Please welcome director, casting agent, and film buff Destiny Lilly, who will be taking us through the Best Picture Expansion Project for 1965.
If you’re just joining us, The Best Picture Expansion Project imagines that new Academy rule, which nominates ten films for the Best Picture Oscar instead of five, was in effect from 1943 to 2008. To visit the rest of the Project, just go here.
And now… take it away Destiny!
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Thanks to Mark for inviting me to contribute to The Critical Condition and the Best Picture Expansion Project.
So here we are in 1965: The year that saw escalating tensions in Vietnam, the assassination of Malcolm X, and the destruction and despair of the Watts Riots. Meanwhile, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Righteous Brothers ruled the charts, and these films were released.
Actual Nominees:
Dr. Zhivago
Ship of Fools
A Thousand Clowns
Darling
The Sound of Music (winner)
In Retrospect: What could be more uplifting than songs, dances, glorious Technicolor, and triumph over the Nazis? The Sound of Music has endured as a perennial network television favorite, and it holds a special place in the hearts of millions (I knew all the songs before I even saw the film). What would childhood be without the Von Trapp’s harrowing story?
But Best Picture? Really? Seriously? I don’t see it.
Dr. Zhivago:Â David Lean’s follow up to The Greatest Film Ever Made—which is Lawrence of Arabia, for those who were wondering–-is a sumptuous visual epic with dazzling locations and impressive performances from the likes of Tom Courtenay and Geraldine Chaplin. Ship of Fools, an international ensemble piece featuring four Oscar winners (Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, and Lee Marvin), is the tale of expatriates drifting aimlessly in the wake of Hitler’s rise to power. It can be heavy handed, but Oskar Werner’s turn as the tortured ship’s doctor makes it a worthy contender. A Thousand Clowns is anchored by strong performances from Jason Robards and Martin Balsam (who won Best Supporting Actor), but to me, it doesn’t hold up. Visually, it’s stagey and boring, and the film’s mixed messages about non-conformity seem dated for 1965. They are cringe-inducing now.
Then there’s Darling. Julie Christie’s performance alone makes this one my choice of the five nominees for 1965, and although some might think it’s dated, I’d say John Schlesinger’s exploration of morality, sexuality, and fame remains relevant.
The Expansion Pack:
6. The Pawnbroker: Shot in striking black and white, The Pawnbroker chronicles the unraveling of Sol Nazerman, a Jewish pawnshop owner in Harlem who is haunted by memories of his family’s demise in the Holocaust. Rod Steiger’s mesmerizing performance as the cold and embittered Sol is enough to qualify this movie for contention. Add Sidney Lumet’s direction and Geraldine Fitzgerald’s greatest film performance, and you’ve got a masterpiece.
7. Cat Ballou is a rip-roaring Western comedy with Jane Fonda and an Oscar-winning performance from Lee Marvin (playing dual roles). It’s got inventive storytelling, romance, a hanging, Nat “King” Cole and Stubby Kaye, and some still-sizzling humor. If I ever catch this one on TV, I have to watch it through to the end. It’s a Western comedy classic on the level of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
8. The Ipcress File features Michael Caine in his first and greatest turn as Harry Palmer. A trippy brainwashing scene, sexy double agents, enigmatic codes, and Cold War-era paranoia make it a classic. What the hell is Ipcress? Watch the film to find out… sort of.
9. In Harm’s Way is disturbing. That’s probably why I love it. Set on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film begins with a very graphic (for 1965) depiction of civilian and military casualties during the December 7th attack. Throw in an unsettling rape scene, a kamikaze-style suicide, and a handful of great battles, and you’ve got an unglamorous and propaganda-free look at the armed forces at the onset of American involvement in WWII. In Harm’s Way also features another rarity—a subtle, honest performance from John Wayne.
10. The Collector is also disturbing (do you sense a theme in the kind of movies I like?). Terence Stamp plays a butterfly collector who decides to diversify his portfolio by kidnapping a college student played by Samantha Eggar, which results in a gripping cat-and-mouse tale. The film delves into the psychology of the predator and prey, and as the kidnapped woman grows closer to her captor, the film gives you that queasy feeling of overwhelming dread. Eggar was nominated for her performance, and I think the film deserved a nod as well.
The Snubs
What would I leave on the cutting room floor? Bunny Lake is Missing and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold just missed my list, as did a couple of foreign films, Alphaville and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The latter was eligible for Best Foreign Film in 1964, but eligible in the main categories in 1965 (those kooky Oscar rules).
So what do you think? Did I overlook anything? And I’d love to hear from any staunch defenders of The Sound of Music.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Ryan // Jul 14, 2009 at 11:58 am
Ironically, in the beginning of The Sound of Music there is a title sequence that plays with the Overture and one of the titles reads “In the last Golden Days of Austria” or something like that…it’s befitting for a movie that talks about the quiet moments before things escalated into violence to win best picture in 1968- as you mentioned.
Other good movies: THE PAWNBROKER (Sidney Lumet AWESOME), and A PATCH OF BLUE (yeahh Shelley Winters)…gotta love Sidney Poitier doing only race-relations films.
Other years of interest: 1954, 1968, 1983, 1987— in my opinion.
2 Ryan // Jul 14, 2009 at 11:59 am
and by 1968 I mean 65.
3 Maureen // Jul 14, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I can understand how the Academy passed over Beach Blanket Bingo and That Darn Cat, but the Cincinnati Kid deserved a nod. The Pawnbroker was insanely good.
4 ferretrick // Jul 14, 2009 at 1:44 pm
All right, I’ll step up and defend Sound of Music. The very reasons you give for Doctor Zhivago deserving the honor-sumptuous visual epic, dazzling locations, impressive performances-apply just as well to Sound of Music. It has the whole opening sequence with all that gorgeous mountain scenery, the Salzburg architecture, THAT HOUSE, even the costumes are first rate. It also has one of the most iconic shots in all cinema-Julie Andrews spinning on that mountain top. There’s hardly a moment in it that’s not a feast for the eyes.
Impressive performances-well, ok, if you want me to defend the child actors, not so much…but Julie Andrews does arguably her best work (its hard to choose betwen SoM and Mary Poppins) with a role that would have been unbearably cloying in a lesser actress hands. Christopher Plumber manages to make something of a dud part. And then there’s Peggy Wood as the Mother Superior.
Sure, there are criticisms to be made. The story is corny as hell and the depiction of the family is about as realistic as the Brady Bunch (not to mention has all the historical accuracy of Disney’s Pocahontas). But its a musical in the old fashioned mold-and its a triumph of that art form.
5 Destiny // Jul 14, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for the responses!
Ryan- I did consider A Patch of Blue, but it didn’t make the cut. It’s nice to see other people have seen The Pawnbroker, that one was an easy choice for me.
Ferretrick- I totally respect your position on The Sound of Music, I just think that the Best Picture Oscar should have gone to Darling in 1965 because to me the performances, the story, and the direction make it a better film. You are right to point out the impressive use of locations in The Sound of Music (even though I think Dr. Zhivago uses locations in a much more evocative way), but my issue with The Sound of Music winning Best Picture 1965 is that it is so corny and wholesome while films like In Harm’s Way and Ship of Fools depict the same era in a grittier and more sophisticated way.
6 Michael // Jul 14, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I was the slave of The Sound of Music as a child; Could anything demonstrate the conflicts of the national consciousness than a list with the Sound of Music and Darling? Let me acknowledge that as a child I was the abject groveling slave of Teh Sound of Music; I’ve left it behind, but still know the pull of the recovered addict. But A Patch of Blue! That indelible performance by Elizabeth Hartman (redeeming a too-senti-sensational script with stubbornly realistic acting)! Poitier! The apt score and black-and-white photography and . . . even as a period piece, it’s something special.
7 Doug // Jul 15, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Great choices, Destiny! The Pawnbroker is outstanding. I love Darling — and Julie Christie had one of the best breakout years on record — but there’s also a big place in my heart for Samantha Eggar in The Collector. More people should remember that performance.
8 katy // Jul 15, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I have such an intense emotional devotion to Sound of Music that I just can’t be objective on this issue. It’s one of only a handful of movies I literally have memorized from start to finish. Plus it taught my four-year old the vocabulary word “Nazi.”
I also love Dr. Zhivago and have seen it many times, although it’s a little more of an ordeal to watch it again and again. But hearing the theme song — heck, even humming it to myself now –makes me get a bit weepy. And I adore the moment at the end, when the girl slings the balalaika over her shoulder as she’s walking past the Soviet dam … oh my. Gets me every time.
I’ve always been a sucker for epic historical pictures, though …
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