Allow me to introduce what will hopefully be a recurring feature to the Sound Vapors web site. I like to call it the Hindsight Awards. I have discovered in my life when I see a film, I will have an initial reaction. Love it or hate it. But then in the weeks afterwards, my opinion might change. Typically it will not be a drastic change, but maybe a slight shift of an opinion. Much like a good wine needs to breathe, maybe a good movie needs to be pondered and ruminated upon to fully realize how good (or bad) of a film it truly was. Perhaps my initial grade for a film might be a B, but then after reflection it changes to an A-minus. The perfect recent example of this for me was Quentin Tarantino’s latest, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. At first, my reaction was that it was good. Maybe a little lengthy. Not the greatest thing ever, but pretty good. In the weeks afterwards, the film really stayed with me and I kept thinking about how much it truly was enjoyable. In fact, I went to see it a second time, and now I would probably rank it in my top 3 Quentin Tarantino films of all time.
And the opposite can be true as well. At times my opinion of movies may wane with passing time. Again, not typically a drastic change of opinion, but a shift towards the negative. I still very well may like the movie, but maybe it’s a C+ now instead of the initial B that I thought it was.
A theme from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (also a theme from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds) is fictional retribution for historical wrongs. These two ideas, the clarity of hindsight combined with the desire to correct the errors of the past, equals The Hindsight Awards. To go back and look at award-winners at the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, etc., but look back with the fictional ability to correct the mistakes of the past. May I present to you, the Hindsight Awards.
Hindsight Awards – 71st Academy Awards, March 21, 1999
One of the most egregious and shameful award show sins of all time occurred at the 1999 Oscars, which awarded statues to the best of the best films from 1998. That awful sin being that Shakespeare In Love defeated Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture. That’s right, let that sink in for a moment. Shakespeare In Love bested Saving Private Ryan. Harvey Weinstein, the bastion of virtue that he is, must have bribed, blackmailed, threatened, and otherwise cajoled enough votes to usurp the victory that Saving Private Ryan deserved. Not only was Saving Private Ryan the better film, but it grossed $481M worldwide in 1998. Not that money should be the be all, end all of winning an award, but when the greatest film of the year makes $400M, and celebrates the free world being saved from evil, then yes. Yes, it should have won.
Envelopes, please!
Best Picture:
Shakespeare In Love
Elizabeth
Life Is Beautiful
Saving Private Ryan
The Thin Red Line
With a tip of the hat to Life Is Beautiful, a beautiful film, the obvious winner here is Saving Private Ryan. Every Oscar voter should apologize and beg for forgiveness for thumbing their nose at Saving Private Ryan. How dare you spit on the memory of the Greatest Generation because Harvey Weinstein convinced you to change your vote.
Best Director
Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan
Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful
John Madden, Shakespeare In Love
Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line
Peter Weir, The Truman Show
The Academy got this one right, giving the award to Spielberg. But a tip of the hat to both Roberto Benigni and Peter Weir. Truman Show is a great movie. On a side note, the Thin Red Line does not even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as these other films.
Best Actor
Roberto Benigni – Life Is Beautiful as Guido Orefice
Tom Hanks – Saving Private Ryan as Captain John Miller
Ian McKellen – Gods and Monsters as James Whale
Nick Nolte – Affliction as Wade Whitehouse
Edward Norton – American History X as Derek Vinyard
The Academy awarded this one to Roberto Benigni.
The verdict of the Hindsight Awards is that this decision will be allowed to stand. His performance really was quite magical. But if you, the reader, prefer to have Tom Hanks, or Ed Norton’s tour-de-force performance in American History X, be the winner in your own personal Hindsight Award, I will allow it. Either one of the three are acceptable as the best acting performance of 1998.
Best Actress
Gwyneth Paltrow – Shakespeare in Love as Viola De Lesseps
Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth as Queen Elizabeth I of England
Fernanda Montenegro – Central Station as Isadora “Dora” Teixeira
Meryl Streep – One True Thing as Kate Gulden
Emily Watson – Hilary and Jackie as Jacqueline du Pre
The Academy selected Gwyneth Paltrow as the winner. The Hindsight Award goes to. Oh wow, this is a shocking turn of events. We are going off the board. The Best Actress performance of 1998 is going to Cameron Diaz for Something About Mary.
To be fair, I have not seen four of the films mentioned above. And I honestly do not even dislike Shakespeare In Love. It’s okay, and Gwyneth was fine in it. The award is going to Cameron though. Comedies never get the respect they deserve, and she was great in it.
Best Supporting Actor
James Coburn – Affliction as Glen Whitehouse
Robert Duvall – A Civil Action as Jerome Facher
Ed Harris – The Truman Show as Christof
Geoffrey Rush – Shakespeare in Love as Philip Henslowe
Billy Bob Thornton – A Simple Plan as Jacob Mitchell
What a great category of actors. The Academy selected James Coburn as the winner. This is another occurrence in which I did not see the film, but James Coburn is so cool that I am willing to let this award stand. My gut wants to give the award to Robert Duvall for A Civil Action. I thought Ed Harris was great in Truman Show. Billy Bob Thornton is good in pretty much everything he does. And so, I am declaring a 4-way tie to all the non-Geoffrey Rush actors to win this award.
Best Supporting Actress
Judi Dench – Shakespeare in Love as Queen Elizabeth I of England
Kathy Bates – Primary Colors as Libby Holden
Brenda Blethyn – Little Voice as Mari Hoff
Rachel Griffiths – Hilary and Jackie as Hilary du Pré
Lynn Redgrave – Gods and Monsters as Hanna
Judi Dench won the Oscar. I will be going off the board once again. The Hindsight Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1998 goes to Laura Linney for The Truman Show. Excellent as Truman’s wife, squeezing in those paid product placements in the middle of an otherwise mundane day. “That’s amazing!”
Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Shakespeare in Love – Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
Bulworth – Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser
Life Is Beautiful – Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni
Saving Private Ryan – Robert Rodat
The Truman Show – Andrew Niccol
What’s that, Shakespeare In Love? You think you won the Oscar? That’s cute. Now give it back. Give it to Saving Private Ryan. Everybody knows it is the better film. There you go. Doesn’t it feel better to hand that over to the better film? You probably felt a lot of shame and guilt trying to keep up the façade for all these years that you were the better film. No need to keep up that façade any longer. You’re free now, free to acknowledge the obvious better film.
Beyond that, there were many other awards, mostly technical in nature. I won’t bore you by discussing all of those, but here are a few highlights of other ones that need to change.
Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Something called Father of Frankenstein won. Ummm, no. Out Of Sight, based on the Elmore Leonard novel is the winner now.
Best Original Song
When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt won this award. Nope, not happening. This one is going to I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing by Aerosmith (Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren). The Oscars should not be looking down their nose at the highest-grossing film of the year (Armageddon) and a massive hit song by a legendary rock band that probably helped drive people to the box office.
That’s it for the first edition of the Hindsight Awards. What awards show will be next, which year? Who should be nervous? I’m not sure, but if I were The West Wing, I might be getting a little worried. The Sopranos might whack you, and who knows if ER will tend to your injuries.
– MTR
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