Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 308-310: Chronicles of a Freeman

I honestly didn't think I'd get this far this quickly but we're already here in the 1990s. This for me was the decade that I first started going to the cinema on a regular basis and a result I've seen some of these nominees a fair few times before. This allows me to pepper some of these reviews with anecdotes and hopeful will give a more personal insight into some of my early viewing experiences. In term of the Oscars this was the time in which the awards really started getting political with certain dirty tricks campaigns being fought out between certain nominees.

We start, as we often do, by analysing a trio of films from one actor who appeared in multiple movies during the decade. Our star under the spotlight in the first 1990s post is Morgan Freeman who starred in three nominated films, two of which went on to win Best Picture. Freeman is an interesting actor mainly because he only struck it big in his early 50s due to his roles in Glory as well as in the first film of this trio, Driving Miss Daisy. In the film, which was the first Best Picture winner of the 1990s, Freeman starred as Hoke a wise man hired as a chauffeur for the prickly elderly woman of the title. The film begins with Jessica Tandy's Daisy crashing her car, leading her son to hire Hoke as her driver. The relationship between the pair starts off incredibly frostily as Jessica feels that Hoke is mocking her and refuses to get him to do anything. Eventually a friendship blossoms between the pair as Daisy begins to trust Hoke more. This friendship is chronicled throughout the film which includes an undercurrent about racial tensions during the 1950s and 1960s. Along the way Daisy teaches Hoke to read and repays her by helping her out around the house once her maid passes away. Eventually the ageing process starts to creep up on Daisy and she's eventually put into a home after she starts to display signs of dementia. But the film ends with the friends still enjoying each other's company at the ripe old ages of 81 and 97 respectively. 

Part of the reason that Freeman was cast as Hoke is that he played the same role in the stage version of Driving Miss Daisy. It's pretty clear from the start that the film is based on a play as most of the action takes place in the same locations, most notably Daisy's house and car. In fact very little has been done to make the piece feel cinematic, aside from letting us see the various locations that Daisy and Hoke travel to during the course of the movie. The only really memorable attribute from this screen adaptation of the play is Hans Zimmer's lively score which perfectly complements the film's awkward central relationship. In my opinion, Driving Miss Daisy's strongest element is the performances from both Freeman and Tandy. Tandy rightfully won a Best Actress award for playing the prickly Daisy, whose life is changed thanks to Hoke's influence. Tandy made me complete believe in Daisy and also later made me sympathise for a woman who wasn't always that gracious to everyone around her. Meanwhile, Morgan Freeman's joyous portrayal of Hoke was effortless and he and Tandy shared a surprising amount of chemistry. Together they portrayed the relationship between Hoke and Daisy with ease and allowed the audience to really invest in their adventures over the course of the twenty-five years that the film focuses on. Most known for his comedy work, Dan Aykroyd put in a memorable supporting turn as Daisy's son Boolie. Aykroyd portrays Boolie as somewhat of a doormat who often caves into the demands of both his mother and wife. Despite the fine performances, Driving Miss Daisy isn't a particularly spectacular film and it doesn't really feel like a Best Picture winner. The film itself is often regarded as one of the most surprising Best Picture winners, primarily as director Bruce Beresford wasn't even nominated for helming the feature. It'll be interesting to see how worthy the other films nominated against Driving Miss Daisy were, but I'm predicting that there will be at least one strong candidate which deserved the accolade more than this well-acted but unremarkable film. 

Freeman's good luck would continue three years later when he again starred in an Best Picture winning film. Freeman's role in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven was as Ned, the trusted ally of Eastwood's William Munny. Interestingly, despite acting and directing in films for over thirty years, Oscar didn't recognise Eastwood till the early 1990s.  Eastwood garnered fame in the Western genre firstly as an actor and later as a director but Unforgiven was to be his last foray into the genre. Even if I hadn't known that going in, Unforgiven definitely had the feel of a final film as it demonstrated how killing for money doesn't get easier as you get older. Both Will and Ned are retired gunslingers who have settled down for a life with their respective families only to be tempted out of retirement for one last job. The job in question involves them killing the two men responsibly for the facial mutation of a prostitute in Big Whiskey, Wyoming. Standing in their way is the town's sheriff Little Bill, a man who has a stringent no guns policy although he lets his men use theirs on a regular basis. The middle part of the film demonstrated just what Bill would do to anyone who attempted to collect the ransom that the prostitutes put up. This particular sequence sees the introduction of debonair western legend English Bob whose plans are thwarted by Bill and deputies. Eventually Will's party, which also includes the kid who told him of the job in the first place, arrive in the town. Things aren't easy for them though as Will is taken down by Bill while Ned is later beaten to death after refusing to give up his allies. Although the film has a somewhat happy ending, in so far as the prostitutes have been avenged, nobody really gets out of Unforgiven unscathed.

This was my second time watching Unforgiven as I'd previously watched it as part of my film studies degree about twelve years ago. Unsurprisingly I remember very little about but I really enjoyed it this second time around partly because it felt like a very realistic western film. The deaths are few and far between and when they happen Eastwood makes sure that we see the consequences. Ned and Will are extremely shocked to find that they don't have the heart for killing any more whilst the Kid has a similar reaction to his only kill during the film. In addition the characters feel a lot more well-rounded than the majority of players you'd seen in your standard western. Will is essentially the hero of the piece but in the past he has killed purely for money and he's only recently turned his life round. Similarly the villain, in this case Little Bill, isn't purely evil and the motivation for most of his actions is to keep the peace in his town. The town itself is beautifully constructed and, as Eastwood is a legend in the genre, every scene is expertly directed. Cinematographer Jack N Green really takes us into the centre of the action and makes the town of Big Whiskey come alive. As well as proving to be an expert director, Eastwood's strong and silent persona is perfect for the role of the ageing cowboy Will. Richard Harris puts in a memorable extended cameo as the aforementioned English Bob as he is able to lend his theatrical nature to the Western genre. Unforgiven's best performance though comes from Gene Hackman who earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Little Bill. Hackman makes you believe Little Bill as a major threat to our protagonists but at the same time makes you understand why he's doing what he's doing. As for Freeman, his role was generally to act as Eastwood's second but he did the best he could with his role as the sidekick Ned, who later became Will's motivation for his final revenge attack.

Freeman fared much better, and earned a Best Actor nomination, for his role in Best Picture nominee The Shawshank Redemption. Of the three films in this post, I believe that The Shawshank Redemption is the best so it's interesting that it is the only one that didn't win the big prize. It's also the only film in this post that I've watched multiple times and have even included it in one of my essays. The film sees Freeman star as Red, a long term inmate at Shawshank Prison who is continually up for parole throughout the course of the film. Red acts as the narrator of the film which is a role that Freeman would take on throughout the rest of his career partly due to his dulcet tones. Despite being recognised as the film's lead actor, The Shawshank Redemption is co-headlined by Freeman and Tim Robbins as banker Andy Dufrense. Dufrense enters Shawshank convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover and indeed experiences a tough time inside the jail. But through his friendship with Red, his endurance of sexual attacks at the hands of the 'sisters' and is persistance at kitting the prison library out with new reading material, Andy finds a way to survive. However The Shawshank Redemption will probably be best-remembered for the final scenes in which Andy breaks out of the prison. Upon his release Red joins him but interestingly the film was meant to end with Freeman's voiceover talking about hope. But it appears as if audiences weren't happy with this and wanted the solid conclusion that Andy and Red would be reunited in Mexico. This was the first time watched The Shawshank Redemption with this knowledge and I'll be the first to admit that the ambiguous ending probably would've worked better. That being said I don't begrudge people a happy to a film that is incredibly tough to watch at times.

The very first time I watched The Shawshank Redemption was when somebody lent me a VHS copy of it and I enjoyed it that much that I didn't want to give it back. I think the film is just perfectly paced and has a character at the heart of it that you want to root for. Director Frank Darabont really makes Shawshank one of the main characters of the piece and demonstrates how the institution has affected the prisoners in different way. There are a plenty of emotional moments for me throughout the film and I always can't help but shed a tear when the prison librarian Brooks commits suicide after being released. Similarly I always smile when Andy plays The Marriage of Figaro over the prison's PA system and every inmate is completely transfixed by the music. Tim Robbins is perfectly cast as the mild-mannered bank manager who is forced to spend his lifetime locked up for a crime that he didn't commit. Robbins portrays Andy as a smart character but also one who isn't cut out for a life on the inside. More than anything else Robbins makes you sympathise with Andy so you're cheering when he finally makes his escape from Shawshank. But I'd agree with Oscar in saying that this is Freeman's film, especially as Red acts as the movie's narrator. When we first enter Shawshank, Red's is the first face we see and his expression of joy at being reunited with Andy is our lasting memory of the film. Freeman portrays Red as a worldly-wise character but someone whose view is changed significantly thanks to his relationship with Andy. But it's Freeman's voice that really dominates the film and I bet that if you're thinking about The Shawshank Redemption then it's his voice you'll hear. I do feel that's the biggest testament to both Freeman's performance and the character of Red as a whole.

Next time our trip around the 1990s takes a rather dubious step as we look at two films which focus on characters operating outside of the law. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 261: A Southern Gene

Continuing the theme of looking back at what the stars of the 1970s nominees were doing in the next decade, we come to the work of Gene Hackman. The star of two of my favourite 1970s nominees, The French Connection and The Conversation, Hackman only featured in one nominee in the 1980s. That film was Mississippi Burning, in which Hackman starred as FBI Agent Rupert Anderson who returned to his home state of Mississippi in order to solve the case of two missing civil rights workers. The film, set in 1964, centres around the rural community of Jessop County who don't take too kindly to two outsiders interfering in their business. At the time, segregation was rife and even staff in the sheriff's department are members of the Klu Klux Klan. The black members of the community are often at risk of having their churches set on fire or to find flaming crosses on their lawns. Anderson's superior Agent on the case is the much younger Alan Ward, a college-educated liberal who isn't as worldly wise as his new partner. Indeed, Anderson knows the area well and is able to get more information by popping into the local beauty parlour than Ward does when he formally questions a number of suspects. Feeling he's getting nowhere, Ward calls for more agents to descend on the area, followed soon by the press and members of the army. Eventually, a war of words breaks out between the locals and the agents, with the black members of the town caught in the middle. Ward and Anderson are later convinced that Deputy Pell had something to do with the death of the men and question his wife about her flimsy alibi. When Anderson appeals to Mrs Pell's better nature, he sets in course a chain of events which change the area forever.

In his other nominated film Midnight Express, director Alan Parker manipulated certain events of a true story in order to create a more compelling film. He did this again with Mississippi Burning, in which he fictionalised the investigation into the civil rights worker's disappearance to create a gripping narrative. I was quite enthralled throughout most of Mississippi Burning, which took the form of a standard police procedural albeit it one that dealt with deeper themes. Peter Biziou's Oscar-winning cinematography really encapsulates the mood of the time as he able to get the audience to experience the hatred felt between both sides of the community. His shots of the attacks on the churches were particularly exceptional and provided some harrowing imagery throughout the film. Just like in Midnight Express, the haunting score makes you feel uneasy at times, though this film was nowhere near as gritty as the Turkish prison epic. The disparate nature of the two agents is what's at the heart of the film and their both given life by two fantastic actors. As Ward, Willem Dafoe gives quite a methodical performance as the educated man forced to deal with customs that he sees as backwards. However, this is really Hackman's film and he delivers another outstanding turn as the agent raised in a similar community who is forced to return to the hatred that he thought he'd left behind. Hackman portrays Anderson as somebody who understands the people, but also disagrees with them and his mixture of humour and violence is an unsettling combination. Hackman was Oscar-nominated for his role here as was Frances McDormand as the timid Mrs Pell who later gets her chance at a new life. The one real problem I had with Mississippi Burning was that I found it to be a little bit too one-sided at times as in all of the white members of the community were shocking racists and all of the black civilians were victims. Whilst I feel that this is probably close to the truth, it does make both sides come off as caricatures at times. Luckily, Anderson and Ward feel like real people and this contributes to an incredibly satisfying, if harrowing film about the many forms that prejudice comes in.

Next time another previous winner offers us another film in which he writes, directs and stars.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 210-211: A Pair of Gene's

So here we are in the 1970s, a decade that really pushed the bar in terms of film-making and used the art form to tell some incredibly interesting stories. We begin with a double bill featuring an actor who really came into his own at the beginning of the decade - Gene Hackman.

Though Hackman had been around for a while he only really came to prominence in his late thirties after his appearance in Bonnie and Clyde, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. Four years later he was propelled to stardom thanks to his central role as Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle in The French Connection. The French Connection picked up Best Picture at the 1972 ceremony and also gave its lead actor his first Academy Award. The film, which was the first R-Rated movie to win the Best Picture Award, takes place in the streets of New York and follows Doyle and his partner Buddy 'Cloudy' Russo as they attempt a drug bust. I found the story of the film fairly unique in that we followed the French drug smugglers at the same time as the New York cops. The film's main antagonist is Alain Charnier, who plans to smuggle millions of dollars' worth of heroin into the country by using the car of a TV personality. As we learn throughout the film, Doyle and Russo aren't exactly the most trustworthy of individuals but they are incredibly good at their jobs so most of their colleagues are forced to trust them. As Doyle and Russo identify Charnier and his men, the chase is on to track down the drugs and arrest those involved in the plot. But not everything goes to plan and when Doyle's plot backfires, he and Russo are taken off the case. However, that doesn't dissuade Doyle and he's soon in hot pursuit of the man whose been sent to assassinate him, hoping that this will result in him finding the drugs.

After watching The French Connection, I feel like I've entered the 1970s with a bang. The film is fast-paced without losing sight of its plot and incredibly stylised throughout. Director William Friedkin looked to French cinema to create a lot of the style in the French Connection and that is definitely evident. At the same time, The French Connection has a profound sense of location and I was completely transported into New York right from the earliest scenes. For me the style extends to the character's costumes most notably the hat and coat worn by Doyle. The most iconic scene in the whole film is the legendary car chase in which Doyle, in a car, is racing a commuter train which is above him. Owen Roizman's cinematography takes you right into Doyle's car while Friedkin makes sure that we don't miss a thing. I was completely sucked in by this chase and think it's one that's been imitate many times but has never been bettered. Hackman is absolutely tremendous in the lead role as Doyle combining the stereotypical 'bad cop' with someone who has a genuine passion for the job. Hackman understands every intricate detail of his character down to the little wave that Doyle gives to Charnier in one of the final scenes. Meanwhile, Hackman is well-supported by the reliable Roy Scheider as the more level-headed Russo. While earlier crime always saw the criminals brought to justice, we learn at the end of The French Connection that a lot of the crooks in the film either served small sentences or never went to jail again. Overall, The French Connection is definitely one of the best Best Picture winners I've seen so far.

Three year later, Hackman starred in another Best Picture nominee, even though he missed out on a Best Actor nomination this time around. Arguably, The Conversation was a better overall film than The French Connection while I definitely preferred Hackman as Harry Caul. Caul is one of America's most renowned surveillance experts and has often been praised for being able to pick up any speech necessary. Caul lives a fairly solitary existence, living alone with only his jazz saxophone for company, though he does have a regular relationship with a woman who knows nothing about him. But Caul's work has sometimes caused him emotional strain and, as we learn later in the film, one of his most recent jobs resulted in a triple murder. Caul is very wary when he is tasked with recording a couple as they walk through Union Square in San Francisco especially when he hears the phrase 'he'd kill us if he got the chance.' Caul is soon tasked with giving his tapes to  a man known simply as The Director, but when one of The Director's underlings takes the tapes a nervous Harry takes them back. As he becomes obsessed by the tapes, Harry realises he has to act on what he's heard and uses the information he has to act as a vigilante hero. But, the film's message ultimately seems to be that, even if you can hear everything, it doesn't necessarily mean that you listen to everything that's being said.

The Conversation is the first time that I've come across a Francis Ford Coppola film while writing this project and you can see why, at his peak, the director was hailed as one of the greats. The Conversation is a tense thriller which builds up the audience's expectations before completely changing the game in the last ten minutes. For me, I think that The Conversation features some of the greatest uses of sound in cinema history. The way we see the conversation being broken down by Harry throughout the film is simply superb and you never tire of hearing the same speech over and over again. Hackman's performance as Harry is also one of the film's greatest strengths as he portrays the surveillance expert as someone whose always been on the borders of society. Though Harry is seemingly attractive to the opposite sex, his intricate nature and paranoia make it impossible for him to form meaningful relationships. For the most part, Hackman plays Harry as someone who only speaks when he really needs to and I feel he communicates more by his actions than by his words. Hackman is supported by John Cazale as Harry's colleague Stan who is a bit wilder than his friend and often uses his job to ogle women. The film also features a great little performance from Harrison Ford as The Director's aide Martin Stett, which provided evidence of how great the actor would go on to be. My only frustration is that The Conversation didn't do better at that year's Oscars, but I don't think Coppola was too bothered seeing as it was another of his films that scooped the majority of the major prizes.

Next time I'll look at the three big screen musicals that were nominated for Best Picture during the 1970s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 181: Rom-cons

I find the 1960s a really interesting period for cinema as it bridges the gap between the glossy product of the early years and the more experimental films from the years to come. A perfect example of this is Bonnie and Clyde a film that is shot a lot differently than many of the films I have watched up to this point and its levels of sex and violence mark it out from the safer movies at the time. The film itself concerns the formation of the Barrow gang led by Warren Beatty's forceful Clyde Barrow who hooks up with Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker while attempting to steal her mother's car. The two begin to rob banks and soon join forces with Clyde's brother Buck, his wife Blanche and local oaf CW Moss to become notorious throughout the country. The gang are beset by problems especially that Bonnie and Blanche just don't get on with each other while the quintet soon have an angry policeman on their hands after they embarrass Texas Ranger Frank Harmer. Eventually the gang make several mistakes which allows several of their number to be killed and the rest to hide out at the house of CW's father and while I won't spoil the ending I think most of us know how this story turned out. 

I was completely transfixed while watching Bonnie and Clyde from the opening bank robbery through to the bloody shoot-out and the final tragic scene everything about it felt new and fresh. Arthur Penn's directorial style owed a lot to the directors of the French New Wave with the camera angles focusing on the sexuality of both of the central characters. The key relationship is obviously that of Bonnie and Clyde and you can tell the two really do care about each other in between their bank robbing and killing sprees. The interesting thing about Bonnie and Clyde is that it makes a lot of the violence seem incredibly comic especially in the case of some of the music that is used while Gene Wilder's cameo is also an odd choice. Talking of Genes we had Mr Hackman here in his first notable role and as Buck he really is the brains of the Barrow family and even in his early days you could see that he would become a big star. In fact the acting in Bonnie and Clyde is great with all five central cast members getting Oscar nominations but the only win was for Estelle Parsons who played the cranky Blanche. Personally the best performance in the whole film comes from Michael J Pollard as the simple CW who really starts to idolise Clyde to the extent that he thinks he is invincible. That's not to put anything against Beatty or Dunaway who both became big name stars after this film and of course would go on to bigger and better things hereafter. With its breathtaking style and great performances it's not hard to see why Bonnie and Clyde was nominated for so many awards however in a year with so many great movies it only came away with two. However its legacy lives on today through the influential award-winning cinematography and through its comical presentation of violence.