1987 Oscar Watch

At first I thought this year sucked just because of the sweep for The Last Emperor.  But it sucked before that.  It sucked starting with the nominees, but also sucked with the year in general.  There just weren't a lot of quality films this year.  I like Moonstruck, Hope And Glory and Broadcast News but they were all swallowed up by the monster that was Bernardo Bertolucci's Chinese epic.  Now obviously The Princess Bride is one of the best films ever made, but that's a conversation for my GABBY awards blog.  Speaking of which...
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

 

5. Fatal Attraction - So, Michael Douglas doesn't get sex from his wife one night, so when she leaves town he has sex with Glenn Close.  They start an affair and she gets too clingy when he tries to end it.  Now he has guilt and she's a crazy psycho bitch.  Well, this movie isn't very good at all.  It is the first of the "Crazy for Michael Douglas's Dick" trilogy which includes this, Basic Instinct and Disclosure.  The worst part of the film is that it makes the guy who cheated on his wife come out completely innocent.  He had sex with a crazy lady and when he tells his wife she's like, "That crazy bitch better stay away from my man."  Lady, your husband still cheated on you, would you only be mad if it was a stable woman who broke up your family?  That's the problem with the Oscars.  When a film gets nominated for Best Picture you now watch it through the "Oscar lens" where you're watching it and just automatically assuming that it is quality.  When a bad film gets through it makes it that much worse.  Now a crappy movie like Fatal Attraction is in the same company as great films like Marty and From Here To Eternity.

4. The Last Emperor - This is all about personal taste and what you think constitutes an Oscar winner.  Technically, The Last Emperor is the most well made film on this list.  All the elements are superb, down to the stitching on the hats, it's beautiful to look at, but it is 2 1/2 hours of slow paced boredom.  This movie has no rewatch value, I tried to rewatch it for this blog, couldn't get through it.  Now I've seen Fatal Attraction and Hope And Glory twice, Moonstruck and Broadcast News probably 3 times apiece and The Last Emperor 1 and a half times.  Even though Fatal Attraction is a worse movie I would rather watch it again than The Last Emperor because at least that movie has some things happen.  This is about the emperor of China, we see him as a young boy at first where everyone is bowing to him and he just wants to run around and play, then we see him grow up and finally we see him captured after the fall of the dynasty.  I just could not get into this film but like I said, it's gorgeous, I'm in awe that they made this movie as well as they did.  I would much rather you have given me a story with characters I could connect to though.

3. Moonstruck - This is one of those movies that doesn't feel like it should be in the Best Picture lineup.  It's just a silly little comedy about New York Italians, it feels almost like a sitcom because of how light it is and gag heavy it is.  Cher thinks she is unlucky in love because her last husband got hit by a bus.  She meets Danny Aiello and he proposes to her, he goes out of town to visit his ailing mother and asks Cher to invite his brother, who he hasn't spoken with in some time, to the wedding.  Nicolas Cage plays the brother, a baker with a wooden hand who blames the accident that caused it on his brother.  Cage and Cher sleep together and complications ensue.  As I was watching it, for probably the 3rd or 4th time, I kept asking myself why I like this movie.  There's not much special about it, but I love the performances, the pacing, the jokes, the characters, I love the whole movie.  A movie like this isn't supposed to be one of the best films of the year but I guess sometimes the moon is just right and everything works out.

2. Hope And Glory - What if A Christmas Story took place in WWII England?  You'd get this wonderful film.  It's the story of a family in London, World War II breaks out and the father goes off to war leaving the mother to take care of the children.  The whole movie is told through the eyes of a 10 year old boy.  He doesn't understand the scope of the world around him and you see WWII era London through the eyes of a child.  It's a beautiful film, part family drama, part coming of age comedy.  It won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy and while the movie is very funny it's obviously a drama with comedic elements.  All the horrors of the war are going on but kids are more concerned with what swear words they know or what girls have in their pants than what Hitler is doing.

1. Broadcast News - I love this movie.  Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks work in television news.  She is a producer and he is a reporter.  They are best friends but Brooks is secretly in love with her.  Enter William Hurt as a good looking bimbo who knows nothing about the news but has a talent for looking good on camera and sounding like he knows what he's talking about.  A love triangle ensues.  This movie is just so funny but also smart.  Where Moonstruck is funny but the situations are exaggerated this is grounded so much in reality but is hilarious because of the characters and their relationships.

As much as I enjoy Broadcast News, Hope And Glory and Moonstruck, none of them would contend for a win in a stronger year.  This year I gotta give it to one of them so I'm picking my favorite and that's Broadcast News.  Hope And Glory seems more like a Best Picture winner but is a little too episodic and leaves you with an ending that seems like the movie is unfinished.  Broadcast News is a complete story that also gives us an epilogue.  The Last Emperor is one of my least favorite Best Picture winners of all time.

Oscar Winner: The Last Emperor

My Vote: Broadcast News

GABBY Winner: The Princess Bride

BEST ACTOR

 

5. Marcello Mastroianni - Dark Eyes - Foreign language performance, these used to infuriate me but now they excite me because I know I can just throw this in the 5th slot.  This is an Italian film that I didn't much care for.  Mastroianni is fine in the role but if they really wanted to nominate a foreign performance then Yves Montand, Daniel Auteil and Gerard Depardieu were right there in Jean de Florette.

4. Robin Williams - Good Morning, Vietnam - I love Robin, I think he's a talented actor, I just don't find him funny.  His Robin Williams persona takes me out of movies when he is unshackled and just set free to play a Robin Williams type character.  He's doing impressions like a 1980s stand up but in a different time period, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he launched into a Ronald Reagan impression and talked about the Vietnam war.  The whole thing seems anachronistic to me.  I know it's based on a real guy but I can't imagine the real Adrian Cronauer was anywhere as manic as Robin is in this film.

3. Jack Nicholson - Ironweed - This is the story of two hobos during the great depression.  There's really not much more to the plot, it's just two lost souls walking around and living life.  Nicholson used to be a baseball player, he dropped his baby while he was drunk and left his family and now he drinks and lives life on the rails.  He is also tortured by visions of his past.  He talks with the ghosts of the people he's hurt in his life.  Nicholson is solid in the film, as he should be, he's Jack Nicholson.  The movie is all about the performances of Nicholson and Streep so is worth watching for that but it's only been 4 years since Jack won an Oscar so it's too soon to give him a 3rd.

2. William Hurt - Broadcast News - If Hurt hadn't just won an Oscar 2 years ago he would be my number 1.  He is so great in this film and his character is so fresh.  He's a dumb guy but he knows he's a dumb guy.  He's not dumb in that Adam Sandler or Pauley Shore way, he's just not very smart but has learned how to manipulate the system to work to his advantage because not only is he dumb but he's also very attractive.  At first when he meets Holly Hunter you think that he's going to try to get her to teach him the news business but really he just wants to use her to further his career because that is how he survives.  He can't get by on his brains so he gets by on his looks.  It's an interesting character and Hurt nails it, never playing his character as overly dumb or tragic just as a normal guy way out of his element.

1. Michael Douglas - Wall Street - I've read some reviews of Wall Street that say it holds up and is more relevant today than ever, I feel that it is a product of its time, but a very good product.  The movie is mostly about Charlie Sheen as a wide eyed youngster in the stock market business and how his small scale ideals get overshadowed when greed comes into the picture.  Douglas plays Gordon Gekko, who is the poster boy for 1980s decadence, he's smarmy, he's rich, he's powerful, he's everything you want to be and he's also a big dick about it.  Douglas plays the part perfectly, the performance holds up as a Best Actor winner more than the film does.

So a pretty weak category, only Hurt, Douglas and Nicholson deserve to be here and out of those three, Nicholson won twice and Hurt just won so that leaves Douglas by default.

Oscar Winner: Michael Douglas

My Vote: Michael Douglas

GABBY Winner: Mandy Patinkin for The Princess Bride

BEST ACTRESS

 

5. Sally Kirkland - Anna - Sally Kirkland plays a Czechoslovakian actress living in New York City trying to find acting work.  It's about actors and immigrants and how both feel like outsiders, I guess, I wasn't really paying that much attention when I watched the movie.  I already had Cher, Holly Hunter, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close to contend with I didn't think Sally Kirkland could muster her way into the top 3.  She's fine in the role but this is a nomination that is the award type of thing, even though she won a Golden Globe.  Honestly, I've always had something against Sally Kirkland and this movie because I always read about how hard she campaigned for a nomination.  She hired a publicist and went to town getting people to see and talk about the movie and it worked, she basically bought an Oscar nod and then she tried to do it again with EdTV in 1999, that one, of course, proved futile.

4. Meryl Streep - Ironweed - Streep plays a crazy hobo.  She's really good in the role, based on performance I would probably rank her 2nd but she's already won twice in that past 8 years so it's too early to give her a 3rd.  I really like her character, she's obviously mentally unstable and when she's introduced they ask her to sing a song and she goes into the crowd and everybody's smiling and then they cut back and you realize that it was all a fantasy and she's singing slightly off-key to a group of drunks who don't care.  Streep is completely unglamorous in her performance and disappears into her role.  There are so many little moments that make her seem familiar, like you've passed by this woman on the street before.  But of course you figured she'd be great, she's Meryl Streep.

3. Glenn Close - Fatal Attraction - Glenn Close deserved an Oscar somewhere in the 80s, I'm just trying to figure out when.  She got 5 nominations during the decade then sat out 20 years before coming back with Albert Nobbs.  In Fatal Attraction she plays a crazy stalker who sleeps with Michael Douglas.  He's married, so when he tries to end their affair she goes bat-shit crazy.  I like her performance but I dislike her character.  She seduces him, she goes crazy, she becomes violent, it makes the man who cheated on his wife completely innocent of adultery because he's the victim.  I needed a little more blame on both sides, but that's the movie's fault.  Close is actually really good but I can't vote for her here.

2. Cher - Moonstruck - Cher plays an Italian widow who sleeps with her fiance's brother the day after he proposes.  Cher winning an Oscar is a bit of a black eye for the Academy.  How did Cher win an Oscar before Glenn Close?  Sometimes the time is just right for a certain person to win an Oscar and you have to take it for what it is.  Cher is good in Moonstruck.  Best Actress Oscar good?  In most years, no, but this year, yes.  My vote comes between her and Holly Hunter and I'm picking Hunter because I like her movie better but in 1987 Cher had one Oscar nomination to Hunter's zero so it makes a little sense that she won.  Not to mention, she's absolutely charming in the film.

1. Holly Hunter - Broadcast News - Hunter plays a news producer who is prone to outbursts of tears.  She is dedicated to her job and her only real confidant is Albert Brooks who is a news reporter with a slew of his own problems.  She falls in love with William Hurt who is a brainless but handsome reporter and Brooks confesses his love to her.  It's a really charming performance, she reminded me a lot of Jean Arthur in a classic screwball comedy.  This is everything I want from a lead female performance.  Yes, she wants a man but she's also a strong character in her own right.  So often in romantic comedies the woman will just do whatever it takes to get the guy but here she is focused on her career and only when it is mutually inclusive will she follow her heart and mind.

So the vote is between Hunter and Cher with Glenn Close getting consideration just because she deserves an Oscar.  My vote goes to Hunter because I like her performance and movie better.  Now historically Hunter will win an Oscar in 1993 so her winning here wouldn't right any kind of cosmic injustice but I'm voting for my favorite performance and if that means Holly Hunter would end up winning 2 Oscars, so be it.

Oscar Winner: Cher

My Vote: Holly Hunter

GABBY Winner: Holly Hunter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

5. Vincent Gardenia - Moonstruck - Gardenia plays the father of the family.  He is a plumber and is having an affair.  He has a nice monologue about the quality of his pipes but doesn't do much in the film other than that.

4. Denzel Washington - Cry Freedom - This is a movie about apartheid in South Africa and it's directed by Richard Attenborough so you can bet that it's very long and feels important.  I'm usually never a fan of message movies like this, if I want to feel bad or get politically motivated I prefer a documentary I want movies to tell me an interesting story.  Washington plays Steven Biko and he's kind of the lead of the film until, spoiler alert, he gets murdered.  After his death the movie is just incredibly boring and you realize that Washington was the best thing about it.  His accent is good and consistent and he's a really powerful character but I couldn't vote for a movie this flat.

3. Morgan Freeman - Street Smart - This is not a good film but it is interesting and has two really nice supporting performances from Kathy Baker and Freeman.  The movie is about Christopher Reeve, he's a journalist who makes up a story about a pimp and prints it.  His bosses love it and want to meet the pimp, only he doesn't exist.  The story gets attention though and a real pimp thinks that it's about him and he wants to know how this journalist got this information.  Freeman plays the pimp, Fast Black, and he's really good in the role.  The thing I like most about his performance is that he doesn't make it a caricature.  He's not playing a stereotypical pimp character, he's playing what it would be like if Morgan Freeman was a pimp.  He's just a normal guy who likes to drink Yoohoo and then all of a sudden he's got a knife to a guys throat.  The subtle way he plays the part make the violent outbursts all the more effective.

2. Sean Connery - The Untouchables - So often when an older actor wins an Oscar in the supporting category it's for a lesser role.  Not the case here, this is one of Connery's best performances and he was James Bond, Robin Hood and Indiana Jones's dad.  Connery plays Chicago cop Jimmy Malone, a member of The Untouchables, Elliot Ness's gang of crime fighters out to get Al Capone.  In every scene Connery does or says something that makes you smile.  He has so many great lines in this movie, the most quoted is his "Chicago way" monologue but my favorite is one of his last in the film, "Isn't that just like a wop, brings a knife to a gun fight".  Terrific performance and a great Oscar win.

1. Albert Brooks - Broadcast News - Oh man, Albert Brooks in Broadcast News.  Every single line he has is hilarious but not in a kind of way where he steals the movie.  He's saying the funniest lines but they are all grounded in the reality of the film.  He also just has a style where it seems like he's making all this stuff up, kind of like Robin Williams but where Robin took me out of his movie, Brooks brings me into his.  He's a reporter who spends most of his time in the field and is tired of getting passed over for an anchor job.  He's secretly in love with his best friend but doesn't tell her until she starts falling for a brainless pretty boy.  Things get worse for him when he finally gets his big shot and has to go to his romantic rival for advice.

Do I want Sean Connery to have an Oscar?  Yes.  Do I like the decision to give him an Oscar for The Untouchables?  Yes.  I just like Albert Brooks a little better.  Now Brooks is kind of a co-lead in his film so it feels like a cheat putting him in this category where Connery is clearly a supporting character.  But seeing how Brooks's character is always getting overlooked, it makes sense putting him here.  So I'm voting Albert Brooks even though I'm glad Connery won.

Oscar Winner: Sean Connery

My Vote: Albert Brooks

GABBY Winner: Albert Brooks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 

5. Anne Archer - Fatal Attraction - This is about Glenn Close going crazy for Michael Douglas's dick.  Anne Archer plays Douglas's wife.  I have no idea why she was nominated.  The Academy must have really liked this movie to pull her along.  So, I don't think she should have been nominated and if Glenn Close doesn't win then Anne Archer shouldn't win so absolutely no vote.

4. Ann Sothern - The Whales Of August - This seems like a movie poised for some veteran nominations.  It stars the 79 year old Bette Davis, the 94 year old Lillian Gish, the 78 year old Ann Sothern and the young chicken of the group Vincent Price who was 76 at the time.  It's about two old ladies vacationing at their summer home.  Davis plays the older sister who is blind and Gish is the younger sister who takes care of her.  It's a small and simple little movie about old people but instead of nominating Gish or Davis they singled out Ann Sothern who plays the sassy friend.  She's kind of like the Blanche of this Golden Girls group.  She's funny, she's still with it and provides some comic relief moments but her character is nowhere near as developed as the other ladies.

3. Norma Alejandro - Gaby: A True Story - A girl is born with cerebral palsy and she can only control her left foot, sound familiar?  This is basically My Left Foot but done as a romantic drama.  It's based on a true story, you could probably guess that by the title, and it's about a young girl who learns to use the limitations of her body to her benefit.  Her body is handicapped but her mind is alive.  She goes to school, she finds love and she lives her life to the fullest.  Norma Alejandro is her nanny who at a young age saw promise in the child and then stayed by her side for the rest of her life.  She actually doesn't do that much in the film but she's in almost every scene.  Gaby will do something and then they cut to Alejandro for a reaction shot.  It's a pretty nice supporting performance but definitely not something I could see myself voting for a win.

2. Olympia Dukakis - Moonstruck - This is mostly about Cher finding love with a man who is not her fiancee but also in the film is a subplot about her mother.  Dukakis is an older Italian woman who suspects that her husband may be cheating on her but she still loves him.  One night she goes out and meets a man, she goes out on the town with him but doesn't do anything that will jeopardize her marriage but she does entertain the man.  Then she confronts her husband and makes him stop seeing his mistress and go to confession.  That's pretty much the role, she doesn't do a whole lot in the film but she has a nice presence.  It's weird that the nominations for Dukakis and Gardenia make me like the film less.  Thinking about their roles in the film make me think that their subplot is just filler and the movies only 100 minutes.

1. Anne Ramsey - Throw Momma From The Train - This was Danny DeVito's directorial debut and is basically a black comedy remake of Strangers On A Train.  DeVito wants his overbearing mother dead and Billy Crystal wishes his ex-wife was dead.  One night DeVito goes to the movies and watches Strangers On A Train and gets the idea that they should both commit each other's murders.  Crystal though doesn't really want anyone dead and DeVito is slightly mentally unhinged.  Ramsey plays the momma and she is hysterical.  She's one of the most irritating characters ever on screen, from her first scene you want her to die and the more and more comically insane fantasies of her death don't disappoint.  At first I thought this was just a silly nomination for a silly movie but now that I think about it, who else could have played this character this well?  Ramsey is absolutely hilarious.

What a weak category.  I re-watched all of these movies for this blog and started with Gaby - A True Story.  After watching it I immediately put Norma Alejandro in the 5th spot thinking that she was a weak nominee, then I watched Fatal Attraction and moved Anne Archer into the last spot, then I watched The Whales Of August and Norma moved up to number 3.  There's nobody I want to vote for.  Anne Ramsey is my pick because I just loved her movie and her performance but in almost any other year she would just be a fun nominee not an out right winner.

Oscar Winner: Olympia Dukakis

My Vote: Anne Ramsey

GABBY Winner: Anne Ramsey

Best Director

Bernando Bertolucci wins for The Last Emperor which was inevitable.  It's not like they're gonna give it 8 out of 9 Oscars.  Pretty stupid category to boot.  Adrian Lyne for Fatal Attraction?  Really?  John Boorman would have been my choice for Hope And Glory.  Why no James L. Brooks?

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
Moonstruck wins Original which is fine.  I would have picked Broadcast News but James L. Brooks already had some Oscars to his name.  The Last Emperor wins Adapted which is the product of a boring category and a sweep.

Best Original Song
Pretty good category.  You have the winner, (I've Had) The Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing and Shakedown from Beverly Hills Cop II, Storybook Love from The Princess Bride and Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now from Mannequin.  Remember when movie soundtracks were a thing?

Best Visual Effects
Innerspace beats Predator.  That's just a cool sentence.

Best Makeup
Harry And The Hendersons beats Happy New Year.  That sentence makes no sense.

Best Film Editing/Score/Sound/Art Direction/Cinematography/Costume Design
I just bundled all the categories that The Last Emperor won together.  All-in-all it won 9 awards on 9 nominations, which makes for a pretty uninteresting year.  Honestly, it probably deserved all of these awards.  Technically it is a great movie.  All the production elements are superb, but what kind of movie do you really want to watch?  Do you want a boring film that is well made or do you want a movie with a good story?  The only category I take umbrage with is the original score category.  It's cool that David Byrne has an Oscar but Ennio Morricone's score for The Untouchables is simply iconic.

Up Next
1983