Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 322-324: A Fiennes Trio of Films

Today Ralph Fiennes is considered one of England's finest actors and it's interesting that his success came quite quickly. After appearances in two TV movies, Fiennes' feature film debut saw him play Heathcliff in a 1992 adaptation of Wuthering Heights. His performance caught the eye of Steven Spielberg who decided he was the perfect person to play the despicable SS Officer Amon Goeth in Schindler's List.

In the film, which later went on to win Best Picture, Fiennes' performance is just one highlight in one of the best movies of all time. The film centres around Liam Neeson's Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who wants to keep the Nazi officers on side as the war begins. Throughout the film, Spielberg present Schindler as somebody who tries to keep everyone happy and who plays the fool in order to manipulate those around him. As Schindler builds a factory in Krakow, he enlists the help of Jewish accountant Itzthak Stern to draw up a list of workers. As the building of Schindler's factory coincides with the Nazis attack on the Polish Jews, Stern tries to save as many people as possible by employing them at the factory. Schindler is initially presented as somebody who doesn't care about the struggle of the Jews and turns a blind eye to Stern's recruitment process. Indeed he views the murder of the workers as a hindrance to productivity rather than a needless loss of human life. The first time we get the impression that Schindler's views are changing is when he witnesses the liquidation of the Polish ghetto. The brilliantly shot sequence features the iconic girl in red scene in which we see a hint of colour in an otherwise black and white film. Schindler's eye is drawn to the girl and it's only when we sees her red coat once again that he realises he must do something. Meanwhile the brutish Goth is won over by Schindler's bribes and agrees to let him build a new factory which is a front to save as many Jews as possible from going to Auschwitz. Compiling his titular list, Schindler's role as a saviour is documented in the final scenes in which the Jews thank him for saving their lives. 

Spielberg wanted Schindler's List to act as a documentary rather than a drama and this is clear in the final scene where the surviving members of Schindler's Jews arrive at his grave alongside the actors who portrayed him in the film. Spielberg clearly sets out to show that Schindler wasn't always a hero and when the film begins he is an unscrupulous charmer who is out for what he can get. His selflessness only manifests later on in the film and it's the brilliant performance from Liam Neeson that captures this perfectly. Neeson excels both in Schindler's early scenes as a charismatic businessman and in the more emotional moments as he breaks down in front of Stern just before the war comes to an end. Fiennes gives a scene-stealing turn as one of cinema's greatest villains as he coldly shoots Jews with no good reason and physically assaults his maid. But through Fiennes' performance we see that Goeth's actions are born out of a jealousy of people such as Schindler who are able to charm their way through life. Goeth's most sympathetic scene is when he tries to woo his maid as Fiennes briefly lets us see his character's more vulnerable side. But he doesn't stay sympathetic for long and by the end of the scene he becomes a monster once again. Praise must also go to Janusz Kamiński who cinematography is spellbinding as he helps Spielberg create the documentary-like feel he desired. John Williams' score is another of the film's triumphs as his Ben Kingsley's supporting turn as the quiet accountant Stern. In fact there are little negatives I can find in an almost perfect film and I think it deserved all the seven Oscars it won. I can't think that any of the other films nominated for Best Picture in that year was worthy of the accolade more than Schindler's List although you'll have to wait for me to make that decision when the decade is at an end. What I can say is that Ralph Fiennes was robbed of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as he gave an absolutely compelling turn as one of cinema's most loathed characters. 

That being said Fiennes didn't even receive a nomination for his next film appearance which was in Robert Redford's Best Picture nominee Quiz Show. Fiennes role as the intelligent and handsome Charles Van Doren is a million miles away from the brutish Goeth. Instead he plays a man who is won over by the trappings of fame after becoming a contestant on the iconic 1950s quiz show Twenty One. Van Doren is chosen as the new regular competitor on the programme to replace the nervy Herb Stampel whose popularity is waning in the eyes of the public. Right from the start of the film it's made clear that the quiz show is being controlled by the head of the NBC Network and by the programme's sponsor, a supplementary gel called Geritol. As Herb is no longer a ratings draw, Twenty One's producer Dan Enright convinces Herb to lose the next programme to Van Doren. Here it's revealed that the producers have been feeding Herb the answers to the questions and continue to rig the quiz by giving Van Doren questions he knows the answers to. These methods completely go against the way the show is viewed by the American public who believe that Twenty One's question are kept in a bank vault. Soon enough Van Doren becomes adored by the public whilst Herb tries to get revenge by exposing the corruption behind Twenty One. Newly graduated lawyer Dick Goodwin takes it upon himself to investigate the scandal and soon finds it tough to know who to believe. As with the rest of the population, Goodwin is charmed by Van Doren and finds Herb to be a volatile personality. But Goodwin soon finds the evidence he needs and hopes to expose the corruption in both NBC and sponsors Geritol. But Redford's final message is that the corporations themselves never pay and instead it's the little people who suffer. Both Van Doren and Herb lose the public's respect as a result of the scandal whilst Enright and host Jack Benny are soon making their fortunes from television once again. 

I knew very little about Quiz Show before watching it and I think that aided my enjoyment of the film. From the opening credits which play over a stylised version of the 1950s you know you're watching a classy film. Robert Redford's direction isn't incredibly original but he helps capture the fast-talking style of all of his characters and makes you care about the three central protagonists. Indeed this is a film about a trio of men; the impressionable Van Doren, the bland Herb and the ambitious Dick all of whom are corrupted by the quiz show scandal in different ways. As Dick, Rob Morrow is every inch the slick junior lawyer as he attempts to gain notoriety due to his part in uncovering the corruption at NBC. John Turturro is fantastic as Herb, a man who has a little charisma and who is visibly hurt by his rejection from Enright. Turturro especially excels at portraying Herb's volatile nature and how much it hurts him to get a certain question wrong. I personally felt that Ralph Fiennes put in a fine turn here as Van Doren, an intelligent man but somebody who is swallowed up the hype surrounding his Twenty One appearance. Fiennes demonstrates his charisma throughout the piece and his final speech to congress his delivered excellently. Fiennes has brilliant chemistry with Paul Scofield, the only nominated member of the cast, who plays his renowned poet father Mark. Scofield's performance makes up only part of a great supporting cast that includes David Paymer, Christopher McDonald and Martin Scorsese as a Geritol representative. The real star here is Paul Attanasio, who was Oscar-nominated for his fantastically well-paced and snappy adapted screenplay. Attanasio's screenplay launches attacks on well-known brands and lets us know that they don't care who they sacrifice along the way as long as the money keeps coming in. Ultimately Quiz Show is an easy-to-watch film with fine performances and a great screenplay which has an identifiable message behind it. 

After appearing in Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days in 1995, Fiennes' next film would see him get his only Best Actor Oscar Nomination to date. The film was The English Patient in which Fiennes played a character who, when we first meet him, is horribly disfigured after his plane crashes in Italy. As he won't live very long, French-Canadian nurse Hanna agrees to look after him primarily so she can get over the losses she's suffered recently. The mystery man, known as The English Patient, soon finds his life in danger when Canadian thief Caravaggio starts to take an interest in him. Caravaggio believes the man was directly involved with him being captured and tortured by the Germans so wants to take his revenge. Whilst all of this action takes place in 1944, the rest of The English Patient takes us back to Cairo of the late 1930s in which the mystery man is revealed as a map maker. In addition we learn he is not English but in fact the Hungarian Count László Almásy, who is part of the Royal Geographic Society. Joining The Count's expedition are married couple Geoffrey and Katherine Clifton the latter of whom catches the eye of our protagonist. It's not long before the attraction becomes mutual and the two begin an affair which they find easy to do when Geoffrey spends a lot of time away from his wife. But soon The Count finds himself being jealous of Katherine's interactions with other men and almost becomes abusive towards her. But there's no denying that there is still passion in their relationship and back in the Italian scenes The Count reveals the measures he took to care for the woman he loved. Ultimately The Count's words see both Carravagio and Hanna get what they want as he finally finds peace.

I remember my mum having a copy of The English Patient on VHS at one time and therefore snippets of the film seem familiar. However, as I was quite young I don't think I completely understood the fact that the film went backwards and forwards in time. When the film first began I was incredibly taken with Hanna thanks to Juliette Binoche's Oscar winning turn as the emotionally fraught nurse. Unlike something like The Thin Red Line where I never felt I really knew the characters, Anthony Mingella's adapted screenplay instantly made me warm to Hanna. Therefore it was the scenes set in Italy that I enjoyed more than the ones in the African desert mainly because the characters there were a little harder to like. It was only when Katherine appeared and the affair started that I began to care for The Count as Fiennes was able to portray his love for her brilliantly. It was great seeing Fiennes play the lead rather than take a supporting turn and his performance put me in mind of the classic film stars that we saw in the 1930s and 1940s. Every inch the charming lead, Fiennes made his character seem quite arrogant but also somebody who would do anything for love. Even in the scenes where he was covered in convincing make-up he still made us care for his plight right up to the bitter end. However, I felt that this film really belonged to the women as both of the central actresses really brought the film to life. As I previously mentioned Binoche lit up the screen as Hanna and she conveyed her characters loss as well as her capacity to find love with Sikh bomb disposal expert Kip. Kristen Scott Thomas is one of my favourite actresses and proved her worth here as the elegant Katherine. She and Fiennes also had a winning chemistry which made it easy to believe their love for one another.

The English Patient's other main strength is in its extremely striking visuals and so it's not surprising to learn that the film was showered with Oscars. John Seale's superb cinematography really brought the Tunisian and Italian exterior locations to life. Seale succeeded in taking the film's audience into both the African desert and the Italian countryside which helped to separate the two storylines. In his book, editor Walter Murch claimed that he initially struggled to intercut the two different timelines of the story. But I think he did an excellent job especially in the final scene in which we see both Katherine and Hanna reading the same story aloud. Gabriel Yared's score also adds to the overall feel of the film, particularly during the African scenes. Bringing all these elements together was the late Antony Mingella, who won awards both for his direction and screenplay. Mingella's vision for the film was perfectly realised in a film which I came to really enjoy over the course of the two and half hour runtime. What I liked most about The English Patient was the fact that this was a film set during war time but which focused more on how the fighting prevented the characters from ever truly being loved. Whether it was explosives ending lives or the paranoia that was present on both sides, the war really affected all the film's characters in different ways. However, I wouldn't describe The English Patient as a war film but rather a love story set during the time of war and I found that to be a refreshing change.

Next time we focus on a film that deals with both sexuality and race during a time of conflict. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 258-260: The Further Adventures of Redford and Newman

So here we are in the 1980s a decade in which the Oscar-nominated films weren't the most interesting being made at the time. In this decade I will be looking at familiar faces from the past decades and looking at what they're doing now while in addition focusing on some of the new stars of the era. I'll start though by delivering on a promise that I made in the last post and seeing what Robert Redford and Paul Newman got up to in the 1980s.

Strangely the first film on this list features neither Redford nor Newman but instead is the former's directorial debut. Interestingly, Paul Newman's directorial debut - Rachel, Rachel was also Oscar-nominated but Redford went one better and actually won the Best Director Award. Also winning that year's Best Picture statuette, Ordinary People focused on a seemingly normal suburban family who were going through a terrible ordeal. Their older son Buck died in a boating accident the previous year whilst younger son Conrad, who was also in the boat, tried to commit suicide presumably at his guilt over causing the accident. The film starts just after a month after Conrad's return to the hospital and sees him taking up dad Calvin's suggestion of seeing a therapist. The therapist in question, Dr Berger, is quite long-in-the-tooth and doesn't appear to be that interested in what Conrad has to say. But, rather predictably in my eyes, the pair forms a relationship that grows into a stronger bond than that which Conrad shares with his mother Beth. Throughout the film, Beth is constantly trying to prove that everything is alright and that her family is completely normal, when in actuality they are far from it. An early scene at a friend's party shows the disparity between the couple as Beth is making idle chit-chat whilst Calvin is having an earnest conversation about his son's health. Calvin later finds himself caught in the middle when Beth snaps at Conrad for having quit the swim team without consulting them. Though Ordinary People is seen as Conrad's story, especially considering he is also involved in an awkward romantic plot, for me this is all about Calvin's failure to appease both of the people who loves dearly.

I did indeed feel that Ordinary People was as its best when focusing on the relationships between the three members of the Jarrett family. The strained relationship between Beth and Conrad was brilliantly handled as was the way that Calvin and Beth behave in private and when out with friends. I did feel that Ordinary People was less successful when we were dealing with Conrad on his own and especially when we saw him pal around with his school friends or attempt to romance choir member Jeannine. Similarly, Conrad's exchanges with Dr. Berger felt a little exaggerated and spoilt the realistic narrative that I feel Redford and the writers were going for. This was definitely an assured debut for Redford, however at times I did feel that he was a little obvious with he let his audience see. For example, I feel that the boating accident in which Buck died shouldn't have been part of the film and instead should have just been an event that the audience pictured in their own mind. I had a similar issue when Calvin was thinking about finding Conrad dead in the bathroom but I feel that ultimately this seen worked thanks to the facial expressions of Donald Sutherland. Indeed, I found Sutherland to be the best performer out of the central cast and he made Calvin feel the most real out of any of the major characters. Oddly, Sutherland was the only major cast member not nominated for an Oscar which I feel is a major oversight on the part of the academy. Best known for her work as the nation's favourite sitcom star, Mary Tyler Moore played a fairly unlikeable character in socially aware Beth. I felt Moore's performance was incredibly compelling and she shared great chemistry with Sutherland. Another sitcom actor, Judd Hirsch, was cast as Dr. Berger a role he played with vigour even if I didn't feel he completely pulled it off. Meanwhile, in his debut, Timothy Hutton was awarded with a Best Supporting Actor award for his role as Conrad. Though not perfect, Hutton was an engaging presence especially when he was onscreen with a member of the Jarrett family. Whilst Ordinary People was an interesting exploration into suburban life, it didn't exactly leave a lasting impression and therefore I'm not quite sure how it won Best Picture. In fact the only thing that's stayed with me about the film is its use of Pachelbel's Canon which is currently stuck in my head.

Whilst his buddy was jumping behind the camera, Paul Newman was staying very much in front of it, playing attorney Frank Galvin in The Verdict. Once a member of a major law firm, Galvin has recently has suffered a fall from grace due to his divorce and the fact that he hasn't been able to win a case. Galvin's old friend Mickey hands him a new case in which the family of a woman in a coma is suing the hospital that the feel put her in that condition. Five years ago, Debra Ann Kay went into the hospital to have a baby but was given the wrong anaesthetic and ended up comatose. Mickey gives the case to Galvin as he feels the Catholic hospital will most likely want to settle out of court. The hospital's lawyers offer Galvin £210,000 to settle but, after visiting Debra in hospital, he feels that he has to do the right thing and takes the case to trial. Frank is fighting a losing battle from the word go as he finds himself up against slimy defence attorney Ed Concannon and a bench full of lawyers. In addition, all of the doctors who were in the operating room are covering each other's backs and the only person who'll testify is an MD who regularly appears as a star witness. Even the trial's judge works against Frank as he seems as somewhat of an adversary. Just when it looks like Frank is out for the count, he figures out exactly why only one of the nurses wouldn't testify. He works with this particle of information and eventually finds a witness that will be able to testify against the hospital. I personally feel that The Verdict plays out almost like a sports film with Frank being the once great sportsman who now struggles to keep up with the youngsters. So, just like a sports movie, the final scenes let the audience decide whether Frank still has it or if he'll lose to somebody who has superior tactics.

The Verdict perfectly demonstrates the sort of role Paul Newman was taking at this point in his career. He was no longer Butch Cassidy or The Sting's Henry Gondorff and instead specialised in playing once great men who are past their former glory. Though he only was nominated for Best Actor here, it would be reprising the role of The Hustler's Eddie Felson that would finally win him the award four years later. His performance in The Verdict is a thing of beauty and perfectly demonstrates how Newman devotes himself entirely to his character. Despite his faults, we're rooting for Frank Galvin from the word-go as he's a man that's willing to do the right thing and essentially wants to right the wrongs he's made in the past. Every good hero needs an antagonist and James Mason plays his role as Concannon perfectly. Regularly cool, calm and collected; Concannon is later revealed to be a master manipulator and attempts to defend the hospital, fully knowing that they're in the wrong. Providing excellent support are Charlotte Rampling, as Frank's love interest Laura, and Jack Warden as his best mate Mickey. As well as marking Newman's final appearance in a Best Picture nominee, The Verdict marks the last appearance in this blog of Sidney Lumet. Lumet once again is able to direct a character-driven piece that provides shocks and ultimately makes us care about the outcome. Lumet was aided by a brilliant script from David Mamet, who creates a group of characters who feel realistic and are forced to make moral decisions that we may have to make at some point. The Verdict is definitely a stripped-down old-fashioned courtroom drama but it does what it does excellently. It's fair to say that, of the three films I've watched in this post, The Verdict was definitely the one I enjoyed the most so surprisingly it's the only one that didn't go on to win Best Picture.

Three years later, Robert Redford would go on to star in his final on-screen role in a Best Picture nominee, that being eventual victor Out of Africa. Though Redford's name appears first on the opening credits, he doesn't appear much in the film's first hour. Instead we follow the exploits of Karen Blixen, a Danish lady who early on marries her friend Baron Blixen and takes him to her family's farm in what is now Kenya. Once in Africa, Karen is introduced to Redford's big game hunter Denys through a mutual friend Berkeley Cole. As the philandering Blixen often leaves Karen to her own devices she starts to entertain both Berkeley and Denys. The First World War changes things in Africa, with Karen forced to move out of her farm and she later returns to Denmark after contracting a fairly serious disease. The second half of the film charts the course of the relationship between Karen and Denys as she moves him into her house and the two begin a courtship of sorts. But any opportunity to make their relationship into a more permanent arrangement is thwarted by Denys' lack of commitment and his insistence to live like a wild animal. Denys would rather fly his plane around then enter a serious conversation about marriage and Karen finally realises that their romance is doomed. Following a number of other tragedies, Karen prepares to leave Africa and hopes to reunite with Denys on more time before journeying to Denmark.

I feel that director Sydney Pollack really brought Karen's story to life due to the dazzling cinematography which perfectly captured the Kenyan scenery. The scenes that really stuck in my head were the set pieces involving Karen's first arrival into Africa and her first trip in the plane with Denys. The sweeping shots of the African countryside are perfectly accompanied by John Barry's majestic score. However, despite its visual grandeur, Out of Africa was beset by many problems, the first being its length. Clocking in at over two and half hours, the film had a meandering narrative that felt like it was trying to stick too much to the original source materials. In fact every detail of Karen's life was included in the film and I did feel as if Pollack could have edited Out of Africa down to about two hours. Though she is given some gorgeous costumes to wear, I never really believed in Meryl Streep's Oscar-nominated performance as Karen. As well as a wavering accent, she never really made me care about Karen's struggles and so I wasn't that disappointed when things didn't go her way. At times it appeared as if Redford was in a different movie to Streep as his performance of Denys almost felt like he was channelling an India Jones-esque hero. Though Redford and Streep did have some chemistry, it was still a stretch to believe in their on-screen romance which was the basis of the film's second half. To me the best performances came from the supporting cast namely Michael Kitchen as Berkeley and Klaus Maria Brandauer as Baron Blixen. Despite some stunning visuals, Out of Africa to me felt too over-indulgent and long-winded to be a really good film. Due to its important message and exotic locations, I can understand why it won Best Picture but I have a sneaking suspicion that there were better released that year that deserved it more.

So that's it as far as on-screen performances from Redford and Newman are concerned. Whilst another of Redford's directorial efforts will pop up in the 1990s, neither would appear in a Best Picture nominee again. I do feel that both, Newman in particular, have progressed a lot since we first met them and this post begins an interesting trend of following the career trajectory of actors who we've followed for quite some time. Continuing the theme next time is a film featuring a man who starred in two of my favourite nominated films from the 1970s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 256 and 257: Redford and Newman end the decade with a bang

Film partnerships are something that cinema has thrived on throughout the years from Laurel and Hardy to Abbott and Costello. During the early years of the 1970s, two films cropped up in the Oscar nominations that had Robert Redford and Paul Newman topping the bill. An established star, Newman was one of the top Box Office stars of the 1960s thanks to his roles in The Hustler and Cool Hand Luke. Meanwhile Redford was an up-and-coming name who would later usurp Newman as the top draw at the Box Office. As well as sharing this incredibly talented duo; both films are directed by George Roy Hill and often feel like pastiches of the genres they inhabit.

This assertion is certainly true of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, a film that is in many ways a send-up of the Western genre. Unlike other Westerns, Butch and Sundance doesn't take itself too seriously and instead often pokes fun at how silly some of the plot devices in these sorts of movies often are. Incredibly loosely adapted from the story of its titular outlaws, the film focuses on Butch and Sundance as they escape from America and try to start a new life in Bolivia. Butch and Sundance is a film of two halves, the first a fairly standard Western in which our central figures carry out a number of train robberies. After being tracked down by a group of determined lawmen, Butch and Sundance decide to abscond into Bolivia in order to lead new lives. They are joined by Etta Place, Sundance's teacher girlfriend, who realises that the boys aren't going to be able to rob banks in Bolivia until they learn Spanish. The sequences in which the pair attempt to learn Spanish are some of the film's funniest and they lead to some more memorable moments as Butch and Sundance become Bolivia's Most Wanted. I found the romantic subplot of Butch and Sundance incredibly endearing as it's clear that Butch has eyes for Etta. The sequence in which they ride around on a bicycle, to the strains of 'Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head', is a sweet moment in another wise action-packed adventure. Obviously, Butch and Sundance is famous for its closing sequence, a freeze frame shot in which we are to assume what happens to the duo. Though it's clear what the outcome will be, what's less clear is why I grew to love these men who essentially rob to make their living.

Part of the reason for empathising with these bank robbers is due to William Goldman's fantastic script which presents the bank robbers in a vulnerable way. Usually in a western we root for the lawman, but here Butch and Sundance are a couple of endearing figures who are just trying to make a living the only way they know how. Both characters aren't as macho as they'd have you believe, with Butch never having fired a shot in his life and Sundance not knowing how to swim. In addition, it's great to see a strong female character in Etta and it's easy to spot why both men are completely in love with her. I personally felt that the first half of the film dragged, but once the trio reached Bolivia things really started to get going and ultimately I believe Goldman deserved his Best Screenplay Award. Conrad L Hall was similarly deserving of his Best Cinematography Oscar primarily due to the different techniques he employs throughout the film. As well as the aforementioned freeze frame shot, Hall makes the film stand-out by having its first five minutes shot in a sepia tone before returning to a traditional colour print. The scenes in which the trio journey to Bolivia by boat are also well-presented via a series of still-frame shots which almost feel like a set of holiday photos. Another memorable aspect of Butch and Sundance is the song 'Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head' which became a hit as a result of the film and was another Oscar winner alongside the movie's score. I did feel that Katharine Ross was incredibly compelling as this sweet schoolteacher who decided she wanted to live a little and used her gifts to becoming an accessory to a series of bank robberies. But ultimately, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid belonged to Newman and Redford who played their roles to pure perfection. There was undeniable chemistry between the pair that made it easy to believe why these two trusted each other so much. Similarly it was easy to see why Hill turned to the duo again for a subsequent film that concerned another criminal duo, this time a pair of 1930s conmen.

But, whereas Butch and Sundance saw Redford and Newman share the screen, The Sting presented Redford's Johnny Hooker as the leading man. The opening twenty or so minutes of The Sting introduced us to Hooker, a fairly adept conman who pulls of an operation, not realising that he's stealing from notorious crime boss Doyle Lonegan. After blowing the money he stole and realising his lifes at risk, Hooker flees to Chicago and meets up with world-weary conman Henry Gondorff, played by Newman. Though the two are initially reluctant partners they eventually invent a scheme to steal millions of pounds from Doyle, partly as revenge for the murder of their mutual acquaintance Luther Coleman. Both introduce themselves to Doyle aboard a train, using aliases, and manage to convince him that they are bookie and disgruntled employee respectively. After Gondorff, posing as the bookie, manages to out-con Doyle, Hooker convinces him that they can take the bookie to the cleaners by rigging a horse race. From there all of the characters try to outdo one another, with the plot taking another turn with the introduction of Lieutenant Snyder, a corrupt officer who has a vendetta with Hooker. There are a couple of twists along the way that not even I saw coming whilst Hooker finds a brief romance with a down-to-Earth waitress. Just like with Butch and Sundance, the final scene ends with a shoot-out but unlike the duo's earlier film this one is played as just another con.

I did find it odd that Hill recruited Redford and Newman only to have them share a minimum amount of scenes together. Though they're working on the same con together, Redford spends most of his time with Robert Shaw's Doyle and Newman is often seen in another room. When they do share scenes together, their chemistry is still brilliant but to me these segments are few and far between. However, they do highlight how art imitates life with Newman's Gondorff being the world weary master to Redford's Hooker who still has a lot to learn After The Sting, Redford's star would surpass Newman's and sadly the pair didn't work together on the big screen again. As far as the film as a whole goes I thought it was visually brilliant, especially thanks to William H Reynold's Oscar-winning editing as he used plenty of unique methods to cut between scenes. In fact everything from the period detail, to the costumes and the Al Jolson score set it apart from other films being made at the time. Similarly, David S Ward's brilliantly crafted story keeps the audience guessing as we find we've been conned as much as the majority of the characters in The Sting. But, despite an entertaining story and a unique visual style, I didn't personally think The Sting had much going on below the surface. Though Butch and Sundance was presented in a similarly flippant style, the romantic plot involving Etta gave it a bit of depth and made the characters feel sympathetic. Despite enjoying their exploits, I didn't think Gondorff and Hooker were particularly well-rounded individuals and I didn't really connect with them as characters. Therefore I do wonder why The Sting went on to win the Best Picture prize at the 1974 ceremony, something I will address in my next post.

As for Redford and Newman, their careers would take different twists and turns during the rest of the decade. Additionally they would both go on to achieve success at the Oscars during the 1980s, something I'll explore in my first post looking at the Oscar ceremonies from that decade. But for now its goodbye to the 1970s, a decade that arguably had the most amount of quality nominees of all time.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 247-249: Don't Hassle the Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman was an actor we first came across during the 1960s section of this blog. Back then he had just made his first breakthrough, as Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, and this role catapulted him into the big time. Throughout the 1970s, Hoffman starred in three Oscar-nominated films and was nominated for Best Actor in two of them.

The first of these films was in fact the first Best Picture winner of the decade, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy. Though Hoffman was nominated for Best Actor, he lost to his co-star Jon Voight who gave a career-defining performance as hustler Joe Buck. The naive and emotionally-scarred Joe, starts the film as a Texan dishwasher who feels his only success is in pleasuring women. He decides to journey to New York in order to become a male prostitute but finds it tough to seek out clients and even finds himself paying out money to one of the women he has liaison with. He is later duped by Hoffman's conman 'Ratso' Rizzo who introduces him to what he believes to be a pimp, but is in fact an extreme Bible basher. Joe later seeks out Rizzo but the latter offers an olive branch when he invites Joe to live in the squat he calls home. The rest of the film sees the pair build up a friendship of sorts as they navigate their way through New York and attempt to survive on what they can find. Towards the end of the film, Rizzo's health begins to deteriorate just as Joe is beginning to build up somewhat of a client base. Instead of keeping an appointment with a wealthy woman, Joe decides to help his friend by buying them both bus tickets to Florida. The final scenes are rather emotional as the simple Joe, who has up to now worn nothing but a cowboy outfit, changes his look just as his friend loses his life.

Earning the honour of being the only X-Rated film ever to win the Best Picture award, Midnight Cowboy is a work of pure genius. The film is hard to watch at times but it is always brilliantly executed and contains some wonderful pieces of visual flair. John Schlesinger seems keen not to make Midnight Cowboy just a standard film and so the editing is great throughout as he inserts flashbacks and fantasy sequences into the narrative. The flashback scenes are particularly harrowing as we witness Joe and his girlfriend being raped and her later being carted off to an institution. I do feel that Midnight Cowboy was the film that ushered in a change to the Best Picture category, especially considering the previous year's winner was Oliver! Another of Midnight Cowboy's distinguishing features is its use of music with both John Barry's score and Harry Nilsson's 'Everybody's Talking' both sticking in the mind long after the film has finished. But to me the film belonged to two men - Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, whose partnership makes Midnight Cowboy the masterpiece that it is. Voight brings an innocence to Joe Buck that is incredibly endearing but also makes it clear that this is a man who has gone through an enormous amount of suffering in his life. Voight's wide-eyed innocence is perfectly counter-balanced by Hoffman's quick-talking as the charismatic 'Ratso' Rizzo. Hoffman is absolutely outstanding at making us sympathise with a man who could easily have come off as incredibly unlikeable in the hands of a lesser actor. Voight and Hoffman really make you care about Joe and Rizzo and I was really emotional when the final credits rolled.

Whilst Hoffman may have been overshadowed by Voight in Midnight Cowboy, the next Oscar-nominated film he appeared in was almost a showcase for his supreme talent. The film was Lenny, in which Hoffman starred as controversial stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce. The narrative structure of the movie sees the film begin with one of Bruce's later stand-up routines, as we see he has become a burned-out performer, before flashing back to where it all began. The film spends a lot of time concentrating on the relationship between Lenny and his stripper wife Honey, who hadn't been together long before tying the knot. However, it's a destructive relationship which falls apart due to his philandering and her problems with addiction. But their relationship does provide a child, who Lenny is forced to care for and so considers becoming a more family-friendly comic. Ultimately he finds that this is something he's unable to do as he delights in his controversial routine which is laden with profanities throughout. It is Lenny's mouth that later gets him in trouble when he is arrested for use of foul language and decides to defend himself. The final act of the film basically depicts Lenny's fall from grace and his ultimate untimely death from an overdose.

Lenny is an incredibly different film from a lot of what I have watched so far, in that it feels incredibly intimate and at the same time tells an incredibly broad story. As it's shot in black-and-white Lenny looks different from any other film released that year while in addition it employs several unique narrative devices. In addition to the non-linear nature of the plot, a lot of the film is made up of interviews with the characters who are giving their accounts of Lenny's life following his death. This way of telling the story allows screenwriter Julian Barry to let all of the characters get their perspectives across. Obviously the only character who isn't featured in these interviews is Lenny himself however the character looms large over every single scene. The dark nature of the film is intensified through the brilliant direction of Bob Fosse, whose attempts at editing the film are covered in a later entry to this blog. I feel that a lot of the stand-up scenes in Lenny are incredibly similar to the scenes in the club in Cabaret. The only difference is Lenny is performing a comedy routine rather than as a big musical number. Just like with Ratso, Lenny is another character that is hard to like but somehow Dustin Hoffman gives you reason to care about him. Hoffman is incredible during the stand-up scenes and proves what a magnetic screen presence he is when it is just him and a microphone on stage. Similarly great is Valerie Perrine, as Bruce's wife Honey, who gives a sympathetic performance as the stripper with an addictive personality. While Lenny is quite a self-indulgent film at times, there's no denying its a gripping biopic with a tour-de-force central performance. To me it signified that Hoffman was an actor who could turn his hand to anything and was one who wasn't afraid to shy away from more offbeat projects.

However, the final film in this triple bill is definitely the most traditional of the three. All the President's Men is an incredibly wordy biopic of how two Washington Post reporters ended up exposing serious corruption in Richard Nixon's government. Based on the book written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the film stars Robert Redford and Hoffman as the two reluctant partners on a case that appears initially low-key. The beginning point of the film sees new recruit Woodward being tasked with reporting on a courtroom story about five men who broke into the Watergate Offices. But soon this small story grows legs when Woodward discovers connections with the CIA and he feels that there is more to the tale than meets the eye. Though Woodward is portrayed as quite an intelligent young man, he still has a lot to learn about story layout and so is paired with the more experience Bernstein. Whereas Woodward is fairly level-headed, Bernstein is a lot more off-the-wall and this clash in personalities occasionally causes arguments. But eventually the men gain mutual respect for one another as they uncover some shocking secrets while at the same time struggling with the fact that most of their reports are based on unknown sources. Although some of the senior workers at the paper are not fans of the pair's procedures, they have the blessing of executive editor Ben Bradlee, who vows to stick with them even when the paper finds itself criticised. Though their story led to the resignation of Nixon, the film really doesn't hammer this point home and instead shows us a collection of headlines as its closing scene.

I feel one of the best things a biographical film can do is make you wonder what's going to happen next, when you already know the answer. That's what I felt throughout All the President's Men and I feel a lot of that can be attributed to William Goldman's Oscar-winning script. The film itself was a pet project of Redford who bought the rights to Woodward and Bernstein's book and had Goldman write a draft of the script. Though the script when through several drafts, the final product was incredibly outstanding and I feel that its dialogue-heavy nature influenced a lot of young screenwriters at the time. Indeed both this film and Network, which was released in the same year, had lots of scenes with men sitting around in rooms talking but somehow made them incredibly thrilling to watch. Though certainly the most dynamic member of the cast, Hoffman delivered his most toned down performance of this triple-bill. Hoffman's Bernstein is portrayed as being intrepid, if a little over-eager, and somebody who was always on the lookout for the next story. He is perfectly counter-balanced by the much cooler Redford and I feel the two make a great double act. At the time of the film's release, Redford was the biggest draw at the Box Office but here shared top billing with co-star Hoffman. However, neither was even nominated for Best Actor and the only acting award the film received was for Jason Robards for his compelling supporting turn as Ben Bradlee. Though All the President's Men isn't as dark as either Lenny or Midnight Cowboy, it was gripping throughout and was bolstered by two incredibly frantic performances. In addition I think its script has influenced a lot of the film and television that I love today and for that it deserves a large amount of praise.

Next time we take a trip back in time and head to Russia.