The Oscar Project #73: Gladiator (2000)

by Chris Marshall:

This isn’t necessarily a complaint, but I feel like I watched Gladiator just a few days ago, except back then it was called Braveheart. That might seem like a strange statement, since they’re set over a millennium apart, in different parts of Europe, and have very different storylines. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it just seemed like there was a sameness to them.

Both films feature lots of extra bloody and gory swordfights, and the main character in each is seeking, at least in part, to avenge a loved one’s death. Yes, those are characteristics that a lot of different movies have, but these in particular have a similar “feel” to them. Maybe it’s because they both star a huge action star who’s not so well liked in real life. Maybe I’m just crazy.

Nevertheless, taken on its own, I thought this was a highly enjoyable film. Normally I don’t care too much about the brutal fight scenes, but these were well crafted, and unlike, say, The Hunger Games, the edits and camera movements didn’t happen so fast that I couldn’t keep up with what was going on. That’s a huge pet peeve of mine in many modern action movies.

The Oscar Project #58: Out of Africa (1985)

by Chris Marshall:

It’s taken me a long, long time (like, three days!) to finish Out of Africa. This shouldn’t necessarily be seen as an indictment of its quality, but I did fall asleep four separate times while watching it. Rest assured, I went back and made sure I watched every moment of it, even if it did take several attempts.

At its most basic level, it’s not a terrible film by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a perfectly acceptable piece of cinema, and it’s obviously the type of thing that the Academy loves. But it is so far outside of my interests that it became difficult to focus on it for too long. It didn’t help matters that I tended to try to watch it late at night.

The film is based on the novel by Isak Dinesen[1], whose real name is Karen Blixen, and recounts the events of her life in Kenya, which was at the time a British colony. Blixen is Danish, and at the beginning of the film she marries Bror, which is a silly name. They aren’t particularly in love with each other, but trifling things like that didn’t matter so much back then. They were good friends and liked each other well enough, so why not?

The Oscar Project #52: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

by Chris Marshall:

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Kramer vs. Kramer far exceeded my expectations, but I’m afraid that’s understating it a bit, as I had very low expectations. Perhaps a more glowing endorsement would be to say that it is a very good film by any measure.

I should have known that a collaboration between Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in their primes would be decent at worst, but sometimes I forget that the plot of a movie isn’t its defining element. I expected to be bored, and that wasn’t the case at all. Part of the problem was that it simply didn’t have the same reputation as the other winners in the 1970s, so I judged it unfairly based on the level of competition. Whatever excuse I could use, I was wrong.

This isn’t a movie about plot. It’s about characters. You could almost view Kramer vs. Kramer as the dramatic/tragic counterpart to Annie Hall, as they are both about the deterioration of a relationship. The difference is that in the former, a child is involved, which adds an extra level of complication to the whole deal.

The Oscar Project #51: The Deer Hunter (1978)

by Chris Marshall:

I’m glad last year’s winner was a comedy, because Michael Cimino forgot to put any jokes in The Deer Hunter. Rarely will you ever see a more depressing film, which is quite a statement, considering that this decade alone we have seen or will see a man lobotomized, a bitter custody battle, and several dozen murders.

Released just a few years after the end of the Vietnam War, this movie tells the story of three friends who enlist in the military and how that choice affects not only their own lives but the lives of everybody they know. It’s similar in many ways to The Best Years of Our Lives, except that it shows more than just the aftermath of the war. You see it all, from a wedding right before they ship out to the most horrible moments of their war experiences.

The Best Years of Our Lives is a better movie overall, but I think that seeing exactly what the guys in The Deer Hunter went through makes it easier to understand why they’re so irreparably damaged when it’s over. Even Mike (Robert De Niro), who escapes more or less unscathed physically, will never be the same.