1980 Oscar Watch

Ordinary People beats Raging Bull and Robert Redford beats Martin Scorsese.  It's not a great decision but I think another movie got snubbed more this year.  Scorsese's real robbery came ten years later.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

5. Tess - There is no way I'm ever going to be able to enjoy this movie.  It's a 3 hour film based on a classic novel.  I'm sure the book is great, I'm sure this is a good adaptation, the movie is pretty to look at but this is a 3 hour movie that could easily be 90 minutes.  If you were telling me this story I would routinely stop you and ask you to get to the point.

4. Coal Miner's Daughter - I'm not sure why this film is here.  It's not a bad movie, it's perfectly watchable, mostly due to the performances of Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, it's just not a film that deserves to be in the top 5 of any year.  It's a straight forward biopic of Loretta Lynn.  She gets married, she learns to play the guitar, she sings songs that get on the radio and finds success.  It doesn't help that the story doesn't really have an ending because Lynn was still alive at the time.  A fine movie but certainly not the best of the year.

3. Ordinary People - This is also a fine movie that doesn't need to be in the category of best of the year.  It's almost impossible to talk about this movie and not mention that it won Best Picture over Raging Bull.  It's a very solid family drama but not something that needs to be in the same sentence as Gone With The Wind and From Here to Eternity.  The Jarretts are a well off family that have some issues communicating with each other.  One of the sons died in a boating accident and since then the other son has become suicidal and the parents haven't yet sufficiently coped with the loss.  All the performances are really good, Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton are incredible and while watching it I get caught up in the story but afterwards I forget why I was engrossed.

2. The Elephant Man - David Lynch directs this bizarre and sweet film about David Merrick, a man born with monstrous physical deformities.  This is definitely Lynch's least surreal work but he still manages to sneak in some bizarre imagery.  The thing that works about the movie is that they never present John Merrick as a monster, the first time we see him is not done as a jump scare or even in that Jaws way where they save it for later.  He stands up, the audience sees him and then we close in on Anthony Hopkins as he sheds a single tear.  This humanizes Merrick and we feel for him as people are treating unkindly.  Much like Frankenstein's Monster, he didn't ask to be born like this.  It's shot in beautiful black and white which gives it a timeless feel.  A terrific film.

1. Raging Bull - This is a biopic about Jake LaMotta.  It's a really well made biopic but it is still a biopic.  That's why it doesn't resonate with me as much as it seems to do others.  Much like with most biopics there's not much of a story here, it's just events in a man's life, we watch them play out and in the case of LaMotta, he doesn't change at all throughout the course of the film.  I suppose that's the point of the film but I like a movie to have a beginning, middle and end, this movie wanders around searching for the story.  That aside, it's an amazing visual triumph, Scorsese directs the hell out of this film and it's shot in black and white which makes the blood smeared on the boxer's faces look poetic.

Everyone cries foul about this decision and I admit that it's definitely not the greatest choice in the Academy's history, I think the 1990 Scorsese snub stings more.  Raging Bull is a better film than Ordinary People but Raging Bull is not my idea of an Oscar winning movie either.  I'm giving it my vote because of the technical achievement and the performances but I actually prefer The Elephant Man in regards to storytelling.  Basically 2 of these films don't belong, Ordinary People is good but small and kinda forgettable, The Elephant Man and Raging Bull are visual treats.  The more I talk about The Elephant Man makes me want to vote for it but I'll stick with Raging Bull because Scorsese deserved an Oscar at this point in his career more than Lynch.

Oscar Winner: Ordinary People

My Vote: Raging Bull

GABBY Winner: The Stunt Man

BEST ACTOR

5. Jack Lemmon - Tribute - I was fully prepared to dislike this film and put Lemmon in the 5th spot as an undeserving nomination.  I still put Lemmon in the 5th spot but that's only because he's already won twice, I actually enjoyed his performance.  I don't know why I thought I wouldn't, he's Jack Lemmon and I love pretty much everything he's ever done.  Here he plays a show business veteran with leukemia trying to make some good in his life with limited time.  Lemmon recreates his stage role here and is terrific as usual, the film is very sappy but Lemmon elevates the material.

4. Robert Duvall - The Great Santini - This is another performance I like in a film I don't.  Duvall plays a gruff military man who is terrific at his job but lacks any skill as a father.  He is really terrific here and I like this performance way better than the one he won for, unfortunately he can't compete with the next 3 guys on this list.

3. John Hurt - The Elephant Man - It stinks that I have to rank Hurt at number 3, he would be my winner in most years.  He plays John Merrick and at first I thought that the makeup was doing all the heavy lifting and Hurt was just the actor underneath it.  On this last viewing I noticed just how much of the role relies on Hurt's voice.  His pained vocal chords as he tries to speak turns Merrick from a deformed oddity to a flesh and blood human being trapped inside a grotesque exterior.

2. Robert DeNiro - Raging Bull - De Niro plays Jake LaMotta, a boxer who is his own worst enemy in life.  De Niro is fantastic here, from the first moments of the film you feel like you are watching an Academy Award winning performance.  Most of the acclaim went to his physical transformation, gaining 60 pounds to play LaMotta in his older days.  I think the weight gain was entirely unnecessary because De Niro is able to convincingly play this character without any gimmicks.  John Hurt didn't have to get trampled on by animals to play his character.

1. Peter O'Toole - The Stunt Man - I read somewhere that O'Toole is really a supporting character in his film and while Steve Railsback is technically the main character O'Toole, much like King Kong, is bigger than his film.  There's no doubt in my mind that he belongs here as ego-maniacal film director Eli Cross.  No other actor could command the screen as well as O'Toole does here.  He is perfectly in tune with his character at all times and never hits a false note.  The Stunt Man is also one of my favorite movies and I felt it was criminally overlooked this year.

De Niro, Hurt and O'Toole are all incredible and I wouldn't even cry foul if Duvall won as a makeup win from the year before.  I'm voting O'Toole because I liked his performance the best but also De Niro just won an Oscar 6 years ago, albeit in the supporting category.  O'Toole has been consistently cranking out incredible performances for 2 decades and has yet to be honored.  He would go on to never win so me voting for him here rights that cosmic injustice.

Oscar Winner: Robert DeNiro

My Vote: Peter O'Toole

GABBY Winner: Peter O'Toole

BEST ACTRESS

5. Ellen Burstyn - Resurrection - This was a weird movie I discovered by doing these blogs.  Burstyn plays a woman who gets severely injured in a car accident, losing the use of her legs.  She not only heals her own injuries but discovers that she can heal others as well.  She becomes a faith healer and an unwilling celebrity.  It's an interesting movie but what was missing for me was some kind of internal conflict.  Burstyn discovers she has powers, she uses the powers, doesn't really think anything of it and that's the movie, there's never really a scene where she questions her gifts or feels burdened by them.  Burstyn is perfectly fine in the lead but this isn't 2nd Oscar good.

4. Gena Rowlands - Gloria - Here's a coincidence, Burstyn won her Oscar in 1974 when it should have gone to Gena Rowlands.  This year they are against each other again and I can't vote for either.  Gloria is by no accounts a good movie.  Rowlands plays a gangster's girlfriend who takes a young kid and protects him from the mob.  The movie would be unwatchable if it weren't for Rowlands, the performance of the kid is the reason I really dislike the film.  I'm glad she got nominated because she's a great actress and roles like this for women are rare.

3. Goldie Hawn - Private Benjamin - As I was watching this comedy about a pampered princess who enlists in the army I kept thinking it was a Stripes ripoff then I realized that this movie predates Stripes.  Hawn is a spoiled lady whose husband dies on her honeymoon while they are making love.  She is now lost in life so enlists in the army based on the pitch of a recruiter who says it will be like a Club Med vacation.  She gets to boot camp and finds that she is knee deep in the army.  It's a really funny performance, just looking at the poster you would never think that this was a performance that gets an Oscar nomination but her character has a nice redemptive arc that is missing in most comedies.

2. Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner's Daughter - Spacek plays Loretta Lynn and she's fantastic and unlike a lot of musical biopics, Spacek earns points for doing her own singing.  I don't understand biopics, instead of having a story the movie just follows a person's life until a few dramatic moments happen.  Spacek is really good but the movie is still just a run of the mill biopic.  I would have no problem voting for her if there was nobody else deserving but Mary Tyler Moore is here.

1. Mary Tyler Moore - Ordinary People - Like I said earlier, this is not one of my favorite films, I don't think it deserved to win Best Picture but the performances are all fantastic.  They seem real and lived in and I go from seeing actors in a movie to actually seeing the Jarrett family.  The most impressive of the bunch is probably Timothy Hutton but that's probably because we've never seen him before.  I grew up watching Mary Tyler Moore on Nick At Nite as this sweet and friendly woman and here she is completely transformed.  She's not a bitch but she is hardened by the world and cold and distant, not the Mary Richards or Laura Petrie you grew up with at all.

Spacek is great and I have no problem with her winning except for the fact that Mary Tyler Moore didn't win.  With everyone upset that Ordinary People beat Raging Bull you forget that the movie lost the one category it should have won.  I guess it's not anything to get bent out of shape about, Spacek had the better film career than Moore so deserved an Oscar more.

Oscar Winner: Sissy Spacek

My Vote: Mary Tyler Moore

GABBY Winner: Mary Tyler Moore

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

5. Jason Robards - Melvin And Howard - This is an extended cameo that got an Oscar nomination.  I find it weird that Jason Robards got two Oscars, got nominated for this but couldn't get a nomination for A Thousand Clowns in 1965 despite that film getting a Best Picture nomination.  They must have really been trying to make it up to him.  Robards plays Howard Hughes and he is barely in the film.  He shows up at the very beginning, talks to Melvin and dies off-screen.  It's an important part of the plot but there isn't a character here and it certainly didn't deserve a nomination.

4. Michael O'Keefe - The Great Santini - This is not a film I enjoyed, Robert Duvall is great as a military father but for some reason there is a subplot about the son dealing with racism which distracts from the narrative.  O'Keefe plays the son, he's fine in the role but doesn't do much of anything that warrants a nomination and is overshadowed in every scene he shares with Duvall.  He was much more charismatic playing Danny Noonan this year.

3. Judd Hirsch - Ordinary People - Hirsch definitely delivers the best supporting role of Ordinary People.  Hutton is a lead in every sense.  Hirsch plays a no nonsense psychiatrist who helps Hutton with his problems stemming from his brother's death.  He's so good that you really don't notice him, he doesn't do anything flashy, he just exists, the definition of a supporting player, he makes the other actors in the scene better.

2. Timothy Hutton - Ordinary People - Even though Hutton is 4th billed in the film he is the lead of Ordinary People.  The movie is about his journey to overcome the death of his brother, he has more screen time that any other actor, even Mary Tyler Moore who was nominated in the lead category.  So this is complete and total category fraud in order to get Hutton a nomination.  His nomination would make sense if Donald Sutherland was nominated lead but seeing as he wasn't, I'm not sure who Hutton was supporting.  That aside, this is one of the most impressive screen debuts in film history.  Hutton is incredible here and he's never been better.  He completely inhabits this role, if he was nominated in the correct category I would have no hesitation voting for him.

1. Joe Pesci - Raging Bull - I forgot how good Joe Pesci is in Raging Bull until this last viewing.  He's really the moral center of the film and the only likable character, even though he's not extremely likable.  The whole movie is about Jake LaMotta battling himself, he fights people in the ring but his biggest opponent is in the mirror, and Pesci is the only person really looking out for his best interests.  He's really terrific in the role, going toe to toe with De Niro in every scene and never getting overshadowed.

All things equal I vote for Hutton, all things are not equal as Hutton is quite clearly the lead of Ordinary People and I can't vote for a fraudulent nominee.  This is not Hutton's fault, the studio promoted him as a supporting actor because this was his film debut and they didn't want Hutton to contend with Sutherland.  What they should have done is put Hutton lead and Sutherland supporting.  If Donald Sutherland were in this category he probably would have won.  With Hutton out the vote is between Pesci and Hirsch.  I could vote Hirsch as Pesci is gonna win in 10 years but Pesci really gives the best performance.  The only reason I shouldn't vote Pesci is because I didn't vote for De Niro, it makes no sense if he wins and De Niro doesn't.  Although, my votes don't count for anything so I can do whatever I like.

Oscar Winner: Timothy Hutton

My Vote: Joe Pesci

GABBY Winner: Rodney Dangerfield for Caddyshack 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 

5. Eva La Gallienne - Resurrection - Not sure what Eva La Gallienne did to deserve a nomination other than the fact that she's an old lady.  The Oscars are littered with old lady nominations, the Gloria Stuart type nominations where they look good on paper but then you watch the movie and think, well this is just an old lady playing an old lady.  She really does next to nothing in this film and her character is not memorable at all.

4. Diana Scarwid - Inside Moves - This is one of those nominations where I'm glad the film got nominated for something but the performance isn't really nomination worthy.  Inside Moves is a pretty cool flick.  John Savage jumps off a building trying to kill himself but he doesn't jump from high enough so he just ends up seriously injuring himself.  He then starts visiting a bar and hanging out with the regulars, including a young David Morse.  It's kinda like a movie length episode of Cheers.  Scarwid plays one of the bar patrons who starts a relationship with Savage.  She's perfectly fine in the film but after you watch the movie she's not the one thing that's memorable.  Still, it's a good movie and now it's an Oscar nominated film.

3. Mary Steenburgen - Melvin And Howard - Melvin picks up Howard Hughes in the desert one night, drives him to his casino and drops him off.  Then after Hughes dies they find a will leaving a large sum of money to Melvin.  Steenburgen plays Melvin's wife who at the beginning of the movie leaves him for another man but of course comes back when the chance of money rolls in.  While I was watching this movie I kept wondering why she won, she's charming in the movie but it's pretty much just a standard Steenburgen performance.  Then I realized that in 1980 nobody had seen a Mary Steenburgen performance.  Now we just expect her to be charming.  I'm glad she won because I love her in everything she's in but I'm voting differently.

2. Cathy Moriarty - Raging Bull - This was Moriarty's film debut and unfortunately she had nowhere to go after starting at the top.  Her career kind of fizzled after this but that's not a reflection of her talent.  She is electric on screen as LaMotta's put upon wife displaying strength where a lesser actress would play a victim.

1. Eileen Brennan - Private Benjamin - Goldie Hawn enlists in the army and Brennan is her drill sergeant.  At first I was watching this movie and thinking that this was a fun take on the drill sergeant character that we see in films like Full Metal Jacket and A Soldier's Story.  Then I realized that this film predates those movies which makes this performance more impressive.  Brennan couldn't draw from any of those characters so she created one herself.  She's equal parts menacing and funny but at the same time humanizes the character so she is much more than a stock villain.

One of my favorite parts of doing these blogs is seeing how my opinions change.  Looking at the nominees I was totally prepared to give this category to Cathy Moriarty without asking any questions.  Watching all the movies over a weekend, I kept coming back to Eileen Brennan and her character.  A hero is only as good as their villain and Brennan is wonderful because she is in her own movie where she's the hero.  Compare her to other comic foils like John Larroquette in Stripes and G.W. Bailey in the Police Academy films, it's fun to see them fail because we like our heroes.  You could make Private Benjamin from the perspective of Brennan's character and have a movie about a dedicated drill sergeant being usurped in her duties.  The movie is better for having her there.

Oscar Winner: Mary Steenburgen

My Vote: Eileen Brennan

GABBY Winner: Barbara Hershey for The Stunt Man

Best Director

Robert Redford wins for Ordinary People which is a pretty terrible decision when compared to his competition.  Raging Bull and The Elephant Man are masterpieces of directorial achievement.  More than that, The Stunt Man is a visual marvel.  Richard Rush orchestrates the insanity of a movie set like a fine tuned maestro.  The performances in Ordinary People are incredible though, which is a testament to the director but the movie isn't as visually interesting as any of the other films in the field.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay

Melvin And Howard wins Original which is a fine choice based on the category.  I have no idea why Fame got a nomination.  Private Benjamin would have also been a fine choice.  Ordinary People wins Adapted which is a fine choice, the script is a strong part of why the movie works.  The Elephant Man and The Stunt Man would have been better choices but Ordinary People works just fine.

Best Original Score/Song

Fame wins Score and Song for the theme song Fame.  This is a movie that I'm sure was hip and happening at the time but doesn't hold up at all.  I didn't like any of the characters, any of the songs and it reminded me a lot about the people in theater that make me hate theater.  The song win is an okay decision even though 9 To 5 and On The Road Again would have held up better as winners.  9 To 5 especially since that's a good movie.  The score win makes little sense, John Barry's circus like music for The Elephant Man and John Williams's score for The Empire Strikes Back, including The Imperial March would be far superior winners.

Best Sound

The Empire Strikes Back wins which disproves my theory that musicals always win this category.  Unless Fame and Coal Miner's Daughter split the vote.  So my theory still stands.

Best Costume Design/Art Direction/Cinematography

Tess wins all 3 of these technical categories.  Not a terrible decision, the movie is beautiful to look at but the Academy really dropped the ball by not honoring Raging Bull for the beautiful black and white cinematography, also by not even nominating The Elephant Man.  Instead they nominated Coal Miner's Daughter and for some reason I will never understand, The Formula, a Razzie nominated film.  One last note about these weird nominees, When Time Ran Out earns an Oscar nomination in the Best Costume category.  Just watch the trailer for When Time Rans Out, you can tell it is one of the most laughably bad movies ever made.  I love a cheesy disaster flick but this one is too bad for even my tastes.

Best Film Editing

Raging Bull rightfully wins a weak category with only The Elephant Man deserving of a nomination.  Again, they really screwed up with the nominees including Coal Miner's Daughter, The Competition and Fame.  All of these are better than The Empire Strikes Back apparently.

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