1989, the number, another summer, sound of the funky drummer. I hate when the Oscars get called racist or "So white". They aren't the problem, they are just the public face of the problem. They can only nominate the films that come out in a year. So if Hollywood doesn't make movies about and starring people of non-white ethnicity then the Oscars can't honor them. This is the one and only time in the Academy's history where I can safely say that the Academy was probably a little scared of black people. Do The Right Thing was on almost every critic's top ten list and only managed to get a writing nomination and a nomination for one of the white guys in the movie. To top it off they gave Best Picture to a movie about an old white lady learning about racism. It's a little messed up.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE
4. Kenneth Branagh - Henry V - It used to be that if you wanted to watch the best Shakespeare adaptation on film there was only one place to go and that was to Laurence Olivier. Where Olivier succeeded was in delivering well acted faithful Shakespeare adaptations. Branagh made a really cinematic movie. Olivier's Henry V seemed like a filmed stage play, this seems like a movie. Branagh is great but there's no way I can vote for him. He's playing a character that's been played on stage for 100 years.
3. Tom Cruise - Born On The Fourth Of July - Cruise plays Ron Kovic. He starts off as a young man who wants to enlist and serve his country in the Vietnam war. He is wounded and loses the use of his legs. Now he's disillusioned by the war and how the country treats their veterans so he turns to alcohol and starts protesting the war. This was Cruise's breakout acting role. He started as a pretty face who could run from bullets and leap away from fireballs but proved that he could become a character here. He fooled almost every critic in 1989 but I kept seeing Tom Cruise in dress up. He's delivered good performances since then but I saw a guy really stretching here. He's good in the first half of the movie but I just didn't buy him in the second half.
2. Morgan Freeman - Driving Miss Daisy - Freeman plays Hoke, an illiterate black chauffeur to an old white lady in the south. The thing that's great about Freeman's performance is that he seems like a real person. This part could have been played as a straight cliche. He could have been a black man who knew his place and recognized it, holding his hat in his hand and saying "Yes, Ma'am and No, Ma'am". Freeman doesn't play him like that at all. He's a guy who is doing the job he's paid to do and even though he is being paid to take orders from this lady doesn't mean he needs to take any abuse. This was one of 3 great performances by Freeman this year. He also appeared in Glory as a black soldier in the Civil War and in Lean On Me as an inspirational teacher.
1. Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot - There are only a handful of performances in film history that leave me speechless as to how good they are. Day-Lewis completely transforms every muscle in his body to play Christy Brown, a man with cerebral palsy who can only control the titular appendage. Usually roles like this have an air of trying too hard, especially when it's a Hollywood actor playing them. When an actor takes a role that requires them to play a mentally or physically challenged character you get a sense that the people behind the movie really felt like they were speaking for a population who doesn't have a voice, see I Am Sam. This feels like a documentary. You could probably show this to someone who has never seen a Daniel Day-Lewis film and convince them that this guy really had cerebral palsy.
3. Pauline Collins - Shirley Valentine - This was a far more interesting film than I was expecting. It reminded me a lot of High Fidelity or Alfie and then I found that it was the same director as the latter. It was based on a one-woman show (Collins originated the role), so a lot of the movie is spent talking directly to camera. She is an unhappy housewife who goes on vacation to Greece and is transformed. It's a very fun role, she gets naked to boot which just enhances the rawness and naturalness of the performance. She's a strong 3rd choice here and would be a #2 or even a #1 in some years.
4. Dan Aykroyd - Driving Miss Daisy - I just watched the Siskel & Ebert review of this movie and Gene said that "Dan Aykroyd does a very good job of staying in character". That's about the highest praise that can be heaped on this performance. He's fine. He doesn't do anything to distract from the movie but he doesn't do much of anything else either. His accent is consistent but this seems like a "good for you" type nomination. You're a comedic actor who didn't look at the camera while you were acting.
1. Brenda Fricker - My Left Foot - Fricker plays Christy Brown's mother. She's a nice Irish woman who is the matriarch of a working class Irish family. She can't fully understand her son's afflictions but still loves him and tears up when he finally succeeds. She's the audience's surrogate. She wants the main character to succeed and cries along with us when he does.
Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
Dead Poets Society wins Original which is the absolute worst choice in the category. Now I am biased because I hate the movie but even if you like the movie you can't tell me that the script was better than Crimes And Misdemeanors, Sex, Lies And Videotape or When Harry Met Sally.... Combine that with the fact that this was their only option to give an Oscar to Spike Lee for the script to Do The Right Thing and you have one of the worst Oscar decisions of all time. Driving Miss Daisy wins adapted which is a decision I like. This had the possibility of being very stage-y but the writer and director transferred the play to the screen very well.
Best Original Score/Song
The Little Mermaid wins Best Score which feels like a cheat since I'm guessing people were voting for the soundtrack more than they were the instrumental music. John Williams competed with himself this year getting nominations for Born On The Fourth Of July and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid wins Best Song. A really good decision, it beat out Kiss The Girl from the same film and Part Of Your World was not nominated, I think it was deemed ineligible. Hidden in these nominees is a cheesy 80's ballad by Cher and Peter Ceterra that I secretly love called After All from the Robert Downey, Jr. romantic comedy Chance Are. Which if you haven't seen is a really cute film. Christopher MacDonald dies and gets reincarnated as Robert Downey, Jr. and almost accidentally sleeps with his own daughter. It's a movie with an icky premise but somehow is executed perfectly.
Best Sound/Sound Effects Editing
Glory wins Best Sound while Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade wins for the sound effects. No complaints here.
Best Art Direction
Batman wins in the only category it was nominated for. I'll admit that it's a deserving winner but the sets in The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen are wonder to behold.
Best Cinematography
Freddie Francis wins for Glory which is a great decision considering the company he was in. The Abyss, Blaze, Born On The Fourth Of July and The Fabulous Baker Boys. Couldn't make room for The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen?
Best Makeup
Are you kidding me with this Driving Miss Daisy crap? The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen was nominated but they went for the old age makeup that made the already old Jessica Tandy a little older. Here's a picture of old Dan Aykroyd...
I rest my case.
Best Costume Design
Henry V wins over The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen. No love for Gilliam this year.
Best Film Editing
Born On The Fourth Of July wins which is a completely whatever decision.
Best Visual Effects
The Abyss wins over The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and Back To The Future Part II. No complaints.
Up Next
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE
BEST PICTURE
5. Dead Poets Society - I understand if you entered the teaching profession by choice this is probably a movie you hold dear. How do I reach kids and impart my wisdom upon them? Why can't my students love poetry even when I am doing my best John Wayne impression during lectures? I really dislike this film. I find it manipulative and unnecessarily saccharine. Robin Williams plays a poetry professor who doesn't quite fit in at the uptight boarding school he works for but he wins over the hearts and minds of his students through his unorthodox teaching ways. Williams tones his comic persona down just a little but not enough and all of his improvs and ad-libs really get in the way. The story itself I find dull and uninteresting.
4. Born On The Fourth Of July - Inspired by Ron Kovic's autobiography this is Oliver Stone's trip back to the Vietnam war. Tom Cruise plays Kovic who signs up for duty, gets injured and loses the use of his legs. Now back in the states he at first is still defending the war but then gets disillusioned and turns into a Vietnam protester. This is like Platoon 2 (Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger even show up), now we are seeing how the soldiers were treated when they returned through the eyes of one idealistic young soldier. It's a powerful film but it just seems like been there done that.
3. My Left Foot - The story of Christy Brown, a man born with cerebral palsy and could only fully control his left foot. With this one appendage he learned to write and paint. This guy painted and wrote an autobiography with only the use of one limb. Kind of puts your life into perspective. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Brown, and he is incredible, there's not a second in the film where I don't believe his performance. The movie follows the biopic formula but it's such an exceptional story and one we haven't seen before that it's extremely effective.
2. Driving Miss Daisy - An adaptation of the stage play about an old white lady and her black chauffeur. They learn things from each other and have a relationship that spans the course of several years. It is a really well made stage adaptation. The play was mostly just two people sitting on chairs pretending to be in a car but the movie doesn't seem like a play at all. Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy both deliver quality performances and their relationship feels genuine. The only problem I have with the movie is that it won Best Picture and Do The Right Thing wasn't nominated. One movie presents racial issues as they are today and one presents them as they were 30 years ago. You could be a racist southern asshole and watch Driving Miss Daisy and get misty eyed for an era that time has moved on from. The movie isn't bad, it's pretty good, it just didn't deserve to win Best Picture.
1. Field Of Dreams - Kevin Costner is an Iowa farmer who hears voices in his cornfield telling him to build a baseball diamond. Once he does he is visited by a bunch of old ballplayers, including his father and they have a heartfelt game of catch. It's a modern day fantasy which is really well done, if a bit sappy. It's hard not to swell with emotions if you're a guy who never had that bonding time with you father or even if you had a great father you want to call him up and ask him to play a game of catch. It feels like a movie from the 1940s, in a good way.
None of these movies deserved to win. That statement may be clouded by the fact that the best picture of the year wasn't nominated, nor were Glory or Crimes And Misdemeanors. For the first time in my Oscar Watch blogs I am abstaining from voting in a category. Some of these movies are good, some are bad, none are great. None of them would hold up as a worthy Best Picture winner. That little Oscar statuette in the corner of a movie's DVD box should stand for something. You see that Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture and you go, really? Then you look at the category and go, yeah, I guess. Maybe, just maybe, if Do The Right Thing was nominated I could understand the win for Driving Miss Daisy but without Spike Lee's inclusion I just can't muster up the enthusiasm to vote for anything.
Oscar Winner: Driving Miss Daisy
My Vote: Abstain
GABBY Winner: Do The Right Thing
BEST ACTOR
5. Robin Williams - Dead Poets Society - First off, Williams is really more of a supporting character as the film mainly focuses on the kids. Second, I really don't like this film. Third, Williams's performance is a big reason I dislike it. He plays John Keating, a poetry professor who tries to reach his students through humor and impressions. He gives a lecture to his class and I see Robin Williams doing bad stand-up where others apparently see an inspirational teacher. This did not work for me at all. I love Robin, I cried when he died but this whole movie irritates me.
5. Robin Williams - Dead Poets Society - First off, Williams is really more of a supporting character as the film mainly focuses on the kids. Second, I really don't like this film. Third, Williams's performance is a big reason I dislike it. He plays John Keating, a poetry professor who tries to reach his students through humor and impressions. He gives a lecture to his class and I see Robin Williams doing bad stand-up where others apparently see an inspirational teacher. This did not work for me at all. I love Robin, I cried when he died but this whole movie irritates me.
There is really no competition. Day-Lewis blows everyone out of the water. If you try to make the case for anyone else winning, I would really like to hear your criteria on what makes a good performance.
Oscar Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis
My Vote: Daniel Day-Lewis
GABBY Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis
BEST ACTRESS
5. Isabelle Adjani - Camille Claudel - Foreign performance. I'm starting to like when these show up at the Oscars because I don't have to put a lot of thought into my rankings. I've already established that these go in the #5 spot. This movie is about the life of a French sculptor and her relationship with another French sculptor. I didn't get into it, mostly because I was watching it solely because it was nominated and not for entertainment value.
5. Isabelle Adjani - Camille Claudel - Foreign performance. I'm starting to like when these show up at the Oscars because I don't have to put a lot of thought into my rankings. I've already established that these go in the #5 spot. This movie is about the life of a French sculptor and her relationship with another French sculptor. I didn't get into it, mostly because I was watching it solely because it was nominated and not for entertainment value.
4. Jessica Lange - Music Box - Lange is an attorney whose father is accused of war crimes. He's a dedicated single father and it could not possibly occur to the daughter that her father is anything other than innocent. She defends him in court thinking that they have the wrong man but it turns out that he is guilty and she has been unaware about her father's past. It's only a passably enjoyable film, considering the pedigree of the director it should have been a lot better. Lange is fine but this isn't worth a second Oscar and seeing as how she won in 1994, definitely not worth a 3rd.
2. Michelle Pfeiffer - The Fabulous Baker Boys - The movie is about two brothers, played by real life brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges, who have a piano playing lounge act. They hire a female singer to get more gigs and it throws a wrench into their relationship. Pfeiffer is sultry, sexy and wonderful here. In lesser hands this role could have turned into a bimbo or a femme fatale but Pfeiffer creates a completely 3 dimensional character and completely steals the movie.
1. Jessica Tandy - Driving Miss Daisy - Tandy plays Miss Daisy, an old Jewish woman in the south. She gets into an automobile accident and her son hires a chauffeur to drive her around. At first she's against the idea but then forms a friendship with the man and learns something about herself. She treats black people as the help and then realizes that, as a Jew, she's persecuted too. Tandy is really great in the role and this seems like a veteran win to an old lady but she deserved this on strength of performance too.
The vote comes down between Pfeiffer and Tandy and sentimentality and career longevity makes me go for Tandy. Each would be a fine winner but when you're faced with the choice between an actress who may not be around next year and an actress who will have many more shots at winning, you vote for the old lady. Unfortunately this was Pfeiffer's best shot to date, hopefully she gets that older woman role that steers her to a win one day.
Oscar Winner: Jessica Tandy
My Vote: Jessica Tandy
GABBY Winner: Michelle Pfeiffer
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
5. Marlon Brando - A Dry White Season - This is a fairly dull film. It's a drama about apartheid in South Africa and Brando plays a Civil Rights lawyer. It's one of those movies where the message is the important thing even if the movie's not very entertaining. This is during the time in Brando's career where he really didn't give a shit. You can kind of tell that he's reading his lines off cue cards. He's good in the film because he's Marlon Brando and can do these roles in his sleep, and he practically does here.
5. Marlon Brando - A Dry White Season - This is a fairly dull film. It's a drama about apartheid in South Africa and Brando plays a Civil Rights lawyer. It's one of those movies where the message is the important thing even if the movie's not very entertaining. This is during the time in Brando's career where he really didn't give a shit. You can kind of tell that he's reading his lines off cue cards. He's good in the film because he's Marlon Brando and can do these roles in his sleep, and he practically does here.
4. Dan Aykroyd - Driving Miss Daisy - I just watched the Siskel & Ebert review of this movie and Gene said that "Dan Aykroyd does a very good job of staying in character". That's about the highest praise that can be heaped on this performance. He's fine. He doesn't do anything to distract from the movie but he doesn't do much of anything else either. His accent is consistent but this seems like a "good for you" type nomination. You're a comedic actor who didn't look at the camera while you were acting.
3. Danny Aiello - Do The Right Thing - Aiello plays Sal, a pizzeria owner in a black neighborhood. He's solid in the part, the interesting thing about his character is that he is at the center of the racial tensions in the neighborhood but he himself is not overtly racist, he's definitely racist, as we all are but he's not a villain. Sal is just a business owner who doesn't want to change. He likes decorating his business with pictures of Italian Americans and when he is told that he should have some pictures of black people on the wall he says that this is his business and he should do what he wants to do. He's good in the role but if you were looking for a true supporting part in the movie I would pick Ossie Davis.
2. Martin Landau - Crimes And Misdemeanors - There's no way you can justify this as a supporting performance. Landau is great in the role but he's the lead of the movie. The film tells two unrelated stories that converge at the end. Woody Allen is a documentary filmmaker contemplating cheating on his wife and Martin Landau is a married doctor whose mistress is threatening to tell his wife. Landau gets the majority of screen time. He goes to his brother who knows some people that will take care of the situation. They murder the mistress and he is plagued with guilt. He contemplates evil in the world and whether there is a God. He goes back to his boyhood home and hallucinates a conversation with his religious father. He's really great in the role and would definitely warrant consideration for a vote, in the lead category. I can't vote for a main character weaseling his way in here.
1. Denzel Washington - Glory - Glory is about the Civil War and the first black regiment. Matthew Broderick leads a group of black soldiers and for the majority of the film they are looked down on as lesser than the white soldiers even if they are fighting for the same cause. It's a really great ensemble piece, Broderick is a little out of his element but the cast is filled with great actors like Washington, Andre Braugher, Morgan Freeman and Cary Elwes. If you were going to pick one performance out of that group I think you have to pick Washington. His role is the most memorable as the angriest of the soldiers. In his first scene he is being whipped and they rip open his shirt to show that this isn't his first time. He then stares down Broderick as he's getting tortured as a single tear runs down his face. It's a really powerful image in a really great film.
If all things were equal I would probably vote Landau. All things aren't equal though so I'm voting for Denzel. Landau's a lead in his film so that's a strike against him. It feels weird voting for Aiello as he's the white guy in a predominately black cast. No way am I voting Aykroyd and Brando's won twice. That leaves Washington. Not only was he great in the movie but him winning is like the whole ensemble winning. Also, I hate to vote like this but in a year where I'm bitching about racism and overlooking black actors and directors, I gotta vote for at least one black performer.
Oscar Winner: Denzel Washington
My Vote: Denzel Washington
GABBY Winner: Denzel Washington
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
5. Dianne Wiest - Parenthood - I like this nomination but there's no way I can vote for it. Parenthood has one of the best ensembles of the year. It's just a collection of stories about parenting and children. Wiest is a single mother with a whole slew of problems. Her son doesn't speak to her and her daughter is dating Keanu Reeves. It's a fun performance and if she hadn't have won before and was going to win again in 1994 she would probably be in 2nd or 3rd place but I can't vote for Wiest to have a 3rd Oscar for this.
5. Dianne Wiest - Parenthood - I like this nomination but there's no way I can vote for it. Parenthood has one of the best ensembles of the year. It's just a collection of stories about parenting and children. Wiest is a single mother with a whole slew of problems. Her son doesn't speak to her and her daughter is dating Keanu Reeves. It's a fun performance and if she hadn't have won before and was going to win again in 1994 she would probably be in 2nd or 3rd place but I can't vote for Wiest to have a 3rd Oscar for this.
4. Julia Roberts - Steel Magnolias - This movie has an impressive female ensemble and I have no idea why they singled out Julia Roberts. Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis and Daryl Hannah would all have fit in this category fine. Roberts has the disease though so I guess that's why she got in. She's a diabetic prone to seizures and it's her wedding day. She is told she'll probably die if she has children but she gets pregnant anyway and dies. I liked almost every other actress in the film more than Roberts so that's why she's #4. It's not that she's bad, she's just not as good as her co-stars.
3. Anjelica Huston - Enemies, A Love Story - This movie is about Ron Silver, he's a holocaust survivor living in New York City. He's married, he's got a girlfriend and the wife that he thought died in the holocaust suddenly returns. So now he's got three ladies and he has a lot of sex. I didn't much care for the film but I did like the performances of the three women. Huston plays the wife that everyone thought was dead. She's good, it's not something I would normally nominate just because I thought the film was rather dull, but she did an admirable job.
2. Lena Olin - Enemies, A Love Story - It's hard to write about a movie I didn't care for twice. Ok, Ron Silver, he's got three ladies, Olin plays the mistress. I only rank her above Huston because Huston won before. I don't want either to win, actually my favorite character of the three women was the one who didn't get nominated, she had the least flashy part but she was the most sympathetic. Olin is the sexiest of the three ladies and they use that to the movies advantage as she has a lot of sex scenes.
Thank God Brenda Fricker is in this category because I would hate to vote for any of the others. Actually if it weren't for Fricker I would vote for Dianne Weist just because I liked her performance and movie the most. Fricker is the definition of a supporting role. She literally supports the main character and she's great in the part.
Oscar Winner: Brenda Fricker
My Vote: Brenda Fricker
GABBY Winner: Laura San Giacomo for Sex, Lies And Videotape
Best Director
Oliver Stone wins his second Oscar for Born On The Fourth Of July. It's not a terrible decision considering what he was up against. All the Driving Miss Daisy love couldn't earn Bruce Beresford a nomination. That leaves Peter Weir for Dead Poets Society, which I would never vote for, Jim Sheridan for My Left Foot, which would be okay, Kenneth Branagh for Henry V, which I admire but don't want to vote for, and Woody Allen for Crimes And Misdemeanors. Actually I recant my initial statement. Give this to Woody. It's a weak category and Crimes And Misdemeanors is one of his most well made movies. The way he links the two seemingly unrelated stories together and uses flashbacks to keep the pace lively is a great achievement in directing.Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
Dead Poets Society wins Original which is the absolute worst choice in the category. Now I am biased because I hate the movie but even if you like the movie you can't tell me that the script was better than Crimes And Misdemeanors, Sex, Lies And Videotape or When Harry Met Sally.... Combine that with the fact that this was their only option to give an Oscar to Spike Lee for the script to Do The Right Thing and you have one of the worst Oscar decisions of all time. Driving Miss Daisy wins adapted which is a decision I like. This had the possibility of being very stage-y but the writer and director transferred the play to the screen very well.
Best Original Score/Song
The Little Mermaid wins Best Score which feels like a cheat since I'm guessing people were voting for the soundtrack more than they were the instrumental music. John Williams competed with himself this year getting nominations for Born On The Fourth Of July and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid wins Best Song. A really good decision, it beat out Kiss The Girl from the same film and Part Of Your World was not nominated, I think it was deemed ineligible. Hidden in these nominees is a cheesy 80's ballad by Cher and Peter Ceterra that I secretly love called After All from the Robert Downey, Jr. romantic comedy Chance Are. Which if you haven't seen is a really cute film. Christopher MacDonald dies and gets reincarnated as Robert Downey, Jr. and almost accidentally sleeps with his own daughter. It's a movie with an icky premise but somehow is executed perfectly.
Best Sound/Sound Effects Editing
Glory wins Best Sound while Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade wins for the sound effects. No complaints here.
Best Art Direction
Batman wins in the only category it was nominated for. I'll admit that it's a deserving winner but the sets in The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen are wonder to behold.
Best Cinematography
Freddie Francis wins for Glory which is a great decision considering the company he was in. The Abyss, Blaze, Born On The Fourth Of July and The Fabulous Baker Boys. Couldn't make room for The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen?
Best Makeup
Are you kidding me with this Driving Miss Daisy crap? The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen was nominated but they went for the old age makeup that made the already old Jessica Tandy a little older. Here's a picture of old Dan Aykroyd...
Best Costume Design
Henry V wins over The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen. No love for Gilliam this year.
Best Film Editing
Born On The Fourth Of July wins which is a completely whatever decision.
Best Visual Effects
The Abyss wins over The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and Back To The Future Part II. No complaints.
Up Next
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