Wild West Avatar - "Dances with Wolves" (1990)

I had seen Dances with Wolves way back in the early-90’s, but it was Danielle’s first time. Almost 20 years has passed between viewings so I was looking forward to re-watching Kevin Costner’s opus.

We meet Civil War soldier Kevin Costner on a very bad day. His leg is set for amputation, so rather than live like that; Costner tries to commit suicide by charging the enemy lines. This rallies the troops and Costner becomes an unwitting hero, is awarded the horse and given his choice of posts.

Completely isolated at his new outpost, due to the suicide of his C.O. and the scalping of Kevin’s driver, he befriends a lone wolf and is gradually accepted to the local Sioux Indian tribe. He stops fellow outcast white person Mary McDonnell (the President from Battlestar Galactica) from committing suicide – seems like all the whites are suicidal in this movie – and of course they hook up.

Things are good for a while, but we all know it can’t last. Everything goes to hell for Kev as his two worlds can’t come into contact without one being destroyed. A word of warning to animal-lovers – the animal kingdom fares about as well as the people in Dances with Wolves, i.e. not great.

Special mention goes to use of Lakota Sioux language throughout the film. So much subtitling was very unusual back in 1990, and it really ads to the authenticity of the film.

Whilst being grand, beautifully shot and willing to take it’s time with the story, I do feel Dances with Wolves sells itself short by staying too simplistic in its portrayals: white people (except for Kevin & Mary) are generally horrible and native Americans (except for the early scalpers) are universally good. In trying to portray the horror of the extermination of the Native American people, shortcuts have been taken and at times I felt more manipulated than moved.

In addition to Best Picture, Dances with Wolves won many other Oscars including Best Director (Costner), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Score (seven for those keeping score). It had some tough competition that year against Awakenings, Ghost, Godfather Part III and Goodfellas. Whether I agree or not depends on the day, as they’re all good (well, maybe not Godfather III).

I scored Dances with Wolves 74.5/100 and Danielle scored it 74/100.

They call me MR Tibbs - "In the Heat of the Night" (1967)

Mat here. This was another one we enjoyed with my parents – we tend to cram in quite a few Oscar films when they visit...

Sidney Poitier is no stranger to films dealing with race-relations. Here he plays homicide detective Mr Virgil Tibbs, who gets dragged in by a bigoted small town police chief (Rod Steiger) as a suspect in a murder investigation just because he happens to be in the South, and black.

Poitier and Steiger have to put aside their mutual distaste and unravel the mystery surrounding the murder, and a grudging respect forms between the pair. No-one’s happy to have poor ol’ Sid in town, and violence, hate and lynch mobs follow him wherever he goes.

This movie is home to some of the most memorable moments in film history: the scene where the wealthy property owner slaps Mr Tibbs like he was slapping a slave; and Mr Tibbs slaps him right back – electric. And of course the oft-quoted ‘They call me MISTER Tibbs!’ as he stands up for the rights and respect afforded him in the other parts of America.

Watching the film today tends to leave your mouth open in shock, with the ‘n-word’ being casually tossed around and Sidney Poitier being referred to as ‘boy’. Uncomfortable viewing in parts, but they were blazing a trail and sometimes, that’s not pretty.

In the Heat of the Night also received awards for Best Actor (Rod Steiger), Editing, Sound and Adapted Screenplay. Somewhat telling that the times are slow to change, Sidney Poitier wasn’t even nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.

This is one of the most deserving Best Picture winners, not just for being an excellent and entertaining film, but for being so important in getting the struggles of the Civil Rights movement onto the big screen.

We gave In the Heat of the Night the following scores: Danielle 81 and Mat 90.

I'm a hustler - "Midnight Cowboy" (1969)

Mat here. We got together with friend of the blog Jason and settled in for the movie – we all knew of the film but had no idea what to expect from it.

Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, who’s set on escaping his small-town life by moving to New York and becoming a ‘hustler’ – male prostitute. Trouble is, he’s just to nice for this line of work and everyone he meets takes advantage of this poor hustler. Life in the Big Apple is one hard lesson after another for him.

Joe finds an unlikely companion, and occasional pimp, in Dustin Hoffman. The review could also be titled 'Hey, I'm WALKIN' here!' as this is the film where Dustin Hoffman, as the delightfully grotesque Ratso Rizzo utters the immortal New Yorker phrase. According to IMdB, this was an ad-lib from Hoffman as they were filming on a closed street and one cab got sick of waiting, accelerated across the intersection and almost wiped out the two stars. Hoffman doesn’t break character and slaps the cab in anger as well.

Joe and Rizzo stumble from one mediocre sexcapade to another, barely getting enough to live on and calling a condemed building home. New York’s winter threatens the pair and they set thier sights on the golden glow of Florida. Unfortunately the more they reach for a shortcut to the good life, the further away it gets.

The partnership between the two leads is the core of the film, and despite the griminess it is a surprisingly touching and affecting relationship.

The film also puts the excellent song ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson to good use, softening the harsh moments and making the light ones more poignant.

In addition to Best Picture, it always won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Although it seems fairly tame by today’s standards this film was rated ‘X’ back in the day (due to it’s “homosexual frame of reference”) and remains the only X-rated film to win Best Picture.

This movie has a lot of scruffy charm and real heart. A deserving winner.

Danielle gave this 81/100, I gave it 88.5/100 and Jason awarded it 81/100.

Rats in the Ranks - "The Departed" (2006)

Mat here.

We saw The Departed right before we started doing our Oscar blog, so it was no big problem to watch this one again with a scoresheet handy. We rewatched this one with my parents, but it was their first time.

I'll try to stay spoiler-free for the folks who have yet to catch The Departed.

Set in Boston, state trooper Matt Damon is secretly working for Irish mob boss Jack Nicholson, feeding him info about raids and being his inside man. Meanwhile, Leonardo di Caprio is also a cop and is recruited by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg to work as an undercover  cop and infiltrate Nicholson's team.

The double dealing and cat-and-mouse (or rat, in the case of this movie) situations create some knife-edge suspense and some gut-wrenching twists and turns. There's a love triangle as well, which is probably the only weak spot in the movie as it strains believability just a bit more than it needs to be.

The entire all-star cast is at the top of their game, and I could watch this movie over and over. The Departed is a remake of the Hong Kong series of films Infernal Affairs, condensed and repurposed to Boston.

Director Martin Scorsese was reportedly unhappy with the final film, but I couldn't disagree more - I think it's amongst his finest work. He won Best Director, and the Departed also picked up Best Adapted Screenplay and best Editing. Mark Wahlberg was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, playing a cop that he says is based on all the officers he met as a young car thief.

The Departed is an excellent movie and stands up well to repeated viewing. It was fun watching Mum & Dad gasp and cringe when we knew what was coming!

Danielle and I were tied on 87/100 while mum and dad, ever harsher gave it 82 and 85 respectively.

Sharp as ever! - "The Sting" (1973)

Mat here.

My parents and I watch a lot of Oscar winners when they're in town – and both of them are big Robert Redford & Paul Newman fans, so we watched The Sting (1973).

The Sting is a film set in the 1930's about a couple of lovable con artists (Redford & Newman) trying to grift a mob boss (Robert Shaw) for a big payday. Like any good caper movie, there's double dealings and twists, but the viewer is well-informed about the complicated set-ups and can enjoy the ride.

This a very enjoyable Best Picture winner. In a field crowded with dour war movies and serious biopics, The Sting always entertains. The pacing is excellent, broken up into discrete acts with Evening Post-style title cards, and the writing sparkles.

Bizarrely, the script was found in a slush pile (a pile of unsolicited screenplays). The man who discovered the script wrote to his boss saying the script was "the great American screenplay" and "... will make an award-winning, major-cast, major-director film."

The Academy Award-winning music by Marvin Hamlisch needs a mention, with Scott Joplin's piano piece 'The Entertainer' providing a theme that's both memorable and really embodies the upbeat cheeky feel of the film.

The Sting also won Oscars for Directing, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, and Editing.

In a shocking display of favouritism, this was the movie to score over 100%, with Lyn awarding the acting 10/10... twice! A perfect ten for BOTH Redford and Newman.

The final scores for The Sting were: Danielle and Mat gave it 88, Michael gave it 91 and Lyn (who really can't be claimed to be objective about this) gave it 110!!

And now we're back!

Just in time for this year's Oscars we've finally got around to the review of the Nominated Best Pics from last year! We'll be back to one a week from here on out (fingers crossed) - at least until I start the PhD next year!

So as a blast from the past, here are Mat's reviews from our movie marathon weekend in February last year!

The King's Speech (2010)

 The Best Picture winner is a heart-warming story of King George V trying to overcome his terrible stutter and his rocky rise to the throne. The writing and cast make this a pleasure to watch, but at times it is cruelly painful as well with Colin Firth struggling and gasping to even get a single word out. He really works for that Best Actor trophy, a powerhouse performance.

Helena-Bonham Carter is excellent and understated as the Queen (quite a departure from Bellatrix Lestrange), and so is Geoffrey Rush as the Aussie vocal coach.

The King's Speech is one of those movies that you can't really say a bad word against – it does everything wonderfully well. You laugh and cry and feel great at the end. The predictability is probably the only flaw – you know exactly what you're going to get, and you get it.

It was probably this lack of surprise that saw The King's Speech with (comparatively) lower numbers than other great films. Lyn, Mike and I all scored it 86 while Danielle gave it 93.

* * *

Inception (2010)

Danielle and I had seen Inception at the movies, but Mum and Dad hadn't so we added this Best Picture-nominee to the feast.

Inception is Christopher Nolan's dreamscape heist epic. Leonardo Di Caprio heads a very talented cast through layers of dreams within dreams. Called the thinking man's action movie, there are car chases, gun fights and enough slo-mo explosions to keep any action junkie happy, but it is more about philosophy and the nature of reality than violence. Like Black Swan, Inception forces you to think and question what you see, and analyse how it's coloured by who's telling the story.
Inception's winding plot is notoriously tricky to follow, so here's an infographic (spoiler alert) to help keeping track of the different levels.
http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news/19643/_1280109452.jpg

This role didn't ask as much of Leo as some of his previous roles (like The Departed or Shutter Island, which could be seen as a companion piece to Inception), and a frown is etched on his face throughout.

Despite missing out on Best Picture, Inception collected numerous Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Visual Effects and Sound Editing.

Christopher Nolan can only seem to make excellent films, and like it's spiritual predecessor The Matrix, Inception will be informing action movies for at least the next decade.

Inception scored thusly: Lyn 69, Michael 72, Mat 90 and Danielle 86.

* * *

Toy Story 3 (2010)

We put up a review of Toy Story 3 back when we first saw it, but despite it's obvious quality we were surprised that it recieved a Best Picture nomination. The last time an animated film was nominated was 'Beauty & the Beast' way back in 1991.
Mum and Dad enjoyed their visit to Woody and Buzz's grown up toy land.

Mum was a little reluctant to award any marks for acting, given that there were no flesh-and-actors on screen, but I made an impassioned plea about the quality of the performances the animators and voice actors brought to these little 3D models.

I'm a self-confessed Pixar zealot, so I was always going to score this well, but it's good to see Danielle's score matching mine. Perhaps I'm not as biased as I thought.

The scores for Toy Story 3 were: Lyn 72, Mike 84, Mat & Danielle 93.

Looking at both the scores we awarded to the four Best Picture nominees and the discussion afterwards, Black Swan was clearly our pick for Best Picture. We all commented that The King's Speech was a worthy winner, though, as it is an excellent film. It was a pity that so many great movies were all competing against each other. It was great fun comparing the nominees, and it made watching the Oscars much more interesting because we'd seen most of the films that were nominated for the big awards.

I think we'll try and do this again next year! (as it turns out - that will be next month or so)!

We're coming back!!!

I finished my thesis today and funnily enough one of the first things I want to do (aside from sleep for about a year) is get back into this blog!! So there will be a catch up of some of the best thesis-writing movies to watch ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days", "Anne of Green Gables", "Two Weeks Notice" to name a few) before Mat and I get back to our Friday night Oscar winners and reviews. Watch this space....