comment #1

LexG says ...

"I'mm-O take you to the STO'!"

Gump and Sound of Music are iconic, but, yeah, MISS DAISY is an odd inclusion, since it's universally considered one of those Academy-done-fucked-up NOBODY-rewatches-it embarrassments.

But it does have a nice Dan Aykroyd performance.

Wait, people don't like SOUND OF MUSIC? Between Plummer's own scoffing in that HR roundtable yesterday, and now Wells's write-off, this is twice in 2 days I've heard that people kind of mock it.

I've never seen it, because I don't watch musicals or old movies, but I kinda thought it was some TOWERING BELOVED Star Wars-Casablanca-level beyond-reproach unite-the-world institution?

comment #2

Ray says ...

Who hates the Sound of Music?

Was just on TV the other night, the girlfriend was singing along, I even walked in and sat down for a thirty minutes. I'm no fan of movie musicals, but it's a fine movie musical. It's not like it's CHICAGO or anything.

Would it win today? No- but neither would most previous Oscar winners.

I don't get it. I'm sure however the proper opinion to hold willl soon enough be condescendingly explained to me.

comment #3

Ray says ...

Dammit just noticed it: Morgan Freeman is on there because he's BLACK, duh.

TOKENISM LIVES IN HOLLYWOOD.

comment #4

Peterzee says ...

The fact "The Sound of Music" made sooooo much money always baffled me. I mean, the score is fine -- not my fave R&H and too sentimental by half a mile, but solid. The movie itself is kind of stolid and draggy. Maybe it's so well-loved because they shoved the kiddie tunes like "Do-Re-Mi" down our throats in music class when we were children.

I'd watch Plummer do anything, but you can't help but see he's using his own frustration with the part in his performance. He looks pissed most of the time.

comment #5

JLC says ...

Sound of Music has never been one of my favorites, but I don't understand how you could get a real hate on for it. In inflation-adjusted terms, I think it's still one of the biggest moneymakers in movie history.

I have to admit, though, I wouldn't mind going to one of those Rocky Horror-esque sing-along midnight showings where everyone dresses up like Heidi or Nazis.

comment #6

Alexander says ...

Either Driving Miss Daisy is there to draw a parallel to The Help or... Yeah. Because it really was The Help of 1989. I'd hope Academy members would think that way and realize The Help cannot be considered a serious Best Picture contendah.

No problem with The Sound of Music's inclusion here. For a couple of generations now it's been an iconic film, and especially so for the fairer sex (predominantly, I mean). At least it's not My Fair Lady from the previous year.

comment #7

Floyd Thursby says ...

Giant was nominated for 10 Oscars but won only one: George Stevens. What's in doing there with the best picture winners?

comment #8

scooterzz says ...

during an interview i did with plummer in 1999 he referred to 'sound of music' as an albatross he's forced to wear around his neck and begged 'somebody kill it, please god, kill it'....i got the impression he wasn't kidding....

comment #9

coxcable says ...

I think we've arrived at the point where if you don't make a living in film then there really is no reason to care about Oscar.

People in Durham, North Carolina probably haven't seen a truly great American film in theaters in years.

comment #10

Chumley says ...

"Driving Miss Daisy" winning over "Born On The Fourth Of July" still irks me to this day.

comment #11

Krillian says ...

I wonder if Plummer's dislike for SoM is the same resentment Matthew Broderick kept having to push back for Ferris Bueller. No matter what Plummer did, it always came back to Sound of Music. The Insider seemed to be the movie that put him on the track of just being a really good actor. Sound of Music isn't always the first thing that pops into mind when you hear "Christopher Plummer" (it's Priest) but for over 30 years, it was Sound of Music, Sound of Music, Sound of Music.

comment #12

LexG says ...

For me it was RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, or THE AMATEUR with John Savage.

comment #13

arispil says ...

Gladiator winning was also a farce. NOTHING original on this poster.

comment #14

LexG says ...

GLADIATOR fucking RULES, and if anyone pipes up with that TRAFFIC SHOULDA WON bullshit, I will direct you, er, directly to the scene where Soderbergh wheels out his OH NOES-VISION DISTORTO-CAM for the image of Erika Christensen getting rammed by a Scary Black Guy (lock up your daughters, white people, the Negros are coming for yo' women!)-- that whole arc of the movie is ABSURD, and I'll say it here even on Soderbergh Central. Christensen isn't just some workaday rich-kid cokehead, but she's FREEBASING like fucking JO JO DANCER, which we all know private school kids do when their chief rolling partner is that regular Superfly himself, Topher Grace.

Her descent into selling her body to old businessman and black drug dealers to pay for FREE BASE is so hysterical and unconvincing, it casts a pall over the two AWESOME other stories (Cheadle and Guzman should've gotten their own spinoff), though on recent review, the Del Toro stretch everyone loved the best is TOTALLY incoherent, very unclear about to what degree he knew what his partner had spilled and what the fallout would be-- but it's still in Awesome Vision and Benecio and MILIAN are beyond reproach.

Also that movie has STEVEN BAUER in a plum role, so maybe on second thought it should've won just for awesomest casting of all time.

comment #15

Gaydos says ...

This is such a crock of cooler than thou hipsterism gone mad.

1) "Daisy" is a terrific play (Pulitzer! Hello!) brought to screen with simple grace and terrific performances. I'm sorry but Spike's generally never really moved far beyond his Nike commercial aesthetics and the polemics of "Right Thing" and "July" aside, they're not really superior films. They just feel that way, in a very PC cooler AND holier than thou sense.

2) My 15 year old daughter just reacted to "Sound of Music" the way I did when I was 15 and totally into Bond: it's a great movie musical.

3) I won't defend "Gump," but I will say the US films this year are so middling that "Gump" would almost certainly sweep the Oscars this year.

Which leads to this point #4 about this year:

As Jean-Michel Frodon just wrote on French Slate, "Let's not start immediately by talk of money. 2011 was a beautiful and good year for the cinema, that is to say for artistic creativity in this area. Without too much searching, I found 46 titles out in room this year and that, in my view, contribute to this success."

http://www.slate.fr/story/48065/2011-bonne-annee-mais-quelle-sante-pour-le-cinema

In other words, your Oscar "contenders" aren't necessarily the place to look for the best in cinema this year. Or any year. Some years more so, some years less. This is a more so year.

comment #16

Edward says ...

The problem I have with THE SOUND OF MUSIC and also CAMELOT is their switch in tone just doesn't work well for me. So light and happy at first. Some lovely and some silly songs and then they both abruptly turn dark and serious. Not that something can't be light and then turn bleak, like Bergman brilliantly does with FANNY AND ALEXANDER.

comment #17

dixiedugan66 says ...

That's just an awful awful poster even without DMD or SoM. Awful.

comment #18

Krillian says ...

Hey, look, Gaydos, you linked to an article where Road to Nowhere is one of the first examples cited! (I seriously want to see it.)

I'm waiting for the Academy poster that prominently features Crash and The Greatest Show on Earth.

comment #19

VicLaz2 says ...

All I know is if Gladiator is on TV, I have to stick around at least until the "my name is maximus..." Scene. It never gets old.

Traffic was the CRASH of 2000. A movie about the drug trade for country club white folks. Confirming all of their fears while making it seem enlightening. Drugs aren't a problem until poor little white girls get exploited by black thugs. Traffic covers all the things we figured out in 19fucking86.

And then we get films like CITY OF GOD, and shows like the WIRE showng us an inside view of street life with maturity, humor and verve and Traffic just seems outdated and irrelevant.

comment #20

Chumley says ...

Gaydos, please, please, please tell me why I'm a hipster or holier-than-thou for feeling that "Born On The Fourth" is worlds better than "Driving Miss Daisy". I really want to know.

You certainly got it right when you say that "..Miss Daisy" was a perfect PLAY.

comment #21

VicLaz2 says ...

Also, the best movie of 1989 was DO THE RIGHT THING. Which makes Driving Miss Daisy's win a bigger slap in the face.

comment #22

Rashad says ...

Best of '89 was Black Rain.

comment #23

LexG says ...

"Best of '89 was Black Rain."

YES. This. Also Douglas' greatest hair ever, and Ridley's best-looking and coolest movie, and one of the best villains in movie history (RIP Sato)... and Garcia's best performance... and Zimmer's best score... and the cheesiest theme song ever, courtesy Greg Allman.

comment #24

Rashad says ...

"The ladies of the '80s are looking at shoes."

Zimmer never better, and Capshaw never hotter. I also caught Luiz Guzman at the beginning at the motorcycle race watching it recently. They dubbed his voice.

comment #25

Movie Watcher says ...

The Abyss.

comment #26

reverent and free says ...

Why does Plummer always get singled out for disliking The Sound of Music? Andrews has said many times that the material is too sugary and she and Plummer and Wise worked to try and get it toughened up. She also admitted on a talk show once that she couldn't remember the names of the kids. Hell, she even starred in a spoof of SoM before she was cast as Maria.

comment #27

Markj74 says ...

What Movie Watcher said. One of my favourite cinema experiences ever. Ed Harris should have won Best Actor that year. Fucking awesome performance.