The Oscar Project #83: The King's Speech (2010)

by Chris Marshall:

It’s hard to believe that I’m at a point in The Oscar Project where I’m watching a movie that I originally saw in a theater in Ohio. While watching The King’s Speech, my main thought was, “Didn’t I just see this?” It has, amazingly, been a year and a half now, but it still seemed so fresh in my memory.

I genuinely enjoyed the film, both this time and the first time, but I also believe it was nowhere close to the best movie of its year. I thought that honor went to The Social Network, and I say that even though I hate, hate, hate Aaron Sorkin. But there’s nothing wrong with The King’s Speech, and it certainly feels like the type of movie that the Academy loves.

It recounts the true story of George VI’s[1] struggle with his stuttering problem and his efforts to overcome it, at least to a great enough extent that he could deliver speeches when World War II broke out. His speech impediment was quite severe, and it was made worse considering how, shall we say, insensitive people were back then. If you look back at the Best Picture winners from the 1930s, you will often see stutterers portrayed as the bumbling comic relief.

The Oscar Project #71: Shakespeare in Love (1998)

by Chris Marshall:

Poor Colin Firth. Shakespeare in Love marked the second time in three years that one of the Brothers Fiennes stole his wife (or fiancée) away in a Best Picture winner. In The English Patient, he played Geoffrey Clifton, and his wife had an affair with Count Laszlo, played by Ralph Fiennes. Here, his fiancée Viola, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, falls in love with the Bard, who is played by Ralph’s younger brother Joseph.

It was a rough couple of years for Colin, but he’ll bounce back in a big way in a little over a decade when he gets to be a king. Being a king is cool, even if you do have a stuttering problem.

Joseph has not achieved the same level of fame that his older brother has, but he’s still got a very solid list of acting credits. Most impressive is that Shakespeare in Love was only his second screen credit—not a bad start to his career[1]. Paltrow, who I normally don’t like at all, even came across as very likeable here. I worried that my feelings about her in general would cloud my judgment about her performance, but I thought she was quite good.

The Oscar Project #69: The English Patient (1996)

by Chris Marshall:

I spent so much time dreading The English Patient that it became something like a superstitious object. For whatever reason, I had it in my head that it was the worst movie ever made, maybe even worse than The Great Ziegfeld. I guess that had a lot to do with its tone and subject matter, as well as being perhaps the clearest example of Oscar bait in many years. Whatever the reason, I always viewed this film as the last real roadblock of The Oscar Project.

Then I watched it, and strangely enough, it wasn’t as horrible as I had feared. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I liked it, but it was nowhere near the worst Best Picture winner I’ve seen on this journey. The most obvious comparison that came to mind while watching it was Out of Africa. I could recognize why it’s considered a “good movie,” but at the same time, it was the type of film that often fails to capture my interest.

I’ve had a long-running joke with my former (and future) roommate Justin, in which I claim that nobody has ever actually seen The English Patient, and it won the Oscar because all the voters assumed it was probably good but didn’t want to take the time to sit through it. This is a slight exaggeration, of course, but I’d venture a guess that it is probably the least seen Best Picture winner of the last 25 years.