Re: Best Original Story 1936
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:19 pm
This one is a no-brainer.
At this point, I feel like I can barely even distinguish these Deanna Durbin things from one another, so with Three Smart Girls, I just have to reiterate the usual criticisms: silly plot, boring musical numbers, no vote.
The Story of Louis Pasteur is a generic biopic of the era, which puts it way outside my sensibilities. I just find the entire conceit of the movie -- everyone who doubts Pasteur is clearly a dunderhead, just you wait until he proves the haters wrong! -- so simplistic. Plus, how is something based on fact an original story?
The Great Ziegfeld really just goes on and on, doesn't it? Not saying a shorter version would have ever had my vote, but this thing should have been 90 minutes tops, an excuse for some eye-catching musical numbers hung on a flimsy plot. But instead, we get a slog of dramatic scenes that proclaim seriousness without any real compelling thematic ideas to carry them along.
I guess San Francisco is my runner-up here, though almost by default. Still, I don't want to disparage the movie -- the build-up to the big disaster is entertaining enough, and despite setting the template for tons of movies to come, it's executed well enough that the plot doesn't feel too rote all these decades later. Of course, that doesn't make it the height of insightful dramatic writing either.
But Fury is the easy choice. The movie must have seemed incredibly potent at the time -- an era when lynchings were common occurrences in American life. But seen today, the entire swath of human history that has taken place since the film's release makes it seem astoundingly prophetic, as an examination of the kind of mob violence (and collective willingness to decry such actions) that would lead to horrors in Germany in the years ahead, as well as many collective sins of today, from the military torture of prisoners to the nasty brutalities of Trump rallies. And structurally, there's some very deft storytelling here -- the manner in which Sylvia Sidney finds out Spencer Tracy is alive is quite clever, yet the set-up for it doesn't come across as obvious. The ending, of course, is nominally "happy," but it doesn't really undercut the movie's cynicism either -- you don't, for instance, get the sense that anyone other than Tracy has learned that his blood lust and lies were actually wrong. An effort this complex would be a strong candidate in any year of the '30's, but given the pitiful competition here, it's the clear winner.
At this point, I feel like I can barely even distinguish these Deanna Durbin things from one another, so with Three Smart Girls, I just have to reiterate the usual criticisms: silly plot, boring musical numbers, no vote.
The Story of Louis Pasteur is a generic biopic of the era, which puts it way outside my sensibilities. I just find the entire conceit of the movie -- everyone who doubts Pasteur is clearly a dunderhead, just you wait until he proves the haters wrong! -- so simplistic. Plus, how is something based on fact an original story?
The Great Ziegfeld really just goes on and on, doesn't it? Not saying a shorter version would have ever had my vote, but this thing should have been 90 minutes tops, an excuse for some eye-catching musical numbers hung on a flimsy plot. But instead, we get a slog of dramatic scenes that proclaim seriousness without any real compelling thematic ideas to carry them along.
I guess San Francisco is my runner-up here, though almost by default. Still, I don't want to disparage the movie -- the build-up to the big disaster is entertaining enough, and despite setting the template for tons of movies to come, it's executed well enough that the plot doesn't feel too rote all these decades later. Of course, that doesn't make it the height of insightful dramatic writing either.
But Fury is the easy choice. The movie must have seemed incredibly potent at the time -- an era when lynchings were common occurrences in American life. But seen today, the entire swath of human history that has taken place since the film's release makes it seem astoundingly prophetic, as an examination of the kind of mob violence (and collective willingness to decry such actions) that would lead to horrors in Germany in the years ahead, as well as many collective sins of today, from the military torture of prisoners to the nasty brutalities of Trump rallies. And structurally, there's some very deft storytelling here -- the manner in which Sylvia Sidney finds out Spencer Tracy is alive is quite clever, yet the set-up for it doesn't come across as obvious. The ending, of course, is nominally "happy," but it doesn't really undercut the movie's cynicism either -- you don't, for instance, get the sense that anyone other than Tracy has learned that his blood lust and lies were actually wrong. An effort this complex would be a strong candidate in any year of the '30's, but given the pitiful competition here, it's the clear winner.