Oscar Look Back - 1998

The Second of my Oscar lookbacks this year – revisits one of the most controversial decisions I can recall in my time watching the Academy Awards.

 

Best Picture

1.The Thin Red Line

2. Saving Private Ryan

3. Elizabeth

4. Shakespeare in Love - WINNER

5. Life is Beautiful

Why This Ranking: So in the year that has become one of the biggest Oscar debates in history – Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love, I choose The Thin Red Line as the best film? Yep – and I stand by that. Malick’s  return to filmmaking for the first time in 20 years produced a masterpiece – one of the greatest war films ever made. Having said that, I still do love Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan – which is another masterpiece, and I understand why more love it than The Thin Red Line – it is more conventionally appealing – and other than the bookends, I don’t think it puts a foot wrong. Just to anger the Shakespeare in Love fans even more, I also prefer Elizabeth – a conventional biopic in many ways, but also a stunning and beautiful one, with one of the great performances of Cate Blanchatt’s career. Finally, yes, Shakespeare in Love is still quite good – fun and funny and charming, even if I think it’s kind of forgettable. I don’t hate Life is Beautiful like many seem to – but I also don’t love it, and I think it’s clearly the weak link here.

What Was Overlooked: The Academy completed overlooked some great films this year – it’s easy to forgive them for overlooking The Big Lebowski – no one really realized it was a masterwork at that time – but it’s less forgivable that they didn’t realize how great Rushmore or Out of Sight really were.

 

Best Director

1. Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line

2. Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan - WINNER

3. Peter Weir, The Truman Show

4. John Madden, Shakespeare in Love

5.Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful

Why This Ranking: This is was probably the first Oscar year I really paid all that much attention to, and when it was released, it was assume that The Truman Show was going to be a big Oscar contender, and although Peter Weir did get nominated, it didn’t become that big of one. Weir is generally underrated, and his work here is terrific – nowhere near as good as Spielberg or Malick – but good just the same. I feel kind of bad of Shakur Kapor, who hasn’t come close since to getting nominated, but them’s the breaks.

Who Was Overlooked: It would have been great to see a young Wes Anderson get a boost from a nomination for Rushmore. Future winner Steven Soderbergh did perhaps his best work ever on Out of Sight and would have looked fine here. If they were really adventuresome, they could have nominated Alex Proyas for Dark City.

 

Best Actor

1. Nick Nolte, Affliction

2. Edward Norton, American History X

3. Ian McKellan, Gods and Monsters

4. Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan

5.Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful  - WINNER

Why This Ranking: It’s easy to see why Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful won this in 1998 – they truly fell in love with him in a way that is impossible to explain to those who didn’t live through it. And it is a charming performance – but it is still the weakest of the nominees. Tom Hanks was the biggest star in the world at this point – at least in terms of Oscars – and I think sometimes he was underrated (and still is) – his performance in Saving Private Ryan really is excellent, in a way that not enough people talk about. Gods and Monsters remains my favorite Ian McKellan performance – as famed Frankenstein director James Whale near the end of the life. Edward Norton in American History X was a shock nomination at the time – and a good one – the movie may be flawed, but his work as a Neo Nazi remains one of the very best of his career. But while either McKellan or Norton would have been great choices, but favorite is Nick Nolte in Affliction – which is one of the great performances of the 1990s – as an alcoholic whose only goal was to never become his violent father, and what happens when he realizes that is what has become. This is the best performance of Nolte’s career, as he spirals downward brilliantly – and one of Paul Schrader’s best films.

Who Was Overlooked: There are few performances of the 1990s more iconic than Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski – and the Dude should have landed him a nomination (and maybe even a win) this year. Jim Carrey in The Truman Show was supposed to be a lock for a nomination – but it didn’t happen. It should have.

 

Best Actress

1.Elizabeth  - Cate Blanchett

2.Shakespeare in Love  - Gwyneth Paltrow - WINNER

Have Note Seen:

Fernanda Montengro, Central Station

Meryl Streep, One True Thing

Emily Watson, Hilary and Jackie

Why This Ranking: Well, this is embarrassing. I also missed Streep’s performance the next year in Music of the Heart – but this is the most recent year where I have missed more than one nominated performance. I loved Emily Watson, so it’s odd to me that I never made time for Hilary and Jackie. Meryl Streep is one of the greats, so ditto on One True Thing. And critics loved Central Station and Fernanda Montenegro in it, so that is the oddest omission on my end. I have no excuses. As for the two I have seen – they are both wonderful. You cannot argue with Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love – who was truly luminous in that movie, and has never been better. But I will always think that Cate Blanchatt should not have had to wait for her first Oscar – as her work in Elizabeth is truly great.

Who Was Overlooked: A common theme is developing here – in terms of the Academy overlooking Out of Sight – and Jennifer Lopez is among those, as it is the best work of her career, and should have been here. And how cool would it have been had they gone ahead and nominated the excellent comedic work by Cameron Diaz in There’s Something About Mary?

 

Best Supporting Actor

1.Billy Bob Thornton, A Simple Plan

2.James Coburn, Affliction  - WINNER

3.Ed Harris, The Truman Show

4.Robert Duvall, A Civil Action

5.Geoffrey Rush, Shakespeare in Love

Why This Ranking: Count me as one of those weird people who think Geoffrey Rush was better in Elizabeth than Shakespeare in Love – sure he’s charming and funny, but there’s no depth. Robert Duvall in A Civil Action is far and away the best thing about that movie – and elevates the whole movie. Ed Harris in The Truman Show as the Godlike creator gives one of his best performances. Your winner was a shocking choice – but a deserving one – James Coburn in Affliction – is amazing as the violent, drunken lout of a father who ruins his son and family, and is the type of work that makes you rethink a movie star. But the best performances nominated was Billy Bob Thoronton in A Simple Plan – the pathetic older brother of the main character, who gets involved in a crime that he is not ready for. It is perhaps the best performance of his career.

Who Was Overlooked: I was stunned when Bill Murray was overlooked for Rushmore – he should have walked away with the Oscar this year easily for one of his best, most iconic performances. And beyond that there were other great performances overlooked – John Goodman in The Big Lebowski gives his second best performance in a Coen movie (following Barton Fink). Nick Nolte in The Thin Red Line could easily have found himself being a double nominee this year with his commanding performance.

 

Best Supporting Actress

1.Kathy Bates, Primary Colors

2.Judi Dench, Shakespeare in Love  - WINNER

3.Lynn Redgrave, Gods and Monsters

4.Brenda Blethyn, Little Voice

Have Not Seen

Rachel Griffths, Hilary and Jackie

Why This Ranking: I’ve already apologized for missing Hilary and Jackie – and I’ll do so again, since I do like Rachel Griffths. As for the rest, Brenda Blethyn’s nod for Little Voice seems like the type of bone thrown to a would be Oscar movie that stalled, and a previous nominee that lost (for her, Secrets & Lies, two years before) – it’s okay, but not memorable. I loved Lynn Redgrave in Gods and Monsters, as the long suffering housekeeper who knows precisely who her boss is, and doesn’t question it. Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love won an Oscar for less than 10 minutes of screentime – and it’s a worthy winner, she comes in and takes over the movie when she’s there – the best performance in the movie. But the best work in the category was by Kathy Bates in Primary Colors – the Clinton movie made during the midst of his Presidency, who delivers the best performance of her career as their idealistic supporter who becomes disillusioned.

Who Was Overlooked: I do think Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan deserved more love than it got – particularly for Bridget Fonda and her great, Lady Macbeth like performance. They were never going to nominate it, but Jane Adams in Happiness, the Todd Solondz film, is brilliant as the sad, quiet sister.