I Saw It...the Norman Jewison Poll

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I saw Fiddler on the Roof on Sunday, with Jewison there to introduce it. The guy hosting didn’t even get a chance to ask a question: Jewison started talking, and he proceeded to tell stories for the next 20 minutes without a break. (He spoke to one of my university classes ages ago.)

He was never considered a great filmmaker, just a solid commercial one, part of the early-‘60s wave of TV directors that included Lumet and Frankenheimer. He had an advocate in Kael, and he usually fared well at the Academy Awards. I thought he’d make for a good poll because, even though are a couple of obvious favourites (my vote will go to the most obvious), there’s no sure-thing winner. Whatever finishes first will probably draw fewer than half the votes.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Rollerball (1975) 4
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) 3
In the Heat of the Night (1967) 3
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) 2
The Cincinnati Kid (1965) 1
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) 1
Send Me No Flowers (1964) 1
A Soldier's Story (1984) 1
In Country (1989) 0
Other People's Money (1991) 0
Only You (1994) 0
40 Pounds of Trouble (1963) 0
Bogus (1996) 0
The Hurricane (1999) 0
Dinner with Friends (2001) (TV) 0
Walter and Henry (2001) (TV) 0
Moonstruck (1987) 0
Agnes of God (1985) 0
Best Friends (1982) 0
...And Justice for All (1979) 0
F.I.S.T. (1978) 0
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) 0
Gaily, Gaily (1969) 0
The Art of Love (1965) 0
The Thrill of It All (1963) 0
The Statement (2003) 0


clemenza, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 01:34 (eight years ago) link

I've only seen eight of these myself.

clemenza, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 01:35 (eight years ago) link

Can I just vote for Danny DeVito's opening speech from Other People's Money? I seem to recall this scene being used as a teaser trailer, because I never saw the film itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUJTRqV7B8E

The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 03:00 (eight years ago) link

I voted for zero mostel. how could I not?

Aimless, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 03:43 (eight years ago) link

somehow, never get tired of moonstruck

drash, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 04:16 (eight years ago) link

thats a sly joke, right Aimless?

the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 04:18 (eight years ago) link

(shrugs) what would I know about sly humor?

Aimless, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 05:48 (eight years ago) link

might vote for Rollerball or F.I.S.T., obv In the Heat of the Night is probly better but it's been a long time since i've seen any of them and that's the mood i'm in.

2 jazz boys 1 jazz cup (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 05:53 (eight years ago) link

I assume you're mixing up The Russians Are Coming with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Aimless--same year, for starters.

clemenza, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 06:59 (eight years ago) link

Voted The Cincinnati Kid, if only for Lady Fingers.

sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 07:52 (eight years ago) link

Nah. I voted Fiddler on the Roof, which I misremembered as starring zero m not topol. You can easily see that films are not a very big part of my life, but also, at 60, my memory for small details has become cluttered, fragmentary and unreliable.

btw, I like A Funny Thing, but haven't watched it for a long, long time. Every once in a while I find myself singing bits of "a comedy tonight".

Aimless, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 15:22 (eight years ago) link

n the Heat of the Night got shit for a while for beating B&C for Best Picture, but it's a respectable movie and often rather good.

The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 15:24 (eight years ago) link

There's a local rapper who had a big signing event on fairfax and his self owned label is named Other People's Money with the same font as the movie. I wonder if he's a legit big fan of it or if rappers are reduced to mostly forgotten Danny DeVito vehicles when looking for money-focused movies to reference.

da croupier, Tuesday, 30 June 2015 15:36 (eight years ago) link

nobody involved with the Fiddler on the Roof movie wanted Zero for it, including the Broadway team, who in addition to finding hin "too big" was angry about the shtick he incorporated onstage regularly.

The mystery/plot in Heat of the Night is basically crap, but it really is one of Steiger's best lead performances. In the scene quoted in thread title, you really believe him when he says "I don't know" to the old bigot's question.

skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 21:44 (eight years ago) link

but it's a respectable movie and often rather good

Yeah, it really is. It's most famous moment--"They call me..."--is a little over the top. Much better is Poitier slapping the old guy. Almost 50 years later, I can see how it still jolts students whenever I play it.

I only saw Moonstruck once, when it came out. It may win this, but it didn't make much of an impression on me.

clemenza, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 01:58 (eight years ago) link

that long low-key conversation scene btwn Steiger and Poitier is excellent... and network TV of course used to cut it for time.

found Moonstruck way too cute, cept for when Olympia D met up with John Mahoney.

skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 02:10 (eight years ago) link

when Olympia D met up with John Mahoney

prob my favorite scene

but moonstruck also in the running for my top 5 nic cage performances

drash, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 02:27 (eight years ago) link

My parents took my sister and I along with them to see Moonstruck when it was new, and even though I we were only like 8 and 9, I don't remember there being anything too "adult" or over-my-head about it (very much unlike a far less successful outing to see Raising Arizona around the same time). I haven't seen Moonstruck since--hell, I didn't even know that John Mahoney was in the film until just now!

More perversely, I remember watching Agnes of God with my grandparents when it was newish to VHS, though I imagine this was a case of them renting it for themselves and my simply refusing to go to bed when they watched it.

Not sure what I'd vote for here, to be honest. Was kind of underwhelmed by ItHotN the one and only time I watched it, I think for the same reason Morbs cited (the mystery plot is meh).

The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 15:29 (eight years ago) link

Two of the best Doris Day comedies right up there near the top.

Rollerball is fascinating though, and politically astute.

Josefa, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 16:44 (eight years ago) link

i don't think i've seen those DDs, need to.

The Russians Are Coming has a sterling film debut from Alan Arkin, even tho the plot and resolution is rather corny Cold War stuff (also with Jonathan Winters and Paul Ford doing their thing).

skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 16:50 (eight years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 6 July 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

the music in "and justice for all" is absolutely bizarrely mismatched

loudmouth darraghmac ween (darraghmac), Friday, 30 December 2016 17:14 (seven years ago) link

well tbf the whole thing is bizarrely mismatched

loudmouth darraghmac ween (darraghmac), Friday, 30 December 2016 18:15 (seven years ago) link

i think i laughed at all the wrong parts but that freeze ending and musical queue is the gag of this year in my house

loudmouth darraghmac ween (darraghmac), Friday, 30 December 2016 18:16 (seven years ago) link

yeah always thought metallica were a weird choice to score that

forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Friday, 30 December 2016 18:18 (seven years ago) link


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