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Sunday, January 6

Let's Go To The Movies

A while ago I deicded it would be fun to watch all the movies that have won the Oscar for Best Picture, starting with the first Oscar ceremony in 1929. I've almost made it through the entire decade of 60's. Right now I'm on 1968's winner: Oliver! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the title, I'm not that excited about watching it.)

No seriously, I'm watching the cute little British orphans right now sing about their daydream of glorious food.

oh, here he goes, here it comes, one of the most copied movie lines EVER: "please sir. I want some more." He's says it again - but now it's a question. And now we have some possible child abuse. The old woman is commanding someone, anyone, to "pick him up and bounce him." Wow, this dude who is running the orphanage has an AMAZING voice. Too bad Pop Idol wasn't invented 100 years ago, this guy could totally pull a Paul Potts. I guess I didn't realized that "Oliver!" isn't a musical like Chicago or Sound of Music. They're really singing through the whole thing. For 11 minutes straight. . .all singing.

OK, I'm not going to blog through the entire movie. I don't think my brain could handle taking in & understanding a movie while simeltaneously spitting out witty remarks.

Hey, minute 18 - people are finally speaking, NOT singing. So someone just made a 19th century "yo mama" joke and apparently those didn't go over well back then either because Oliver(!) is now beating the crap out of this guy.

Hands down, the 60's has been the best decade for Best Pictures. It was definitely the decade for musicals. We need to bring these juries back and have them start voting again. Or maybe it's because I ended the 1950s two weeks ago watching Ben Hur AND Lawrence of Arabia back to back. That's over SEVEN hours of Oscar-winning movie magic. Females were on the screen for approximately 17 minutes of those SEVEN hours and the other 6 hours and 43 minutes were filled with white guys playing middle eastern guys all the while hating and yelling at each other. OK, OK, it wasn't that bad. Peter O'Toole was severly robbed of an Oscar & the chariot race was pretty awesome. Afterwards I concluded that no one could pay me enough to film a movie in the desert & I resolved never to contract leprocy (I think I have trouble getting a date now!)

Let's take a look at these fabulous movies:

*1960 ~ The Apartment starring Jack Lemmon (love him!) & Shirley MacLaine (weirds me out!) OK, so this one was probably my least favorite, which means it took the decade a bit to get warmed up. This one had scandal written all over it. She tries to commit suicide because the man she's having an affair with (who happens to be Jack's boss) won't leave his wife. Since the evil married man is paying for her to stay in the apt. next to Jack, Jack finds her on death's door, moves her to his apt to nurse her back to health, which takes several days and in the process stirs up rumors of co-habitation. (Ah, to live in a world where that's frowned upon.) So the burning question remains, which man will Shirley choose? The man she has been "seeing" for years who finally does leave his wife but wants to change everything about her or the funny, cute guy who, after 2 days, learns her favorites, encourages her quirks & likes to play cards? Gee, I don't know, it's just too tough too tell. . . Oh, and this one was in black and white. Wizard of Oz was color in 1939, what's taking so long people??

*1961 ~ West Side Story starring Americans and Puerto Ricans and Natalie Wood. Ah, the classic love story: Boy Loves Girl. Girl Loves Boy. Nobody wants boy and girl to love each other. Dancing chaos ensues! People sing. Shots fired. Boy dies. Everyone realizes New York city is not the best place to live. Viva la Portland!

*1962 ~ Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole as a British soldier T.E. Lawrence and Obi-Wan Kenobi as an Arabian. This took me 3 days to watch, mostly because it was just. so. looooooooooong. I can't imagine watching this thing in a theater. Lawrence's transformation from a very button-up Brit to a blood-thirsty, war-loving, wanna-be Arabian is very slow (heck, he had over 3 1/2 hours) but the first time he shoots an innocent oh-crap-I'm-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time guy point blank, you realize he's gone to the dark side. Didn't Obi-Wan teach him anything??

*1963 ~ Tom Jones starring Albert Finney. A miracle occured in 1963 because this movie is a comedy and it's a well known fact members of the Academy don't find comedies "Best Picture" worthy. Isn't another well known fact that it's much harder to make people laugh than cry? In any case, this movie is set back in England and Tom makes his way around the countryside helping damsels in distress. (And when I say helping, I mean messing around with.) He ends up finding a Sugar Mama and through a series of miscommunications and finally an actual communication, he ends up finally marring the girl he’s loved all his life – proving once again that there are certain girls you date (or in Tom’s case sleep with) and certain girls you marry. This movie also shows us that money can buy love, albeit temporary and fox hunting really is cruel and unusual.

*1964 ~ My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn & Rex Harrison. What can I say? Classic. Funny. Gorgeous dresses. Huge hats. And don’t forget: “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.” Also don't forget to use your subtitles option. Oh, and chalk another one up for England.

*1965 ~ The Sound of Music starring the Von Traps. I love this even more since my official SOM tour in Salzburg. I’ve been in the courtyard, been to the actual glass gazebo pretending I was 16 going on 17, peered into the nunnery, fallen into a fountain because I was too busy thinking of my favorite things, slapped a nome on the head and twirled on top of the Untersberg like Sister Maria. My dad will even turn it on during the certain outdoor scenes, that’s how exciting it is! Oh, I’ve run across the bridge too, but I wasn’t wearing green & white curtains. Seriously, how can you not like this movie??

*1966 ~ A Man For All Seasons starring no one I’ve ever heard of. Here we go, back to England. I loved this one because it was based on the true story of Sir Thomas Moore who was beheaded (“his capa was detated!”) for failing to recognize the divorce of Henry VIII to Lady Catherine and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn (who would later lose her own head – thank you Tour of London beefeater tour guides.) Despite the Debbie Downer tone of this flick, there were more than a couple of laugh out loud moments which was enough for me to give this a thumbs up rating.

*1967 ~ In The Heat of the Night starring Sidney “Don’t call me Virgil” Poitier. Have to say, I LOVED this movie. Maybe it’s because I’m genetically predisposed to love Sidney since he’s my mom’s favorite actor by far. Maybe it’s because I’ve actually been to the South and can testify first-hand people are actually like that. (Side bar: I watched this with my parents and my dad asked what year this was supposed to have taken place in. I said it very well could be 2007.) Maybe it’s because I really wanted to know who did it. Maybe it’s because the sheriff character did such a great job at making you hate him, that you loved him. This is one of the few movies on the entire list that I could say, “I’m really glad that won Best Picture.” And yes. Mom was right. Sidney Poitier is a genius.

*1968 ~ Oliver! starring cute British kids. Good decade for British movie sets. So far I’m loving it. 1 hour & 20 minutes has passed since both the movie & me writing this post started. Oliver is adorable. English accents are adorable. Fagin? Not adorable. Here’s hoping make-up won an Oscar.

*1969 ~ Midnight Cowboy starring Dustin Hoffman & Jon Voight. This one is on tabs for tonight. I only really know 2 things about this movie: it is NOT filmed in or about people in England and that it is the first ‘R’ rated movie to win Best Picture - rated 'X' the first time time. I’ll admit – I’m not too pumped about watching it. Then again, I've watched Spanish movies in Spain, so I think I can handle it.

And you will never believe what just happened like right now. . .Intermission of Oliver! That gives me time to post to my blog!, get some soda! and use the bathroom!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

A new record, 1486 words...