The movie titles are hyperlinks to write ups on Wikipedia if you want more info about these specific movies.
Gone with the Wind
This was a movie I was first exposed to as a child.
As a child, I found the movie long and boring.
My wife Andrea has fonder memories of Gone With the Wind.
I will admit that when the weather is warm and I need to fan myself to cool off, I will channel Vivian Leigh and say in my best approximation of Scarlett O'Hara, "Fiddle dee! War! War! War! All anyone wants to talk about these days!"
After many years of doing this, no one has ever commented on what I'm doing.
My favorite memory of Gone With the Wind is the classic Carol Burnett parody sketch, "Went With the Wind", the one where Carol mimics Scarlett's transformation of curtains into a new dress... except Carol leaves the curtain rod in.
"I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist."
It is hilarious.
Occasionally, I will DVR Gone With the Wind when it runs on TCM with the idea that Andrea and I might revisit this classic.
But really, at 18 3/4 hours long, who has that kind of time?
Casablanca
The only thing that can truly take down a tough guy is love.
Humphrey Bogart is riveting as Rick, a bar owner in Casablanca, trying to make a living while staying ahead of the Nazis. Despite is cynical nature, Rick does give a damn about doing the right thing for a good cause.
But naturally, doing the right thing comes at personal cost. The woman he loves more than any other, he must give her up for a cause greater than himself.
West Side Story
Andrea and I watched this one about 20 years ago. I'm a little fuzzy on the details. It's Romeo and Juliet played out on the mean streets of a New York City Puerto Rican neighborhood with rivals gangs engaged in vicious dance offs.
Basically, any comedy that has two groups of rivals that are facing off for a blood beat down but instead break into dance, this is the movie they are parodying.
The Sound of Music
My memories of this are a bit fuzzy too. The Sound of Music is a favorite of Andrea's and I remember watching it once with her a few years back.
I think a very young Julie Andrews and a very stern Christopher Plummer made for a very odd couple. Plummer, by all accounts, hated making this movie.
I remember there's lots of singing and there are Nazis, qualities that make for a smashing film.
Chariots of Fire
I know I've seen this movie. But all I can remember is that damn theme song by Vangelis.
And a bunch of really pale British dudes running on a beach.
And possibly some homoerotic subtext?
Amadeus
Of all of the Best Picture winners I have seen, this one is my favorite. In fact, next week's Cinema Sunday, I will explore this movie in detail.
Out of Africa
I remember this one made my girlfriend cry.
I was not prepared to deal with that.
I still feel bad about it.
The movie itself, I remember Robert Redford was in it, something about an airplane?
Which he was using to get out of Africa, I reckon?
Rain Man
Dustin Hoffman has an really tough row to hoe here. He has to play a character without the usual social cues that actors rely on to express their character. Raymond is autistic with remarkable math skills and zero social skills. Tom Cruise is his young brother who didn't know he had a brother until after his father dies. Tom's character is gregarious but shallow. He takes Raymond out of his sanitarium on a cross country drive. (Raymond will not fly on any airline except Quantas which is in Australia.) Tom's character does get Raymond to open up a bit but Raymond is too far gone in his condition to truly function in the outside world as a partner his brother.
There's a lot about autism that the movie gets right but there's also some stuff that hasn't aged well as we've grown more aware of the different levels of autism and how those who have this condition manage their lives.
Driving Miss Daisy
I don't think this one has aged well either. Morgan Freeman plays a chauffer to an old rich (and slightly racist) white lady with advancing dementia who at first doesn't understand why this black man is hanging around.
"I'm trying' to drive you to the sto!"
It's a bit cringe-worthy. Yes, the old lady learns to appreciate her driver, becoming not so racist and considers him a friend.
Dances with Wolves
I sat through this damn thing in a theater when it first came out.
I have never seen it again.
There are wolves, maybe? And somebody dances with them, I think?
The Silence of the LambsThe most amazing thing is I got Andrea to willingly watch this with me.
Not so amazing, Andrea will not watch this again.
A straight up bloody mess of a crime thriller merged with horror movie, it is a tense, thrilling and scary experience. Anthony Hopkins totally inhabits Hannibal Lector to the extent that if I ever met Hopkins in person, I would be scared of him.
By the way, what are fava beans?
Titanic
This movie is an anomaly. Big budget director and a young star that young people actually wanted to see. Titanic was a rare Best Picture that was also very popular. Andrea and I had to wait until Super Bowl Sunday to finally be able to get tickets to see this thing.
Like Hamilton is to Broadway, Titanic was to movies.
Shakespeare in Love
Back in the day, only men were allowed to perform on stage, even in the parts of women.
So we have a woman pretending to be a man so she can perform on stage.
And Shakespeare falls in love with her and other stuff happens.
It's a perfectly fine movie but it is not Best Picture worthy. Basically, producer Harvey Weinstein greased every wheel he could find in Hollywood at basically bought himself a Best Picture Oscar.
The movie Shakespeare In Love beat? Saving Private Ryan.
Gladiator
Russell Crowe is a Roman general who falls out of favor with those in power and winds up fighting as gladiator .
This is the last Oscar winner for Best Picture that Andrea and I have seen. We saw this in the theater while Andrea was pregnant with Randie.
I could blame the birth of our daughter for the dearth of Oscar winning films on our schedule. To be honest, when Randie was old enough to take her out to the movies, we focused on a lot of animated films mostly.
But quite frankly, movies themselves began to change over the last two decades. A lot of the movies on this list were films that mostly did well at the box office. Movies that were both commercial hits and deemed by Oscar voters as motion pictures of high quality.
In the last couple of decades, movies that make money and movies that earn awards are on a divergent path. Studios have movies that expect to suck up all the spare cash and then there are movies that are designed to be put a gloss of respectability on these same studios.
And even then, quality doesn't always win out. Last year, Green Book was a rather adequately made movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture, beating other films that were uniformly considered superior films. Mostly, the rote life lessons of a black man and a white man working together during the social turmoil of the Civil Rights struggle and how the white man became a better person was too much more Academy voters to ignore.
Of the films that are nominated this year:
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite
Andrea and I have not seen any of them.
I know as a comic book guy, you might think I would've gone to see Joker but Andrea was very much not interested in going to see this one. After The Dark Knight, she's very much adverse to any gritty take on the Joker.
The Irishman is sitting on Netflix where I can watch it from the comfort of my own home. But at 18 3/4 hours long (no, not really), who has that kind of time?
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BLOG STUFF
Tomorrow is Monday which is when I post Doctor Who Is New! Since the Super Bowl is on tonight and Andrea and I will be watching that with her father, a review of Sunday's Doctor Who episode will have to wait.
Tuesday will have TWO posts:
- In the morning, look for Doctor Who Is New!
- Later that afternoon, the Tuesday TV Touchbase with a look at the series finale of The Good Place.
Next week on Cinema Sunday, my look back at my personal favorite Best Picture winner, Amadeus.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another.
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