Trivia

[Big Magilla]

The film that has the closest connection to this year's Oscar slate has to be 2013's Ain't Them Bodies Saints, which starred Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, Keith Carradine and Nate Parker.

It was directed by David Lowery whose Pete's Dragon Casey Affleck had to drop out of to replace Matt Damon in Manchester by the Sea.

One of Mara's co-stars in last year's Carol was Kyle Chandler, who is one of the co-stars in Manchester by the Sea.

Ben Foster, whose Hell or High Water was nominated for Best Picture, narrowly missed a nomination himself this year.

Nate Parker, whose Birth of a Nation was the other breakout hit at Sundance last year, was the early Oscar favorite. He plays Affleck's best friend in Saints.

The cinematographer was Bradford Young, nominated this year for Arrival.

[FilmFan720]

I'm thinking Scorsese has had the best showing in this angle -- his films have won Oscars in all categories but original screenplay (both Gangs of New York and The Aviator were at least nominated there), original score, song (The Hands That Built America was actually the favorite there, but lost) and make-up. Is there some other director I'm not thinking of?

It's tough to compare different eras (because the categories were different), but William Wyler's run was pretty stellar -- the only area his films missed (as far as I can see) is Original Song. That's excluding Makeup and Sound Editing which weren't official categories during his era.

David Lean comes close, missing only Actress, Original Screenplay, and Song (plus Sound Editing and Makeup, which were mostly post-Lean's career). He did win in both Color and B/W for Art Direction and Cinematography, if that counts!

Fred Zinnemann is also in the general ballpark.

[dws1982]

More an oddity than trivia, but...

Two years ago, Whiplash rather unexpectedly won Oscars for sound mixing and film editing. Sunday night, Chazelle's follow-up film was widely expected to win those two prizes, but didn't.

Partly as a result of this, Chazelle, with only two films, has scored Oscars in 9 separate categories (and for a minute it was 10).

Who knows?--maybe his Neil Armstrong movie will score in a few other categories (Actor? Sound Editing? Visual Effects?) to bring the total up even more.

[Big Magilla]

Wyler's Funny Girl was nominated for Best Song - the title song, which was composed for the film.

[Mister Tee]

I'm thinking Scorsese has had the best showing in this angle -- his films have won Oscars in all categories but original screenplay (both Gangs of New York and The Aviator were at least nominated there), original score, song (The Hands That Built America was actually the favorite there, but lost) and make-up. Is there some other director I'm not thinking of?

It's tough to compare different eras (because the categories were different), but William Wyler's run was pretty stellar -- the only area his films missed (as far as I can see) is Original Song. That's excluding Makeup and Sound Editing which weren't official categories during his era.

Yeah: I guess Ben Hur and Mrs. Miniver cover most of it by themselves. Sammy Cahn's line in 1959 -- that he was glad Ben-Hur didn't have a theme song -- still holds up.

[The Original BJ]

I'm thinking Scorsese has had the best showing in this angle -- his films have won Oscars in all categories but original screenplay (both Gangs of New York and The Aviator were at least nominated there), original score, song (The Hands That Built America was actually the favorite there, but lost) and make-up. Is there some other director I'm not thinking of?

It's tough to compare different eras (because the categories were different), but William Wyler's run was pretty stellar -- the only area his films missed (as far as I can see) is Original Song. That's excluding Makeup and Sound Editing which weren't official categories during his era.

[Mister Tee]

More an oddity than trivia, but...

Two years ago, Whiplash rather unexpectedly won Oscars for sound mixing and film editing. Sunday night, Chazelle's follow-up film was widely expected to win those two prizes, but didn't.

Partly as a result of this, Chazelle, with only two films, has scored Oscars in 9 separate categories (and for a minute it was 10).

I'm thinking Scorsese has had the best showing in this angle -- his films have won Oscars in all categories but original screenplay (both Gangs of New York and The Aviator were at least nominated there), original score, song (The Hands That Built America was actually the favorite there, but lost) and make-up. Is there some other director I'm not thinking of?

[Big Magilla]

That was veteran character actor John McGiver, one of the busiest film and TV actors from the late 50s to the mid 70s, as O'Daniel, the preacher.

He was unforgettable in Love in the Afternoon, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, The Manchurian Candidate and so many others. He was even good as Babcock in the godawful film version of Mame.

[ITALIANO]

What with the movie-balcony scene as well as the scenes involving Barnard Hughes (traveling salesman?) and the revivalist preacher, I think Joe Buck was openly portrayed as being at least "gay for pay."

Except that having sex with a man for money doesn't make one gay (and many who do it are actually deeply homophobic).

[Greg]

What with the movie-balcony scene as well as the scenes involving Barnard Hughes (traveling salesman?) and the revivalist preacher, I think Joe Buck was openly portrayed as being at least "gay for pay."

[Big Magilla]

The tag line for the film was "Whatever you hear about Midnight Cowboy is true."

[ITALIANO]

In any event, Wikipedia has it on its list of LGBT-related films.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_L ... ed_films#M

Yes, but for ezample even The Maltese Falcon and - again - Red River are on that list. It has a gay subtext, but that doesn't make it a gay movie.

[Big Magilla]

Many of the first people to see the film in 1969, gay and straight, were familiar with the novel on which the film is based.

In the novel, Joe Buck is confused as to his sexual identity. Readers of the novel took that with them to the film and read between the lines. In any event, Wikipedia has it on its list of LGBT-related films.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_L ... ed_films#M

[ITALIANO]

While we hardly have a consensus, it's interesting to me that three straight people say it's a gay movie and we have two gay people who say it isn't.

I don't know if the fact that Mister Tee, Big Magilla and anonymous are 100% straight is really the point. And for example, I can't deny that, while hardly pro-gay, for example The Children's Hour, The Killing of Sister George and, years later, the infamous Cruising ARE gay movies. And in Europe even in the 60s there were several movies with an explicit gay content. I understand that, seen today, their approach to the subject is hopelessy dated - yet they did openly dealt with it.
Midnight Cowboy is a fascinanting movie, and you feel that its subtext is deeply homosexual. But I wouldn't say that it actually and fully dares to explore the theme and when it does it, it's by denying it. But you are right - it mirrors the kind of self-denial which was, back then, the rule. As far as gay movies go, Midnight Cowboy is as "in the closet" as many gay people of the time were. I'm just not sure that I can say the same about the two main characters.

[OscarGuy]

While we hardly have a consensus, it's interesting to me that three straight people say it's a gay movie and we have two gay people who say it isn't. Maybe it's all a matter of perception in terms of gay identity and how a film like Midnight Cowboy, if it is an actual gay movie, is utterly disempowering to homosexuals.

The one scene where Voight and Vaccaro engage and she suggests he's gay only to have him try and prove her wrong by overcoming his impotence, or what happens when he finally does have a gay encounter...these are hardly scenes worth celebrating in terms of the gay identity. Indeed, he's so repulsed with the idea that he goes to great lengths to admonish himself and disprove the issue.

Yes, some gay folk during the period probably did the same thing before acknowledging that they might be gay; however, many others identified and embraced it. If Midnight Cowboy is a gay film, it does not deserve any of the praise it receives as it suggests that hiding one's identity and never speaking it aloud is somehow laudatory.

Of course, that's just my interpretation.