Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 178-179: The Further Adventures of Liz and Dick

Those of you who have been following the Big Oscar Challenge since the beginning know that I devote a large part of the 1950s portion of the project to chronicle the career of Elizabeth Taylor. As we all know Taylor's relationship with Richard Burton was almost as famous as her acting career and in the 1960s they starred opposite each other in two very different Oscar-nominated films.

The first of these is quite infamous in itself mainly as it took years to make, almost bankrupt a studio and elicited a negative reaction from its lead actress. That film was Cleopatra an epic that took three years to shoot and whose location had to be moved after Taylor, who ultimately earned a fee of $7 million for her appearance, had had emergency surgery and claimed that the British weather wouldn't help her healing process so all the sets had to be rebuilt in Italy. There were also issues on the direction front as original director Rouben Mamoulain was replaced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who envisaged his film as a six hour epic. The film was edited down to three hours and then lengthened back to four for the DVD release, which I watched, which separated the film into two very distinct segments. The first told the story of the Egyptian Queen's meeting with Julius Caesar, played by Rex Harrison, who he later marries and has a son with however as we know Caesar's closest allies were planning to kill him off. After Caesar's death his closest ally Anthony, played by Richard Burton, heads over to Egypt and ends up having it off with Cleopatra himself however he then has to battle Caesar's nephew who has been named his heir. As the second half of the film goes on the relationship between deteriorates as they realise that their allies are being killed off. By the end of the film there has been plenty of deaths, fires and costumes however the stories off-screen have somewhat eclipsed what was happening on screen.

Watching the film for the first time I found it to be visually spectacular and deserving of its awards for costume design and special effects, but maybe not for cinematography, and I did find the battle scenes the most stimulating. I also thought Liz Taylor improved as the film went on, perhaps because she was on the mend, really maturing during the second half of the film during Cleopatra's scenes with Anthony. However at the same time I personally believed the first two hours of the film were very slow and Taylor had very little chemistry with Rex Harrison meanwhile some of the dialogue was just laughable. Cleopatra is still in the history books as one of the most expensive films of all time and famously almost bankrupted Fox who eventually clawed back the money after the VHS and DVD releases. Taylor meanwhile wasn't too keen when she saw the film at the London premiere as she actually threw up however it wasn't all bad as she met her next husband in Richard Burton. The two were both married at the time they began their affair on the set of Cleopatra and after they married they began to star in a number of films together one of which would see Taylor pick up her second Best Actress Oscar.


That film was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? an adaptation of Edward Albee's play which stars Taylor and Burton as married couple Martha and George who corrupt a young couple who join them for drinks. Despite it being late George and Martha agree to have Nick, the newest professor at the college where George teaches, and his wife Honey around however the night soon descend into accusations and betrayal. As the quartet down more alcohol Martha and George argue about their son while Nick confides in George about his relationship with Honey and why there were married in the first place. As director Mike Nichols didn't have to work within the confines of a theatre he takes the play outside George and Martha's house as the four end up at a road house diner and its adjoining car park before ending up back in the living room.

Personally I still found Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? an incredibly stagy film but I didn't consider this necessarily a bad thing when the four performers are so good. Taylor became one of the first actresses to change her appearance for a part and then win an Oscar here gaining weight and playing a woman ten years older than she was at the time. The film also became of only one of a handful to get nominations in all four acting categories with Burton and George Segal being nominated and Sandy Dennis rightfully winning a Supporting Actress award for breathing life into the innocent Honey. The Oscar-nominated cinematography was also very well done closing in on the characters at the right moment to add intensity to the more emotional moments of the film. What made the film so great though was the chemistry between Taylor and Burton who actually made you believed that they'd been married for years and that they were as old as the characters they played. Overall I greatly enjoyed this film more than the much more expensive Cleopatra as it felt more intense, more emotional and ultimately a more enjoyable watch. After two marriages Burton and Taylor finally divorced in 1976 however the legacy of their romance lives on in films that have some merit to them whether it be the history of their budget or the brilliance of their performances in them.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 177: Dropping the Bomb

There are several films that I believe people won't realise that have been nominated for Oscars for example a lot of you will be surprised to learn that Star Wars was nominated in the late 1970s but was beaten out by Annie Hall. Another surprise for a lot of you will be that Stanley Kubrick's Cold War comedy Dr Strangelove was also a nominee in the 1960s however it again lost out this time to My Fair Lady. For those unfamiliar with the film it basically centres around a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union and the government bosses who attempt to avoid a nuclear apocalypse. The element of the film most will be aware of is that Peter Sellers plays three very distinct roles the first of which is RAF Captain Lionel Mandrake who is bared with the general who makes the initial command in Sterling Hayden's Ripper. The relationship between Ripper and Mandrake creates a lot of humour as it explores the different reactions to war given by both the English and the Americans. Meanwhile Sellers also plays the US president who is advised by his very gruff colonel Buck Turgidson, played by George C Scott who makes a second appearance in this blog in the same amount of days, a very war-hungry army man. Eventually Turgidson grows tired of the president believing everything the Soviet ambassador is telling him and starts to fight with him which leads to the classic line 'there's no fighting in the war room'. Finally Sellers' former Nazi Dr Strangelove is called in to talk about his Doomsday Machine and despite swearing his allegiance to the Americans there appears to be an ulterior motive to his actions. As the men continue to argue the film hurtles towards a very funny and some would say shocking conclusion.

For most people Dr Strangelove will go down as one of the greatest satires of all time and do feel that it earns that moniker however at the same time it does feel a little old-fashioned. To an extent it is a group of sketches woven together by a interlinking narrative and one actor who plays three lead roles and to be fair Sellers is great throughout the film especially when he gets to ham it up as Strangelove. Kubrick's script has some brilliant one-liners but also a deep passion to mock those in a position of authority while in addition taking pot shots at the general attitude of the time. As I was watching this film it did get me thinking if a film like this would ever be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar again as a lot of today's nominees seem positively tame in comparison to this. To be fair though despite the nominations, including one for Sellers, the film failed to match opposition from the much more twee and Academy-friendly My Fair Lady while Rex Harrison's performance in the film was judged more superior that Sellers' triple-header. Despite its ultimate failure at the awards I implore everyone to seek out Dr Strangelove as it is both an important and entertaining film which demonstrates what a great director Kubrick was as well as how he could work in a variety of different genres.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 176: A Gamblin' Man

So it's that time of year again where I wonder whatever happened to that blog about Oscar-nominated films I started a while ago? So yes I'm starting the good old Oscar Challenge Blog up once again and we're back in the 1960s for a film that gives a real feel to how films were changing throughout the decade. Yes because while we were still getting the Technicolor musicals like My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music as well as some mighty epics there were films focusing on different aspects of American life. One such film was Robert Rossen's The Hustler a dingy movie set in the pool halls of America and starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson. The film essentially is split into three acts the first sees Eddie build up a reputation as a hustler eventually getting to meet the great Minnesota Fasts one-on-one. Eddie comfortably beats Fats but he keeps going unwilling to stop the game until Fats says it over however in the meantime Fats has enlisted betting expert Bert Gordon to help throw Eddie off the game with Fats eventually ending up the victor. Eddie then ends up on a downward spiral only saved through his relationship with the equally damaged Sarah who helps rehabilitate Eddie before the two move in together however Eddie still craves for his former life. Eddie eventually meets up with Bert who agrees to be his manager and the pair, along with Sarah, head to Louisville where Eddie makes enough money to play Fats once again however the cost is his relationship with Sarah. This builds up to an emotionally charged final scene in which Eddie and Fats square off once again however this time there's a personal issue at stake also.

I'm so glad that I got back into taking up this project once again if only so I could watch The Hustler which is everything a film should be from the way it is shot down to the four central performances. Rossen shot the whole film on location in New York using two real life pool halls for the key scenes while he even confused patrons at the bus terminal cafe where Sarah and Eddie first meet. I found everything so engrossing from Eddie's first tour of various bars to the emotionally charged scenes in Louisville and Eddie and Fats' final showdown. As Eddie, Paul Newman gives one of the best acting performances I've ever seen as you can truly see him feel love and pain for the first time in his relationships with both Bert and Sarah. Piper Laurie's upper class drunk Sarah is also a sympathetic character as she slowly falls in love with Eddie despite knowing that it won't go anywhere and ultimately ends up destroying herself. Comedian Jackie Gleason is also wonderfully restrained as Fats portraying a pool player who keeps a cool head in the two scenes we see him in. George C Scott meanwhile is great as the film's antagonist Bert who knows how to get exactly what he wants from people but is ultimately humiliated in the final scene. Though I found the film a tad slow in the middle overall this was a fantastically acted and shot film that was rightfully nominated for a ton of Oscars, including four acting nods, and I really hope to watch more films just like this one as I continue on with this blog.