Please welcome back Destiny Lilly for another round of the Best Picture Expansion Project, where we imagine that the new Oscar rule of nominating ten films for Best Picture applied from 1943 to 2008.
This time, Destiny’s rocking it with 1962… a year that she claims brought us the best movie ever made. Do you agree?
Take it, Destiny…
(to visit the rest of the Project, please go here)
Thanks, Mark, for inviting me back for another year of The Best Picture Expansion Project. This time it’s 1962, and as you might have noticed from my previous entry on 1965, it is my humble opinion that Lawrence of Arabia is The Greatest Film Ever Made. Obviously, I think the Academy got it right this time.
(Here’s a list of all the films released in 1962.)
Actual Best Picture Nominees
Lawrence of Arabia (winner)
The Longest Day
Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man
To Kill a Mockingbird
Mutiny on the Bounty
In Retrospect: Each nominee is deserving in its own way, except for Mutiny on the Bounty, which breaks my first commandment of film: Thou shalt not remake any movie that has won the Oscar for Best Picture. Sure, the 1962 version is okay, but give me the 1935 original any day. The 1962 version is more memorable for Marlon Brando’s strange behavior and increasing size during the difficult filming than for any particular achievement.
As a bona fide musical theatre lover, I grew up watching The Music Man, and like Marian the Librarian, I fell for Robert Preston and his beguiling performance as a conman with a heart of gold. I think the film as a whole is still enjoyable, but it’s not at the level of some of the other nominees.
The Longest Day is one of my favorite war epics, with a fantastic ensemble cast including Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, and Robert Mitchum among many, many others. It’s a three-hour look at the Normandy landing from the perspective of American, British, and German soldiers, as well as French civilians. In pretty much any other year, The Longest Day or maybe To Kill a Mockingbird (one of the best page-to-screen adaptations ever) would have won the Best Picture Oscar, but in 1962 they were no match for David Lean’s masterpiece.
If you asked me, I could write a book about what makes Lawrence of Arabia The Greatest Film Ever Made, but for now, I will simply say that it was the first film to truly realize the full potential of the medium, and it continues to be a landmark of exquisite filmmaking.
The Expansion Pack:
6. Ride the High Country is a Western that features Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott as aging lawmen who, after years of friendship, find themselves on opposite sides of the law. It’s a Western with film noir influences that explores the themes of honor, greed, and isolation. Sam Peckinpah’s direction shows the promise that would later be fulfilled in The Wild Bunch, but it’s the gritty storytelling and simple humanity of McCrea and Scott that make Ride the High Country a classic.
7. Advise & Consent is a behind-the-scenes look at the backroom Washington deals surrounding a controversial cabinet nomination. With deft direction from Otto Preminger (it’s a shame he never won a directing Oscar), this adaptation of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is as relevant today as when it premiered. The ensemble cast features Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Fredric March, and Don Murray as Brig Anderson, a married Mormon senator struggling with his sexuality. When another senator learns of Senator Anderson’s previous relationship with a man, Anderson faces the choice of being blackmailed or being outed. Although some dislike its ending, I think Advise & Consent reminds us of how far we have and have not come when it comes to gay rights and the depiction of gays in film.
8. Sweet Bird of Youth For some reason, when people talk about Tennessee Williams film adaptations, this one always gets ignored. It might be that the film’s relatively happy ending bears no resemblance to the play’s brutal finale, but in spite of that, it deserves a nod. Sweet Bird is peppered with brilliant performances from Geraldine Page, Ed Begley (who won the supporting Oscar), Shirley Knight, and Paul Newman (who oddly wasn’t even nominated). It also touches on complicated issues of sexuality, abortion, venereal disease, drug use, and fading beauty. It is my favorite Tennessee Williams play, and the film adaptation is superb. If I didn’t know the play had a superior ending, I might even think the film was perfect.
9. Divorce, Italian Style is a fantastic satire featuring Marcello Mastroianni at his best. In a nutshell, divorce is illegal, so in order to be with his mistress, Mastroianni’s character tries to get his wife to cheat on him, so he can be justified in killing her. Italian hilarity ensues. This film deservedly won Best Original Screenplay, and it deserved a Best Picture nod as well.
10. The Manchurian Candidate If you have only seen the crime against nature that is the 2004 remake of this film, run-don’t-walk to Blockbuster/ Netflix for the original. Part thriller, part psychodrama, part love story, and part war movie, this exploration of brainwashing, heroism, and political greed features Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra, and the under-appreciated Laurence Harvey. All of them give the performance of a career. (It’s impossible to overstate Angie Lansy’s awesomeness in this movie. — Mark)
Snubs
Close but no cigar for Lolita, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and How the West Was Won (I really do love Westerns).
So… is there something I’ve missed? I’d love to hear your thoughts on 1962.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Maureen // Jul 22, 2009 at 2:55 am
Pressure Point with Bobby Darin and Sidney Poitier. This one will stay with you, that’s for sure. Poitier plays chief psychiatrist in a prison and Darin is a neo-Nazi patient. Filmed in black and white, this film is disturbing at a visceral level. Darin is really frightening as this sociopath. I saw this in the theater in my youth and never forgot it. I rented the DVD last year and discovered that it still packs a hell of a psychic punch. You really should see this movie.
2 Michael // Jul 22, 2009 at 3:39 am
Damn, Destiny–what do I do when I agree with every item? (smile) But you could spend more time on the distinctive, intelligent To Kill a Mockingbird.
Gotta wonder what was happening with gay issues in Hollywood leading up to 1962: Lawrence of Arabia struggled with dealing with its protagonist’s sexuality (only hinted at); Ride the High Country is often read as a gay-coded Western; Advise and Consent traced a terrified and miserably closeted central character (played by the now-forgotten Don Murray, an actor/writer/director with progressive political sympathies). Add a Tennessee Williams screenplay and a key performance by Charles Laughton to the year’s mix, and . . . my, my, my.
3 Doug // Jul 22, 2009 at 7:43 am
Great pics, Destiny! I, too, am a huge Lawrence fan. I also might have included The Miracle Worker in my expansion.
4 Michael // Jul 22, 2009 at 9:18 am
Nice, Doug: I’ll take the Miracle Worker as a cultural milestone–I was beyond fascinated with it as a child, and it still packs a theatrical punch, with some deeply committed acting. In fact, it was an amzing year for American film acting: The same could be said of Days of Wine and Roses–even if we all know more about alcoholism now than then, it’s Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon at their most fierce; and the film of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, even if obviously stagey, has some fascinating, iconic performances from Katherine Hepburn and Jason Robards (and an underappreciated one from Dean Stockwell in an impossible part). And the foreign films include some film-school canonical classics. Jeez–what year!
5 Doug // Jul 22, 2009 at 9:29 am
And who could leave out Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
6 Destiny // Jul 22, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Thanks for the responses. I had a tough time whittling them down, but I feel very content with my choices. You’re right Michael, I could have spent more time on To Kill a Mockingbird, I assumed everyone knows it so well that whatever comments I could make would be obvious. I considered Days of Wine and Roses and Long Day’s Journey. but I think the acting is more noteworthy than the films themselves.
Maureen, I’m not a huge fan of Pressure Point, it reminds me of No Way Out and I prefer Sidney in his active roles (The Defiant Ones, Edge of the City, In the Heat of the Night) as opposed to his more passive roles (A Patch of Blue, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner).
Baby Jane is great, but not best picture great, and who knew 1962 was such a landmark year for gay themes in Hollywood?
7 Doug // Jul 22, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I was kidding about Baby Jane but you’re right on about good movies like Long Day’s Journey and Wine and Roses. The film’s are noteworthy for the great acting.
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