Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 266-267: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me Part Two

All of the films we've seen William Hurt appear in up to this point have seem him portray fairly intelligent characters. But that all changed when he appeared as a man with little intelligence, Tom Grunick, in 1988 nominee Broadcast News. It also takes a long time for Tom to appear on screen as we firstly follow up-and-coming producer Jane Craig and her best friend, reporter Aaron Altman. Though incredibly intelligent, Aaron isn't particularly suited to anchoring the news as he lacks a certain charisma. Indeed, when one of Jane and Aaron's pieces garners maximum praise it's she who gets all of the credit from the network's famous anchor Bill Rorish. Aaron then takes an instant dislike to Tom based on the fact that he knows little about current affairs but he proves himself eager to learn from both Aaron and James. When a story breaks during the weekend of a party that the trio attends, it's Tom that's selected to present the news over Aaron. His story about Libya sees Jane executive produce the segment and both see their careers advance as a result. In addition to professional jealousy, Aaron hates the fact that Jane is attracted to Tom as he has had feelings for her for years. Aaron is later informed that he may be fired during the station's latest series of cutbacks and he implores his boss to let him anchor the news. Unfortunately, Aaron has to call on Tom for tips about connecting with the audience and looking his best on screen. As the film reaches its conclusion, and many of the station's staff are let go, we see the trio go their separate way for various reasons. Director and writer James L Brooks then decides to flash the action seven years into the future where we discover how far the characters' careers have come since we first met them. 

Broadcast News was definitely one of the films I was anticipating the most when I started this decade as it appeared to have a lot in common with Network. On one hand it did have a lot to offer, Brooks had definitely done his research and the scenes at the station looked incredibly realistic. I enjoyed all of the scenes involving the reporting of the news and the intricate nature of each segment. In addition Brooks' key theme of charisma versus real news was well-explored and perfectly exemplified through the characters of Tom and Aaron. However, I personally feel as if the film lagged in portions and took a great deal of time to actually get going. I wasn't a fan of the personal lives of the trio and in particular the romantic triangle which didn't seem to get enough time devoted to it. In fact it appears as if Brooks himself wasn't a fan of the romantic angle but had to include as another hook to draw in a certain audience. Thankfully, in what is becoming something of a recurring theme, Broadcast News was improved by three impressive performances. Hurt again prove his versatility as an actor with his performance as a man who knows his limitations but tries to work with what he's got. He realises his charm and good looks will get him further than someone like Aaron even if he knows less than him. Holly Hunter was excellent as the powerful yet vulnerable woman who is prone to outbursts of tears for no apparent reason. Hunter proves herself to be an incredibly warm screen presence and makes Jane somebody you want to root for. Meanwhile, Albert Brooks makes Aaron the film's moral compass as he provides a combination of comic neurosis and charm. All three were nominated for well-deserved Oscar nominations and to me the combination of Hurt, Hunter and Brooks was the secret of the film's success. Aside from the trio, Broadcast News had a fantastic supporting cast including Joan Cusack as the ditzy assistant and Jack Nicholson as the network's famous anchor. Ultimately, Broadcast News had a lot to say and assembled a great cast to say it; I just feel it would've been a lot better had twenty minutes been cut from the overall running time. 

Hurt added to his repertoire of characters in the last of the five films, The Accidental Tourist, as he played a fairly withdrawn character. Hurt's travel writer Macon Leary was an emotionless man who wrote the titular series of books aimed at businessmen who didn't particularly want to travel. When we meet him, he's recently suffered an emotional tragedy as his son has recently died when he was caught in the crossfire during a hold-up at a burger restaurant. Shortly after the event his wife Sarah moves out of their home and he's forced to live alone in their house with only his temperamental dog for company.  It's due to his dog that he meets the incredibly lively Muriel Pritchett, who works at the local kennels and is an expert dog trainer. After learning that they're both divorcees Muriel tries to coax Macon into the world of the living and eventually convinces him to train his dog. At the same time Macon is forced to move back into the house he grew up and live with his quirky siblings, all of whom are in a permanent state of arrested development. Eventually Macon and Muriel start a relationship with Macon also bonding with her son Alexander, a sickly boy who is allergic to everything after being born prematurely. Muriel helps Macon come out of himself and gradually he learns to live a lot more than he ever has done. But events start to become complicated once again when he reunites with Sarah at his sister's wedding. He's then torn over whether to reconcile with Sarah or continue to stay with the woman who brings out the best in him. 

The Accidental Tourist sees Hurt reunite with Lawrence Kasdan, who we previously saw direct him in The Big Chill. Unfortunately I found myself enjoying this a lot less than I did the college reunion comedy drama and I felt that Kasdan didn't employ the same amount of discipline that he did with The Big Chill. It may have something to do with the fact that The Accidental Tourist is an adaptation of the book by Anne Tyler, but I found it to have some large narrative flaws. For example I wasn't a fan of the way Muriel initially pursued Macon and instead felt that their relationship could've grown a lot more organically. Similarly I didn't like the fact that Sarah just presumed that Macon would return to her or that he ditched Muriel so quickly. The fact that both Macon and Sarah were primarily so withdrawn made it hard to warm to their characters and at times I found them both unlikeable. Equally I thought Muriel was a little overbearing and at times was too kooky for me to find her at all realistic. The parts of the film I enjoyed the most were those involving Macon's siblings and his sister Rose's romance with his publisher Julian. Of all the characters I thought the Leary siblings were the most endearing and Rose in particular was a joy to watch. In addition, I felt that the exerts from Macon's Accidental Tourist guide books were inventive and provided a little dry humour that was sorely needed. Despite not enjoying her character, I felt that Geena Davis delivered the best performance and I wasn't surprised to learn that she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Hurt did what was required of him and I thought he did well to play a character with very little personality. Ultimately, The Accidental Tourist was a film I found off-putting due to its lack of realistic characters and I felt that Hurt's performance was the weakest of the five I've seen. Though I've enjoyed following his career throughout the 1980s I'm looking forward to watch a film that doesn't feature him in a lead role. 

So next time we return to looking at stars of the past decade with a man who won two Best Actor Oscars in the 1980s both of which came from his performances in Best Picture winners. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 242-243: Robert De Niro's Waiting

As you've seen so far in this blog, a lot of stars came into their own in the 1970s. One of them was definitely Robert De Niro, who we've already seen in Oscar-winning form when he appeared in The Godfather Part Two. However, it was only later in the decade that De Niro became a leading man and this was partly thanks to his association with director Martin Scorsese.

Scorsese and De Niro's first Oscar-nominated collaboration came in the form of Taxi Driver. The film saw De Niro playing Travis Bickle, a former marine turned cabbie whose insomnia meant that he often trawled the streets of New York late at night. The episodic structure of Taxi Driver saw Travis struggle to comprehend the stresses of modern day life as we quickly learnt that he was a fairly unhinged young man. The first half of the film sees Travis attempt to woo young campaigner Betsy but their relationship is cut short after he takes her to see a fairly explicit Swedish film. Betsy's rejection sends Travis further down a dark street as he get himself into tip top condition and buys a gun which he later uses to stop an armed robbery at a convenience store. The final half of the film watches Travis' plan to assassinate presidential candidate Charles Palantine which is ultimately quashed when he is spotted by secret service guards. Instead, Travis sees it as his mission to prevent young prostitute Iris from being corrupted by her pimp Sport. The relationship between Travis and Iris is an interesting one as he attempts to be a positive influence on this young soul. As the film reaches its violent and bloody conclusion, the once incredibly isolated Travis finds himself becoming something of a hero.

From the first strains of Bernard Hermann's haunting score, I was completely entranced by Taxi Driver. Though I have seen the film before, I think that I appreciate it a lot more than I did when I first saw it ten years ago. I personally feel that this was the film that put Scorsese on the map and showed what an interesting film-maker he could be. Oddly, he wasn't nominated for Best Director and there was no love either for Paul Schrader's brilliantly dark screenplay. I have to say Schrader's script perfectly constructs one of film's most memorable anti-heroes and he and Scorsese do a brilliant job of making us identify with someone who is as mentally unstable as Bickle. But I believe that the primary reason that we want to follow Travis is because of De Niro's Oscar-nominated performance. I feel that he makes you understand Bickle's mind and the reasons he has behind all of his ideas from taking Betsy to the adult cinema to attempting to rescue Iris from Sport. De Niro is ably supported by Jodie Foster, the only other cast member to be nominated for an Oscar, who is absolutely brilliant as the aforementioned Iris. Foster plays Iris as someone who has plenty of experience beyond her years but you can see behind her eyes that she's just a frightened little girl. Cybil Shepherd is equally great as the stuck-up Betsy while Harvey Keitel is fairly frightening as Iris' pimp. As with a lot of Scorsese's films, Taxi Driver is an ode to New York, a city which is captured here by Michael Chapman's superb cinematography which lets us see the area through the eyes of Travis. Not always an easy watch, Taxi Driver isn't as violent as I remembered and instead Scorsese really makes you anticipate the violence by building up the tension. I'm personally not sure if the ending makes sense after what has come before, but ultimately I feel that Taxi Driver is one of the best films of the 1970s and the fact that it didn't win one Oscar is a literal travesty.

Another De Niro starring feature that did a lot better at the Oscars was The Deer Hunter, which won the Best Picture prize at the 1979 ceremony. Set over three acts; The Deer Hunter tells the story of a group of smalltown steel workers who go to war in Vietnam and are later unable to shake the horrors of the conflict following the fighting. De Niro plays the de facto leader of the group, Michael Vronsky, a strong silent man who loves to hunt deer but isn't great with talking about his emotions. The first act sees Michael and his friends celebrate the impending wedding of their friend Steve before the pair journey to Vietnam alongside Steve's best man Nick. The scenes before and during the wedding appear to be there to set up the relationships between the characters namely the fact that Michael has a crush on Nick's girlfriend Linda. This almost hour-long act concludes with the characters going on the first of two infamous deer hunts. The second act is definitely the film's most powerful; as we see the trio put in a Prisoner of War camp and forced into playing Russian Roulette. Though Michael engineers their escape, the resulting rescue sees Steve lose his legs and Nick being mentally scarred by their actions. Michael later returns home alone and can't seem to fit into the life that he once had. He attempts to start a relationship with Linda but feels he must return to Saigon, if only to find out what happened to Nick.

The Deer Hunter is often held up as one of the best films of all time, and according to the Academy it was the best film released in 1978, but I have to say I was a little unimpressed. Firstly the positives, Vilmos Zsigmond's brilliant cinematography which brought the entire film to life and put the viewer firmly in the middle of the action. Zsigmond was able to shoot everything to perfection whether it be an incredibly bloody scene in Vietnam or a simple bowling came back in America. The performances were incredibly involving throughout with De Niro underplaying his role as Michael. Unlike the characters he's previously played; Michael really is a man of action and so De Niro really had to tone down his usually animated expressions. I feel that he pulled this off, even if it did mean he was outshone by several members of the supporting cast. Christopher Walken in particular was the stand-out here, and the only member of the cast to win an Oscar, as Steve who goes on a dark journey after his time in Vietnam. Walken was absolutely spellbinding in the final Russian Roulette scenes and he more than deserved his Best Supporting Actor award. Another performer who became a big name thanks to The Deer Hunter was Meryl Streep, who garnered her first of many Oscar nominations. As Linda, Streep really added an emotional core to the film as she sort of let us know how the war had affected those in America. The Deer Hunter sadly marked the end of the career of John Cazale, who died of cancer before the film was completed. In fact Cazale's role of Stanley was almost re-cast before his real-life girlfriend Streep threatened to walk out if this was done. As he has done throughout all of the films we've seen him appear in, Cazale adds a nervous energy to the role of Stanley. Just like with Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter has a similarly memorable score and I do feel that composer Stanley Myers deserved at least a nomination for the film's music.

To me the biggest negative about The Deer Hunter is that it feels a little over-indulgent, primarily due to its almost three-hour running time. I do feel that Michael Cimino really needed to edit down some of the scenes, especially those in the first act, as a lot of them don't seem particularly necessary. While I understand the importance of letting us get to know the characters, some of the scenes at Stanley's wedding added nothing to the overall story of the film. The film's screenplay was similarly baggy and some of the dialogue felt a little clunky and uneven. The final scene in particular was a little too patriotic for my liking as we see the surviving characters spontaneously break out into a chorus of 'God Bless America'. That's not to say The Deer Hunter was a poor film, it just needed to have been cut down a little bit more as the pace was poor at best. The ironic thing is that a film that needed serious editing down actually won the Oscar for Best Editing.

Next time we have a right royal film which features a well-told story.