1971's Oscar Nominees

Two-Lane Blacktop, Cisco Pike,

love both of these (and Pelham and Marathon Man and especially McCabe) would probably prefer any of those to the nominees

r. fiore's piece on ACO is interesting:

http://classic.tcj.com/film/real-horrorshow/

my too-weird/good for Oscar list wd include 2LB, Wanda, Little Murders, Polanski's Macbeth, Sweet Sweetback, Punishment Park, and in the global ghetto, Merchant of the Four Seasons, The Ceremony, Get Carter, Duck You Sucker, Wake in Fright, WR: Mysteries of the Organism.

ooh yeah Get Carter. Been meaning to see Punishment Park.

I'd be mildly curious to see N&A again bcz Franklin Schaffner was in a run of good-to-exceptional films (Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon). Don't recall the sweeping exterior scenes of those other three in it though.

Tom Baker as Rasputin maybe worthwhile lol

Papillon is good to exceptional?

I like The Best Man.

haven't seen Papillon in eons. At least McQueen and Hoffman were an unlikely mix.

was FS maybe the only noted '50s live-TV-drama director who became a successful maker of theatrical epics?

Shakey, you would like Punishment Park - a feel bad classic

The Last Picture Show.

Never seen Nicholas and Alexandra or Fiddler on the Roof. Agree with clem that French Connection is all good but I'd rather revisit The Taking of Pelham 123 any day.

Saw Pelham fairly recently, within 6 months, and it was good but wouldn't be in my top 5 of the year.

I should clarify--Pelham's 1974, Marathon Man's 1976. I just mentioned them as a couple of action films I like much more than The French Connection (which I did enjoy the couple of times I watched it for all the decaying-New York locations).

Oh durr, yeah. I need to quit posting -- that's two days in a row with a headsmack error.

Lol I was going to bring up Charlie Varrick but stopped when I realized that was '73

well there IS more going on in French Connection than "action film." After all, the baddie gets away.

Popeye gets away?

baddie in action structure terms. c'mon, the audience roots for Hackman over Bunuel actor.

nah I rooted for his umbrella

I know, joeks.

I saw this pretty young, I think it was one of the first times seeing a portrayal of cop that I had a visceral dislike of - an abusive, racist, lying asshole

xp

ah the seventies

I gues sthere's an argument to be had over whether the film is racist just bcz racists in the audience laughed at the the racist cop.

If Kael thought this movie was "shocks for jocks," oh what she lived to see.

laughed with Doyle, I guess

fascinating to think of Jackie Gleason in that role anyhoo

idk if I would call the film racist just because it has a racist character as its ostensible protagonist (Doyle is unlikable in other ways as noted). It's not some terrible stretch of believability that a NY cop in the 70s would be racist.

I'm not sure the film endorses his point of view.

of course not, but the question is his positioning as audience surrogate/hero (dogged, "good" at his job)

xp

no, I don't think it does, necessarily

the ambiguity about Popeye is one of the reasons I don't really love it - I don't want to root for him.

My problem with it isn't Popeye -- it's my not finding it particularly exciting.

today you could knock over that woman w/ the baby carriage in the video game

in the street

eh why go through the trouble when Obama could aim a drone at her

ooooh wadda woild wadda woild

It's not exciting, but it is more reptilian and steely than most of its ilk.

Eh, the whole train sequence is pretty damn thrilling.

yeah srsly don't know why you bores prefer neon 007 fights in skyscrapers

(also TFC meant to be seen on a big screen)

I'd see most good 70s movies on the big screen, and just about every 21st century ones that I care about at home, if I could.

I hate James Bond movies!

the car chase scene is pretty unfuckwithable, sped up film and all, but one great setpiece doth not a great film make

and yeah I hate James Bond movies

the car chase scene is pretty unfuckwithable, sped up film and all, but one great setpiece doth not a great film make

This applies to Skyfall as well, so it's extra cheap to bring that one up here.

i'm extra cheap

That might have been the first AA broadcast I watched as a kid. I'm positive I watched the '72 show, when The Godfather dominated, not so sure about '71--chances are, I was sitting there with my parents watching. Chaplin got his honorary award that year; I'm sure that was genuinely worth seeing, after all those years in exile. Imagine there was a palpable uneasiness in the room during those early '70s AAs: all (or at least most) of the old-guard feeling things slipping away.

when The Godfather dominated

Revisionist history.

More like didn't-bother-to-check carelessness, but yes. The Godfather won picture/actor/adapted screenplay, all big, but Cabaret won many more (8-3), including director/actress/cinematography/editing. Proving yet again that Germans love David Hasselhoff. Or something.

or that Cabaret is better

Hmmm...So suddenly the Academy Awards is a reliable measure of quality. Morbius, your consistency is always something to behold.

When he's right, he's right.

But let's save that fun discussion for whenever I actually poll 1972.

clemenza, I take Oscar discussions about as seriously as you take guys who don't hit 500 HR.

If you want to move it over to the general baseball thread, so as not to bore anyone further, I'd be most interested in seeing anything I've ever posted that indicates I use 500 HR a threshhold of excellence. (You may be thinking of a post where I'm trying to predict how the HOF voters will vote.)

just stop it

Oh, I agree. I just feel you like to say silly things, but don't like them questioned.

bcz THEY ARE SILLY AND MEANT TO BE

cept that The Godfather has several unintentional laughs, to Cabaret's zero

but back to '71 -- McDowell is my best actor in that race, he carries that film over its moral fuzziness.

I think we're the same age--were you watching when Chaplin got his big award that year?

Didn't watch the Oscars til Cuckoo's Nest '76

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

weird choice from the board that is SO OVER Fight Club

some of us were never under it

better and more coherent than ACO, easily

Dislike both about equally...ugly.

The Last Picture Show > The French Connection > A Clockwork Orange >>> Fiddler on the Roof >>> Nicholas and Alexandra

Finished off this set today with 'Nicholas and Alexandra' which could actually be redeemable if it was just a tighter story around the abdication onwards. They had some really good acting talent ultimately wasted here.

Also Cybill Shepherd's eyes <3

I guess I should finally watch TLPS all the way through but (PVMIC) The French Connection is unbeatable imo

Ya ever pick ya feet in Poughkeepsie?

Hard at work on "Cybill Shepherd Eyes," my follow-up to the ill-fated "Karen Black Eyes."