Best Picture and Director 1995

[mlrg]

Babe is winning Best Picture here...

It was, but Sense and Sensibility has taken over the lead, for the moment anyway.

It's true that this isn't the best line-up ever, but honestly, a movie about a talking pig CAN'T win Best Picture I mean, it would be objectively absurd - and yes, call me old-fashioned if you want, but I think that content and depth are still important in cinema.

Sense and Sensibility is ok.

But I guess that, while I love this board and I still think that it's by far the best on this subject, the fact that some of its more interesting members aren't here anymore (I've just realised that Sabim has left, and the - ridiculous - reasons why he has left) can really lead to movies like Babe being considered the best of its year - or, which is even more problematic I think, can lead to people who in the past would have thought twice or at least be a bit ashamed of their choice consider Babe the best of the year and be proud of it. Which is simply wrong.

Why did Sabin left the board? I noticed that he wasn't posting, but didn't realise that he had actually left.

[Precious Doll]

Eric,

I don't think Showgirls has become a classic but it certainly has a hardcore and growing fan base.

Anyway anything from Paul Verhoeven can't be all bad and something of worth is always to be found in his works.

[ITALIANO]

acceptance and tolerance for all

A theme that explains Italiano's resistance in a nutshell.

Maybe - I am certainly intolerant towards idiocy, and towards irrationality (now you will say that then I couldn't live in America, and again you'd probably be right).

But I guess that for me a movie doesn't just have to have a "message", a valid message even, to be really good.

[Eric]

Not a single one of these films is a classic. Not even close.

We're still talking about Showgirls. History has vindicated it.

[Eric]

acceptance and tolerance for all

A theme that explains Italiano's resistance in a nutshell.

[Precious Doll]

[

I doubt too many people who have voted for Babe in this poll consider it the best film of the year. However we are limited to what the Academy voted to nominate.

I myself would have preferred to have voted for The Kingdom, Leaving Las Vegas, Dead Man Walking, Frisk, Safe, Butterfly Kiss, Angels and Insects and a host of others but the Academy didn't, in my view anyway (which doesn't count anyway), see fit to nominate.

I think the best film of 1995 was The Flower of My Secret but it didn't open in the US until 1996 so it's out as far as the Academy goes. I do think the best film released in the US in 1995 was Von Trier's The Kingdom which is really a television series anyway and probably not eligible.

There is nothing wrong with a touch a fantasy anyway. One of the most enduring films of all time is The Wizard of Oz one of the very best films of 1939. Babe may not be perfect, but it along with Sense and Sensibility, Il Postino and Apollo 13 are all far and away better choices then Braveheart, which to the credit of everyone who has voted has so far has failed to gain a single vote for picture or director.

It's true that our choices here must be considered in the context of the Best Picture races, which often leave the most interesting movies out.

I dom't have anything against fantasy. I liked Blade Runner. I loved Fellini's 8 1/2. And even The Wizard of Oz, while certainly not a very profound movie, has a charm and a sincerity which make one love it - though loving something doesn't necessarily mean considering it a masterpiece.

Still, Babe not only isnt profound - it's not very charming nor very sincere. It's smart, true - an intelligent commercial product that for some reason Americans were impressed with at the time, but that now, at least in Europe, nobody remembers anymore. It simply hasnt become a "classic" - which for this kind of movies is the clear sign that something was wrong. Someone here has called it a "gentle children's movie pitched at adults". Gentle it isn't - but the rest it's true. And it's exactly this compromise which shows how cold-blooded the whole operation (the movie, and the marketing which followed it) was.

It's not the worst of these five movies, but it's not the best either. And if it were the best, I'd certainly rather abstain.

I certainly agree that Babe hasn't become a classic and to a large degree is somewhat forgotten.

I think the primary reason for that is that the film is very old fashioned and younger audiences have moved onto a whole different level of what is considered entertainment. Also that terrible sequel that was made didn't do the original film any favours. Nobody mentions Babe nowadays, not even in Australia where it was made (with funding from Universal) and was a massive hit. If one pushes up Australia's population to match the population of the U.S. the gross for the film in Australia would have been $500 to $600 million compared with it's gross in the US of about $60 to $70 million. As it was it made close to $50 million and given at the time Australia's population was under 20 million, thats a very impressive figure.

In Australia when there is talk of 'classic' Australian films, Babe never comes up.

[Precious Doll]

Actually I have a funny Babe story.

When it was released in Australia (at the end of 1995) a friend of mine from work obtained free tickets to a preview.

At the time she (who is an atheist) was married to a devout Muslim who was repulsed by the idea of seeing a film starring a pig. Anyway he did go along to the film and loved it. It's one of those films that just has a way about it and it's themes are universal - acceptance and tolerance for all.

Shame the unnecessary sequel was such a time waster.

Actually the weekend before last my partner and I went to the area where Babe was filmed for a day trip. A good friend of mine used to live no far from there, though a couple of years ago he moved to the outback - we are going to visit him for a few days in 2 weeks time.

Though where Babe was filmed (south of Sydney) is an incredibly beautiful part of the country I never feel remotely like I'm transported to the world of the film whenever I have visited that area.

[ITALIANO]

[

I doubt too many people who have voted for Babe in this poll consider it the best film of the year. However we are limited to what the Academy voted to nominate.

I myself would have preferred to have voted for The Kingdom, Leaving Las Vegas, Dead Man Walking, Frisk, Safe, Butterfly Kiss, Angels and Insects and a host of others but the Academy didn't, in my view anyway (which doesn't count anyway), see fit to nominate.

I think the best film of 1995 was The Flower of My Secret but it didn't open in the US until 1996 so it's out as far as the Academy goes. I do think the best film released in the US in 1995 was Von Trier's The Kingdom which is really a television series anyway and probably not eligible.

There is nothing wrong with a touch a fantasy anyway. One of the most enduring films of all time is The Wizard of Oz one of the very best films of 1939. Babe may not be perfect, but it along with Sense and Sensibility, Il Postino and Apollo 13 are all far and away better choices then Braveheart, which to the credit of everyone who has voted has so far has failed to gain a single vote for picture or director.

It's true that our choices here must be considered in the context of the Best Picture races, which often leave the most interesting movies out.

I dom't have anything against fantasy. I liked Blade Runner. I loved Fellini's 8 1/2. And even The Wizard of Oz, while certainly not a very profound movie, has a charm and a sincerity which make one love it - though loving something doesn't necessarily mean considering it a masterpiece.

Still, Babe not only isnt profound - it's not very charming nor very sincere. It's smart, true - an intelligent commercial product that for some reason Americans were impressed with at the time, but that now, at least in Europe, nobody remembers anymore. It simply hasnt become a "classic" - which for this kind of movies is the clear sign that something was wrong. Someone here has called it a "gentle children's movie pitched at adults". Gentle it isn't - but the rest it's true. And it's exactly this compromise which shows how cold-blooded the whole operation (the movie, and the marketing which followed it) was.

It's not the worst of these five movies, but it's not the best either. And if it were the best, I'd certainly rather abstain.

[Big Magilla]

For a long time I was fixated on content and depth and considered Dead Man Walking and Leaving Las Vegas to be the year's best films even though I never really liked the latter much. However, with the distance of time, I've come to appreciate the two kids' movies, Toy Story and Babe a lot more than I would have ever thought possible. Babe is a film that I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to. If it hadn't been an Oscar nominee I might never had seen it, but it's an absolute charmer that earns its crowd pleasing reputation unlike a lot of CGI junk today that passes for entertainment.

While Dead Man Walking still gets my awards for Best Actor, Actress and Director, Toy Story gets my award for Best Picture, but in its absence from Oscar's list, Babe gets my vote here over Sense and Sensibility and Il Postino which have also gained in my appreciation over the years.

[Precious Doll]

Babe is winning Best Picture here...

It was, but Sense and Sensibility has taken over the lead, for the moment anyway.

It's true that this isn't the best line-up ever, but honestly, a movie about a talking pig CAN'T win Best Picture I mean, it would be objectively absurd - and yes, call me old-fashioned if you want, but I think that content and depth are still important in cinema.

Sense and Sensibility is ok.

But I guess that, while I love this board and I still think that it's by far the best on this subject, the fact that some of its more interesting members aren't here anymore (I've just realised that Sabim has left, and the - ridiculous - reasons why he has left) can really lead to movies like Babe being considered the best of its year - or, which is even more problematic I think, can lead to people who in the past would have thought twice or at least be a bit ashamed of their choice consider Babe the best of the year and be proud of it. Which is simply wrong.

I doubt that many of the people who have voted for Babe in this poll consider it the best film of the year. However we are limited to what the Academy voted to nominate.

I myself would have preferred to have voted for The Kingdom, Leaving Las Vegas, Dead Man Walking, Frisk, Safe, Butterfly Kiss, Angels and Insects and a host of others but the Academy didn't, in my view anyway (which doesn't count anyway), see fit to nominate.

I think the best film of 1995 was The Flower of My Secret but it didn't open in the US until 1996 so it's out as far as the Academy goes. I do think the best film released in the US in 1995 was Von Trier's The Kingdom which is really a television series anyway and probably not eligible.

There is nothing wrong with a touch a fantasy anyway. One of the most enduring films of all time is The Wizard of Oz one of the very best films of 1939. Babe may not be perfect, but it along with Sense and Sensibility, Il Postino and Apollo 13 are all far and away better choices then Braveheart, which to the credit of everyone who has voted has so far has failed to gain a single vote for picture or director.

[Eric]

Screw abstaining. Out of these five (which aren't even so much dire as they are generally pointless -- aside from Braveheart, which is pretty obviously one of the most craven, hateful best picture winners ever) Babe is the best, a gentle children's movie pitched at adults, as opposed to a collection of movies allegedly intended for adults but which children would find pretty simple.

I'm never going to bemoan the presence of a foreign-language film in the best picture line-up on principal, but that Il Postino got into this slate marks this as the year Harvey Weinstein emerged as HARVEY WEINSTEIN.

Obligatory tut-tutting that the Academy didn't have the foresight to recognize Showgirls for the masterpiece it is.

[ITALIANO]

Babe is winning Best Picture here...

It was, but Sense and Sensibility has taken over the lead, for the moment anyway.

It's true that this isn't the best line-up ever, but honestly, a movie about a talking pig CAN'T win Best Picture I mean, it would be objectively absurd - and yes, call me old-fashioned if you want, but I think that content and depth are still important in cinema.

Sense and Sensibility is ok.

But I guess that, while I love this board and I still think that it's by far the best on this subject, the fact that some of its more interesting members aren't here anymore (I've just realised that Sabim has left, and the - ridiculous - reasons why he has left) can really lead to movies like Babe being considered the best of its year - or, which is even more problematic I think, can lead to people who in the past would have thought twice or at least be a bit ashamed of their choice consider Babe the best of the year and be proud of it. Which is simply wrong.

[Big Magilla]

Babe is winning Best Picture here...

It was, but Sense and Sensibility has taken over the lead, for the moment anyway.

[mojoe92]

Both votes to Postino

[mlrg]

In an line-up that doesn't include Leaving Las Vegas, Dead Man Walking, Heat, Casino, Se7en, Nixon, The Usual Suspects, Toy Story, The Bridges of Madison County.... I almost feel the urge to astain.

Voted for Apollo 13 and Figgis