Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 304-305: Jewison's Gems

Last time we checked in with director Norman Jewison he was helming a film version of the epic musical Fiddler on the Roof. But Jewison's biggest success arguably came in the 1960s when he directed Best Picture winner In the Heat of the Night which also scooped another four Oscars. The 1980s saw two more of his movies appear in the Best Picture category with the first having a lot in common with In the Heat of the Night.

But instead of looking at themes of racial tension in the police force, Jewison's adaptation of Charles Fuller's play explores the same problems in the army. The story as a whole revolves around the murder of light-skinned Sergeant Waters who is gunned down in the film's opening moments. Black military lawyer Captain Davenport is drafted in to find the murderer but finds the task easier said than done. Whilst there are initial suspicions that the Klu Klux Klan may have been involved, there are plenty of suspects among Waters' own platoon. The platoon itself almost double as an impressive baseball team however Waters enjoyed bullying a lot of the men most notably the talented ball player CJ Memphis. Memphis was constantly tortured by Waters, who later arrested him on false charges leading to Memphis committing suicide. Meanwhile Davenport meets opposition from a white officer when he attempts to question two men who saw Waters the night he was shot. Davenport is later allowed to interview the men, but only with a white officer present, and learns that they fought with Waters but didn't kill him. Satisfied by their testimony, despite the white officer feeling otherwise, Davenport is forced to look elsewhere. Although he ultimately discovers that the crime is racially motivated, the perpetrator's identity certainly surprised me.

As A Soldier's Story is told mainly in flashback, so each of the witness statements are illustrated by examples of Waters' behaviour, I did find the narrative structure of the film more than a little jarring. The themes of race and identity were present both in the form of light-skinned Waters, who didn't know what side he was on, and in Davenport who wasn't respected by the white officers despite his station. But Davenport, in contrast to Sidney Poitier's character in In the Heat of the Night, is a lot more level-headed and keeps his calm when others insult him. However, I do feel that this is a major issue with the film as Davenport comes across as a passive character who I didn't really want to spend that much time with. Not that there was anything really wrong with Harold E. Rollins Jr's performance as Davenport but nothing he did really grabbed me. In fact it was Adolph Caesar,  who was Oscar-nominated for his role, who stole the show as the antagonistic Waters. Caesar was fantastic at delivering some of the film's most evil insults and his sneering mannerisms were perfect for the role. A Soldier's Story also featured an early appearance from Denzel Washington who gives an interesting turn as the academic Peterson who himself clashes with Waters on a number of occasions. As it's based on a play another problem with A Soldier's Story is that it's not particularly cinematic as plenty of the scenes simply focus on Davenport's interviews with Waters' troops. One exception to this role is in the film's use of music with blues playing a particularly big part in the film thanks in part to the casting of Patie LaBelle as a local club owner. Despite enjoying its focus on the themes of racism in the army, I just felt A Soldier's Story was a fairly inconsequential. I was just surprised that it was directed by somebody like Jewison, who in the past had helmed some truly memorable works; however the film did ultimately come across as a bit of a passion project for Jewison. But I don't think that should be an excuse for producing what I personally consider to be unremarkable piece of work which I'll struggle to remember a couple of months from now.

The same can't be said for Jewison's other offering that popped up in the Best Picture category three years later which couldn't be more different from A Soldier's Story if it tried. That's because Moonstruck is the dictionary definition of a romantic comedy as it focuses on one thirty-seven year old widow and her assorted family members. Moonstruck stars Cher in the lead role of Loretta Castorini whose first husband was run over by a bus, an incident she believes is based on the fact that she didn't have a proper wedding. One of Moonstruck's earlier scenes sees Loretta's latest lover Johnny propose marriage, an offer she accepts on the proviso that they do everything properly. As Johnny is forced to leave the country to visit his dying mother, he asks Loretta to invite his estranged brother Ronny to their wedding. However the hot-heated Ronny is still angry with Johnny as he feels that his brother is responsible for him injuring his hand in a bread-cutting incident. Loretta appears to be attracted by Ronny's fiery nature and she is much more taken with him than she ever has been with Johnny. The pair seem to have a natural connection with each other and quickly end up in bed together. Running alongside Loretta's story is that of her plumber father Cosmo and his long-suffering wife Rose. Rose is aware that Cosmo is having an affair whilst Loretta discovers this later when she spies her father and his mistress at the opera. Rose appears to know her lot in life and shares quite a touching moment at a restaurant with college professor Perry when they both find themselves alone at a restaurant. Moonstruck's final scene is a great fifteen minute comic set-piece which sees all of the film's loose ends tied up as it focuses on this multi-generational American-Sicilian family.

It's fair to say it took me at least ten minutes to really get into Moonstruck, but once I'd got to grips with the characters and their lingo I was hooked. John Patrick Shanley's Oscar-winning script presents plenty of realistic characters, most of whom I'm assuming he based on real people. The result is a well-observed and ultimately quite funny look at the nature of relationships and what makes a solid marriage. At just over ninety minutes, Moonstruck is incredibly well-paced and really limits itself to three or four key moments meaning that there is very little in the film that doesn't have a purpose. I personally felt that Cher was brilliantly understated in the lead role of the meek Loretta who married once for love and won't do it again. At the same time I'm not quite sure if she deserved her Best Actress Oscar especially as she triumphed over Holly Hunter's magnificent turn in Broadcast News. Having said that Cher does make us sympathise with a character who may have been hard to sympathise in the hands of another actress. One performance that was more deserving of an Oscar was that of Olympia Dukais who absolutely shone in the role of Loretta's mother Rose. Dukakis shone in the latter half of the film, particularly opposite John Mahoney's Perry, and for that I don't begrudge her her Best Supporting Actress prize. I personally also enjoyed Vincent Gardenia's turn as the Castorini patriarch Cosmo who, despite his wealth, is still fairly frugal. In fact the whole cast was splendid and I'd like to particularly praise Nicolas Cage for his impassioned turn as the impulsive Ronny. The construction of Loretta's whole neighbourhood was lovingly done and it appears as if both Shanley and Jewison have a real appreciation for the culture as a whole. Whilst Moonstruck was definitely a strong romantic comedy that entertained me thoroughly throughout it didn't really have the feel of a Best Picture contender. However the film did well at the Oscars and it also proved a fruitful swansong for Jewison who wouldn't have another film in the Best Picture line-up again.

Next time we take to the skies with a group of brave men.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 212-214: Sounds of the Seventies

Throughout each decade of Oscar-winning films, there have always been a handful of musicals that have done particularly well. The majority of these have been glossy big-budget spectaculars that have had fairly light storylines. But, as we approach the 1970s, the themes of the musicals are getting a lot darker and one in particular contains a handful of songs that are incredibly sinister rather than being particularly uplifting.

We start though with a film musical that feels incredibly old-fashioned and has a comic element which lends itself to the screwball films of the 1930s and 1940s. That film is Hello Dolly!, which was nominated for Best Picture at the 1970 ceremony, and stars Barbara Streisand as widowed matchmaker Dolly Levi. Dolly arrives in Yonkers supposedly to meet up with wealthy store-owner Horace Vandergelder who is to travel to New York in order to meet up with and marry hat-store clerk Irene Malloy. However, instead of matching the pair, Dolly seemingly wants Horace for herself so arranges for his two clerks to hook up with Irene and her assistant Minnie. On arrival in the city the clerks, Cornelius and Barnaby, pretend to be wealthy gentlemen in order to ensnare Irene and Minnie. Meanwhile, Horace's niece Ermengrade has also travelled to New York in order to prove to her uncle that artist Ambrose is a good enough match for her. In New York, Dolly arranges a number of deceptions in order to keep all the parts of her plan a secret until she is able to put the offer of a proposal on the table at one of her favourite restaurants. Obviously the obstinate Horace wants everything to stay the way it was but eventually comes around to everything that Dolly has set up.

I don't think it's insulting to say that Hello Dolly! is definitely an old school musical by late 1960s/early 1970s standards. The whole thing feels very staged with a lot of the action fairly static and confined to a certain set. In fact, a lot of it put me in mind of The Music Man, which was made seven years earlier, as both have that old school feel to them. At the same time, there's no denying that Hello Dolly! is an incredibly enjoyable musical and I have to say that I got fairly swept up in it. Gene Kelly sits behind the director's chair and you can see his stamp all over the well-choreographed set pieces. Indeed, the two scenes that stay in the memory are the extravagantly filmed parade, which is accompanied by the iconic 'When the Parade Passes By' and the culmination of all the plots in the restaurant scene. The restaurant scene is also the place in which we hear the film's title track and the famous duet between Streisand and Louis Armstrong. Talking of Streisand she's perfectly cast as the interfering widow who is full of life but at the same time is struggling to move on from her first husband. Walter Matthau is the ideal foil for her schemes as he perfects his grumpy old man character while Frank Spencer himself - Michael Crawford plays the idiotic Cornelius with great aplomb. In addition to the signing and performances, Hello Dolly! is beautifully designed with some brilliant costumes to boot. While it's never going to win any awards for subtlety, when it comes to an all-singing all-musical visual spectacular they don't come much better than this film.

Two years later, the next musical film arrived with Fiddler on the Roof - which documents the lives of one Jewish family living in Tsarist Russia in the early 20th century. Our narrator throughout the film is Tevye, played by Chaim Topol, a simple man who often bemoans the fact that God has given him five daughters. One of the film's unique narrative devices is the fact that Tevye regularly breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly. Tevye tells us about the small Jewish community that lives constantly in fear of the larger Christian community that neighbours the village. The Jews and the Christians live in peace but we get the impression that our characters are constantly under threat from attack. The bulk of the film's story sees Tevye's three eldest daughters all find love and marry someone they love, rather than someone who has been chosen for them by the town's matchmaker. Eldest daughter Tzeitel wishes to marry her poor childhood sweetheart Motel while second daughter Anatevka later accepts a proposal from idealistic Ukrainian scholar Perhick. Though Teyve's wife Golde disapproves, he manages to talk her around while at the same time the younger generation prepare to change the way things are done. However, the second half of the film gets bleaker as Teyve's community is moved from their homes by the Christians, while he also disowns third daughter Chava after she secretly marries one of the Christian boys. Though ultimately the entire community is moved from their homes there is a sense that things will only get better.

Of the three musical films I'm writing about, I would say that Fiddler on the Roof is definitely the least memorable. Indeed, probably the strongest element of the entire film is Topol's lead performances as he really makes a connection with the audience right from the beginning of the picture. His warmth and passion for the character really makes you believe in Tevye's motivations and you feel for his plight throughout his story. There are only a few songs that are truly memorable with 'If I were a Rich Man' and 'Matchmaker' being the two prime examples. In addition, there are a number of interesting set pieces most notably the scene at Tzeitel and Motel's wedding where Perhick encourages the men and women to dance together. However, at almost three hours in length, the film really started to drag and I felt the bleak aspect of the final third of the movie really added to this fatigue. While Fiddler on the Roof isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, it wasn't one that I truly connected with in the way that I did with the final musical on the list.

That musical, released a year after Fiddler on the Roof, is Cabaret a film that is loosely based on the Broadway production of the same name. I say loosely as director Bob Fosse discarded many of the songs from that film and got lyricists Kander and Ebb to write new songs. In addition to the song changes, Fosse scrapped many characters and brought in some new ones to freshen up the tale. He also changed the lead character of Sally Bowles to an aspiring English movie star who couldn't really sing to an aspiring American movie star with an amazing voice. In the film, Sally meets young Englishman Brian Roberts who has come to Berlin to teach English. Sally, who is a lead attraction at the seedy Kit Kat Club, builds an attraction to Brian as both rent rooms in the same rundown apartment block. Though the pair begin a relationship, Sally's head is soon turned by rich baron Maximilian who can offer her the finer things in life. Eventually all three spend a weekend at the baron's family home where both end up having sexual encounters with the rich German. The film's backdrop is the rise of the Nazi movement in Berlin in the early 1930s as the Jews are attacked and a subplot involving a friend of Brian's explores religion and love. Meanwhile, Sally discovers she's pregnant and wonders whether or not to keep the baby.

As opposed to the other two musical films on the list, all of the songs in Cabaret are performed rather than used as an alternative to dialogue. The vast majority of these songs are performed in The Kit Kat Club by either Sally or the shadowy Emcee, the film's narrator and host at the club. The character of Emcee is an interesting one as he doesn't interact with any of the characters apart from Sally and that's only through the method of song. Though Emcee's songs do reflect the plot of the film, we see that they are all being performed to a club full of punters. Instead of being particularly uplifting, these songs are often sinister in nature talking about money-grabbing, sharing sexual partners and being unlucky in love. The tone of the film is perfectly exemplified in one scene in which Emcee and his backing group perform a dance routine that mocks the Nazi regime. To me, the film is one of the best examples of the screen musical as every song adds to the plot rather than detracting from it. From the opening bars of Willkommen to Sally Bowes' glorious love song 'Maybe This Time' to the final bursts of its title track, Cabaret's musical score is extraordinary. The film was incredibly successful at the 1973 Oscar ceremony, winning eight awards and earning the distinction of being the most-rewarded movie at the Oscars not to win Best Picture. Among the award-winners were Liza Minnelli who was absolutely captivating as the lovelorn and eccentric Sally Bowes. Meanwhile Joel Grey also picked up a supporting actor statuette for his role as the sinister yet entertaining Emcee. Bob Fosse's outstanding direction was also honoured as were the film's stunning cinematography, score, sound, art direction and editing. As you can tell I really enjoyed Cabaret and, in any normal year, it would've won Best Picture but it did come up against one hell of a contender.

Next time we'll look at the rise of the epic disaster movie with two Oscar nominated examples of the genre.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 182: Cold War Comedy

A few days ago I talked about Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove and how it mocked America's attitude to the nuclear missile crisis. Two years later Norman Jewison made The Russians Are Coming, The Russians are Coming which looked at America's attitude towards The Cold War. The film sees a group of Russian soldiers take a detour and end up on the New England coast. They then decide that they must find a motorboat to safely return them to their submarine and decide to pose as Norwegian tourists. They happen on the holiday home of Carl Reiner's frustrated writer Walt Whittaker who has come to the town in the hope of finishing his novel. He is surprised when the two Russian officers turn up at his house and soon hold his family at gunpoint until he gives them the keys to his car. Whittaker eventually overpowers the young officer who is tasked with guarding them and goes into town to try and find out what the Russians are actually up to. Meanwhile news of the Russians' presence in the town has been circulating and has led to mass hysteria breaking out. The town's level-head police chief attempts to get to the bottom of the case however some of the more vocal locals try to get their case heard. Meanwhile Whittaker starts to warm to Russian Lieutenant Rozanov, played by Alan Arkin in his first film role, and realises that he's not such a bad guy after all. The film builds up to a massive climax in which the townsfolk descend on the Russians while they in turn threatent to blow up the town. However a potential tragedy then breaks out which seemingly brings them all closer together.

The Russians are Coming is much more of a standard comedy than the much more subtle Dr Strangelove. The laughs essentially stem from the fact that the Russians are on the whole quite cool and calm while the Americans are a lot more hysterical. The whole thing has a farcical element about it but this is stopped from getting out of hand by the Russian characters who you could believe would actually kill. Personally I couldn't believe that this was Alan Arkin's first film role as he was great as the incredibly calm Rozanov who got increasingly more baffled by events in the town. Carl Reiner was also the perfect choice to play the American writer as he can get laughs based on his facial expressions alone. The supporting cast where also brilliant as a paranoid bunch who felt the Russians were there to attack them rather than simply to get back to their submarine. William Rose's screenplay is packed full of obvious yet funny jokes as well as few very well-choreographed set pieces. One element that didn't really work for me was the romance between the young Russian officer and the Whittaker's babysitter however that was mainly due to the actors rather than anything else. Overall The Russians are Coming is a lightweight comedy which doesn't have any of the political message that Dr Strangelove does. But at the same time I can't say it wasn't entertaining though I'm still not sure whether it deserved a Best Picture nomination.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 170-171: Simply Sidney

For those of you who have been following the Oscar challenge you will now that when I can I group a number of films together by actor or genre. This is true of this latest trio of films all starring Sidney Poitier who historically was the first African-American actor to become a big star and in terms of this was also the first black male to win an Oscar outside of the honorary categories. We first met him at the tail end of the 1950s in The Defiant Ones for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and his golden touch continues with all the three films in this list winning at least one award. As you can imagine with a black actor in the 1960s a lot of these films deal with racial prejudice with Poitier often playing against how people of his colour were often portrayed here playing doctors and detectives. But we'll start off with a film in which he neither plays a professional nor is race the main issue.

The film I am referring to is Lilies of the Field the film that won Poitier his Best Actor Oscar and sees him play Homer Smith a drifter and jack-of-all trades who has no fixed abode. When his car runs out of water one day he stops to fill it up at a convent run by Eastern European nuns with the mother superior of the outfit hiring Homer to do some work around their property for the day. However after a while he discovers the mother superior won't let him leave until he has built them a chapel and he soon learns from others the exploitative nature of these nuns. At the same time he sympathises with their struggle to leave their native Germany, they had to climb over the Berlin Wall, and as he had always wanted to be an architect he sets about trying to build the chapel. As word spreads people from the community, mainly Hispanics, come to lend support and materials however Homer refuses their help wanting this to be a single-handed project. He eventually gets the help and the chapel is finished however Mother Maria is too proud to let him stay and so he slips away while the other sisters are singing one of the Baptist hymns he taught them. Lilies of the Field is such a simple film but at the same time is lovingly produced and well put together by director Ralph Nelson. The main theme of the film here is outsiders coming together in this case an African-American drifter, a group of East German nuns and poor Hispanic families as they work to construct something that the community can be proud of. Poitier's performance is larger-than-life with his laughter being infectious and his general aura radiating from the screen he is tasked with leading the film for the most-part and does an excellent job. The desolate locations are well-filmed by Ernest Haller and there is also an excellent supporting performance from Lilia Skala as Mother Maria which earned her an Oscar nod also. This was just a lovely simple tale about family and taking the gifts that are offered to us when they are given.

Four years later, at the 1968 ceremony, Sidney starred in two of the five films nominated for Best Picture including the movie that went onto to win Best Picture that year - In the Heat of the Night. In this film the plot is centred around Poitier's Virgil Tibbs' race as he hauled to the police station in Sparta, Mississippi as he believed to have killed a man he had never met. The racist police Chief Bill Gillespie, played by Rod Steiger who won a Best Actor Oscar for this film, is embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is actually a homicide detective and devices ways to keep him around in order to have his help on the murder case. As Tibbs' targets the wealthiest man in Sparta he soon his confronted by a mob who threaten his life and he is advised by Gillespie to leave the town however a defiant Tibbs refuses until he's solved the murder. Tibbs is able to link the crime to the pregnancy of a local teenager who police officer Sam Wood had taken a liking to and after a conversation with the local backstreet abortionist he is able to track down his man. However will it be too late for Tibbs who has angered even more of Sparta's residents during his snooping. In the Heat of the Night is an excellent film showing racial prejudice at its most extreme with the scenes in which Tibbs his hunted down by a mob being very shocking indeed however the film is also keen to point out that Tibbs is also prejudice against many of the Sparta police department seeing them as stupid. Though Poitier does lend almost a moral backbone to the film it is Rod Steiger who is the star here as Gillespie learns some tolerance and some respect towards Virgil towards the end of the film. There were some points when I watched In The Heat of the Night where I wondered if it should've won the Best Picture award but this film had a good central mystery as well as having a good message about not judging anyone on where they live or the colour of their skin.

The colour of skin also has a massive impact in Poitier's last film here the outstanding Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Here Poitier plays widower doctor John Prentice who while on holiday in Hawaii meets Christina Drayton and falls in love planning to marry her but first wanting to get the consent of her parents who he thinks will worry that a black man is with their white daughter. Christina's parents, played by the brilliant Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey the latter in his final film role, have always preached her tolerance but her father Matt is concerned now that he may have a black man as a son-in-law. Things get more complicated when John's parents decide to fly in for dinner despite the fact he has yet to tell them that he wishes to marry a white girl. The film is essentially based around people's opinions of a mixed-race couple for example if love is more important than the colour of someone's skin. I just found it hard to fault Guess Who's Coming to Dinner apart from the fact that I think Poitier should've shown up in the acting categories alongside Hepburn and Tracy both of whom shine throughout this wonderful film. Possibly it's not as cinematic as it could been but the performances and script are flawless throughout so by the time Tracy delivers his final monologue you'll be entrnaced. For me this was the better of the two Poitier films released this year due to its themes, acting, music and script. Though out of the three films this is the one in which Poitier has the least to do yet his presence is still felt which is the mark of a great actor as is the fact that everyone of the roles in these three films he plays very differently.