1965 Oscar Watch

At first glance 1965 seems like an open and shut case, The Sound Of Music wins, no questions asked, right?  Sure, but then again if Doctor Zhivago won I would say the same thing.  Both are classic and beloved epics. They're both good, right?  I thought that before watching all the nominated films and there is one movie this year that I absolutely love within a sea of bloated epics.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

5. Ship Of Fools -What if the Titanic never sank?  What if a bunch of people got on a boat, sailed to their destination and then got off the boat?  Does that sound interesting?  This is not a very good film.  It starts with a dwarf breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to camera then we see all these vignettes with different characters.  They all vaguely talk about the political climate, it's set just before WWII, and then the boat lands and the dwarf tells us what we just saw didn't really mean anything.  The whole thing adds up to a movie that is trying to be important but really isn't important. 

4. Darling - This is one of those swinging 60s British films I just never can get into.  I think they were exciting when they came out because they talked frankly about sex.  American movies were still tame but British films had people getting abortions and waking up in bed together.  Julie Christie is the whole show here and she won an Oscar for it but the movie is just kinda there.  Christie plays a woman who cheats on her husband after she gets discovered by a local news program and then she sleeps with more guys as she climbs the ladder.

3. The Sound Of Music - I remember seeing this movie on TV when I was a kid and it was an event.  The Sound Of Music was going to be on TV, everybody needs to watch it.  I remember loving it and then never questioned the fact that it won Best Picture.  It's a classic film that everybody loves, great decision Oscar, case closed.  Then I watched that live Carrie Underwood version and realized that not only did this production stink, but I don't think it's a good story to begin with.  It's amazing how awful something can look once you take out the one good thing, in this case Julie Andrews.  I watched the film this time and not only did I not enjoy it, I didn't like it at all.  The movie has one good thing going for it and that's Andrews.  The songs aren't great, none of the performances aside from Andrews are good, it's needlessly long and not much happens until the last 20 minutes.  It was the highest grossing movie of the time when it was released so it makes sense that it won but I was amazed at how little I liked it.

2. Doctor Zhivago - David Lean loves him some big bloated epics.  This movie is 3 1/2 hours and I was never sure whose story this was.  This feels less like a movie and more like a condensed miniseries.  There are too many characters and no real single storyline to latch on to.  And talk about bloated, movies don't need overtures and intermissions.  This movie is beautiful though, every scene looks like a painting.  I respect the craft, I wish I could make a movie look like this but I also wish they told a story worth telling.

1. A Thousand Clowns - This is a sentimental favorite of mine.  Jason Robards plays Murray an unemployed television writer who is taking care of his nephew and refuses to work on general principle.  He's a nonconformist, he sees the world his own way and refuses to change, he wants the world to conform to him.  If you've ever worked at a job that you hated then you should watch this movie because this guy makes a lot of sense.  Then as you watch the movie you get conflicting opinions and sometimes the sad answer to life is you have to bite the bullet and go to work.

Just looking at the lineup before watching the films I had a feeling that A Thousand Clowns would be my pick.  As a guy who has his own ideas on how the world should work and how people should act, this movie just speaks to me.  I love all the performances, the story and how it's put together.  It's a near perfect film in my eyes.  I'm not surprised that I'm voting for it but I am surprised by how low The Sound Of Music has fallen.  I thought for sure that it would be number 2, maybe even number 1, it's only number 3 because Ship Of Fools is not a good film at all and Darling doesn't have the production values that The Sound Of Music has.

Oscar Winner: The Sound Of Music
My Vote: A Thousand Clowns
GABBY Winner: A Thousand Clowns

BEST ACTOR

5. Laurence Olivier - Othello - No.  Come on.  Just...No.

4. Oskar Werner - Ship Of Fools - Werner has some nice moments as the ship doctor but calling him a lead is generous.  He walks in and out of all the stories and has a very good scene at the end.  If he was nominated in the supporting category, either for this or The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, he may have contended more for a vote.

3. Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou - This is a very silly movie with some tone issues.  At its core it's a western, Jane Fonda seems to be in a drama while everyone else is in a comedy and then Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole sing the soundtrack directly at the audience.  I'm not sure what I'm watching and I'm not sure they knew what kind of movie they were making.  Lee Marvin however is a hoot as a drunk gunslinger and is also menacing as the villain with no nose.  Sometimes when a comedic performance gets nominated I am happy but at the same time jealous.  On the one hand, I'm glad they are honoring comedies but on the other hand, why this and not Jason Robards for A Thousand Clowns?  Marvin actually borders on supporting actor as well.  He shows up, gets all the laughs but the movie's not really about his character.

2. Richard Burton - The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - I've talked about Richard Burton before, I think most of the heavy lifting in his performances is done by his powerful voice.  I don't know if he was a great actor or just a guy with a nice baritone register that commanded respect when he spoke.  This is probably the best acting I've ever seen him do.  At first I thought he was just sleepwalking through the role but turns out he's very good at playing a spy who is completely disillusioned with being a spy.  He's so tired that they use him as a double agent because they think the Germans will find him easy to coerce.  The plot is hard to give away because it's a lot of spy espionage stuff but Burton is terrific.  If any of his roles deserved an Oscar it is either this or Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?.

1. Rod Steiger - The Pawnbroker - Wow.  This is a movie that I discovered because it got Oscar nominations and absolutely loved.  It's not a fun movie to watch but it is powerful and raw and most of that is due to Rod Steiger's performance.  He's an actor I never truly respected until I saw this film.  I knew of him from In The Heat Of The Night where he plays a racist cop and didn't feel that he needed to win for that.  After watching him here I think they gave him the win in 1967 mainly because he lost here.  He plays a holocaust survivor who owns a pawn shop and we keep seeing how his time in the concentration camps influenced his current life.  This is a dark and depressing movie but it is incredibly well done and Steiger is perfect in the lead role.  I can understand how people would be turned off by the film because it's so bleak but I don't think there's any question that Steiger deserved this.  Add this to his performance in Doctor Zhivago and you have an even clearer winner.

It's impossible for me to complain about the outcome here.  Lee Marvin was a great actor and he is absolutely hilarious in Cat Ballou.  I always love when a comedic performance is recognized but I can't help but wonder why this one.  In a weaker year it would make sense but Steiger and Burton are so damn good.  Maybe their votes cancelled each other out and Marvin was left standing.  Both Burton and Steiger play cold and unfeeling men and it's harder to gauge who is better at being sad, Marvin makes you laugh so you know he's good.  Steiger's going to win in 2 years anyway so everything worked out I guess.

Oscar Winner: Lee Marvin
My Vote: Rod Steiger
GABBY Winner: Jason Robards for A Thousand Clowns

BEST ACTRESS

5. Simone Signoret - Ship Of Fools - Signoret has some nice moments as a countess aboard the ship but calling her a lead is generous.  She also already won an Oscar that I didn't think she deserved so she lands in the 5th spot in this tough category.

4. Julie Christie - Darling - I didn't much care for Darling but Julie Christie is the whole show.  She's in practically every scene and carries the movie with her charm and talent.  She was also in Doctor Zhivago this year so it makes perfect sense that she won.  I would just rather vote for a performance I like in a movie I also liked.

3. Samantha Eggar - The Collector - I really liked this movie, it's a very cool thriller about a butterfly collector who sees a woman on the street and becomes infatuated with her.  He kidnaps her and holds her captive in his spacious mansion.  His end goal is to hold her until she falls in love with him.  Eggar plays the woman and at first you think she's just going to be playing a stock damsel in distress role but she's a fully realized character who uses all of her assets to try to gain power in the situation.  Eggar is really good in the role but I couldn't vote for her when Terence Stamp isn't nominated.  The movie is basically just the two of them and it's sort of like if one wins, they both should.

2. Elizabeth Hartman - A Patch Of Blue - Hartman is an actress I know very little about and that helped the performance immensely.  She plays a blind girl with an overbearing mother who falls in love with a black man.  Not being able to see skin color she knows nothing about racism and the movie follows their love story.  It's a really good film and if you told me that Hartman was blind in real life I would believe you, that's how good she is in the role.  Sadly, her life ended in tragedy as she jumped to her death due to depression.

1. Julie Andrews - The Sound Of Music - Like I said earlier, I always assumed that The Sound Of Music was a great film until I saw a local production starring an actress who didn't have to charisma or singing ability of Julie Andrews.  Now I'm watching a story that I don't find interesting and they took out the only redeeming factor of the film, that being Julie Andrews and her lovely performance.

Now I'm a bit conflicted when it comes to my vote.  Andrews just won last year.  Is she good enough to win a 2nd?  Yes.  Do Julie Christie, Elizabeth Hartman and Samantha Eggar deserve Oscars?  Yes.  The movie I like the best from this list is The Collector but looking at The Sound Of Music again, without Julie Andrews, that movie is pure shit.  So I'm honoring Julie with a 2nd Oscar because she single-handedly turned a bad movie good.  I'd be hard pressed to find a movie that I dislike that is made bearable by a brilliant lead performance.

Oscar Winner: Julie Christie

My Vote: Julie Andrews
GABBY Winner: Julie Andrews

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

5. Ian Bannen - The Flight Of The Phoenix - I love this movie.  A plane goes down in the middle of the desert and the survivors need to figure out how to survive and get home.  One of the passengers suggests that they build a new plane out of the wreckage.  There are a lot of great performances in the film from an all star cast, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, James Stewart, Peter Finch, Richard Attenborough, George Kennedy and Ian Bannen is...just one of the guys on the plane.  He barely has a character arc I can't understand how or why he got singled out for a nomination.  Maybe if the movie was on Oscar's radar, but it only got one other nomination.  If you're looking to give this movie an acting nomination there are several to pick from but Bannen would not be in the top 5.

4. Michael Dunn - Ship Of Fools - This is an ensemble drama about a bunch of people on board a ship to Germany pre WWII.  Dunn really only stands out from the pack because of his short stature.  He was a dwarf and he gives a solid performance but he doesn't have much of a character, neither does anyone in the movie but that's a fault of the script more than the actors.  He breaks the fourth wall at the beginning and end of the film and acts more like a plot device than a real character.

3. Frank Finlay - Othello - If you don't know William Shakespeare's Othello, basically the character of Iago is one of his best.  He's a criminal mastermind.  He will get in your ear and make you carry out his plan so he doesn't get any blood on his hands.  He would win every season of Big Brother, even if he comes back as a vet and the whole house gangs up against him.  With such a great character, he even has more lines than Othello, why would any white actor want to play Othello, who is arguably one of the least interesting characters in all of Shakespeare's work?  Laurence Olivier painted himself black to play the title character but gave the best role to Frank Finlay.  Finlay is good in the role but if you think for a second I'm going to vote for someone in a filmed Shakespeare adaptation, the sets don't even look good in this one, then you haven't been reading my blogs.

2. Tom Courtenay - Doctor Zhivago - I'm not going to go into Courtenay's character in this film, this movie is like trying to condense a history textbook into a 3 hour film.  I was never quite sure which characters I was supposed to be focusing on.  Courtenay is good in the film but singling him out just feels like a nomination for the film rather than the performance.

1. Martin Balsam - A Thousand Clowns - I love A Thousand Clowns and I have no idea why this is the only acting nomination it got.  Balsam plays the brother and agent of Jason Robards, he drops of fruit every morning and that's basically his role.  He tries to get Robards a job, Robards refuses and then he comes back and tells him that he is living his life wrong.  He's only in 2 scenes and probably has the least developed character in the whole film.

This is a gosh darn mess, none of these guys are the best supporting performances in their films, much less the year.  From The Flight Of The Phoenix you have Hardy Kruger, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine, who would all warrant consideration before Ian Bannen.  From A Thousand Clowns you have Barry Gordon, William Daniels and Gene Saks.  From Doctor Zhivago you have Alec Guinness and Rod Steiger and from Ship Of Fools you have Oskar Werner and Lee Marvin.  Frank Finlay could also qualify as a lead role, as I said he has more lines than Othello.  I'm not voting for anyone this year but I am happy Balsam won just because it gives an Oscar win to my favorite film of the year.

Oscar Winner: Martin Balsam

My Vote: Abstain
GABBY Winner: Christopher Plummer for Inside Daisy Clover

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

5. Peggy Wood - The Sound Of Music - Wood plays mother superior.  She sings a song about Maria at the beginning and then sings a big song near the end of the film.  This isn't a role that requires a lot of acting you just have to be old and sing a pretty song.  I used to think that she did just that so she earned a nomination.  Then I found out that her singing was dubbed.  That's not an immediate dis-qualifier, but all she does in this film is sing.  Her big scene is her opening her mouth and pretending to sing.  I can't condone this at all, literally any actress could have played this part.

4. Maggie Smith - Othello - Maggie plays Desdemona in the "film".  This is barely a film it's a stage production that they turned the cameras on for.  I can't vote for anyone in this "movie" and Maggie is going to win 2 Oscars anyway.

3. Joyce Redman - Othello - Joyce plays Emilia in Othello, which is not a role that usually gets a lot of attention.  Not sure why she got nominated, not sure why anything in this movie got nominated.  She's only number 3 because this is an extremely weak category and she hasn't won before.

2. Ruth Gordon - Inside Daisy Clover - I think the Academy missed the boat on this movie.  It deserved a lot more love than it got.  Natalie Wood is a young girl discovered on the boardwalk and bred to be a Hollywood star.  Once there she is exposed to the dark underbelly of the business, they change everything about her and turn her into a star.  It's such an interesting movie because it is a warts and all look at Hollywood.  You expect these kind of things now but it is very honest and raw for a film of this time.  Gordon plays Wood's mother, she reads tarot cards on the beach and is kinda crazy, not certifiably crazy but they do have her committed just so the public doesn't know that Wood has a crazy mother.  She's good in the movie but not in it enough to really warrant a win.

1. Shelley Winters - A Patch Of Blue - Winters wins her 2nd Oscar for playing a racist prostitute who is the uncaring mother of a blind girl, quite a role.  She is also fantastic in it, there is not a moment in the film where you like her character.  She is unfeeling, unrepentant and despicable.  The movie is basically about race relations and how there is no difference between any of us and it takes a blind woman to see that but for the movie to really hit emotionally you need a character like the one Winters plays.  She's not a cartoon character she's just a real person, a horrible person but someone we all may know.

Usually when someone is going to win a 2nd Oscar I look anywhere for someone else to vote for but not only did Winters give the best performance in this category, she was the most deserving.  Maggie Smith is going to win 2 Oscars after this, Peggy Wood doesn't deserve a nomination much less a vote, I don't want to vote for anyone from Othello and Ruth Gordon is going to win one in a few years.  Shelley Winters is not only the best option, she's kind of the only option.

Oscar Winner: Shelley Winters

My Vote: Shelley Winters
GABBY Winner: Shelley Winters

Best Director

Robert Wise wins for The Sound Of Music which is okay.  David Lean and William Wyler would be my top choices but Lean had 2 wins already and Wyler had 3.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay

Darling wins Original in a very weak category which included 2 foreign films, a Burt Lancaster war movie and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.  Doctor Zhivago wins Adapted which is not the greatest of choices.  I think even supporters of the film would admit that the script isn't it strongest part.  A Thousand Clowns or The Collector would have been better winners.

Best Original Score/Adaptation Or Treatment Score/Song

Doctor Zhivago wins Original Score which is a great choice.  The Sound Of Music wins Adapted Score which is a worthy winner.  The fairly boring song The Shadow Of Your Smile from The Sandpiper wins Best Song.  Now the best song nominated was What's New Pussycat? from the movie of the same name.  Only problem is, that movie is utterly terrible and shouldn't be an Oscar winning film.

Best Sound/Sound Effects

The Sound Of Music wins Best Sound which once again proves my theory that musicals always win this category.  The Great Race wins Best Sound Effects and the only other nominee was Von Ryan's Express.

Best Art Direction/Cinematography Black And White And Color
Ship Of Fools wins Art Direction and Cinematography in the black and white categories and Doctor Zhivago wins the color categories.  I don't have a problem with any of these decisions.  Ship Of Fools doesn't have exceptionally good cinematography but neither did any of the other nominees, they could have nominated The Hill or The Pawnbroker, but they didn't.

Best Costume Design - Black And White/Color

Once again, I don't know what the difference is between a black and white costume and a color costume but Darling wins black and white and Doctor Zhivago wins color.  Both fine decisions.

Best Film Editing

The Sound Of Music wins, which is not a great decision.  Of the nominated films I would pick Doctor Zhivago or The Flight Of The Phoenix.  Of the movies not nominated, The Pawnbroker is one of the best edited films I have ever seen.  The way they weave in scenes of Rod Steiger in a concentration camp is extremely effective in getting to know his character and his backstory without having a full flashback or expositional dialogue.

Best Visual Effects

Thunderball beats The Greatest Story Ever Told.  Thunderball is one of the sillier James Bond films, definitely the weakest of the Sean Connery outings.  It has an insane number of continuity errors and in one scene just focuses on a dog taking a piss.  Seriously, check it out

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