Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 363-364: Crowe's Best Part One

So we've made it through the 20th century and as we celebrate the new millennium; I continue my look back of Oscar-nominated films this time of the noughties. We start with a celebration of the films of one actor who received three acting nods during the decade as well as starring in four Oscar nominated movies.

The actor in question is Russell Crowe who we first met in L.A. Confidential in which he played the rough and ready Bud White. Although Crowe's physical presence was well-utilised during Curtis Hanson's film he also shone during the quieter scenes. Crowe's role in Michael Mann's The Insider couldn't be more different as he donned glasses and had his hair greyed in order to play the perfectly ordinary scientist Jeffrey Wigand. What made Wigand different was the fact he decided to blow the whistle on his former employees; tobacco company Brown and Williamson and reveal that they perjured themselves when they denied that nicotine was addictive. The Insider follows Lowell Bergman, a producer for '60 Minutes', who tried to convince Wigand to appear on the show before turning his attention to his bosses at CBS who refused to air his interview in full. Although it scrutinises the media somewhat, Eric Roth's screenplay almost turns The Insider into a thriller as Wigand's life is threatened in attempt to get him not to talk. Despite their obvious flaws, I was rooting for the film's two major characters throughout as Wigand wrestled with his personal life and struggled to continue after his wife left him. Meanwhile, Bergman's fight for media integrity was an honourable one and it was clear that he was incredibly protective of his source.

Crowe's performance is incredible throughout the film and he makes the rather meek Wigand into a likeable lead character. Crowe brings out the character's small intricacies as he balances Wigand's rather nervous energy with his occasional angry outbursts. After having watched several of his films from the past decades, I felt that Al Pacino gives one of his best turns as the passionate Bergman. The character was different from the gangsters and robbers that Pacino played in the past and I found him captivating throughout. In the supporting role of '60 Minutes' host Mike Wallace, Christopher Plummer shone and I think he deserved a Supporting Actor nod. Away from the acting, I felt that The Insider was a perfect example of how films can use the visual image to tell a story. From Dante Spinotti's grainy cinematography to its tense score everything about The Insider is superb. Although I'd watched the film before, not much of it had stayed in the memory but upon this second viewing I found it to be an extraordinary piece of work. This time The Insider will definitely stay in my memory and I feel that it would've made a great Best Picture winner at the 2000 ceremony. That being said The Insider failed to win any of the seven Oscars it was nominated for and I think this is a great shame. I believe that Crowe was particularly overlooked as his performance was maybe too subtle for the academy to honour him at the time.

Thankfully, one year later, Crowe would win the Best Actor award for playing a character who was anything other than subtle. That film was Gladiator and would see Crowe hacking off the heads of men, women and tigers alike in order to avenge his murdered wife and child. I have several vivid memories of watching, or not watching Gladiator, as I was originally intending to see it on release only for my bus to the cinema to be held up and the usher not let me into watch the movie. I then initially saw it on a school coach trip back from Belgium, before finally buying it on DVD and viewing it in the comfort of my own living room. I'm honestly not surprised that Gladiator won the Best Picture Oscar as Ridley Scott's film harks back to an old-fashioned sort of film-making albeit one made with a 21st century budget. Scott's relaunch of the sword and sandals epic would mean that we would have Gladiator wannabes for years to come but this was certainly a visual treat. The film's final third, depicting the Roman Coliseum was a particularly stunning piece of cinema with the Maltese locations acting as an authentic backdrop. Meanwhile the period costumes were incredibly designed and the score, although a little embellished at times, helped create a certain atmosphere. John Mathieson's cinematography helped capture every facial expression, every battle and every movement with pinpoint precision. For the majority of the film I couldn't take my eye off the screen and that's a testament to Mathieson's work as well as Scott's overall vision.

If Gladiator has one weakness then it's in its screenplay as I found a lot of the scenes were overly expositional. Indeed, there are scenes in which characters simply list their traits to one another which is witnessed just before Commodus murders his father. In fact I'm surprised the screenplay even received an Oscar nomination as the film really thrived in the moments where there was no dialogue at all. That's mainly due to the fact that Crowe has such an expressive face that can tell a lot more stories than what's written on the page. Plenty of the scenes in Gladiator see Maximus reacting to the situation he finds himself in with actions not words and this allows Crowe to play to his strengths. The scenes that focus on his expression as he meets with enemies both on the battlefield and the arena are some of Gladiator's strongest. Crowe's Maximus is every inch the hero and luckily Joaquin Phoenix portrays Commodus as the oily, cowardly villain that he's meant to be. Phoenix was Oscar-nominated for his turn in this film which would be his first massive role and I found him to play the role to perfection. Connie Nielsen also deserves some praise for her role as Commodus' sister/love interest Lucilla; a strong female who doesn't quite know where her heart lies. As a fan of classic British cinema; Scott has loaded the supporting cast with some famous faces including Derek Jacobi, Richard Harris and Oliver Reed. Gladiator would actually be Reed's last film role, he died during filming, and I felt it would be a wonderful tribute to the man if he were at least nominated for his role as gladiator trainer Proximo. On reflection Gladiator deserves the five Oscars it won however it missed out on both the art direction and cinematography awards which I felt was a mistake. Ultimately Ridley Scott has made an old-fashioned epic with a modern twist and has cast a wonderfully expressive actor in the lead role.

Next time we conclude our Russell Crowe quadruple-bill with two more Oscar-nominated offerings from the Kiwi powerhouse.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 173: Even More Musical Melodies

Back again with another double bill of musicals kicking off with a film that sneaked its way into being one of the five nominees at the 1968 ceremony.

Possibly the least impressive of the four films in this blog is the only one I hadn't seen before that being the original 1967 version of Doctor Dolittle. For me the film is most famous for two things Rex Harrison and the song 'If Could Talk to the Animals' however after reading around the production it seems it has an infamous backstory. Originally projected to cost only $6 million dollars the end budget almost tripled that and the film was known as the picture that almost bought Warner Brothers to its knees. The only reason I'm watching it is due to the studio launching a rather aggressive campaign in which it wined and dined Academy members in order to get seven nominations. It won two deservedly for the ahead-of-their-time special effects, which included a two headed llama and a giant snail, as well as for the aforementioned song. Rex Harrison, who wasn't nominated, was brilliant as the former people doctor who'd turned to animals and learnt to communicate with them but had angered several people around him because of this. The first half of the film deals with his past while the second half sees him take off to find the elusive Great Pink Sea Snail eventually ending up on the floating Sea-Star Island. Personally I'm not quite sure what audience this film is aimed at as many of the songs would be too much for the kids while the romance between Dolittle's assistant played by Anthony Newley and the snotty-nosed Emma is really uninvolving. Bar Harrison, a couple of the songs and the effects this is could be described as a white elephant of a film, incidentally not one of the animals that Dolittle deals with, as large set-pieces on the island plus one at a circus fail to provide any interest. In a year in which more interesting films should've taken the Best Picture slot that Dolittle ended up getting it proves just how easily-influenced the Oscar panel were back in the 1960s and depending on who you listen to not a lot has changed in term of the way things work today.

Ending on a more positive note with the film that won the Best Picture at the final 1960s Oscar ceremony that being Oliver! Unlike a lot of these films, which were basically screen musicals adapted almost note-for-note, the film version of Oliver! changed some roles, got rid of some songs and made the whole thing seem more like a film. For example the second half of the film version has a lot less songs than the stage version does which makes it seem rightly a lot more dramatic and less light-hearted than the first half. Not that you can say most of the plot of Oliver! is generally light-hearted dealing as it does with an orphan who runs away from the workhouse to end up working for a gang of young thieves led by a cunning Jew and a woman-beating Neanderthal. Obviously I'm referring there to Oscar nominee Ron Moody's Fagin and Oliver Reed's Bill Sikes who was a character that had a minimal role in the musical but appears more for the film audience to realise that he's no good. Like Mary Poppins, Oliver is one of the films on this list that I have watched many times before however I approached it this time thinking does this feel like a Best Picture winner? My answer would probably be yes but from an earlier decade as by this time the Academy was awarding more alternative films for example the prior winner to Oliver! was In the Heat of the Night and the one after was Midnight Cowboy. What Oliver! is is a brilliant musical with fine turns from Moody, Reed, Shani Wallis as Nancy, Harry Secombe as Mr Bumble and Jack Wild as The Artful Dodger who was the only other cast member to get an Oscar nomination. There are some great set pieces namely in the 'Consider Yourself' and 'Who Will Buy' numbers the latter of which is one of my favourite moments. However as I am one for darker stuff I love the last twenty minutes most notably Fagin and Dodger's reprise of Reviewing the Situation as well as the eventual capture of Bill, hell even Bullseye the dog is brilliant. In 1969 film was changing however if you'd watched Oliver! as a representation of what movies were like at the time then you wouldn't know it although it is an excellent musical I feel that something grittier could've possibly won in its place but then again I haven't watched its competitors yet so only time will tell.

OK  more Oscar blogging to come soon with an Audrey Hepburn double coming up next.