Best Picture and Director 1981

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Please make one selection each for Best Picture and Director of 1981 from among the nominees

Atlantic City
8
13%
Chariots of Fire
3
5%
On Golden Pond
2
3%
Raiders of the Lost Ark
9
15%
Reds
9
15%
Warren Beatty - Reds
15
24%
Hugh Hudson - Chariots of Fire
1
2%
Louis Malle - Atlantic City
6
10%
Mark Rydell - On Golden Pond
0
No votes
Steven Spielberg - Raiders of the Lost Ark
9
15%
 
Total votes: 62

FilmFan720
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by FilmFan720 »

On the list of non-nominated films, I would strongly advocate for Cutter's Way and Pennies from Heaven as the strongest of the films left off the list. Being the 80s, there is also some interesting more genre fare that was completely overlooked, most specifically Escape from New York this year. The Truffaut fan in me would also have liked to have seen some mention of The Woman Next Door.

I finally slogged through On Golden Pond, and as the film started going I thought to myself "well, this isn't nearly as bad as everyone says it is." Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn are charming enough in their roles, and the dialogue between the two of them is a little overwrought but nothing horrific. Then Jane Fonda and the kid show up, and the film just collapses pretty quickly. It is so strained (and Jane Fonda is so bad in this role) and obvious, and climaxes with a literal nosedive (which looks more like a belly flop...we are supposed to be impressed by that?) An embarassing nominee in both categories here, especially considering what could have been in its place.

Although, I must admit, I don't think Chariots of Fire is all that better. I find the film pretty dull until the end, and then the climax (with that horrible score) just sort of sits there. There is little excitement to the film at all. Had it not won here, or even been nominated, it might have been a sweet little film that time forgets, but burdened with the title of Best Picture it is an embarassing choice.

We are left, however, with three solid choices in both categories that I might consider in another year.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the lightest of the films left, but in many ways it may be the most "classic." It utilizes a lot of the best Spielberg has to offer: a balanced mix of humor and suspense, a flawed but interesting central character, a strong, complex action heroine (Spielberg doesn't get enough credit in this category) and some exceptionally framed action sequences. It doesn't have the depth of his best work, though, and I would much rather vote for his work to come.

Atlantic City is a film I should revisit, but I remember loving the simplicity of its storytelling and the two central performances. I thought about voting for it here, but I had to lean towards the epic grandness of Reds. It may be a flawed film, but the scope and Beatty's directorial choices are so fascinating, and the film moves so magnificently well for its length, that I have to cite the achievement here.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by nightwingnova »

I caught a nice slice of Raiders just yesterday for the first time in many, many years.

I remember how deliriously thrilled I was when I first saw it in the 80s.

Today, it still is well-made and holds its wry, ironic humor.

But, it seems unsophisticated and, compared to similar adventure flicks that it has spawned, not as compelling.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Big Magilla »

Raiders of the Lost Ark has broken a three way tie with Atlantic City and Reds to take the lead in one of our tightest races.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Heksagon »

This year's lineup has two excellent films (Atlantic City and Raiders of the Lost Ark), two good films (Chariots of Fire and Reds) and one genuinenly weak film (On Golden Pond).

It was very difficult for me to decide between Atlantic City and Raiders of the Lost Ark, because they are so different; The former is a more intimate and artistic film, whereas the latter is really just a popcorn film. However, Raiders may be the most impressive action film ever, and it's unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon. So after a lot of going back-and-forth, I chose to vote for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Chariots of Fire and Reds are also good films, but they are also uneven, as Chariots has its strengths and weaknesses, and Reds can't quite match its ambitions as an epic. I like Warren Beatty as a filmmaker, but he was maybe trying to chew a bit more than he could bite here. Reds, I think, I the better of these two.

(Reds is also special for me, because it is the only Oscar-nominated Best Picture which has even a small part set in Finland. A few of the film's background scenes were even shot in Finland; as was typical at the time, Helsinki was used to double as St. Petersburg/Leningrad which didn't allow American film companies at that time. As far as I know, Dr. Zhivago is the only other Best Picture-nominee to have any scenes shot in Finland)
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Eric »

01. Tango
02. Mommie Dearest
03. Possession
04. Ms. 45
05. Polyester
06. Lola
07. The Evil Dead
08. Springtime in Greenland
09. The Mystery of Oberwald
10. The Funhouse
Reza
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Reza »

Voted for Chariots of Fire and Steven Spielberg.

My picks for 1981:

Best Picture
1. Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson)
2. Gallipoli (Peter Weir)
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
4. Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
5. Ragtime (Milos Forman)

The 6th Spot: The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz)

Best Director
1.Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Peter Weir, Gallipoli
3. Warren Beatty, Reds
4. Hugh Hudson, Chariots of Fire
5. Louis Malle, Atlantic City

The 6th Spot: Karel Reisz, The French Lieutenant's Woman
Last edited by Reza on Sun Aug 11, 2013 2:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Okri »

I'll echo the love for Pennies from Heaven. Voted for Chariots of Fire and Hudson pretty easily.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by The Original BJ »

Now we're really starting to get into the '80's as usual. The worst slates of the decade would come in the years ahead, but at this point the dreary nominees consistently started to outnumber the exciting ones.

Of what I've seen, I'd probably rank Pennies From Heaven as the most worthy of inclusion. And I think Herbert Ross's direction is pretty impressive as well -- it's hard to believe the same man who gave us that painful '77 pair of Best Picture nominees could develop such an exciting vision for this project. And I get a pretty big kick out of Body Heat too.

I probably would rank Chariots of Fire at the bottom. If ever a movie owed its Best Picture win to the strength of its score, this one is it. And that Vangelis music IS pretty stirring (though anachronistic). But I find the plot to be pretty mundane. It flirts with some interesting ideas related to the religions of its two protagonists, but in a fairly half-hearted way, and for a movie about the Olympics, the stakes feel almost shockingly low. In some ways, I can see why this lack of bombast appealed to voters -- the movie certainly doesn't feel phony in the way many more audience-baiting sports dramas do. But at the same time, I feel like the movie is content to wallow in the genteel nostalgia of its atmosphere when a more dominant narrative filled with more compelling individuals would have resulted in an infinitely more engaging movie. Not the worst winner of the decade, but certainly not one of the better ones either. I guess the silver lining is that Hugh Hudson didn't Tom Hooper his way to the Director prize for such unengaging work.

Which is not to say that On Golden Pond was much better, although I do think the presence of Fonda, Hepburn, and Fonda Jr. does elevate the material to some degree. Obviously, no one is at their best here, but with three of the finest and most singular film actors on board, it's hard not to at least somewhat enjoy their interplay. That said, I would in no way argue that the actors REDEEMED the movie, not when it contains a script that's this aggressively maudlin, with one of the most trite parent/child reconciliation narratives in the history of the American theater. And then there's Mark Rydell, who just lays on the syrup in scene after scene, playing the material in the broadest manner possible, so that by the end of the film, everyone is just drowning in sentimentality. (Oh yeah, and I kept waiting for that kid to actually drown in the lake, good heavens that creature was annoying!) This is another movie that gets no consideration from me.

I wanted to like Atlantic City more than I actually did. There are strong elements -- especially the fantastic Burt Lancaster performance, but also a decent sense of what the East Coast beach resort atmosphere must feel like for people who actually live there, individually well-written scenes (not surprising, given the pedigree), and a poignant enough sense of nostalgia that envelops the narrative. But I also find the film overall to be a bit wispy, to not add up to all that much that actually resonates in a particularly lasting way. It's nice that Louis Malle got this one Director nomination for his career, and there's a sensitivity to the film overall that reflects his touch. Still, I would have liked more urgency to the narrative -- which doesn't contain too many plot surprises when you get down to it. I don't think Atlantic City is a BAD movie or anything, but it's not so exciting to me that I'd vote for it.

My choice comes down to Reds and Raiders of the Lost Ark, two films with very different kinds of merits. Raiders is definitely the more perfect film, and in many ways, it still remains the gold standard for this type of adventure film. Like many Spielberg films, I was introduced to this one at a young age, and I found its rollicking energy utterly dazzling -- it's another of those movies that really helped me get into movies. Watching it with more grown-up eyes, I was able to notice the way so many different elements carefully and flawlessly gel to create such a pleasure machine. The script is tightly constructed and full of wit, a sharp contrast to so many of the joyless blockbusters that seem to be in vogue today. The iconic score is both thrilling and full of romanticism. The effects are still eye-popping, and sequences like Indy outrunning the boulder have lost none of their wow over the years. And, behind it all is Steven Spielberg, who displays an absolute mastery of craft here, delivering one breathtaking set piece after another, with a touch that's both hugely thrilling and full of witty invention as well. I doubt that watching this movie would ever get old for me.

The question, though, is whether I should vote for that gem over a more flawed film, but one that registers more profoundly as human drama. And that's probably the best way I'd sum up Reds. It isn't perfect -- like a lot of epics, it goes on too long, and shows signs of bloat here and there. At times the romance seems to be a distraction from the more interesting political corners of the narrative. And the script is a little messy, as it attempts to cram so many characters and plot strands into a cohesive whole. But I find its ambition to be hugely admirable, both in terms of its scope, its gorgeous visuals, and even the fact that Beatty managed to make a mainstream film about the birth of the Communist party in '80's America. And there are colorful characters everywhere you look, from the standout supporting turns by Stapleton and Nicholson, to the real-life witnesses, who are a total joy. I also think what elevates the film above a lot of other epics from this period (see: next year) is a genuine sense of emotionalism that allows the audience to deeply connect with its characters. One of my favorite scenes in the film is the one where Reed and Bryant reunite at the train station, after they have been separated and she has wandered all over hell and creation to find him again. They coincidentally run into each other, and the perfect expressions on Beatty and Keaton's faces seem to suggest an incredulous, world-weary response of "You've got to be kidding me." Even with their world in complete upheaval, these two have managed to find one another again. It's a deeply powerful scene (which precedes a very affecting ending), and it's this aspect of the film that makes me fail to understand those who admired the movie without feeling passionate toward it, because I feel a lot more emotionally attached to this Best Picture candidate than the other nominees. In the end, I'm going to side with the grandness of Reds's ambition and vote for it in Best Picture. And knowing that I will have even better chances to vote for Spielberg up ahead, I'll also give my Director vote to Warren Beatty, for handling this epic project with visual grace, intelligent wit, and emotional heart.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Mister Tee »

There were two movies in 1981 I liked better than any of the Academy’s options. The first, which had no hope of getting anywhere near the Oscar slate, was My Dinner with Andre, which was barely a movie at all by traditional definition, but whose dizzying Andre Gregory monologues (and curmudgeonly Wally Shawn resistance) gave me immense pleasure throughout.

The other was Prince of the City, my choice for best film of the year and (Damien forgive me) the high point of Sidney Lumet’s career – though, as usual, it wasn’t a case of Lumet finding new nuance as a director, but, rather, his latching onto a sensational script and ramming it home. For me, Prince of the City exposes Serpico for the superficial film it was…taking on the same subject but finding far more shades of grey, as we see how and why what we call corruption is so endemic throughout the police department, to the point it deeply infects our protagonist and would-be hero himself. The film is a lot gloomier than those to which I‘d normally gravitate – I don’t remember a laugh in it – but it has, by the end, the force of Greek tragedy. I didn’t see anything that year that compared.

There were other films I found interesting but that hovered below best picture level – The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Ragtime, True Confessions and Pennies from Heaven.

To the Academy (and, for rare occurrence, directors’ branch) choices:

I’ve trashed On Golden Pond here with enough regularity I probably don’t need to go into great detail. It’s a crappy, grotesquely sentimental play, directed cloyingly by Mark Rydell (who, in my view, never made a good movie). People keep telling me the Fonda/Hepburn pairing redeemed it, but I don’t see it; in the old phrase, you can wash garbage but it’s still garbage when you’re through. The best to be said is they’re less annoying than Jane Fonda (who gives her most insecure, shallow performance since The Chapman Report) and the kid, who should have been boiled in oil.

It’s laughable to think of now, but, after the megaflop of 1941, it seemed possible Steven Spielberg’s period of success might pass. We’d just seen Friedkin and Bogdanovich flame out after stellar starts, and Coppola was more or less about to do the same. So, Raiders of the Lost Ark wasn’t just another in a string of Spielberg hits; it was the signal his career was going to be among the most singular in American film history. I can’t say what Raiders would look like today, after a myriad of imitations, but at the time it was just a deliriously good time -- fun from start to finish. Of course, that fun was of a completely trivial kind – the people advocating it as a serious best picture choice (which included Gene Siskel) were way over-inflating the achievement. It was borderline as a nominee (and succeeded there because it was one of the few box office smashes with strong reviews); as a winner, for me, it was no dice.

We discussed Chariots of Fire here recently, and a consensus seemed to emerge, that, while the film may not be any world-beater, it’s a perfectly respectable middle-brow effort, and far from the worst top Academy choice of the era. Like most, I was surprised by its win -- on a night when the battle seemed between Reds and On Golden Pond – but, in retrospect, I had to admit it was a film about which I’d heard far more enthusiastic response than the two supposed heavyweights. (It also reflected two rising cultural phenomena: jogging and Masterpiece Theatre) I actually don’t think the film is as simple as some have made it out to be. Yes, there’s the audience-pleasing factor of seeing the main characters win big races, but the film also deals in grown-up fashion with the fact that losing is equally part of the sport (my recollection is, the joy of winning feels rather fleeting next to the lingering pain of losing). The film also has a nicely authentic period atmosphere, and looks pretty smashing. As I’ve said before: if something had to beat a not-widely-popular Reds, I’d far rather it be Chariots of Fire than the grisly On Golden Pond.

When the favorable reviews for Atlantic City started appearing, I got really excited. John Guare had been a huge enthusiasm of mine throughout the 70s—even his ungainly/somewhat panned efforts like Landscape of the Body and Marco Polo Sing a Solo were, for me, brimming with comic invention. When I got to the movie, however, I found it a touch disappointing. Not bad, in any way; a worthy effort, with a great Lancaster performance at the center. But the whole thing felt a bit wan to me – like Louis Malle didn’t understand Guare meant it to be funny, so the whole thing played out in a mild, melancholy key. I’d still have voted Guare’s script the year’s best original, but I’d hoped for something greater (something Guare finally achieved in the theatre a decade later, with Six Degrees of Separation).

My favorite of the year, for both film and director, would have to be Reds/Warren Beatty (given the option, I’d have made Prince of the City best film, but still gone with Beatty for the scope of his work behind the camera). Reds is not quite the soaring masterpiece one hoped for, but it was full of strong characters and engrossing scenes, all chronicling a tumultuous period that heavily impacted both world history and American intellectual life for decades to come. I don’t think the Beatty/Keaton love story is the film’s greatest achievement; it’s neither swoony enough to carry the film to romantic heights, nor idiosyncratic enough to stand on its own as drama. I view it as the price of admission for all the other great stuff the film provides: the piercing stateside intellectual battles, the moment-to-moment thrill of watching a revolution topple a government, and, best of all, the cantankerous reminiscences of those radicals grown old who serve as the film’s Greek chorus. So, an imperfect film, but one whose ambition is so laudable, and successes so bracing, that it rates my vote in this lackluster year.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by mlrg »

Voted for Reds and Warren Beatty
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Precious Doll »

Atlantic City/Louis Malle is the clear choice for me.

At the time I was shocked by Chariots of Fire's win but it makes sense looking back. The film was immensely popular, had been playing for months and most importantly lots of people loved it and it probably generated better word of mouth amongst the more mature moviegoers then any other film of 1981.

And of course that was that awful score by Vangelis that was probably more loved then the film itself. Vangelis would go on to write two much better and far less intrusive scores for Missing & Blade Runner the following year.
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Best Picture and Director 1981

Post by Big Magilla »

How much the 1980 actors strike affected the 1981 film year I don't know, but it certainly had an impact.

Film production was shut down from late July through September. Films already in production went into hiatus. Numerous productions were delayed or cancelled outright because of the looming strike. Others were rushed into post-production once the strike was over. The only film that allowed to be filmed during the strike was On Golden Pond because of the advanced ages and health concerns of its stars, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.

Among the films released in 1981 which were good, but not deemed good enough to make it among the five Best Picture nominees were The French Lieutenant's Woman; Body Heat; True Confessions; Cutter's Way; Absence of Malice; Pennies From Heaven; Prince of the City and Blow-Out.

One of the year's most anticipated films, which turned out to be the year's biggest disappointment was Milos Forman's film of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime which managed to get eight nominations anyway even if it didn't win any.

The most critically acclaimed film to come away empty-handed was Peter Weir's stirring World War I entry, Gallipoli which I actually expected to come away with multiple nominations including Best Picture and Director.

The film that I didn't anticipate securing Best Picture and Director nods was Raiders of the Lost Ark which I liked but which seemed like a bit too much of a popcorn movie to achieve such lofty status.

Atlantic City was a superbly made "little" film that despite its National Society of Film Critics Award didn't really seem like something the Academy would go for beyond a nomination.

The heavy betting was on On Golden Pond and Reds. Henry Fonda was going to finally win the best actor trophy that had been eluding him since his only prior acting nomination for The Grapes of Wrath for On Golden Pond and Warren Beatty was going to win Best Director. Those were absolutes. Which one would take home the Best Picture trophy was up in the air with the more heady Reds the likely winner. However, Katharine Hepburn's surprise win for Best Actress put the outcome once again in doubt.

There was something else going on that no one saw coming and most pundits since have been unable to figure out - the surprise win for Chariots of Fire which most attributed to Vangelis' inspiring score. They only got it partly right.

In February, 1981, I moved to the L.A. area. I was tasked with merging two offices, one in Orange County and one in L.A., into one in Orange County. The differences between the two offices were like night and day. The OC office was laid back with most of the staff living for the weekend and the beach. The L.A. office, which was in a building on Wilshire Blvd. next to the legendary Ambassador Hotel, home of the Cocoanut Grove, six Academy Awards ceremonies and the place with where Robert Kennedy was assassinated. This group was much more in tune with what was going on around them and nothing was more on their minds than the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A. People were already making plans to temporarily move in with relatives and rent out their homes for the event. Other were planning on renting parking space on their lawns if necessary. Chariots of Fire spoke to this group and other L.A. residents including Oscar voters like no other film at the time. That this would be enough for it to win the Best Picture Oscar seemed like a stretch, but in retrospect it seems the obvious choice over two films that people loved in part but not in entirety.

My picks are Reds and Beatty.
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