10 Times Oscar Got It Right
“That his (Steve James, director of The Interrupters) work was again being ignored for the most prestigious award in film didn’t just generate indignation. It also produced a strange kind of satisfaction: The Oscars never get it right. They do, of course, get it right. Sometimes.”
- John Anderson, The New York Times
The Oscars, as we all know and all lament again and again during these awards seasons, get it wrong far, far more often than not. Our own Kevyn Knox did a splendid job of breaking down just the tip of the infinite iceberg in that regard a few weeks ago. But as Mr. Anderson points it out, the oft-maligned Academy does sometimes get it right. But when? And with whom? Well, I’m here today to point a total of 10 times they managed that apparently difficult feat.
To be clear, this list’s intent is not merely to cite winners who were “deserving” but to cite winners from categories in years with either stacked competition in which the correct recipient was still chosen or years in which the Academy miraculously deviated from normal patterns to select a proper winner. Wish me luck!
10. Nestor Almendros, Best Cinematography for Days of Heaven, 1978
Despite The Deer Hunter winning for Picture, Director, Editing, Sound and Supporting Actor, the rich, phenomenal photography that essentially made Terrence Malick’s mostly-outdoor Days of Heaven what it was rightfully got this one prize. Though it should be noted that while Almendros alone earned the Oscar, he actually had to leave the production early specifically because the production ran late and Haskell Wexler took over the same duties. There has been much consternation since about just how much of the film’s photography belongs to each man.
9. Rod Steiger, Best Actor for In The Heat Of The Night, 1967
In a positively loaded field that included Dustin Hoffmann for The Graduate, Warren Beatty for Bonnie and Clyde, Paul Newman for Cool Hand Luke, Steiger also had to contend with Spencer Tracy who had passed away immediately after filming of Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? Instead the Academy chose Steiger for his immense Method work that to my eyes, when I finally watched it years after its release in a more colorblind age, was what raised a solid thriller to much greater heights.
8. Casablanca, Best Picture, 1943
I confess I have only seen two of the other seven films nominated opposite this grand old war horse (For Whom The Bell Tolls and Watch On The Rhine) but when you consider Humphrey Bogart didn’t win Best Actor, Claude Rains didn’t win Best Supporting Actor, Ingrid Bergman was nominated instead for For Whom The Bell Tolls, and, as stated, it had nine other competitors rather than four, it still seems, well, slightly amazing the Academy hit this one right on the head.
7. Steven Soderbergh, Best Director for Traffic, 2000
Competing against Ridley Scott for Gladiator (meh) and Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (fine work), Soderbergh most astonishingly was also competing against himself, for the lesser, inferior Erin Brockovich which got attention – sorry – simply because it was deemed megawatt star Julia Roberts’ “time” to take home a statue. But the Academy somehow, improbably, did not split the vote and deservedly rewarded the man who handled a multi-layered story outfitted with changing characters, locations, cultures, and color schemes all while also handling the photography of the film himself.
6. Ingrid Bergman, Best Actress for Gaslight, 1944
Squaring off against badass Bette Davis for Mr. Skeffington, Claudette Colbert, in what prove to be her final nomination (she never won) for Since You Went Away, and, most especially, the wheeling, dealing, scheming Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, it was, nevertheless, her majesty Ingrid hauling in her first Oscar for her spooky, psychologically shattered work as a gone-mad wife. Bravo, I say.
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28 Comments
i wouldn’t agree with marisa tomei, but i do like most these choices.
In regards to Marisa, I got to the end of this and just felt like I needed to throw on at least one completely personal entry. And I have gone on record many times as saying I will always have Marisa’s back in any Oscar back alley brawls.
Great list. I’m actually one of the few who’ll agree with you on Tomei. Few folks realize how difficult it is to pull off great comedic performances. And seeing as comedy so rarely gets respected at the Oscars, I always think it’s great when it gets rewarded.
Amen. Great comedic work deserves so much more Oscar love. Unless, of course, comedic work (read: Melissa McCarthy) bumps out your favorite performance of the year (read: Shailene Woodley). Then I despise comedy.
Ingrid Bergman has no place in this list, as much as I love her, because Barbara Stanwyck deserved it that year. Bergman probably only got that Oscar for Gaslight because of the Academy’s enduring crush for her after Casablanca. Besides, she had better days ahead of her. I would have rather had her win for her work in Autumn Sonata.
Also, people who complain about Star Wars losing over Annie Hall are nerds.
Not a Gaslight fan, eh? Really I can’t begrudge anyone for saying Stanwyck deserved it more, but personally there are other noir female performances I value a lot more.
Like, say, Jane Greer getting snubbed for Out of the Past in ’47. Now that was….
….wait, she wasn’t nominated. Never mind! This isn’t supposed to be that kind of list!
There was like one good scene in Gaslight, and the actors I like in that movie are are Joe Cotten and Angela Lansbury, both of whom are faultless even in melodrama.
47 was a goatfuck of a year. Not nominating Deborah Kerr for Black Narcissus? Shenanigans.
Black Narcissus! I have GOT to see this Black Narcissus! You’re another one of several people I’ve heard mention it in glowing terms in the last few weeks. To the Netflix queue!
Yes you do HAVE to see Black Narcissus!! I think that is a good recommendation for anyone.
I think Marisa Tomei totally deserved that Oscar. She was great in that movie. Stealing it from everyone in that movie. Plus, it proved to be a good thing for her though her post-Oscar career didn’t get off to a great start.
Yeah, you have to think the backlash from that Oscar win did kind of work against her for a little while. Either way, she’s proven ten times over she’s got the chops.
I haven’t seen a lot of these but the cinematography for Days of Heaven definitely deserves to be recognized. It’s one of the most beautiful films even amongst Malick’s work.
As beautiful as Tree of Life is, well, personally I’d still take the landscapes of Days of Heaven if I only had one choice. (Although, perhaps strangely, I think Tree of Life is a better overall movie.)
Great article. I pretty much agree with everything here. I love that Days of Heaven won Best Cinematography (probably one of the best films in that category of all time) – and here is hoping that another Malick film, The Tree of Life, wins it this time around as well (which I think it will.
I do love All About Eve, but nowhere does it come close to Sunset Blvd. in my estimation. But it is my second favourite American film of that year so what am I complaining about.
And as for Marisa…..you won’t get a fight out of me. The actress is much better than many give her credit for. So there.
Thank you, sir! Another Eve man. Happy to hear it!
And thanx for the plug in your intro.
Of course! No problem. Can’t have one list without the other.
I have such a problem with Gaslight, but more with the terrible premise, rather than Bergman’s performance.
The premise is a bit outlandish, this I can’t deny. I don’t know, maybe I just drank too much of the Ingrid Kool Aid.
Great list. I hadn’t seen that comment from Ebert about Star Wars and Annie Hall, but I think I disagree with him that it is unthinkable today. Don’t get me wrong, I L.O.V.E. Star Wars, but it totally feels like the type of movie that the Academy simply doesn’t go for, and I’m never really surprised to see it not listed in the winners circle.
Ebert wrote that in 2002. And I think since then – as evidenced by, say, Hurt Locker beating Avatar – that things have changed.
Shows they can get it right sometimes… doesn’t make up for the shocking NOMS this year.
It’s why whenever one of your personal favorites actually does win, you have to make sure to appreciate it for all its worth because it won’t happen often.
I don’t see Crash, I must take it this was a simple omission.
Absolutely. My bad and my apologies. Allow me to amend a few notable mistakes.
1.) Crash, Best Picture.
2.) Roberto Benigni, Best Actor for Life is Beautiful.
3.) Madonna, Best Actress for Evita. (I’m pretty sure she won Best Actress for that. Right? Or is that just what her Facebook page claims?)
I found myself nodding in agreement with a lot of the choices! But also another blog post to remind me of some of the Oscar winning films I still have to see!
Oh yeah. A lot of good stuff on this list. A lot.
Whether people like the actual movies overall, Malick makes the most visually stunning films. I could have cared less what was going on in Tree of Life (or any of is films), because it was just gorgeous to stare at.
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