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All the King's Men (1949) (2nd time)

The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal. [imdb]

Nominated for 7 Oscars:

Best Picture (WINNER)
Best Director: Robert Rossen
Best Actor: Broderick Crawford (WINNER)
Best Supporting Actor: John Ireland
Best Supporting Actress: Mercedes McCambridge (WINNER)
Best Writing, Screenplay
Best Editing

I would've probably not have seen this again, had it not been for my desire to catch up (again) with all Best Picture winners and write about them here. It's been a very VERY slow project, but it's rewarding in its own way. For example, I discovered that All the King's Men is not as ok as I remembered it to be: it's actually messy and inconsistent in many ways.

The highlights are the 2 Oscar winning performances, especially Crawford's - he's very energetic and convincing in the role, a scene stealer and way above his acting company. Mercedes is also fine, though seeing all nominees from her category, I might say one of the ladies from Pinky would've made for a worthier winner.

The lowest points in this film come from the screenplay which has no focus on dialogue or character motivations and, of course, the acting of some of the cast members. John Ireland is actually a co-lead and he was nominated for an Oscar here, but it's gotta be one of the WORST acting nominees I had ever seen. He brings nothing to the character, nor to the film, he just floats around with no ability for emotion. Also, the actress playing Anne Stanton: awful.

My rating for the film: 6/10. The beginning is much much better than the second half; and someone should've taken the Costume Designer aside: I've never seen such poorly fitted clothes in a film.

Special Best Picture Ranking

Once every film decade, I update this list. I hope it will go a bit faster from now on. :) In bold, the Best Picture winners of the 40s. Some predictable love (Casablanca), some very low-ranked shockers (Best Years... , Hamlet). To get to them, look for the film's name on the Tag list on the right.

There we go:

1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
2. Casablanca (1943*)
3. Rebecca (1940)
4. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
5. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
6. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
7. Wings (1927-1928)
8. Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
9. It Happened One Night (1934)
10. You Can't Take It With You (1938)
11. The Lost Weekend (1945)
12. Grand Hotel (1932)
13. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
14. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
15. All the King's Men (1949)
16. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
17. Going My Way (1944)
18. Hamlet (1948)
19. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
20. The Broadway Melody (1929)
21. Cimarron (1931)
22. Cavalcade (1933)


Is there anyone who doesn't think Casablanca is the best of the 40s winners?!

Now that the Oscar nominations have been announced, I'll start posting about each of the nominated 2010 films that I have previously seen, mentioning the date when I saw the movie (actual date or approximation). I'll watch again some of them: the Best Actress ones, Inception, but most of them are either still fresh in my mind or here's a simple argument: why would I wanna see Wolfman again?! :)

Between October last year and present time I've seen most of the movies newly nominated for Oscars. Unfortunately, I did not save the date when I saw them... Some I'll watch again (definitely the ones in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress), many I won't.

So I'll do a bit of a recap, even see them again in the cases where I don't fully remember the movie experience.

It's the right thing to do. When I'll get to movies from the past, now Oscar nominated, I'll just post !!! and the month I saw it in. It will help me keep track. If there's no warning, then it means I had just seen the movie and it's not a recap. :)

Gone with the Wind (1939) (5th time?)

The biggest epic movie & love story of all times, a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

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Nominated for 13 Oscars (+2 extra technical awards):

Best Picture (WINNER)
Best Director: Victor Fleming (WINNER)
Best Actor: Clark Gable
Best Actress: Vivien Leigh (WINNER)
Best Supporting Actress: Olivia De Havilland
Best Supporting Actress: Hattie McDaniel (WINNER)
Best Writing, Screenplay (WINNER)
Best Music, Original Score
Best Cinematography, Color (WINNER)
Best Editing (WINNER)
Best Art Direction (WINNER)
Best Sound
Best Special Effects

Christmas Day proved to be the perfect opportunity to revisit THE classic; seen it all at once today, the whole 4 hours... It was the most pleasant marathon :) What can you say about your favorite movie? Not much... It's so good and I have the most respect for it. I'm also aware it's a very subjective choice because it's always the most pleasant sit-through. I am not gonna search for flaws.

The direction, screenplay, technical part and especially Vivien Leigh's historical performance: all there. You need to see one of the many making of documentaries to realize how perfect Vivien's casting was. Truly one of the best female performances ever, and the juiciest role an actress could get. It's a character that had a big influence on my emotional development over the years (it's true, and I'm actually not saying it was a good influence) so I feel deeply connected to it.

In case you were wondering why no costume nomination, it's because the category didn't exist back then; cause GWTW offers some of the best costume design seen on film... those Scarlett dresses: movie magic... There no point in me talking more about it, praising it. Those who've seen it and like it, know what I mean, the charm that takes you over; it's like a secret whose full elements I'm keeping for myself.

My rating for the film: 10/10. Obviously; and it stays there as a solid no. 1 for me. This really is the biggest epic movie and also the 12th Best Picture winner. That's why it's time to recap all the Best Picture winners so far in a ranking:

Special Best Picture Ranking

You might know of my slow attempt to see (or see again) all Best Picture winners. And because now I'm done with the 20s and 30s, it's time to rank the first 12 winners before moving on:

from Best to Worst, here they are:

1. Gone with the Wind (1939)

2. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

4. It Happened One Night (1934)

5. Wings (1927-28)

6. You Can't Take It with You (1938)

7. Grand Hotel (1932)

8. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

9. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

10. The Broadway Melody (1929)

11. Cimarron (1931)

12. Cavalcade (1933)

Comments:

The movies ranked from 9 to 12 are totally useless winners, a shame in Oscar's history. The winner was very easy for me, because of obvious reasons. But the next 4 movies were very hard to rank, each with scenes/elements making them unique and special: either the class acting from Mutiny, the dramatic touch of Western Front, the comedic easiness of Happened One Night or the surprisingly stunning visual of Wings. You can find my comments on these movies just by going down the page or to the labels on the right.

I will slowly drag myself through the 40s in the next months :)

The Sound of Music (1965) (3rd time)

A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the 7 children of a Naval officer widower. [imdb]

Nominated for 10 Oscars:

Best Picture (WINNER)

Best Director: Robert Wise (WINNER)

Best Actress: Julie Andrews

Best Supporting Actress: Peggy Wood

Best Cinematogaphy, Color

Best Adapted Music (WINNER)

Best Art Direction, Color

Best Costume Design, Color

Best Sound (WINNER)

Best Editing (WINNER)

It really is one of the best known / most seen musicals of all times. In a way, that's highly justified: the songs are wonderful, catchy and memorable. It's also considered a family movie: the songs & the funny childish stuff for the kids and the love story & Nazi plotline for the parents. It's a feel good movie and one of the last Hollywood musical hits.

And what's interesting about it is that its fame has nothing to do with it winning the Oscar for Best Picture. Did it deserve it? Not really, but being such a feel good and (some might say) complete movie, the decision seems rather justified. Julie Andrews is superb, as always (but I'll write about her this week on the other blog). The children can be a bit annoying, but ignorable and Christopher Plummer was better than expected. Seeing it through my adult eyes, I find it less fun than when I was a kid, but still very enjoyable and great light entertaining. The direction is just fine and the technical part very good.

My rating for the film: 8/10. The songs are a dealbreaker here. If you have them on your computer and listen to them very often, than you'll understand my rating. If not, you'd probably be less generous.

SPECIAL RANKING

BEST PICTURE 1965 & BEST DIRECTOR 1965

Now that I've seen all the 1965 nominated films for Best Picture and Best Director, I'm gonna rank the nominees from Most Deserving to Least. [If you'll scroll down to the other posts, you'll find the profile of each of these films.]

BEST PICTURE

1. Darling

2. The Sound of Music

3. Doctor Zhivago

4. Ship of Fools

5. A Thousand Clowns

3 months ago I would've had Zhivago as #1. In my opinion, A Patch of Blue would've deserved the nomination and the win. But that's just me. None of them are excellent, but the first 4 are quite good movies, from various reasons and with different flaws.

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Hiroshi Teshigahara - Woman in the Dunes

2. John Schlesinger - Darling

3. David Lean - Doctor Zhivago

4. Robert Wise - The Sound of Music

5. William Wyler - The Collector

Tough call, with the first 2 being a head above the rest, but still very different directions to compare. 3 months ago I would've went for Lean. But all 5 are good, solid directions; so it's a great line-up. Actually, I would say the directions are better than the actual films.