Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Original is no contest: Annie Hall.

A couple of shocking omissions are 3 Women & Providence. I'll throw in High Anxiety as well as I think it is Mel Brooks' best film to date.

I don't begrudge The Goodbye Girl (one of Simon's better works) or Star Wars their nominations but The Late Show & The Turning Point are just fillers.

Adapted was harder as I am torn between three of them. I was very happy with Julia winning and a win for That Obscure Object of Desire would also have made a worthy winner, however I went with Equus.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar is the only major omission here and I would have replaced Oh God with it.

Original

I'm not going to argue against Woody this time. Nothing this year was as fresh as Annie Hall and it remains so all these years later.

I must say, however, that the competition in this category is quite good.

The Turning Point is an intelligently written women's movie, of the kind that had already been long out of fashion when the film was made. It deservedly won the WGA for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen while Annie Hall took the Comedy award.

I don't usually like Neil Simon's comedies, but I liked The Goodbye Girl despite the obnoxious kid.

I recall The Late Show as a strong mystery, but I haven't seen it in decades so I'm fuzzy on the details, but I still remember Art Carney's performance which I thought then, as now, that he was better in this than in Harry and Tonto.

The original Star Wars had a good script and was certainly more deserving of a nomination than the WGA's other sci-fi nod to the gibberish that was Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Of the non-nominees, only Saturday Night Fever strikes me as deserving, but I wouldn't choose it over any of the actual nominees.

Adapted

I have to go with Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere's clever That Obscure Object of Desire, but Alvin Sargent's winning script for Julia is almost as deserving.

I would nominate Equus over I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and Oh, God! but the film is tough going.

My replacement nominations for the latter two would be WGA nominees Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Islands in the Stream. Goodbar was ruined by its move to a no-name city (a combined L.A./San Francisco mishmash) from the nitty-gritty of the Bronx and a glittery Manhattan of the day not its screenplay which was nearly as compelling as the novel.

Impossible not to vote for Annie Hall.

I like The Goodbye Girl, but that obnoxious child impersonated by Quinn Cummings prevents me from really like it. Of course, not award material.
I don't quite know nor remember whether Star Wars has a good script or not, but it's undeniable that it has standed the test of time. Another Episode is in sight, good Lord! I'll rewatch it again some day, but laziness prevents me as well. Thank heaven there's Mr. Guinness.
The Late Show provides Art Carney a good character, and one is entitled to like Lily Tomlin here (I don't), but come on, at times it seems like Chinatown's Scary Movie. Just watchable. Just OK.
And there's nothing in The Turning Point I'm attracted to, except from Baryshnikov's dancing, of course. Dull, dull movie.

And we land in the Adapted slate, with two dreary films, though Equus is a masterpiece in comparison to I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. The former SHOWS many good things (forgive me you all), but those Burton monologues are so stupid than I just can't find out what Lumet and Shaffer are trying to tell this time. The latter is almost lousy as a whole, like a bad TV movie, full of screaming and obvious conversations, though it's nice to see the young Dennis Quaid in that cute ending that suddenly looks like another different movie. Too bad. No consideration.

In the middle is Oh, God!, an unknown film till three days ago for me. It's kind of a surprise, and it's intelligent, it's funny, and has a quiet and coherent pace. But in the end not that profound. And by the way, I prefer this George Burns than the one in The Sunshine Boys. It's worth taking a look.

Cet Obscur Objet Du Désir is unsurprisingly very good. God bless the genius of Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière and Fernando Rey, but what prevents me (again this verb) from voting for it is that this is not their best effort (Le Journal d'une Femme de Chambre, Belle de Jour, Le Discret Charme de la Bourgeoisie and Le Fantôme de la Liberté are even better in my opinion), and that I LOVE Julia. It's told in that beautiful way the voice-over explains at the beginning, like tracings of memories, and once it begins, it embraces you until the end, abrupt for some, yes, but like life itself, sad and beautiful. The performances are great, the scenes between Robards and Fonda are a delight to watch and hear, and after this beautiful and erratic first half comes the striking, intriguing and memorable train travel, with that wonderful scene between Fonda and Redgrave as a climax. And Georges Delerue. I know it's not a perfect film nor a masterpiece, but I'm in love with it, and it gets my vote. Alvin Sargent wrote two movies really beautifully, and won an Oscar for both.

I'm excited to endorse both Academy's choices this time.

I don't think there's ever been a poll where one movie in the category got all the votes. I'd be interested to see if this is the first time that happens with Annie Hall and Best Original Screenplay.

You need to put a space in between the title of the movie and the parenthetical.

What was the best screenplay of 1977?