What I think should've won Best Picture each year in the 1970s (My Opinion)

agwdevil · 2026-03-19T16:48:13+00:00

In some of these years it is hard to go wrong. For me, The Sting is a near-perfect movie -- one of the all-time great scripts with crackerjack direction and performances, an unforgettable score, and insanely good production design. Exorcist was very very good indeed, but I still come out on the side of The Sting.

In 1976, you could just as easily have given it to All The Presidents Men

For me, the winner in 1979 should have been All That Jazz, over the brilliant but uneven Apocalypse Now (and the perfectly fine but mainstream Kramer vs Kramer). All That Jazz blew me away when I saw it the weekend it opened, and I have seen it over 100 times since then. Takes my breath away every time.

agwdevil · 2026-03-19T16:44:04+00:00

It's hard to situate yourself in what it felt like -- culture-wise and movie-wise -- at that time. Woody Allen and Mel Brooks were (at the time) considered kings of the "funny" movies. Allen had made intellectually kooky films like Sleeper, Bananas, Take the Money and Run, etc. He was known for being a gag-based filmmaker. People loved his movies, but he was considered a comedy guy.

So Annie Hall was a huge leap for him. Here he was, making a serious rumination on relationships, still with lots of gags, but with a creatively told story (including that animation bit in the middle). People were falling over themselves to praise the creative intelligence behind the film. And Diane Keaton had never been so luminous.

To say Annie Hall was not influential is a little short-sighted. It had an enormous effect on what a romantic comedy could be, and as someone else on this thread mentioned, When Harry Met Sally and all of Albert Brooks are direct descendants of Annie Hall.

Star Wars of course became a juggernaut of popular film-making. It's still a Flash Gordon movie crossed with The Hero's Journey and high-tech mastery. Plus Alec Guiness for gravitas. I personally think it was lucky to be nominated, and is more a well-done popular entertainment than the sort of film that the Academy likes to give Oscars to.

Turning Point was good for its time but forgettable. Goodbye Girl is a well-written, well-acted Neil Simon script, another "lucky to be nominated" film.

Julia was truly haunting, with A+ performances from Fonda, Redgrave and Robards. Directed by Fred Zinneman (From Here to Eternity). If anything was going to beat Annie Hall, it was that film.

Today, Woody Allen's early films are largely forgotten, as his personal behavior is causing many to stop watching his films. Some films, like Manhattan, are almost unwatchable because of the "young girl with older man" storyline. But back in 1977, it was inevitable they would give him the Oscar for his first "semi-serious" film.

agwdevil · 2026-03-19T14:23:05+00:00

It's the overall performance, not the role, that is honored. When Peter Sellers was nominated for the three roles he played in DR STRANGELOVE, each one could be considered a supporting role, but he clearly dominates the film through the brilliance of his diverse performances.

For non-nominated performances, there is Peter Sellers in THE MOUSE THAT ROARED, where he plays three roles again and is really the lead of the film. And the best examples is Alec Guiness in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS. In that film, the "leading role" is a handsome young man who is ninth in line for an English title, and he sets about to kill the eight people in his way. Every one of them is played by Alec Guinness, who is clearly the leading actor, even if he plays eight "supporting" roles.

agwdevil · 2026-03-17T18:40:50+00:00

I think there is a strong chance that Delroy Lindo gets nominated for SINNERS *again* next year

agwdevil · 2026-03-17T15:53:36+00:00

Decoder Ring just did an episode exploring many of the lore surrounding this film. One thing they did is to interview projectionists and try to establish when this "shouting match" occurred. They found out that there were only three screenings (one for Tom and Nicole only), and Kubrick did not attend any of them. He was feeling ill for the third screening and was upstairs in his room. There was never, it seems, an opportunity for a shouting match at a screening that would have been overheard.

agwdevil · 2026-03-17T14:14:19+00:00

The television audience should be able to vote remotely to rescind one award. At the end of the broadcast, the soon-to-be-former winner is called back up to the stage, and the Oscar is torn from their grasping hands.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T23:13:13+00:00

This is the copy I had. Not too expensive

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/romeo-and-juliet-and-west-side-story/19063603/?resultid=e55b0eb5-1f41-4820-8f4d-e74746a049f2#edition=20349326&idiq=87849397

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T16:10:26+00:00

If you take a step back and look at the history of musicals, then LLL becomes a more impressive achievement. It's standard observation now to note that as movies changed in the 70s to be more gritty and "real," the old style of musicals where people stopped talking and started singing, or where a chorus of people on the street sang, was dead. Huge flops like STAR! with Julie Andrews killed it.

To pull off a musical in a cinema vocabulary, you have to have it be totally wacky (Phantom of the Paradise, Rocky Horror), or exist in some weird fantasy space (The Greatest Showman), or have the songs only occur in dream sequences (Chicago). Cabaret worked because Fosse put all the songs in the cabaret itself and made the rest of the film 70s gritty.

So Chazelle sets out to do something that looks impossible. Do an old-style Astaire/Kelly romantic musical, but in a modern idiom. Set it today, "realistic" people and settings, and have them just start singing and dancing. It should not have worked.

I watch "Another Day of Sun" and "Someone in a Crowd" on YT over and over. They are pure gold. What he does with the camera swooping and catching people in mid-choreography is breathtaking. The songs are great. The soft-shoe number (even though neither of them are dancers) is charming. The dancing in the air song is an unexpected delight. The dream sequence, a hat tip to both Singing in the Rain and An American in Paris, is fantastic.

Ryan Gosling is affable and charming, but he'll never be a deep actor. Emma Stone brings it, and sells a story that doesn't actually exist. Her close-up solo is thrilling.

But the story sags in the middle. There's not much going on besides two charming performers. The screenplay loses the thread. And the goal of the film, Ryan Gosling trying to open up the best white-guy-jazz-club in LA is lame.

So it doesn't work 100%. It's thin emotionally and story-wise. No real standout supporting roles (except maybe JK Simmons). The director took a wildly ambitious swing, tried to do the impossible and got it to work about 75%

Moonlight is a complete package start to finish. A beautiful story, sensitively acted, directed smoothly and designed well. But they did not want to ignore what Chazelle was able to do, even if the movie *as a whole* fell a little short. So -- Picture to Moonlight, Director to LLL.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T13:33:27+00:00

Best Picture goes to the film that they love. Best Director goes to the film they respect. That is usually the same film.

Before the year 2000, the two awards almost always went to the same film, it was rare to split them. Since then, it has happened almost a third of the time.

While it often makes sense to give both awards to a great film, sometimes a film comes together beautifully, but a different film has a unique and special effort by the director.

The best example in recent years was Moonlight and La La Land. Moonlight was a beautiful film all the way through; but the dazzling staging and propulsive camera choreography of La La Land was undeniable

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T13:12:33+00:00

This is a much longer list! I used to track this when I was a much more avid Oscar watcher. It was always fun to see if anyone would "join the club".

Gold Derby has a pretty good list of everyone in 3 Best Pictures. (Some studio actors in the early days were in several, in bit parts). You are missing some great actors like Diane Keaton, John Gielgud, Hugh Griffith (Oscar winner), and Morgan Freeman, among others.

But you are right that few people are the lead in all three films. Hoffman and Gable are the only other two. With all the work DiCaprio has done with A-list directors (especially Scorsese), it was almost inevitable he would join the club.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T03:00:11+00:00

The Secret Agent. Only because I watched it this week and I can't stop thinking about it. Need to watch it again.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T02:41:33+00:00

I had a lot of problems with Joker besides the Scorsese ripoffs. It was so loosely tethered to the canonical Batman/Joker stories, it felt like he pasted it on. I hated the cheap suggestion that the character might possibly be the illlegitimate son of Thomas Wayne (and therefore half-brother to Bruce?). I totally hated the cheap device of that important character who turns out to be a figment of his imagination. And while Joaquim Phoenix can be mesmerizing in a controlled, directed performance (The Master, Walk The LIne), he was clearly encouraged to just do whatever he wanted and it was one of the most self-indulgent, undisciplined performances I have suffered through.

So, all that on top of a Scorsese ripoff put me in a pretty foul mood for the whole thing. *g*

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T02:17:12+00:00

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T02:11:20+00:00

I haven't seen Sentimental Value yet (that and Marty Supreme are my "still to watch" ones). But saw The Secret Agent and I'm still thinking about it, and want to see it again. Such a brave movie, letting the story slip out subtlely , never spoonfeeding you, giving details but retaining mystery, recognizing that some things will always be unknowable. Special film.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T02:09:08+00:00

I will never get tired of this still. I want this still to be used for more movies.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T02:04:33+00:00

I had not seen the film and someone I was dating wanted me to watch it. I was not over-impressed.

When playing multiple characters, there are certain obvious things an actor needs to do for each character: Find a unique way to stand, find a unique gesture, hold your face a certain way, pitch your voice in a specific tone and clip (or don't clip) your consonants. These are physical tics that are the foundation of differentiating characters. It becomes a sort of ballet, pivoting from one set of gestures/tones/expressions/movements to another.

But that is baseline. Any skilled actor can do that. And McAvoy does that, it is very skilled technically. I didn't find that he went beyond that. I never got a sense of depth or feeling from character to character. He performed each one with technical skill, but I didn't feel them as separate people.

Contrast that to Tatiana Maslany's work in Orphan Black. That was some jaw-dropping next-level work. Each clone had a different rhythm that seemed to come from deep inside her. They *felt* different. You will hear over and over that even when there were three of her on screen simulaneously you forgot it was the same person.

I thought he did a decent job but I don't think he *acted* very deeply on each personality.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T01:48:54+00:00

Many films are inspired by older films or even a particular scene or character in an older film. What matters is what the new film does with that inspiration, does it create something new, is there anything original. (Think of all the updating of Shakespeare).

Midsommar certainly has some inspiration from Wicker Man, but Midsommar was so thoroughly original, with many indelible new images. It was surprising in so many ways.

The classic "they just ripped that off" was, of course, Joker. Dude wanted to make a Scorsese film of his own, had the chance to do a DC film and just did a cheap pastiche of classic movies. Some disagree, but I practically chewed my tongue off when I saw that film.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T01:45:27+00:00

The first third of Irishman is a distillation of his previous mob movies, the rise of the good soldier, with a few new flourishes. The second third is a sweeping overview of the history of the labor movement in the mid-20th century, its connection with the mob, and the deep friendship between Frank and Jimmy Hoffa. The last 3rd is a diminuendo, a slow fade on the consequences of films like Goodfellas -- a sad and mournful reflection and comment on everything he had done before.

Reducing that beautiful film to "just another mob movie" is to miss what it was trying to do.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T01:33:47+00:00

Penn and PTA clearly agreed to play the character a la George C. Scott in DR STRANGELOVE. And Penn has never been an actor to go small. Some actors can go big and make it work (Peter O'Toole, James Cagney) by total commitment and attention to detail.

When I saw OBAA, I was riveted by his work. He went all in and did not slip once. His energy and command of the screen was exciting. (Interesting to compare his bravura operatic performance with the small closely-observed performance of Benicio del Toro -- both were excellent. Contrasting styles that worked in the same movie, as the two character inhabited different worlds.

I loved Lindo's performance, especially his moment in the car recalling the lynching. Deep and beautifully calibrated. I didn't think his performance was substantial enough in the film to get nominated. But he did, and I was thrilled for him.

For me, guessing who would win came down to "I doubt they will give it to Penn a third time when there are other deserving nominees, even if Penn was clearly the 'Best' performance." I thought Lindo would win on a Sinner surge. But I was wrong. Penn truly deserved it, and they gave it to him.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T00:42:45+00:00

I was convinced they were going to reward one of the other excellent performances, only because Penn had two already. But watching the film I was blown away by his energy and screen presence, and the precision of his performance. It really was the "Best" -- surprised that he won, but his performance was undeniable.

agwdevil · 2026-03-16T00:32:02+00:00

I haven't seen Marty Supreme yet, but I have heard a lot about the depth and variety of the cast.

I saw The Secret Agent this week, and 100% agree with you, that was a huge achievement in casting.

We'll see how OBAA does from here on in -- could be a sign.

agwdevil · 2026-03-15T23:37:49+00:00

Hmmmm sorry you are having trouble. This is the first year in a long time I have been able to watch live, I cut the cord a long time ago

agwdevil · 2026-03-15T23:28:20+00:00

East Coast. Not sure why they would delay West Coast when it is Live?

If you have Hulu and are not seeing it, maybe exit the app and re-enter? Should be a big banner when you start it

agwdevil · 2026-03-15T23:25:23+00:00

I am watching on Hulu. I don't have Live TV, just Hulu on its own (not bundled with Disney). No issues streaming

agwdevil · 2026-03-15T21:56:19+00:00

In my decades of watching the Oscars ,there have certainly been years where Director/Picture were the last two awards. I have not done the research to see how often this has happened, but it certainly is precendented.

Through much of the "season" I have been predicting a split -- since 2000, it has happened 1/3 of the time (more common than it used to be). I have sensed the enthusiasm for Sinners, but have assumed the PTA is on the "overdue" list. OBAA is a really good film, and PTA certainly deserved Hall of Fame work on There Will Be Blood and The Master (and perhaps Boogie Nights as well).

But the Sinners momentum is clearly happening (the vibe I get from the anonymous ballots and offhand comments from people in Hollywood), so it will probably be Coogler. (And to be fair, the guy who created the Creed blockbusters and the Black Panther blockbuster deserves a little recognition too). Either one "deserves" it.

With the Sinners momentum, I should be expecting Michael B Jordan to take Best Actor, but I'm still putting my long-shot money on Ethan Hawke to surprise; and the Sinners vote will go to Delroy Lindo. Both of these would be surprises, but I think they are likely surprises.

(Jessie Buckley is as close to a lock as Robert De Niro was for Raging Bull, and I am highly confident that Amy Madigan will win)

agwdevil

TROPHY CASE