With all that happened in this year's edition, I don't really feel like talking about the Oscars. But I did promise I'd join every single
Thursday Movie Picks this year so here I am, writing this post even though I don't really feel like to. And since I don't feel like doing it, I'm going to pick directors that, in my opinion, should have NOT won the Best Director award.
Robert Zemeckis - Forrest Gump (1994)
While I loved the movie, I still can't believe it won both Best Picture and Best Director when Pulp Fiction and Tarantino were there to bring the awards home.
James Cameron - Titanic (1997)
Now, I haven't seen this film in years — I'm pretty sure I was still a kid when I last saw it — but I'm sure Cameron didn't deserve to win because Curtis Hanson was right there for L.A. Confidential, and he should have won.
Alfonso Cuarón - Roma (2018)
The 91st Academy Awards really pissed me off. The awarded Green Book as Best Picture, gave Rami Malek Best Actor when it was rightfully Bradley Cooper's — not to mention that it didn't make the Oscar possible for Taron Edgerton the following year —, and they gave Best Director to Cuarón when Bradley Cooper deserved it. And they even dared to not nominate Cooper for Best Director at all!
Oh don’t get me started on your first 2 because, to me, they are dreck! I can watch them, they are entertaining but nothing earth shattering. I think Shawshank deserved to win and Tim Robbins should havewon but he wasn’t even nominated which is a crime. I think anyone should have won over Gump. I love Quiz Show and Red. Kieslowski did his 3 colours and they are lol great so I think he should have won but my heart goes to Shawshank even though I love Pulp Fiction. Ughhh...Titanic, the special effects are brilliant but that’s it. I hate what Cameron did with this famous sinking. The much, much better film is A Night To Remember which is more truthful than the love boat sinking. Those 2 kids would have already frozen to death way befor with the amount of times they went into the cold water. Why...why would that old bird keep that rock for decades from a man she didn’t like only to throw it back into the ocean...idiot. I have not seen Roma yet and I know people are polarized with this film. I do need to see it just to find out which side of the fence I am on. My brother loves it but he loves Reds and that film is boring as dirt so I have a feeling I may be yawning when I watch Roma but time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI thought Quiz Show was okay, but Red arguably has better direction than Forrest Gump.
DeleteThis was an interesting route to take! I had a lot of "meh" moments when looking through the directors list for my choices. SOOOO many won who shouldn't have.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it was the same for me. And sadly, most categories are like this.
DeleteI agree with all of these, I would've easily given them to someone else.
ReplyDeleteWe share a pick with Roma though my reason for picking it is for a different and more personal reason. My dad hated the fact that Green Book won.
ReplyDeleteI read your post and I totally get why your dad loved Roma and hated Green Book winning.
DeleteLove the way you went with this!
ReplyDeleteI hate everything about Forrest Gump (except Sally Field) and that includes its direction.
I thought the story that they tacked onto the Titanic sinking was so much hooey and my vote would have also gone to L.A. Confidential but I do think that Cameron's direction of the mammoth production was estimable. Just not worthy of the prize.
Roma is one I've yet to see but I'm in agreement about what a clown car show that year's Oscars were.
While I love all three of my choices I chose them because I think their direction was the proper choice for the win they received.
The Awful Truth (1937)-Leo McCarey-A nearly divorced couple (Cary Grant & Irene Dunne) sense that they are making a mistake. Rather than saying it out loud they resort to outlandish pranks to ruin the new relationships the other partner has started. While it’s true McCarey has three of the best comic performers of the day (Grant, Dunne and Ralph Bellamy) at his disposal his deftness and surety of pace and camera angle capture them at peak performance.
Casablanca (1942)-Michael Curtiz-Of all the gin joints in all the world Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) walks into cynical ex-lover Rick’s (Humphrey Bogart) with freedom fighting husband Victor (Paul Henreid) while Sam (Dooley Wilson) plays “As Time Goes By” until gendarme Louis (Claude Rains) rounds up the usual suspects. Never has a sturdy directorial hand’s great influence been better illustrated. The filming was famously fraught with complications (the cast went through multiple changes before shooting started, the script wasn’t finished almost up to the final day of filming, writers came and went, two endings were filmed etc.) but that master of all genres Curtiz guided it along seamlessly never letting the havoc show onscreen.
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)-Joseph L. Mankiewicz-Three well-heeled ladies (Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern and Jeanne Crain) are about to take a boatload of children on a picnic to an isolated island when a letter arrives from their frenemy Addie Ross stating she has run off with one of their husbands…. without naming who. The women spend the day reflecting on whether it might be their man who has taken a powder. Mankiewicz directs his own screenplay with a just the right balance of humor and pathos eliciting superior performances from the cast.
I had no idea the filming of Casablanca met with so many complications. Curtiz really deserved the award.
DeleteI admire your dedication, Sonia!
ReplyDeleteFilms are so decisive and I would find it fascinating if we could read the notes and hear the decisions behind why one film won over the other.
I don't know, I feel like the vote randomly.
DeleteArt is subjective and isn't it just each individual member of the academy voting what they like...it is not a jury type of consensus, it is just whichever movie got the most votes wins.
DeleteThose are all great picks! Especially Forrest Gump, I've seen that film more times than I can count 😅
ReplyDeleteI agree that Forrest Gump is a very enjoyable film and I've seen it multiple times myself but I still think it did not deserve to win Best Director. Nor Best Picture.
DeleteNice picks! I like your subversion of the theme this week. I enjoy Forrest Gump, but I don't think it deserved Best Picture or some of its other wins. Though I think Cameron deserved it for Titanic, I still have to see L.A. Confidential. I'm interested to see if my opinion changes. I haven't seen Roma yet so I can't say I'm against him winning. But it was surprising Cooper didn't get a nod for Best Director when it was nominated for everything else.
ReplyDeleteThat's what infuriated me the most that year, they didn't even consider Bradley!
DeleteI'm never going to forgive them for not even considering Bradley Cooper!
ReplyDeleteSame!
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