53rd Academy Awards

My series reviewing the Oscars of my lifetime continues.
The 53rd Academy Awards. April 14, 1980
Hosted By Johnny Carson
Delayed a day due to the attempted assassination of President Reagan

Nominees:
Ordinary People - Yikes, there is a lot going on here and most of it looks terrible. I had only ever heard of this movie but never seen or read anything about it. From what I can tell, a kid is depressed, possibly suicidal, stemming from an incident on a boat where it looks like someone drowns. This scenario apparently makes Mary Tyler Moore hate the kid (her son) and fight constantly with Donald Sutherland (husband). This might be a generational thing but I don't understand what the central conflict is. Mary Tyler Moore just looks like a monster who hates her kid for being traumatized. Besides, why is she fighting with Donald Sutherland? Has she not met Keifer? He's a great dad! Let him do his thing. I will never watch this.

The Coal Miner's Daughter - "Winters Bone - The Musical!" Egads, where to start. A biopic of Loretta Lynn apparently, of whom I know little and care less. This movie looks like the Alpha and Omega of country music stories. It has everything; troubling young romances, Grand Old Opry, coal mining, alcoholism, adultry, spousal abuse, Kentucky, etc. It does seem to have some top notch Tommy Lee Jones but I've never seen this movie, you've never seen this movie and yet either one of us could write it tomorrow. It also seems like the longest movie ever made but I can't and won't verify that by watching it.

The Elephant Man - David Lynch makes an appearance directing this heartwarming tale of John Merrick, the severely disfigured elephant man. I actually saw this movie as a kid, I think with my Dad somehow, maybe on TV, and all I really remember was the ending and how utterly overcome I was by sadness. It is awful to watch and few things have made me feel as bad as I did at the end of this movie. On the other hand, I've heard nine million people do some variation of "I am not an animal! I am a human being!" So I guess things evened out. I wonder if one director has been nominated for three movies as odd as The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.

Raging Bull - Finally, something right in my wheelhouse. Scorcese, DeNiro, Boxing! This a truly great movie but make no mistake, it is a painful couple of hours. LaMotta is a beast of man and watching him destroy (literally) everyone and everything in his life is tough to look at sometimes. DeNiro is just too awesome to ignore although every time I watch it I get more convinced he actually knocked out Cathy Moriarty.

Tess - Roman Polanski is a sexual predator and so is the guy who edited and/or did the voiceover for this trailer. As best I can tell, the plot of this movie revolves around the main points that 1) Nastassja Kinski is attractive and 2) She agreed to be in this movie. There's not much else going on here. There is a thread bare pretense of a story involving a poor farm girl being snatched away by ruthless rich guys which I assume has all the depth and character of a Penthouse letter of the month. There's something going on with the church because of course there is and somebody's past comes back to haunt them anew. Delightful. Oddly enough, for as shallow as I assume this movie to be, the vibe I get from it is more Barry Lyndon than Silk Stalkings. Make of that what you will but rest assured that I do not mean it as a compliment. I'll never watch this but I think I can safely set the over/under on rapes in this movie at 2.5 and 5.5 for the number of nude scenes.

The Outcome:
Ordinary People wins which I guess is ok. Tess or the Coal Miner's Daughter would have been a travesty and The Elephant Man was probably too weird and Lynchian to win. I'm guessing that when the Academy had to vote, Raging Bull was just too unpleasant to get enough votes and DeNiro winning was the best they could hope for. Besides, Ordinary People has that same kind of "Important Movie" vibe that a movie like Scent of a Woman or Dead Poets Society has and those kinds of movies do well come awards time. I would've voted Raging Bull or Elephant Man and refused to watch the others on principle.

Extra Fun Facts:
Did you know that whenever I saw the movie title Tess I immediately confused it with Nell, the Jodie Foster feral cabin woman movie? Quite a mix up indeed!

This years Academy Awards also missed out on the chance to dump The Coal Miner's Daughter and Tess and nominate Altered States and Brubaker instead. Make that change and suddenly you've got a powerhouse year on your hands!

(not pictured; Nastassja Kinski in Tess)

52nd Academy Awards

It occurred to me recently that, as much as I love movies, I know almost nothing about the Academy Awards. Every year I haven't seen most of the movies, people seem upset at who wins and I continuing not giving a shit.

This seems like a gap in my knowledge base so I've decided to go back and review the Best Picture category for every year since I was born to see what can be learned, based on what I've seen, what I've heard and what I can learn on YouTube in less than 8 minutes.

Up first, the 52nd Academy Awards. April 14, 1980.

Nominees:
Norma Rae - I've only ever heard of this movie as the punchline to jokes about Sally Field and as a reference point for quiver lipped platitudes about labor unions. The trailer is terrible. It looks like the fever dream campaign ad for some low level Democratic House member from the rust belt. Pretty hunky Beau Bridges though, until he punches Sally Field that is.

All that Jazz - Never heard of it in any context. The trailer starts off like hot garbage but somehow morphs into the guy from Jaws in some weird combo of Staying Alive, Perfect and Chicago. I may have to see this one.

Apocalypse Now - I love this movie. I'll even watch the 11 hour version where they go the french plantation house to ruminate on life for no discernible reason.

Breaking Away - I knew this was the cycling movie but that's about it. I didn't realize it was a comedy and D-Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jack Earl Haley were in it. Its like Revenge of the Nerds, except the nerds are just slightly lower class white guys. The main group seem like what the four kids from Stand By Me would've turned into if they hadn't gone looking for corpses and instead just took up sports. Slightly intrigued. Is this the last comedy nominated for Best Picture, outside of Forrest Gump? As a bonus, the whole thing is on YouTube for free.

Kramer v. Kramer - Wow, what a garbage trailer. I knew this was a legal procedural movie but I thought it was about a wrongful death or something like that. This thing looks super depressing and boring as all hell. Its also amazing that they've really been making this kind of empowered woman rises up against husband movie continually since 1979. I don't know what ends up happening with the kid but I bet it takes four hours to find out. It's probably better than it seems just because of Hoffman and Streep but I can't imagine what set of circumstances would have to occur for me to watch this.

The Outcome:
Of course Kramer v. Kramer wins. It hits all the same award bait tones that a movie like Crash does. The same thinking that makes Citizen Kane the best movie ever makes Kramer the best movie this year. It good to know that the Academy has been consistent over the years. Apocalypse Now though is the clear lasting presence and deserved winner just based on cultural relevancy alone. I'm a little surprised that Norma Rae and Kramer didn't split the left wing vote and clear the path for Apocalypse. Pretty good diversity of films too with a comedy and a weird jazz musical getting nominated. Pretty good start.

Extra Fun Fact: Wow, the movie that killed nuclear power in the U.S., the China Syndrome, also came out this year? I haven't seen this movie either but its so beloved by Hollywood left wingers that I'm shocked it wasn't nominated for Best Picture. It must be awful. Can you imagine a year that could've had Norma Rae, Kramer v. Kramer and the China Syndrome all nominated for Best Pic at the same time? It's like the Pantheon of virtue signaling.

(Franics Ford Coppola, 5 hours into a screening of Kramer v. Kramer)