985 ceremony was the first Oscars I watched (I was 10 years old). My favorite film was Back to the Future, and that is still my favorite film from 1985. It holds up remarkably well 30 years later thanks to a super funny script and iconic performances. It could have at least won Original Screenplay.

Ran and The Purple Rose of Cairo are also fantastic films from this year. Mieko Harada gives a performance for the ages in Ran.

I find The Color Purple to be an enjoyable film and the best out of this lot. It's funny that dws mentions that particular scene ("See Daddy. Even sinners have soul"). I've posted that scene to my oldest kid's Facebook page all the time ("Maybe God Is Trying to Tell You Something").

Witness is a film I haven't seen in 30 years, but I remember my parents watching it quite a bit on VHS. Not as much as I saw Sweet Dreams, one of my mother's favorite films ever. She would always comment about how Jessica Lange was too pretty to play Patsy Cline. It didn't stop her from watching it who knows how many times.

Out of Africa is quite the slog. Cinematic Halcion (I would usually say Lunesta, but I'll use an old medication for an old film).

I just watched Prizzi's Honor for the first time two years ago and remember very little about it. Netflix says I gave it 4 stars, so I guess I liked it okay. And I remember little about Kiss of the Spider Woman as well (another 4 stars, so says Netflix).

I remember being so confused by the ending of Jagged Edge. I couldn't tell who was unmasked at the end! I guess I was not alone after a quick internet search. I'm also confused that my parents let me watch this film (and many others) when I was 10 years old.

Several movies here I haven't seen though, including Runaway Train, Agnes of God and Murphy's Romance (although I've seen pieces of each).

[dug11]

I haven't seen many from 1985. I remember thinking The Color Purple was fine, but loving Winfrey in it. But that was a long time ago, so I think I'll revisit it at some point to see how it holds up for me.

I have seen The Trip to Bountiful and Sweet Dreams recently and didn't really care much for either.

[tonygoldenemmy]

As I've noted, I didn't care much for Lange in Sweet Dreams, but Ann Wedgeworth actually would've been a very deserving Supporting Actress nominee. Tough category, though. There's Ally Sheedy for The Breakfast Club too...

[NUguy514]

(02-21-2015 04:02 AM)Raybee Wrote:  Good point about Day-Lewis. He's never really my choice either. I preferred Phoenix in 2012, Jones in 2007 and Freeman in 1989, and the other years he was nominated I preferred Brody in 2002 and Hopkins in 1993. So there you go. It's more I can appreciate his work more than like/love it. Which goes the same for Streep.

*High fives

[misplaced validity]

(02-21-2015 03:49 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  Raybee, I'm curious if the way you feel about Streep extends to any other actors. I sort of agree with you about Streep, but I usually still find her very interesting to watch. I think what you said about Streep applies a hundred times over to Daniel Day-Lewis. He's all about his bullshit technique: every performance is so calculated that there is no spontaneity or life to them, and I always see right through him. If I didn't find his performances so tedious, I would laugh at every second of them.

I can't disagree, which is maybe why I find Day-Lewis underrated in The Age of Innocence. That movie provides a context for his artifice.